First Person Rock Climbing: "Cloud Tower", Pitch 3 (5.12a), Red Rock, NV
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- Опубликовано: 9 май 2022
- Some serious try-hard. A video of my onsight of the crux pitch of Cloud Tower. I led this pitch, the last crux pitch (5.11+?), and linked the first two pitches (5.8), while my partner led the 5.10 pitches. Super stoked to have gotten this route completely clean.
At the crux, this route involves stemming between non-existent micro-edges and some tips laybacking. The rock is pretty slippery from people's shoe rubber, and I definitely had a few small foot slips, causing me to make some pretty ridiculous noises. Great pitch, and a FANTASTIC ROUTE!
2.30pm - should be doing my work - but thank you for taking me on that climb - epic stuff... some really tenuous moments there... you had great composure because that finger crack would have been super intimidating even on ground level let alone several pitches up. Awesome!
2:57pm - have a big presentation at work tomorrow but I'd rather be watching some POV climbing
Dude. What a BATTLE. So fun to watch. I can only imagine how good those jams felt at the top. Keep crushing!
Thanks! Yeah that was a freaking close one. When my foot slipped I about went for the ride
That. Was. Thin! Great job, Brad! Really good technique all the way (except for the nut cluster-cluck half way up the face), even the yells towards the end were spot on. Keep up the good work.
Thanks David! I appreciate the support!
Frig yeah dude that corner looked hard!
Hard for me, for sure! I'm sure there are folks that could walk up this thing no- problem! Thanks for the support!
"Oh my fuckity fuck" - classic. That should be the name of a route somewhere.
Enjoyed that thanks for sharing
25:20
I don't climb anything remotely this difficult but I know that feeling extremely well! After a sustained effort, a chance to stand with flat feet, doesn't matter the exposure, in relative safety feels like heaven.
Kudos.
Meep
You placed some small nuts, but I know you carried some big ones up with you. Good work dood.
super fun
That was intense! Nicely done!
Thanks!
Wow awesome send - epic battle Congrats 👏
23:25 -- whip or send! nice work man way to push through, must've been heady
Definitely at my limit for an onsight 😂😂 thanks man!!
@@bradfordLburns a proud onsight!
literally yelling COME ON BRAD. LETS FUCKING GO DUDE at my laptop. sick stuff dude
Haha! Hell yes! This is why I post these videos. That visceral, vicarious experience that we all get as climbers watching climbing! Thanks for the support man!
a classic StepRock Flash
The step-onsight
Question from a single pitch sport climber. Great video btw. How much of you sewing up that finger crack was fear of falling v. trying hard? I'm not critiquing, I'm genuinely curious because falling on trad gear seems more scary to me. Did you not take a fall from fear or from wanting to finish the climb without falling?
Thanks! That's a great question. I will say that normally, the harder I'm trying on trad, the more gear I will place (especially while onsighting). It's much easier for me to run it out on moderate terrain. Also, If I had worked this pitch before, I would've probably figured out the specific gear I needed, and trusted much fewer placements. It's easy to get in your head while climbing at your limit. Most of the time my thought process is something along the lines of: "Damn, I need to place here and place good gear, because I might be so pumped in the next 10' that I have to push through to the next good stance". It helps me keep my mind in check and makes me feel more comfortable moving into the next sequence, naturally. A better climber would definitely placed less gear on this pitch, and would have a better head game than myself. It's something that I personally struggle with and it takes a lot of practice to relax when onsighting your limit trad grade.
Another few notes on the specifics of this pitch: Much of the gear is very small (small stoppers, .1s and .2s), which have a higher likelihood to pop out when you fall on them, especially in a rock type like sandstone which is much softer. Secondly, this route is honestly pretty hard to place gear on while "on the go". Its difficult to look directly into the crack to check your placements because you are pseudo-laybacking the pitch much of the time and you have to keep the tension. On a hard (5.12ish) trad route with larger gear (#1s or #2s for example), I would feel more comfortable placing less gear.
