Heaven help you all - Dr. Piton has arrived!

Pete -

I am planning on doing my first big wall this summer. On my short list is WFLT, the Prow, and maybe Salathe? So . . . here's my question: If you had to make a list of top five mistakes not to make during your first big wall (season), what would they be? Maybe you have more than five, but that seemed like a reasonable number.

-j-

I don't know Pete, it could use more cowbell.

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Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! Nice spray can!

I gotta think about the top five mistakes. That's actually a superb question. I need a bit of time, and some beers, mate.

sactownclimber wrote,

"Pete -

I am planning on doing my first big wall this summer. On my short list is WFLT, the Prow, and maybe Salathe? So . . . here's my question: If you had to make a list of top five mistakes not to make during your first big wall (season), what would they be? Maybe you have more than five, but that seemed like a reasonable number.

I'm kinda busy right now getting ready to head to Yosemite, but you can get a pretty good start by clicking here to read Help Dr. Piton - It's Eating Me Alive! It's a pretty good post describing common mistakes, and how to avoid them before they even happen. I apologize for the lines "crossing out text" which occured on RC.com when they changed the coding. If any RC.com aid forum moderator is reading this, all you have to do is remove the [s] I put in the text, and the "crossing out lines" will disappear. Thanks.

If John McNamee wants to copy that post over here for me to edit and re-do, I'd be happy to. I can probably add lots of new ideas to it, and splice in some cool new photos, especially if I write it just after I get down from my first wall when things are still fresh in my mind. I'm sure there are plenty of others here who can give you an idea of what not to do on your first wall attempts.

But as for common mistakes, absolutely the most important thing is to make sure you and your partner really WANT to climb a big wall. The biggest excuses for failures aren't because you can't climb the pitches - what 5.9 or 5.10 climber can't figure out how to get up a C1 pitch, right?

The most common reason for failure among new wall climbers that I see again and again is you just didn't want it badly enough. You weren't prepared to suffer enough to stick it out, or you weren't prepared to face down your fears to stick it out [in other words, you got scared and bailed]. You hear the damnedest excuses from guys who bail, but it usually comes down to one or both - laziness or fear.

It's not always easy to look inside your own heart, to know if you have what it takes to climb a big wall, or knott. It's even harder to look inside your partner's heart - you may think you know and trust your partner because you have climbed with him or her plenty in the past, and you figure that he is as motivated, tough, and willing to face down his fears as you are, but things change when you get up on a big wall. Forget that you just spent two or three days of your hard-earned and precious vacation time schlepping loads up to the base - you'd think someone who invested that much effort would be unwilling to bail for anything except a legit reason - NOT! People will bail for any stupid reason, but you know what the two real reasons usually are.

Incidentally, there is nothing more lame than blaming your partner for your bail. After all, YOU are the one who chose him or her to climb with, so you are equally culpable.

Another common mistake I don't think I mentioned in my linked post above is not to underestimate the length of your expedition. Just because other climbers can do the wall in a day or two doesn't mean that you can. You may need to figure stuff out, and as you read in the link abovethings are certain to go wrong, and these things take time and energy to fix. Don't sell yourself short - make sure you have enough TIME and enough SUPPLIES to get you up the wall. If you can just hang in there for long enough [not being lazy] and face down your fears you will eventually reach the summit. But there is no point in making it harder on yourself than you need it to be.

Be sure to give yourself enough time away from work and family, because it's going to take you days longer than you've told everyone it will take you. If your girlfriend bitches at you for being away too long climbing a big wall, you need to consider getting a new girlfriend, or at least having a backup. Dr. Piton builds redundancy into all of his systems - for instance, he would never solo a big wall with only one hammer, in case he dropped it - and in no system is redundancy more important than in that of hotties. If your wife bitches at you for being away climbing too much, you really ought to consider taking a long fall on a short rope, thus saving yourself a lifetime of misery and heartache. Then again, being married could be good wall training for you - if you saw what I was married to for twelve years, you would understand my high tolerance for pain and suffering. Or perhaps you could achieve some sort of comprimise? One of my caving buddies used to buy his wife a new piece of furniture before each caving trip, although this can get expensive. Another comprimise is keeping in touch via cell phone, although this can be a double-edged sword. And finally you should have your "call to the boss" well-rehearsed, with various excuses for returning to work late carefully concocted ahead of time - storms, avalanche, altitude sickeness, shortage of beer, etc.

