The Brotherhood Of the Traveling Stopper...

Tony B wrote: Yeah, and only on the account of the fact that it is my stopper. Thing needs to show some life around here and after 2.5 years has seen, what??? 2 trips per year? I'm beginning to think this here aging cripple (2.25 more months PT before climbing again) needs to show the site how to have an adventure. So meanwhile - climb, place it, post it, the post-mark it!

^^^ + 1,000. Bring her home Tony! Alpine season in the park is near at hand. The TS needs to spend some quality time in RMNP!

Sooo...given the poor performance thus far - which may be unavoidable and the nature of climbers - what if, when you epiced on a trip, bootied a piece or used a piece in a unique way, or even just use your rack normally on an epic or otherwise memorable trip, you then passed a token nut or piece of gear forward to this community of worthy waiters? People seem to wait for the piece and them wait for the trip report. What if you had a cool trip, posted a little write up and then sent a nut off to the interwebs via snail mail? We'd have to concede that this current system, even if/when working correctly can only serve a limited amount of people. I'd be willing to start with a piece from my epic on the Incredible Hulk, if there was interest. No offense to OP; the idea is great but I don't see myself being able to partake in any way.

Maurice Chaunders wrote:you then passed a token nut or piece of gear forward to this community of worthy waiters?

That's been the problem - the takers, on the average, get the piece and sit on it. One bad actor can sit on it virtually (or literally, in fact) forever. So it sits.

Maurice Chaunders wrote: We'd have to concede that this current system, even if/when working correctly can only serve a limited amount of people. I'd be willing to start with a piece from my epic on the Incredible Hulk, if there was interest. No offense to OP; the idea is great but I don't see myself being able to partake in any way.

Having more gear on the system would be kinda cool, but it means chasing more folks to get on with it, and *I* am not going to track it. If other people wanted to toss in more gear and get parallel threads in the post, then by all means. But presently it looks like this whole thing is pretty not happening.
Maybe the next few people will spruce up the stats a bit.

Regardless, I think you should FOR SURE post your TR from the Hulk Epic here. That's the sort of thing that people are actually logged in to read about.

No offense taken, BTW.

Mike wrote: I received it a few days ago & wil be climbing with it today.

Oh yeah?? Pictures and TR or GTFO and send the stopper along. You have had plenty of time!

Well the travelling stopper is about finished with it's spring trip through the desert. Who wants it next?

TR to come within the next week or so.

I will take it on some alpine adventures if Tony doesn't take it!

OK Ryan it's yours. I can send it Monday. PM me your address.

since ca didn't get snow this year, i think the stopper would fit nicely in some sweet sweet high sierra granite. if it pleases the owner, i'd like to place myself on the list.

Ryan Kempf wrote:Peteoria, have you sent the stopper to Mike yet? This thing needs to keep moving. And as far as advance dibs, I think Tony is the only one with that privilege. Chef rule #4 dude

So the rules don't apply any longer? I haven't seen a TR yet???

J Antin wrote:OK! Who wants it next!

When do we get the first story behind the stopper!? This idea is genius.

Mike wrote:Well the travelling stopper is about finished with it's spring trip through the desert. Who wants it next? TR to come within the next week or so.

Well, it has been 3 weeks. You guys are just plain friggin' lame. Excuse?

Ryan, when you are done with the stopper, can you just send it to me?
It must have some evil super power that turns people into lame-o's.

Tony B wrote: Well, it has been 3 weeks. You guys are just plain friggin' lame. Excuse? Ryan, when you are done with the stopper, can you just send it to me? It must have some evil super power that turns people into lame-o's.

Great timing! I was just writing this...

The Stopper arrived in Arizona at the end of March, 2014. Late March is my busiest season by far, and this season has been busier than most, so I didn't have many opportunities to take it out climbing for a short while. Of course when guiding clients, I would never, ever use a bootied piece of gear that has been passed around to more strangers than a giant spliff at a Phish concert. However if one were to do such a thing (maybe as part of a top anchor for the safety line for a canyoneering class, as a random example) it might look something like this:



In early April I was finally able to get out for 2 days to climb at The Waterfall with Jack Tackle, who had been spending much of his winter in sunny Arizona, my friend Chris (AKA Young Svelte Chris) who is just beginning to enjoy pushing his climbing limits, and Patter the crag dog. The Waterfall is a perfect place for The Stopper to do it's thing; small nut placements abound, and the rock is bullet-hard. Unfortunately we were buffeted by cold, swirling winds and even blasted by snow, so motivation was in short supply. We did manage to climb several 5.10 & 5.11 routes over 2 days. The Stopper was placed on 2 routes: Black & Tan (5.10) and Central Scrutinizer (5.11). Here is a picture, though I don't remember which route this was from:



After working much of the next week, I encountered a surprise 3 day opening in my schedule, so on a whim my friend Marilyn (AKA The RocDoc) & I decided to fly to Vegas and climb Eagle Dance (5.10+ A0), which we had been talking about climbing for a few years now. I realize The Stopper isn't about climbing well-known classics at well-known crags, but thought it would enjoy the trip anyway. Despite a sudden & severe illness, Marilyn rallied big-time & we climbed most of the route, placing The Stopper twice. Here is a shot of one of the middle pitches of Eagle Dance:



Here is a picture of the stopper somewhere on Eagle Dance.



