Odd ways to make vertical progress: Grappling hooks? Shoulder stands? Other?

An earlier post in which someone wanted an ID on some old climbing gear led me to the wonderful site, the Vertical Museum. Therein, I noticed an exhibit of grappling hooks, of all things. Has anyone actually used such a device for vertical progress on the rock (a la Batman)??? If so, do tell. 

This led me to think of other odd ways to make vertical progress on a rock climb... climbing trees to get to the start, shoulder stands, extreme stick clips/cheater draws, lassos... (and then there is the whole bizarre world of difficult aid climbing--bashies, smashies, trashies, crashies, lashies, odd hooks and crooks of all kinds, and God knows what else).

So... What is the strangest or most unique way of making vertical progress on a rock climb you have seen, heard about, or experienced yourself?

Here are a few ideas to get us started... The tree trunk on Royal Arches (now gone, alas), climbing a tree to start (E.L. 100, Eldo), lasso manuever on P12 of Regular NW Face of Half Dome... (Your experiences on these three routes might be of interest to us as well, especially if there is humor and/or an epic involved.)

Thanks, Jimmy. Awesome idea! As long as the pole doesn't fall off to one side or the other... Would love to see pictures/sketches. (I Googled around a bit and couldn't find anything.)

Screenshot of a route description at Tonquani, South Africa.  Stand on your helmet to reach a good hold. I haven't tried it yet.

There is a run out slab climb on Mt Wheeler where you have to do a mantle to get to the bolt. I have done that move about a dozen times but also got totally shut down right there once. Reached up and hooked the bolt with my nut tool. Yarded up to the stance and clipped. Now that I am over 60 I just carry a stiffy.. 

There's a sandstone tower here in Utah where the official beta is to clip the rope to an ice axe and throw it like a grappling hook several feet to a ledge above. It's killing me that I can't remember which one... Anybody remember?

The Traddest Dad wrote:

There's a sandstone tower here in Utah where the official beta is to clip the rope to an ice axe and throw it like a grappling hook several feet to a ledge above. It's killing me that I can't remember which one... Anybody remember?

I think the route is called hydra or something like that. It might be the same route but I remember reading of one where for several moves in a row you tossed the ice-axe to catch mud horns.

Jimmy Strange wrote:

The Japanese used to have a thing that was a long, hefty pole with a brass ring on the top and a spiked foot on the base, the idea being you lent it against a rock face, top roped via the brass ring, pulled it up, then repeated. Quite the rage apparently when they showed up with them in the Alps in the late 1800s. 

This was a super popular way to access high leads in caves, and was still used until battery technology progressed and finally made hand drilling bolts obselete underground. I've seen the remains of several scalling poles underground, and they were packed in there in sections, assembled, and then it seems like people just hoped for the best. 

Firefighters have these things called hook ladders 

Hook Ladder

I seem to remember old pictures of similar devices in use in early European alpine ascents.

I F wrote:

I think the route is called hydra or something like that. It might be the same route but I remember reading of one where for several moves in a row you tossed the ice-axe to catch mud horns.

This?
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/110529478/hydraform-ridge

The first photo for the route is a grappling hook:

I recall hearing about a tower somewhere, maybe Oregon, in which the FA party used a drone to string a thin line up  and over. The thin line was then used to set a stronger rope that could be ascended.  

There is also a picture that pops up here on Mt. Proj. of someone standing on the roof of a car or truck to reach the first piece of some desert tower. This might be the pic:

https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/2200232/starting-off-the-truck

On a route in the Gunks, I really, really wanted to clip a pin (supposedly) put in by Layton Kor (a 6'7" tall guy), but I couldn't quite reach it before needing to make a very comitting (at least for a climbing noob pushing into 5.7) slab move from a solid stance on a ledge. It took quite some head scratching (1000 apologies to my very patient belayer) before I put down my 3.5 Camalot (sideways) on the ledge and stood on this (micro fracture horror!) to reach and clip the pin. The Gunks also had a route starting by climbing a tree, but that tree was a death trap in the late '90s, so it's probably gone by now.

I’ve stood on my belayers shoulders to move past a tough move at the start of a pitch. 

A child's bow and arrow set to shoot fishing line over what was for all practical purposes a very high boulder. The fishing line then pulled a rope over, which was then ascended to place anchors at the top. Several sport routes evolved from that $20 bow and arrow set.

“Five Tree” in Idy is 40ft of branch climbing to a bolt and transfer to the rock.

Drone.

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=16048

Peak 9854 looks like it doesn’t have much time left before it turns to rubble… scary.
Some great/fun/odd stuff coming up here, thanks! (Never thought about standing on a helmet or a big cam to extend my reach… it’s in my toolkit now.)

P.S. My near 78-year-old climbing partner, with two artificial hips, regularly carries a long stiffy draw in case he needs to A0 past any hard moves—works great. 

cole c wrote:

Jim Beyer taped an ice tool to the end of a 22 foot pole to reach past a big blank section on Martyrs Brigade

Sure. 

Patrik wrote:

On a route in the Gunks, I really, really wanted to clip a pin (supposedly) put in by Layton Kor (a 6'7" tall guy), but I couldn't quite reach it before needing to make a very comitting (at least for a climbing noob pushing into 5.7) slab move from a solid stance on a ledge. It took quite some head scratching (1000 apologies to my very patient belayer) before I put down my 3.5 Camalot (sideways) on the ledge and stood on this (micro fracture horror!) to reach and clip the pin. The Gunks also had a route starting by climbing a tree, but that tree was a death trap in the late '90s, so it's probably gone by now.

Funny that disco death March is listed as a variation to this oddity. I remember the tree being there as late as ca. 2000, but never tried the route.

Pfft y'all need to read about the FA of the Lost Arrow Spire.

Then there is the infamous shoulder stance on the FA of the N. Ridge of the Grand. 

And of course my favorite, Those Montana Boys (2nd ascent of the Grand).

The legendary Fritz Weissner wasn’t a fan of aid climbing, but didn’t consider such things as shoulder stands or human pyramids to be aid, as everyone involved was part of the ‘attacking team’. He had begun his climbing career on the Elbe sandstone near Dresden in Germany, where such tactics were common at that time. I think that he may have employed such tactics on one or two of his Gunks FAs.

Alan Rubin wrote:

The legendary Fritz Weissner wasn’t a fan of aid climbing, but didn’t consider such things as shoulder stands or human pyramids to be aid, as everyone involved was part of the ‘attacking team’. He had begun his climbing career on the Elbe sandstone near Dresden in Germany, where such tactics were common at that time. I think that he may have employed such tactics on one or two of his Gunks FAs.

Isn't this the famed "Czech Tech?"