By John Maguire
From Boulder, CO
Sep 26, 2009
| Outstanding. Sounds like a slog. Awesome write up. | 
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By David Aguasca!
From New York
Sep 26, 2009
| Excellent work! How you made it up that wall hauling 160lbs is beyond me... |
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By Mark Roth
From Boulder
Sep 26, 2009
| Awesome Report!
My wife and I saw you guys from the meadow... |
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By Gregger Man
Sep 27, 2009
| David Aguasca wrote: Excellent work! How you made it up that wall hauling 160lbs is beyond me...
The pigs got a good bit lighter each day.
We actually left 3 liters of water at Heart Ledges because we figured ~20 liters per dude was too much. Without the extra water Dave hiked up to the top, we would have ended up 3 liters short... |
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By Steve Williams
From Denver, CO
Sep 27, 2009
| Great send, Greg & Wally!
Did elcap-pics see you up there? |
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By Paul Hunnicutt
From Boulder, CO
Sep 27, 2009
| was the hollow flake as bad as it seemed? you had a homemade cam for this pitch? how far did you have to run it out?
though it sounds like the roof pitch up high was more eventful. |
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By Gregger Man
Sep 28, 2009
| Steve - We gave Tom a beer at the bridge. His photos are labeled in the slideshow.
Paul - Wally led that pitch, and I think it was as hard or harder than expected. I'll let him chime in on the particulars, but the cam made it more than 3/4 of the way up.
I made the #7 VallyCamaFriendAlot specifically for that pitch, but we ended up using it on 4 different pitches to good effect (Hollow Flake, the chimney after that, the Ear, and the exit chimney on P34.) I got the strongest torsion springs I could find so that it still worked well when tipped out near the 9" mark.
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By Rick Blair
From Denver
Sep 28, 2009
| Greg,
That thing is absolutely amazing, thanks for posting the picture!
Which factory in China did the fab work?? Just kidding.
Congratulations to you and Wally ( and Dave ) Awesome work!!! |
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By Wally
From Denver
Sep 29, 2009
| Thanks for the kudos guys.
David - we used the Chongo 2 to 1 system to haul. The temps were warm - therefore the bags were heavy! - we drank about a gallon of water per person per day, not including all of the applesauce, fruit cocktail, etc. that was also consumed.
Paul - the Hollow Flake certainly has my respect. I thought it was pretty hard. The pro beta for that pitch is right on - bring a #5 for down low, and a #6 - and then you have to run it out for a long way on Yosemite 5.8 (or 5.9??) OW. Having Greg's homemade #7 camalot certainly took some of the commitment out of that pitch for me - I slid it along just about all of the way to the anchors. Lame - sure.!
:<). I am okay with that.
Great climb with very memorable pitches. Harder than the Nose - mostly because of the wide pitches. The Ear was nasty hard. Good stuff.
Climb Ohn. Wally |
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By epoch
From Maine
Sep 30, 2009
| Gregger, that cam is beautiful! |
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By Andrew Gram
Administrator
From Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 6, 2009
| That is an absolutely wonderful TR. |
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By Mark Hudon
Feb 15, 2010
| Awesome! I would have shit my pants if I fell below the roof! |
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By Keenan Waeschle
From Bozeman, MT
Feb 15, 2010
| how the hell did you make that cam? I know valley giant makes huge 12" cams that you can buy for around 200$ how much did that cost to make? |
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By Gregger Man
Feb 15, 2010
| keenan18 wrote: how the hell did you make that cam? I know valley giant makes huge 12" cams that you can buy for around 200$ how much did that cost to make?
True, I could have bought a Valley Giant -- But I wanted to make a cam. I'm currently working on an offset cam design somewhat similar to an Alien, (but better).
I bought the aluminum for $40. The springs cost about $5.
I build guitars for a living, and one of the tools I use is a ShopBot CNC machine. I made a 3D model on the computer, then cut out the parts using the machine. Voilą: cam.
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By JLP
From The Internet
Feb 15, 2010
| I love hearing about all the things people drag up there to stuff into the hollow flake. I've heard about disassembled chairs, tree branches, all kinds of stuff. A custom home made cnc cam - outstanding. |
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By Keenan Waeschle
From Bozeman, MT
Feb 15, 2010
| nice! how'd you get your hands on a machine such as that? great TR, I would love to get on that route at some point. |
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By Gregger Man
Feb 15, 2010
| keenan18 wrote: nice! how'd you get your hands on a machine such as that? great TR, I would love to get on that route at some point.
Thanks - it is a classic route.
20 years ago, buying a CNC machine was a $100K proposition.
Now there are machines in the sub-$2K range.
Learning 3D modeling isn't as easy as getting the machine, though. |
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By Tea
Feb 16, 2010
| Strong Work! Thanks for sharing! That cam looks Sweet! |
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By Keenan Waeschle
From Bozeman, MT
Feb 16, 2010
| make me one? I'll sign a wavier so my family won't sue you when the cam breaks and sends my body sailing off on a monster whipper into the slabs below..... |
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By CO_Michael
Feb 16, 2010
| What does the sucker weigh?
I looked up ShopBot CNC machine and they are $8000. |
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By Andy Laakmann
Site Landlord
From Bend, OR
Feb 16, 2010
| Awesome!
Out of curiosity - where does one buy a Valley Giant right now? My local REI seemed out of them.... :)
(I am serious though, where would I purchase one of these) |
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By Gregger Man
Feb 16, 2010
| keenan18 wrote: make me one? I'll sign a wavier so my family won't sue you when the cam breaks and sends my body sailing off on a monster whipper into the slabs below.....
Well, I didn't include the time/labor factor in my description of the cost. I didn't charge myself for labor, but if I were to make cams like this for sale I would have to price them similar to the Valley Giant in order to make it a profitable deal. In the drawing, each blue line represents a pass of an 1/8" carbide bit at a depth of about 0.015" in the aluminum. Cutting out 4 lobes, a stem, and a trigger equals several hours of machine time. Industry standard is $60-$90/hour for CNC time (on the _low_ end.) - If my shop were set up for metal working instead of making lots of exotic sawdust, I could probably knock out those lobes in half an hour...
MichaelClimbs - It's pretty darn heavy. Getting it into my basement in pieces pulled several muscles. I built the table from steel I-beams. When I purchased mine in 2001, it cost ~$5000. The price has gone up. [edit: Oh, if you mean 'how heavy is the cam?': 1lb 15oz.] |
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By TMC
From Denver, CO
Feb 16, 2010
| Nice work Greg! I seem to remember you from Eldo wearing the sweetest helmet I've ever seen....
| Greg's helmet
Submitted By: TMC on Feb 16, 2010
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By Gregger Man
Feb 16, 2010
| Toni Marie wrote: Nice work Greg! I seem to remember you from Eldo wearing the sweetest helmet I've ever seen....
I am an inveterate DIY'er.
The removable hat brim with Velcro tabs and baling wire rim was cut from the Cordura of a discarded piece of luggage and lovingly stitched by hand. Keeps the sun off my lily-white skin.
You should see my piles of failed DIY experiments... |
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