Bigwall climbing is usually defined as a route that takes longer than a few days to accomplish, although in modern speed tactics bigwalls can be climbed in as little as a few hours. The great thing about climbing bigwalls is the time spent way up on a cliff where the birds fly around and the realities of everyday life disappear because every bit of your focus and energy is needed to get to the top. It takes lots of equipment to spend 5 or more days on a wall. Everything from your cookware, to your sleeping system, to your ropes...you name it and, oh did I mention WATER. Yes, even water has to go up with you and if that doesn't equate to enough weight then you might as well head to the Himalaya and become a Sherpa. in this video I am filming the very beginnings of a bigwall climb. It is ritualistic when you begin sorting gear and preparing for a bigwall because the choices you make on the ground will depend very much on the success of the chosen undertaking. The choices can even depend on whether you live or die and so every climber has THEIR way of preparing their gear for their adventure. In Yosemite National Park you will see climbers all over the campgrounds and along the roadside sorting gear and getting their bags packed for their next bigwall climb. And so bigwall climbing begins when the BIG BAGS are shouldered and sherpa'd up to the base of the route of which case is obviously super hard work and when it rains you have to decide whether or not to wait it out or haul all of the gear back down to the car. In this video I had
decided to wait out the weather because hauling gear back down would just make it so I would have to haul it back up. One time in Patagonia I waited for 20 days in a snowcave for the weather to clear and when it didn't we "threw in the towel" and packed for to catch the boat. Our entire hike out was in BLUE SKY and since we had thrown out much of our soft foods there was no way to get on the wall. Hence, we failed and learned that we should never let weather get the best of us again...though weather always gets you no matter what but that is another blog. So once the weather clears...and the route is in shape to send...LET THE FUN BEGIN.
Oh wait, here is another video of waiting out the weather for a climb to begin. In this video we had scrambled and climbed about 1000ft of lower, slabby stuff and this bigwall was way up this drainage, hence we did not want to go through the efforts of going out the drainage and so we sat and sat and sat in pouring rain for about 4 days and on the fifth day we were able to begin the route.
Anyway, back to explaining a bigwall and the experience of climbing huge rock faces in bigwall style. Once you start up the intended route one has to remember that we are carrying huge loads in our big bags we call PIGS. The pigs can weigh several hundres pounds and they are carried up the wall via pulley systems that give the climber leverage. Haul systems vary depending on how much weight you are hauling and it can involve just one pulley where the climber yards away on one end of the rope and the bag begins sliding up the cliff, or it can involve many pulleys and gadgets that change the ratio up so that heavier loads can be hauled without one to one weight ratio. Every bigwall requires its own hauling design for the most part and that is part of the tactics that gets decided on when sorting the gear at the base of the route. In this next vid you can see my buddy hauling away at the top of a route we were just topping out on. Hauling is super tough work and as my adjectives will probably show you throughout this blog, bigwall climbing is simply tough work no matter how you cut it up. Especially when it is super hot out and the temperatures are killing you, or when you lead goes into the late night and you have to haul while you are cold, hungary, or whatever...it is all in the name of fun, right? So now we are climbing up this huge face and we are hauling each pitch that is climbed and the route traverses to the right, say 50 feet. When traverses occur, then the haul bags also have to go as well and again you are challenged in your rope work and your skills as a wall climber. A tangle of ropes could cause epics of all sorts and so it is essential that traverses are well executed and the haul line is not tangled. Check out this video of our haul bags being "cut" from the belay.
This video is cool because it really shows the reality
of weight, gravity, and what occurs when a route traverses to gain access to a better crack or ledge for belaying. Most people are curious about our sleep systems while on these multi-day excursions. We carry various sleeping systems, sometimes it is just a matter of making it to a ledge, or a hammock, but I use a single wide porta-ledge. They are quite comfortable and basically they are rigid pipes that you stick together and form a bed/ledge. If it is stormy you can add a rainfly that keeps SOME water and wind out if the conditions are bad. Wind is really wild with a porta-ledge and sometimes you had better secure the ledge in every direction possible if you are to feel safe in any sort of way. Some of my greatest times climbing bigwalls comes from hanging out at the porta-ledge. I usually bring a book or write on labels or any paper I can find. Believe me, you sleep just fine on these things because you are usually so drained by the time you reach and set up camp that sleep is not a problem. Oh, ya also the IPOD is mandatory...music, the stars, it doesn't get any better...check out this picture of a wall camp.
Talk about vertical camping...we just stuffed our buddy down below and two of us crawled onto a single ledge...We look like a grungy crew that belonged on a pirate ship more than on the side of a cliff. In the video below you will get another great glimpse into the world of vertical camping. Early morning always comes quick and breakfast needs to be cooked up and gear sorted, if it was a late night getting to the bivy, and so the fun begins. I always love the first 10 or 15 minutes when you are just laying there with your thoughts and the views and everything feels so alive and vibrant. The feeling of commitment never leaves your soul when you begin your route and each morning it is in your head and in your thoughts and it is how you deal with the feelings of committment that create your overall experience of a bigwall. I personally enjoy getting on a route and feeling that emotion because it drives you to go up and to climb whatever comes your way and that is a big part of bigwall climbing. Now we are experiencing the heights and hauls and camps of bigwall climbing so what tactics are used in climbing these cracks and features. There are devices called cams that squeeze into cracks and offer a relatively secure safety to the leader. There are also tools of the trade called hooks that come in all shapes and sizes and they allow you to literally hook up flakes and features that do not possess cracks for cams or such...hooking up a blank face is about as crazy as it gets because you are literally depending
on a piece of metal clipped to you via a network
of webbing of which is placed on tiny rock features where there is no chance for the leader to place protection that would save them from taking a fall. It is also an exercize in mental games and your ability to read the rock. This technique allows one to climb a seemingly blank face. There are so many different tactics used to climb a bigwall but here are a few videos that at least show you a leader out on the "sharp end". The sharp end means the end of the rope that goes up first to set up a belay and haul system for which the rest of the team can climb and haul their gear up. Usually when I am on lead I have a hard time getting very good video footage but here and there I take the time to stop and pull out the camera and vid whatever is going on. In the video below I was on the last pitch of a 2000ft wall and decided I had better get some footage because the veiw was spectacular. One cool thing about bigwall climbing is the outrageous places you end up sitting, sleeping or just
simply taking in with memory, thoughts and camera. I think overall that is my biggest reason for bigwall climbing. You just find yourself in the craziest of places and yet you have to keep a good head and perform whatever is needed in order to pass on safely and return from the experience. It is very much an experience of a lifetime because every bigwall climb adds something to your life in terms of richening your basic life experience. When you finish a route and feel just how lucky we are to be alive and well and everything...you really reflect and feel great to be alive. The rewards are great in terms of accomplishment, overcoming fears, knowledge that life is short, among many, many other rewards. This is the end of part I of "vertical camping...the bigwall game" My goals of this series is simply to show people what goes on in a bigwall climbers experience to make them want to go out and search out the biggest cliffs, the longest routes, and commit to it 'till the very end of which we simply top out and go back down and begin prepping for the next route.
