I wanted to head for the high mountains today, but lacked any partners for such an adventure. This in itself is a bit astounding with all the hyperactive mountain athletes I know. Bill Briggs was up high the day before and was planning an alpine climb with his brother Roger for the next day, but he was willing to meet me for a half-day in Eldo.
My friend Mark Hudon once frequented Smith Rocks nearly every weekend. He had redpointed every single 5.12, every 5.13a, every 5.13a/b, and most of the 5.13b’s. He was the “mayor” of Smith Rocks. Once while he was approaching the base of a route, a climber nearby, wanting to claim the route for his own, threw his rope over at the base of the route, just before Mark arrived. He said, “I’m next on that route.” Mark calmly bent over, picked up the rope, and heaved it as far down the slope as he could. He then said, “No, you’re not.” Despite being only 5’2” tall, he wasn’t challenged. Mark was the mayor, you know.
Now Bill Briggs might not be the mayor of Eldorado, but he’s got a key to the city. I don’t ever pass up a chance to climb with Bill. He seems to know the secrets to every route in Eldorado. I decided to climb with Bill instead of hike/scrambling up high alone. We met in Eldo at 6:30 a.m. with plans to do the first pitch of the Naked Edge, as practice for me, and then head to Vertigo. Why not continue on the Edge? Because the last pitch of the Edge goes into the sun around 7 a.m. and if you don’t climb as fast as Gruber/Wharton, then by the time you hit this pitch the rock is too hot to touch. The forecast for the day was 85 degrees and it would hit 88 degrees and seemed quite a bit hotter on the rock.
Bill had warned me that there’d be other parties going for the Edge at that time. I wasn’t that worried about this scenario as it would give me a good excuse to avoid it. When I pulled into Eldo, Bill’s truck was the only vehicle in the lot. We put a rack together and headed for Touch and Go, the usual start to the Edge.
We geared at the base and just as I started up, I noticed a
party go by, headed further east. The only reason you’d hike up the trail these
guys took would be to do Touch and Go or a roof route. If they aborted Touch
and Go and headed east it could only mean one thing: they were headed for the
I put the two pitches of Touch and Go together into one
pitch, as is usual. The upper section is rated 5.9 now, but I have this pitch
pretty wired and zipped up it. While belaying Bill up I noticed a rope on the
I tied into the middle of the rope, unclipped from my belay, and started simul-climbing the next easy ground leading up to the Cave Pitch. I knew the chances of Bill falling on Touch and Go were as close to zero as you can get. We simul-climbed up to the base of the Edge, both of us arriving there before either member of the other team.
I still used the other team as an excuse to get out of leading the 11a first pitch, saying that I didn’t want to feel the pressure of the other team as well as the pressure of the Edge. I needn’t have worried about this other team. They weren’t that fast. Bill took this opportunity to suggest climbing Jules Verne. I was dumbfounded. He suggested this famous horror route like it was just another route. I jumped at the chance to get a guided ascent of this Eldo classic.
I led around the corner and up about thirty feet to a belay at the base of the sacred pitch. Bill then calmly led up some tricky climb to the small roof marking the last chance for protection. He placed a few pieces of gear here before launching upwards. Just above this roof, his foot slipped off. It unnerved me and it would have been very scary if I was leading and this happened. Bill was nonplussed and proceeded to waltz up the next twenty feet of sustained, tricky climbing as if he was doing the Third Flatiron. A fall from the last hard move would be very damaging, but he was so casual. It was impressive and inspiring.
Once he arrived at the ramp, he placed his first piece in 25 feet and then still had 70 feet of climbing to the belay where he placed only one more piece. The climbing wasn’t that hard, but these are still very heady runouts. But Bill has the key to the city.
I followed up to the roof okay and removed the gear. I found the runout section to have two distinct cruxes, the first is right above the gear. Here I cranked on tiny, sharp, painful holds, but got through it to a semi-rest. I was tempted at first to continue up on these tortuous holds, but knew I couldn’t last. I moved right to less positive, but less painful holds.
I moved up to the next crux section, which was the remainder of the pitch. I had a small, painful hold for my left hand at about shoulder height or a bit lower. My right hand was on a rounded lieback hold. My right foot on some horrible smear and most of my weight on my left foot. I cranked up my right foot to a tiny foothold, but couldn’t let go with either hand. I deadpointed my left hand up to a rounded knob. This hold sucked, but I held on. I deadpointed again with my right hand for another lieback hold higher, but I slipped off and plunged about ten feet due to rope stretch. Dang. That would have been a disastrous fall on lead. I had a real appreciate for Bill’s lead head.
I climbed back up to the same move and fell again, this time when I couldn’t hold the knob. The third time up I knew I had to figure out a better way to do this move. This time I moved my right foot off the smear to a small stemming hold off to the right. Now when I pulled up my left foot, I was in balance. I reached for the knob and then noticed that I could reach even higher to a good hold. Once I had this hold, the difficulties started to ease. Just two more moves and I was at the finishing jug. What a pitch.
I traversed hard left and up to Bill’s belay. The next pitch was nebulous with lots of wandering and I went the wrong way, eventually hitting the Edge in the middle of the third pitch. I didn’t want to merge with that route, so I traversed back to the right getting into serious runout climbing. I persevered through some scary stuff that I knew I couldn’t reverse. I was mentally drained when I got to a ledge and set up a belay. Bill confirmed that I went the wrong way on the pitch and speculated that I might have climbed on some virgin ground. Judging my the numerous of incredible loose flakes, this might be true. Climbing across the hand traverse near the end of this pitch, Bill fell off when a loose block moved. Scary stuff.
At the belay Bill pointed out the next pitch. An awkward 5.10+ through a steep wall. Bill told me the difficulties eased above this section and I decided to lead it, despite being a bit frazzled from the last pitch. I climbed up a juggy overhang on the right into a scoop, where I could place a piece. Then I traversed left into the tricky finger crack. It was quite difficult to place the gear here, but I managed to get in a couple of pieces. I was only a move from finishing the hard section when I came off. The gear held and the fall was short. After regrouping, I finished the crux section to a good foothold above. I placed a small stopper in a thin crack and traversed left on the now familiar ramp/hand traverse climbing. I then went up and back right a bit.
After 30-40 feet, I got in another piece, but now my rope was really binding at the lip of the roof. It took all my strength and both hands to pull up enough rope to move. I needed to belay, but couldn’t do that without some solid gear. I traversed along a ledge/ramp until I found an alcove I could stuff myself into. There was a fixed wired nut here and I got in a good cam and a small nut as well.
I told Bill to tie in short so that I wouldn’t have to pull up the rest of the rope and put him on belay. He cranked the roof easily, freeing the rope, and soon joined me at the belay. Despite being out of sun in my little hole, I was getting tired, hot, and dehydrated. The last three pitches proved to be draining. Bill led us to the very top of T2 in one very long, moderate pitch. I followed really feeling the fatigue.
It was super hot now and descending the east slabs was boiling. The rock was very hot to the touch. The party on the Edge still hadn’t arrived at the start of the last pitch. We pitied them when they did. They’d have to aid to the top with rock that hot.
Back at the base we met a pair of climbers sitting below C’est La Vie claiming that they’d been looking for the start of Touch and Go for the last two hours. Two hours? We showed them the start, but I couldn’t imagine things going well for them in the heat. We headed back to the car and home. It was a thrilling day. Being guided by Bill Briggs is always a treat. He’s going to auction off his services in the upcoming ACE fund raiser called “Famous Climbs with Famous Climbers.” Lots of famous climbers are donating their time for this. I’ll probably bid as well. Maybe even on Bill!