As for supplies, when I've been up on the wall, I've heard Solo Bolo Dave Turner on his radio many times, dispensing his advice and wisdom to big wall wannabe's: "When you're finished packing, throw an extra gallon of water and a couple more cans of ravioli into your pig. It always takes longer than you think it will." Consider the huge weight of gear you take up to the base - how much incremental weight is it to add another day's supply of food and water to your stock? Not much. The last thing you want to do during your precious holiday time is quit because you're hungry or thirsty!

Finally, you should tell everyone in the world of your plans. Make the Big Announcement, not just here on MP.com, but also down on the El Cap Bridge in full hearing of Ansel Evans. This way, you know you will face the Walk Of Shame should you bail, which should be enough motivation to get up the wall.

In short, shut up and climb, dude.

Yours etc.
Dr. Piton

"Finally, you should tell everyone in the world of your plans. Make the Big Announcement, not just here on MP.com, but also down on the El Cap Bridge in full hearing of Ansel Evans. This way, you know you will face the Walk Of Shame should you bail, which should be enough motivation to get up the wall."

Alrighty then . . . let everyone be put on notice: I will be climbing WFLT and the Prow this summer!

-j-

Attaboy, Sactown! Give us the dates and be sure to tell Tom Evans, and we'll watch for you on McTopo.

Jed, I feel like a n00b at times on the wall. Mark and I just got down off of South Seas to PO, and man - I took a whipper on the A4 expando. Knew I shouldn'ta hit that piton that extra whack. Sheesh.

New question;
What kind of stuff do you have in your "Mini haul double tag rack" bag? I know that the tag rack is all the stuff you don't think you'll need on that pitch, yet you want on hand just in case you do, but how is this different?
kevin

Wow, you really dug up an old image on that one! Click the link to get to the post.

Click the photo to see it in a bigger size.

You can find more info here on the Solo Tag Rack, which I still use when I solo, and here on double tagging which I no longer use.

I no longer do double tagging, because it is scary, dangerous, and more charlie foxtrot than [even] I [!] can handle. I don't like the idea of a heavy piglet sitting on a fifi, but I have to admit that properly done it works. The question is, is it worth the hassle of the extra rope?

Double tagging is a solo technique whereby you have a separate piglet - the "mini-haul double tag rack bag" you see above - hanging from your lower anchor by a fifi, which you "haul for free" as you rappel the main haul line to return to your lower anchor to clean the pitch. You need to set up a separate line on this piglet.

There are a couple things you can do to make this safer. The first is to take the "lifting" line on the piglet, and pass it through a crab in a series of "slippery overhand knots" to backup the pig, so it is less likely to fall to earth should it somehow pop off the fifi. This seems unlikely to me.

What I found really scary, and the reason I rejected it - not only because of the extra line or rope needed - is that I feared taking a whipper with this line somehow attached to me, and somehow pulling the piglet off the fifi.

But when I think about it, I think I attached the top of the double tagging "lifting" line to my solo tag rack, so it wasn't attached to me at all. I suppose if you were attaching it to you, you could attach it with a lightweight point of attachment - very weak - that would break if you took a fall or something.

The system works - set it up to haul about 60% of body weight, and water is a good thing to put in your piglet - and use it only on very steep or [better] overhanging pitches. But is it the Better Way? I'm not sure. Somebody else should go give it a try.

To me it was a pain, and I'd rather just add the weight to the haul. But damn, maybe I should try the idea again on my next solo. I haven't soloed anything for a while, maybe it's time? I hear Ottawa Doug, who is aboot to finish Tribal Rite, is the Oldest Fart to have soloed El Cap. Anyone know how old he is? Maybe I need to grab my cane and walker and give it another go. [I'll be 49 in September]

Cheers,
Pete

P.S. If anyone has any questions for me, please put them on a separate post where I am most likely to see them, and I will do my best to answer. I'm still fixing pitches right now and won't be blasting for a few days yet.