Liquid Sky

if yer ever in the boulder area i could loan some to you. or, if you're desperate i could send a care package. also, if you are looking for a partner i have a friend who really, really wants to do it and he is pretty solid.

Thanks for extending such a generous offer to a compete stranger. I won't impose, but feel free to have your friend get in contact with me if they're interested in giving it a try this year. If the weather holds, I'll be heading back in two weeks.

I've been wanting to check this thing out for more than a year. Had a partner equally psyched last month, but he had to go and bust his kneecap. Another was all in and he just had to go and get the Mrs. all knocked up. The cartwheeling and horizontal squeezing are of great intrigue.

Do you think you could get away with 1 VG9? I finally got to use one on Brother from Another. I couldn't pull the trigger with one hand. I can only imagine how massive the 12 must weigh. You could murder two headed desert bears with those things. Where else in god's name are you placing a 12?

Hey - just noticed this post. I see that it's old, but just in case you're still interested, Robert D, here's some info from the FA of Liquid Sky:

The roof isn't really very hard, if you fit. It's a chimney, not an offwidth, and very easy to wedge with the usual heel-toes, T-stacks, and arm-bars. The problem is un-wedging, if you are too thick in the chest or ass. Chip Chace, admittedly a very good wide-crack climber, but more importantly very slim, led this pitch in about 5 minutes, barely breaking a sweat, and thought it was "maybe 5.10."

Following, I did not have that experience. I'm 5'11" and about 170, and once in the narrow section it was a real struggle. I had to exhale in order to move, and when I inhaled, my chest would wedge, which was nice for resting, but if I hadn't been so young and stupid and determined to follow Chip's awesome lead I probably should have been panicking.

The "path" goes diagonally out the roof, and the crack is narrower above and below. You rotate about 45 degrees so your chest and hips both line up in the "path." I've done the Harding Slot and thought it was strenuous, but not overly tight. I could turn my head. I couldn't on Liquid Sky. I would never go into that crack again.

Since the crack narrows below you, I think it would be impossible to actually fall out. So pro isn't really an issue. Chip placed only one tube chock at the very beginning of the roof, where you can tunnel up a bit, then ran it out almost to the belay. Maybe sliding up a wide cam (bigger than a #5 Camalot) would give you some chance of extricating yourself if you slipped down and wedged.

On a later trip, I was on a rope from above photographing Topher Donahue and Craig Luebben attempting the second ascent. Craig was the best wide-crack climber I've ever known, but he was a big dude. He didn't have a prayer, and was smart enough to see that right away. Topher is slimmer than I am but thicker than Chip, and also saw the real risk of getting stuck. As I thought about it, I realized that even from above I would have a pretty hard time rescuing one of them if they got stuck. Anyway, fortunately, they bailed without mishap.

Hope that helps. I think that roof is actually pretty dangerous because of the way it constricts. If you're thin, the climbing is moderate enough that there should be no problem. I had climbed enough with Chip to know from watching that for him, it really was just 5.10, if that. I struggled hard in the slot, but we both thought that the technical crux of the route, which had been climbed before we did it, was the first pitch finger crack left of Lightning Bolts.

Also, maybe a really good offwidth climber could climb the roof crack on the outside, which flares out again below the constriction. That would be cool.

Here is shot of the original topo from 1984. Enjoy!

Liquid Sky, circa 1984

so it sounds like the rack list should include some xanax and some baby oil, take maybe 1 9"VG, and leave the 12" at home. thanks for the info jeff.

i saw (AKA stalked) brett ruckman at the grocery store last spring and asked if he had done it. he said no, and we chatted about it a bit. i told him a freind of mine was trying to get me to do it with him, but i was scared of getting stuck. he kind of laughed and said, "well, jeff did it and he's bigger than you". damn, was brett calling me a twig? i knew i had to come up with a better excuse. "fortunately" i had a nagging shoulder injury...

for about a week, i was really considering it, but i would wake up in the middle of the night and worry about getting stuck inside the norht 6 shooter. those of you who have REALLY gotten a knee stuck in an OW, or have gotten pretty welded in a super squeeze chimney can understand this panic. it is pretty dreadful.

Being how Craig unfortunately isn't here to explain, I gotta add one more detail to Jeff's story of Craig and I failing on Liquid Sky: It was January and Jeff really wanted to photograph LS, so he told us it would be sunny and nice up there. Instead, it was shady and really cold and a freezing wind was blowing through the crack. Craig and I were wearing heavy fleece sweaters while climbing to keep from freezing. We would get in there and our fleece would stick to the sandstone like Velcro and we couldn't move at all. I'm not saying we could do it easily in better conditions, but I don't want our failure to keep other people from giving it a go. Everyone else who tries it seems to do it without our issues. For Craig and I it was for certain the biggest sandbag either of us had ever experienced.

Jeff loved it because he got photos of Craig and I failing on his route, and then got to rescue us and publish photos of us "attempting" his testpiece. It was all in good fun.

It felt like 5.11 squeeze chimney to me - I just couldn't climb it.
Bigbros were the ticket for pro - #3 or #4 - can't remember exactly. We had two bomber bigbros above us in the roof. Pro wasn't the issue...