It's weird because I'm not necessarily "scared of falling" while on the pitch. If the gear seems good, I don't really have too much of a fear of taking a whip on it. What I do fear is being so pumped that I can't place more gear and having to keep climbing through to the next gear placement, then finding myself a dangerous distance above my last piece. I would say that the drive to not fall on this climb because of fear was much smaller than the drive to send clean.
Falling on trad gear is generally more dangerous than falling on bolts (obviously it depends on the bolts, the direction of fall, the gear you have in, ETC). This route would've probably been a safe fall ANYWHERE on the pitch, especially since I sewed it up.
@@bradfordLburns Thanks the reply, interesting analysis. It seems like a catch 22, wanting to sew up for the potential of not being able to place more gear. On the one hand you spend extra energy sewing, but on the other you feel more confident climbing and don't over grip. I don't trad climb so the head game is interesting to me. It seems to come down to confidence in the placement. In your case, since you can't see the placement because of lay backing, it makes sense to add extra pro. Good job, I mean you didn't fall and you sewed it up so it clearly worked out for you, good on you for trying hard.
Thank you for sharing this climb, it definitely helps to see your process, trying to find gear placements as someone trying to get into trad. I do have a couple questions. Why do you think someone decided to leave a permanent soft gear master point at the anchors in an area that doesn't seem all that protected from UV. And a follow up, how often do you trust permanent soft gear on the wall if ever. Thanks 😁
Good questions! This route faces almost directly North, so the Tat at the anchor likely had very little UV exposure while it was up there.
How often I trust fixed "soft" gear is really case-by-case. This route is relatively popular, and gets done somewhat often. I knew that the tat at the anchor likely had only been up there for a year or less. It is really important to always inspect this sort of soft gear too. Make sure that there is no obvious fraying, discoloration, or cuts in the webbing. This is ESPECIALLY important when you're using tree anchors. I see it all the time that people get up to tree anchors and just clip into the front of the tat, not even looking at the anchor the whole circumference of the tree. It is really important to inspect the tat, look at the knot used to close the system, and have some sort of back up. You can see at ~28:25 that the first thing I clip in is my own alpine draw (that I regularly inspect). That way, there is no question that something in the system is bomber.
At this anchor, the white cord you can see is a little bit less than bomber. I wouldn't personally want to belay my partner off of just this. However, the blue tat is made of roughly 7mm cord that was in pretty new condition and fixed using 8-follow throughs and a big bite with two steel quick links as a master point. I felt that this anchor was bomber after quick inspection.
Regardless, I still like to have an alpine draw with a clove hitch or a secondary backup for myself.
When in doubt, just cut the old tat and put some new tat on there. I always carry 25' or so of cord bundled on my harness when I'm trad or ice climbing. I carry a small knife (on a V-threader) and can cut lengths of cord if needed. I always carry a rap ring and a bail biner or quicklink too. Seems like a bit of extra weight, but its really not too much.
Be careful trusting fixed "soft goods", or anything fixed for that matter. When in doubt, back it up! Hopefully that helps!
Also, I should note, to your statement "Why do you think someone decided to leave a permanent soft gear master point"... That's a good question too! I was actually disappointingly surprised by the poor quality of anchors on this route. The rappel follows a few sketchy trees with tat around them and a last rappel using a sketchy piton and non-confidence inspiring bolt. I was surprised by the terrible quality of hardware on such an amazing route! I'd love to go back and add some new anchors if I ever get the time. It's important to support local climbing organizations to support bolt replacement! Its always easy to talk about going up and plugging new hardware, but only the best of us sacrifice their free time replacing anchors on big multipitch rigs like these. Props to those folks!
Nice fricken' send! God your nuts at 14:50, just like why? Love the self commentary "oh f***ing f***" perfect hah
Thanks! Yeah I need to get a biner without the gate bevel for the nuts. 😂😂
Also, I promise that I never actually weight them when I grab with both hands, just stemming and leaning into the corner 😂. Totally looks like I aided for a split second there
awesome composure and footwork!
