Solo in the Zone
Yeah, I know... So what's the big deal about rope soloing a three pitch climb in the Gunks? Really, there isn't anything all that special about it except that it was a great adventure for me.
First attempt: October 1996
I played hooky from work on a beautiful sunny weekday to solo Twilight Zone (5.7
C2). I've top-rope soloed quite a bit at local crags, but never on the lead. After reading about the big-wall solo exploits of our western brethren, I got the desire to give that
aid- solo stuff a try.
I packed all of my gear the night before and went to bed early. Needless to say, I didn't sleep too well. I jumped out of bed and drove to the Gunks. After an uneventful two and a half hour drive I hiked into the base and arranged all of the gear into the semblance of what the pictures and drawings looked like in those big-wall/aid books. I started
climbing at 9:00AM.
I figured on 8 hours to rope-solo this climb; 2 hours on the first pitch (5.4, 140'), 4 hours on the second pitch (5.7 A2, 100') and 2 hours on the third pitch (5.7 A1, 60').
It was my first lead solo adventure ever and I was being very conservative.
I'm a sissy.
The first pitch went fairly smoothly, even though I turned the pitch into a 5.4 A1 by stepping on a fixed pin. I also ran the ropes poorly and had to do two hauls to get my haul pack up to the Grand Traverse Ledge. I ended up finishing the first pitch in just over
an hour.
The second pitch started well enough. I climbed up 40' (5.2) to an intermediate belay, tied the rope off and started up a cold, wet and mossy chimney. I was able to lever off
a #3 Camalot enough to reach better holds. Now the C2 traverse starts. First move is exiting the chimney on some of the worst fixed pins you'll ever see. These things have water dripping on them for most of the year and are so corroded that the steel that makes up the eye of the pins is about the thickness of a
key chain ring. At least there's two of them.
The traverse follows a semi-rotten horizontal for about 40' to the left, through some of the largest roofs at a place that is famous for it's overhangs. The exposure is wild for being only about 200' off of the ground. There are
many fixed pins, some wired stoppers and chiseled holds,
courtesy of a few ex-local dim-wits. There is also a fixed
retreat or top-rope station two moves out from the chimney for top-roping the 5.11X section below. The actual
C2 section has been free climbed recently at 5.13b.
I climbed through the roof traverse clipping fixed gear, making long reaches and placing the odd piece or two. As the day began to warm up, I approached the lip of the roofs. Just then I noticed some
hornets flying lazily around the final roof crack. My guess, at that time, was
that they were in a nice restful pre-winter slumber, awakened by the warm sun and I would be able to gingerly climb around them without getting stung. As I made a long reach to clip some fixed slings
near the lip, the
mother lode of hornets took off from the out-of-sight death star nest in the crack. The wasps were as thick as the flying monkeys in
The Wizard of Oz. At this point it became quite obvious that there is no easy or quick way to climb up, down or get myself out of that situation. Rope-soloing is a slow process no matter what direction you are trying to go in.
A bunch of hornets landed on me but, curiously enough, didn't sting me. They were a little too
sleepy to do anything but land and rest. Instead of pooping my pants and screaming for help, I started to down climb ever so
quietly. I was not about to climb through the nest, rappel through the nest and then climb back through it again. I down aided to my last piece and felt the all too familiar sharp burn from a
hornet sting in the crotch, of my right elbow. A wasp had landed inside my elbow and as I pulled up on the piece, I squeezed the
poor guy and got stung. Surprisingly, the sting was very weak and didn't hurt as much as my melting mind made it out to be.
I finished down climbing, packed my gear and rapped off of the
Grand Traverse Ledge hoping nobody witnessed my flailing and whimpering. I vowed to come back with a can of
hornet spray in the near future.
Second Attempt: July 19, 1997
My regular climbing partner had other plans for the weekend. The
weather was forecasted to be very nice and so it seemed like all of the planets had aligned for my second attempt at rope-soloing
Twilight Zone.
As I did the past fall, I packed my stuff, didn't sleep too well the night before and started up the climb at 9:00AM right behind a party on
Andrew (5.4). I ran my ropes much better this time on the first pitch and landed on the
Grand Traverse Ledge with all of my gear at 9:40AM. I was actually climbing faster than the
Andrew party. I didn't even step on the fixed pin this time.
I scoped out the C2 roof pitch above for any flying insects. All I saw were some moths and
butterflies. Too bad, I had a fresh can of hornet spray duct taped with clip-in slings. Maybe they
were in hiding? As before, I climbed up and tied into the intermediate belay, climbed the dry chimney and proceeded out the
C2 traverse with all of it's wild exposure.
I was on constant lookout for the little stinging devils. I would occasionally catch a swift or a pigeon darting into the corner of my vision. I immediately latched on to the
hornet spray with a death grip. Clint Eastwood has nothing on my 'hornet-off'
can draw.
The pitch continued on without incident. Mostly fixed stuff. I placed a couple of Friends (#1 & #2), a medium wired nut, a green Alien and a small Camalot Jr. I reached the hanging belay at the lip of this enormous roof and realized that my haul/rap line was well out beyond the
Grand Traverse Ledge! I
rappelled until I was even with the ledge, yet 20 feet out from it. I rapped down a little more until I could touch the rock and climb
easily back up to the ledge.
I checked the time and it was only 11:45AM. Not too bad, but I was low on water. I only brought 1.5 liters and could have easily used more. The bagels in my pack seemed so unappetizing just
then. I was really looking forward to a cold beer, but the job wasn't finished
yet.
As I headed up to clean the pitch, another party showed up to do Twilight Zone. I proceed to scare them with all kinds of lies about zippering manky
pins, huge wasp nests and loose rock. I was kidding them. Following your own lead is easy because as a leader you realize that you have to make things as easy on your follower as possible. Otherwise you'll end up punching yourself in the nose! Does that make sense?
By the time I reached the hanging belay at the lip of the roof for the
second time that day, the party behind had moved their belay up to the intermediate belay and I never saw them again. They may have gone down or they may have finished, I really don't know. Hope they did it because it's a great
climb.
The party behind me finished the roof
pitch and rappelled. George Chapman and partner Dave Crowther were behind
me and a third party was behind them! I don't know if Twilight Zone has ever
seen three separate parties on it in a single day.
Here is where I realized that stacking ropes through slings is
not the way to solo climbs. Get a rope bucket from A5, it makes things much easier and safer. I started up the last pitch with a couple of easy aid moves on fixed pins to a free traverse to the left to an aid move up a shallow left facing corner. I fixed a small brass nut here. I
would rate the last pitch 5.7 C1. It probably goes free at
5.9. As I topped out, the ropes began to get all snagged up in the stacking slings. I had just enough
remaining to tie off to some sturdy trees.
I rapped down to the hanging belay, drank some water, untangled the ropes, looked around for the guys behind me and lowered the haul pack out a long
way because of the extra slack caused by the tangled ropes. My arms were cramping up because of some mild dehydration and it took me a while to jug the last pitch. I hauled the bag after reaching the top and looked at the
time, 1:50 PM. It took less than five hours to get me and all of my junk to the top.
The elapsed time was much less than I had anticipated.
I spent the next 40 minutes or so eating wild blueberries, drinking the last of my water, enjoying the nice breeze and sorting gear. I also took the actual ridge trail back to the Uberfall rather than the normal climbers trail which runs along the eastern edge of the Trapps. It was a nice change to walk the ridge with no one around.
This is a fine adventure for those a little tired of the normal Gunks scene. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the Gunks for any other climbing area (except maybe Yosemite) and I love to free climb. But doing a route like
Twilight Zone with or without a
partner will get you worked up for more aid climbing.