Ha! Topher, you are projecting. I actually don't get the same kind of pleasure you do from sandbagging. And anyway it was Chip's lead, not mine! I would not have been able to lead that pitch.

It WAS a freezing day. So let the record show, Robert, and anyone else who is following this thread, that Topher thinks the chimney is plenty roomy, as long as you don't have to wear fleece. When you repeat the climb, let me know who is the sandbagger!

When Bloom's second edition guide book came out, I read your "Wide Wide Weekend" chronicle of Liquid Sky to a campsite full of fat crack loving climbers. Eyes as big as saucers, the 'so... who wants to check this thing out?' suggestion was met with a resounding, 'fuck no, crazypants.'

Even with your addendum and topo, no doubt, the climb would still engender the widest of hardman butt holes to clench airtight like a submarine, but still- to have the FA respond to a beta thread is nothing short of exciting. To me, at least.

And thanks Topher for the humble recount of your attempt. It speaks volumes to your modest personality. Absent of the typical superiority spray or fear mongering gives a softie like me some hope. With a bit of the intimidation and mystique lifted may bring about more ascents. Or not. But still, thanks for wrapping up an epic thread! My knee bent friend is going to be so excited to heal up and wrestle this thing with me.

For the record, Jeff said, "Topher thinks the chimney is plenty roomy, as long as you don't have to wear fleece".
I didn't say that. I just said I couldn't climb it in fleece and that it was all in good fun. I have great memories of that day - sandbag and all.

As far as sandbagging, I mostly sandbag myself, which should have a different name - Masterbagging, or something like that.

I think if it had been warmer, Topher would have sent. He got pretty far up into the thing (photo of his highpoint appeared in CLIMBING's Gallery, not sure which issue).

FYI, we belayed in the alcove under the roof, off a bolt (probably a drilled angle) and a wide piece. Would be nice to have a second bolt there. Seems like people have combined the pitches now, but it's a great belay to watch the action.

If you're going to die - and everyone will - stuck up in North Sixshooter sounds like as good a spot as any for your final resting place.

A skeleton in the crack - that would make it easier. We could just campus out your carcass, tie your ass off, and arm bar up the outside!

Really, take a double set of large big bros and getting stuck shouldn't be a concern.

If we pull on a pelvis, is that aid or considered part of it? Also, before anyone sacks up and offs them self in the thing, get a blood test and post it..... some of us will pull on body parts no matter what the grade.

I was amazed to see something in my inbox regarding this post. It's been about a year and a half since I posted and I still haven't gotten on it. I was going to lurk and read the thread, but, since Jeff and everyone else have posted such great comments, I thought I should at least say thanks.

The climb still remains one of my long-term goals, even though I haven’t been climbing much the past year and a half (growth in the nonclimbing life). I’m now 5’11” 180 (everyone should have to post their measurements in this thread) but remain undeterred. I remember kind of cruising the squeeze in the harding slot when I was 170-75 (though getting into it was hard). Plus I don’t really freak out in tight places (like my partner following the harding slot).

Those two things, together with Jeff’s sandbag, ahem, description and the fact that Topher says there is plenty of room make me still want to get on it one of these days. I’ll be sure to not wear a fleece jacket and will probably go on a bit of a sport specific diet. Thanks again for the great comments. Much appreciated.

One timeless, old-school trick for squeeze chimneys: swami belt. You can't fall anyway. Swing the knot around to the side, exhale, and believe ...

JLP wrote:The story goes that someone slipped through the S-curve in the Harding Slot, suffocated and died. His body bloated and stiffened, so was impossible to remove w/o cutting it up.

i thought it was the chimney on lost arrow spire where that happened(?)

I'm 5'6" 140 maybe and my nose and chest took a beating. I couldn't imagine getting through that thing being any bigger. In fact I had to take off my jacket and un button my shirt shortly after entering the squeeze. Admittedly I was fucking scared and it took a while to control my breathing. Once I did it wasn't too hard to move. My partner made it through with his jacket on and hes about 135. I took one 5, one 6 and a 3 & 4 big bro.

I had skidmark gobies on my pecs for a month. Bottom line: that slot is REALLY tight. IF you can fit, it's not that hard. If you can't, but go for it anyway, you could truly get stuck in there and die.

J Achey wrote:I had skidmark gobies on my pecs for a month. Bottom line: that slot is REALLY tight. IF you can fit, it's not that hard. If you can't, but go for it anyway, you could truly get stuck in there and die.

Yich. I've always had that route in the back of my head. I'm about 6'0" and 160ish. I'm pretty skinny and that thing scares the hell out of me. Maybe go on a crash diet and then give it a try. I think one of the scariest things about it is that both people have to make it up. So you need two skinny masochists.

This has been the most enjoyable thread I have read on MP in a very long time. Actually, it's been the most enjoyable thing I've read ANYWHERE in a long time. Thanks everyone for your stories and comments.

I'm 6ft, 150 soaking wet and don't throw up unless I want to. If I quit bouldering I can probably slim my chest down to the point I could fit under a Ferrari. I am now going to add this to my dream list. And this is the best thing about rock climbing - I'm adding something to my list that Craig Luebben and Topher Donahue bailed on. How cool is that? ;-)

You haven't done it yet ;)