I noticed you placed more than a couple of the cams perpendicular, sticking straight out- do you ever worry that in the event of a fall, best case the downward force bends the stem, and in worse cases it shifts the lobes, getting the cam stuck or even causing it to pop?
Was the rationale behind the nuts just not having enough small cams? They seemed more fiddly, less secure, and harder for your second to clean- not to mention the way they jeopardized your send when you weighted one with both hands to avoid dropping a bunch of others!
Thanks, and good questions.
I've had the "perpendicular cam" comment on a few videos, and I think sometimes I do place cams a bit perpendicular (when I'm not thinking about it), but I also think the wide-angle lens makes them look more perpendicular than they actually are.
And yes to the Nuts. I think I only had 2 or 3 #.2 camalots and 2x #.1 camalots, so I had to supplement with stoppers as I didn't have enough small cams, since the crack mostly takes .2 size gear.
Also the moment when I'm stemming and trying to finaggle the nuts was for sure hair raising, but luckily the feet are good enough there that I didn't slip while messing with them. It looks like I "weight" the nut, but I don't, as I'm fully stemmed and able to go "hands free" to fix the carabiner with nuts.
Also to note that my second was not trying to send this pitch, he was just following this one to support me here, so he didn't mind hanging on the rope to place nuts. If we are both going for the clean ascent then I try to be nicer with by gear placements.
Do you have any videos when you are going second? I want to see how all that gear is collected.
Unfortunately I don’t!
Did this yesterday. This pitch was a battle.
It's all in the head 😄
Nice climb... I am curious how you sized those shoes. Any toe curl? haha Also, how do they compare in size to tc pro, up lace, or up duel?
Thanks!
I got lucky… it’s really hard to size UP through buying them online. They are an 8.5, which is .5 size smaller than my street shoe, and it’s a tight, but comfortable fit. I will say that they fit a very narrow foot, and my feet are wide, so they fit a little bit weird, but I do enjoy them.
@@bradfordLburns Gotchya... Oh I know hat is why I am asking. I have two pairs of the up duel and one pair of the up lace. I absolutely love UP, but tbh my tc pros are so good for moderate trad and my up laces are sized for cracks/all day... so I have no reason to really buy the uprise lol except that Tom randalls wears em. Again, awesome climb and sick that you were able to sew that up proper.
Yeah, I like the uprisePro a lot, but two major points:
The toebox is pretty large, so it’s hard to fit into small cracks (think .75 and below), which I think the TCs do better. Also, they are really really stiff, which is good for some things, but I find it hard to smear on moderate granite style stuff.
Is this even safe?!?
We don't use the S word around here
my hands are sweatin...
Horrible video. Never got a look at the tower from afar, never saw anything but a rock face in front of the climber. No perspective, no idea what the rock they were climbing looks like, for the most part, frustrating to watch, and totally a regrettable click.
Glad you liked it Arthur
@@bradfordLburns That's so typical of creators today. Sarcastic answer, not addressing my legitimate criticisms of the video. Your feelings were hurt, I guess, and you had to say something. You spend too much time on social media, I guess. Shows me that you put these videos out more to feed your ego than actually care about making a video that people actually like. I am glad you care so much about making a good video, how's that? Sorry, I lied right there, just as you did in your reply to me. Truth is, you made this to say to everyone, "look at me! I am the star of this, ain't I great?". When somebody says, "hey dude, the video ain't that great", you get all butt-hurt and send them a reply basically saying you do not give a shit what they think. Not a great way to grow your channel, guy.
@@arthurgoerner488 no one was forcing you to watch this. You could see from the start how this was filmed. Move on
Everyone hopes you're joking, Arthur. Literally 1st person POV rock climbing, just as it says in the title. And we come here just for that. What more do you want? Music? Long approach intro? Other fluff?
This video is great! It's simple and I get to vicariously experience a 12a trad climb in Red Rocks. My palms were sweating exactly when his were. What a rush!
@@arthurgoerner488 As far as I can tell the sole purpose of this video is to share one rad climbing experience.