We flew back Friday evening, and my clients for Saturday cancelled. So my friend Sayfe & I took the stopper to Isolation Canyon, a great crag near Payson, to give it a taste of bomber quartzite. Iso is another perfect place for The Stopper, featuring lots of nut placements and super-duper hard rock. We did several routes, placing the stopper on two: Doubts Even Here (5.9) an easy, fun warm-up on a super-green licheny face, and Avian Flew (5.10+++) which starts with a burly 7' roof crack. Both placements were great, but neither was tested, as the send train was rolling along. This is the stopper on Doubts Even Here:



This is Sayfe on the second pitch of Walking Dead Arete, a stellar 3 pitch route, which we climbed to work a possible new route off to it's side.


And here is The Stopper on Avian Flew, not too far above the 1st roof:



For its final AZ outing, the stopper visited Sedona for two days. Sedona is a gorgeous place with lots of red-rock towers & walls. Though it is known for soft rock, I have fallen many times on tiny gear there and it almost always holds, so I figured The Stopper would be fine. Both days were spent at the Supercrack Tower area, playing on the many great cracks. I climbed 1 day with Chris, a sales rep for Petzl/Julbo/Oboz who was passing through doing clinics at local retailers, and climbed with Ryan Z, who makes the occasional visit to Mountainproject, the other. Patter the crag dog accompanied both days. When Ryan & I climbed we didn't meet until noon, did the big hike in, and climbed all 5 pitches of Inception (5.11+/12-R). Though neither of us sent it, we had a fun time. Chris & I started with The Windows Route (5.10), a great 3-pitch line that climbs through 2 arches on it's way to the top. Next up we linked the top 2 pitches of Turkish Bride (5.10+), which makes for a long, sustained, and spectacular pitch. We rapped down & Chris put up Shotgun Wedding (5.11-), which he had been drooling over since we arrived. Next up I wanted to lead the second pitch of Inception (5.11+/12-), which features an overhanging, Annunaki-type finger crack. Through the entire 2 days The Stopper was only placed once (on Inception) though no picture was taken of it's placement. Here is Patter scoping up the scene at Supercrack Tower:



Luckily the cacti were abloom:



This is one reason why The Stopper wasn't placed much; it's hard to place a small stopper in the wideness. The 3rd pitch of The Windows Route:



This is a bad butt-shot of Chris leading Shotgun Wedding:



Patter hanging at the belay ledge:



And here is another bad butt-shot of me climbing the 2nd pitch of Inception with The Stopper on my hip:



Well after all the fun we had, I knew it was time for The Stopper to move on. I wish I had taken (or witnessed) a whipper on it though. After posting up about it, Ryan Kempf responded and was eager to take The Stopper up some alpine routes. I sent it off in late April, and hope The Stopper is having fun in Colorado.

-Mike

Glad to see this thread is still alive and healthy.

I don't know what Tonys plans are, but a friend and I have started cleaning up a crag north of Nederland in Colorado. There is this one line that looks stellar, and I would wait to put that up until after tony climbs with the stopper. How many new routes has it seen? I wonder

Thanks for posting the TR Mike. You and the TS got a lot of routes in! Way cool. When I returned home from a climbing trip to the Black on 5/5 the stopper was in my mailbox.

My plans for the stopper are some rarely repeated routes in RMNP and I was excited about the conditions up there at the time I received the stopper, the snow was melting out a a really fast rate (close to a foot per week). A storm moved in days after TS showed up and has since dropped another 2' of snow (minimum) in the Park and my optimism about climbing any rock up there in the near future is dismal. I will make a recon trip up there this weekend and if it looks bleak I may change plans or have to pass the stopper to Tony.

Tony, When is your trip?

Ryan Kempf wrote:Thanks for posting the TR Mike. You and the TS got a lot of routes in! Way cool. When I returned home from a climbing trip to the Black on 5/5 the stopper was in my mailbox. My plans for the stopper are some rarely repeated routes in RMNP and I was excited about the conditions up there at the time I received the stopper, the snow was melting out a a really fast rate (close to a foot per week). A storm moved in days after TS showed up and has since dropped another 2' of snow (minimum) in the Park and my optimism about climbing any rock up there in the near future is dismal. I will make a recon trip up there this weekend and if it looks bleak I may change plans or have to pass the stopper to Tony. Tony, When is your trip?

I leave in late June.
Here's the thing, the point was to encourage a little adventure and story sharing. And really, there is no stopper needed for that.

youtube.com/watch?v=2MKGbnF…

People could post up here. At this point, the stopper is more of an impediment to it, as people wait for it, than it is a provocateur.
I'll take it when you are done or by late June...

Who currently has the stopper? I'd like to get my hands on it for a climb in October or maybe next spring.

Ryan, I guess.
No huge loss. Now I don't have to bother writing up a TR on climbing in the fjords of Lofoten, Norway.

Tony B wrote:Ryan, I guess. No huge loss. Now I don't have to bother writing up a TR on climbing int he fjords of Lofoten, Norway.

But...that sounds like an awesome, awesome trip.

Eliot Augusto wrote: But...that sounds like an awesome, awesome trip.

Yep - you should go. Have Ryan give you the stopper.