THE Grand Wall Rappel

PanShiBo

Pitch 5

This one took us the longest time (1h20m) and drained our physical and emotional energy almost entirely. The video only shows leaving station 5 and arriving at the station 6, passing by a rappel station midway. We had no chance (to think about) to shoot in between.

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Station 5.5

Shortly under Bellygood there is a pretty good station, with 2 bolts, and an older piton above (circled). Two climbers can stand there in a relative comfort. This is a real rappel station with quick links, not just 2-bolt belay stations elsewhere on the route. Strangely, it is missing on the topos of our two guide books.

After Vera arrived, we debated if we should do the rappel reset here, but Vera suggested to keep on going. Now, I think next time (if we do it again - why not?), we should do the same, because in case of trouble we still can climb rope back up to the ledge and walk out. But I would do a rope redirect here off the piton (if not rappel off the tree on Bellygood for even better shift), because next station is way off to the right and needs extreme free-air acrobatics to reach ( and we didn't know that yet ).

TIP: The best topo of the Upper Black Dyke is in the book "The Climbers Guide To Squamish", p.294.

PanShiBo

Station 5.5 (contd.)

We never found records anybody rappelled The Grand Wall along The Black Dyke, so we used climbing guide books as reference. Two main concerns were: traverses and roofs. When on rappel, horizontal moves are quite limited, so if a bolt is located way off the fall line, it will require pendulum move on a rappel rope, with locked belay device at a precise position to reach the bolt - not too high, not too low. The move itself is quite unnerving as the loaded rappel rope is being rubbed against the rock edge above and it only takes time to shred it.

The roof aspect is another big concern because rappelling off a roof is always happening in free air and even if bolts are there on the wall, it will be most likely impossible to reach them.

We knew that there will be one traverse on Rappel 5 and right after that we will have to deal with two huge roofs: "The Nubian Queen" and "The Gargoyles". We didn't know how far they stick out and as such we didn't know how much rope will be required for the free-air rides.

Before the trip, we went to take photos of the route quite a few times - we looked from the left, from the deck, from Papoose, from the rim and from the parking - none of them produced the "real" estimate.



PHOTO: At the station 5.5 just above "The Traverse". My altimeter is not precise, but it gives an idea anyway - the deck is still ~185 m below us.


For the refernce, Canada Place is "only" 85m height.

PanShiBo

The Nubian Queen Roof of The Grand Wall, Stawamus Chief, Squamish, BC

PanShiBo

The two roofs of the Black Dyke.

We took this photo from the deck during one of our recon trips to the Grand Wall. It is hard to estimate correctly where you will land on rappel nor does it give you an idea how much rope will be required. The reality is, that you won't touch anything until 60m down below.

Well, we had 100m rappel rope which is only good for 50m max raps, luckily we carried extra 90m rope, "just in case of the emergency" - which allowed us to extend the base line.

TIP: such long raps heat the belay device a lot, so if you don't pay attention to this, it can possibly burn the rappel rope.

PanShiBo

Station 6 (two bolts, super tight exposed spot)

The spot is pretty much vertical, here one has to hang on a harness connected to a bolt. Because there is no room to stand, we selected not to retrieve the original rope until Vera rappelled off from here on our emergency 90m 7mm static line. Just think about this - she had to take the pack off, get the rope out, rig the rap line, put the pack back on and get ready to go. This was done with nothing but air below our feet and after her impressive (and successful) 1.5 hour dramatic fight in free-air to get to that spot in the first place! 8)

PanShiBo

Station 6 (contd.)

I still want to come with large binoculars and locate precisely those two bolts the two of us were hanging off, here is an approximate spot.



This is the first free-air ride on The Grand Wall (Pitch 6). We had to use our emergency (thin) 7mm 90m static line.

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The Two roofs of The Grand Wall

From this photo, or any other photos we have taken, it is not obvious, but The Nubian Queen Roof is actually sticking out much more than The Gargoyles, so on rappel from it you don't touch anything until ~60m below (height of a 20-floor building). This is the 2nd, last and most impressive free-air ride on The Grand Wall. Watch your belay device from overheating.

Please note that you must not lose any of your rappel ropes before this pitch - we carried 1x100m (main), 1x90m (emergency) and 2x30m (extra emergency) ropes. Should we have lost the main 100m rope, we would need to combine all emergency ropes into one and rappel on it passing two knots mid-air - which would be quite an involving part, probably ending in the dark.

PanShiBo

Pitch 5 or "The raven was there for a reason"

May be in the future (or may be not) we will have full account of this pitch, but for now I can only say little, just in case the memory wipes out the still fresh facts.

The pitch was initiated by me from Bellygood to the "real" rap station 5.5. We debated if we should reset the rappel there (the "bible" advises: if possible, two short raps are better than one long), but after successful smooth fun ride on the Upper Black Dyke we decided: "heck with it, why bother", so will be finished by Vera off the same station 5. We didn't question why the rap station was there in the first place (which we should have -  according to my imprecise altimeter reading, the station 7 is only 35 vertical meters down: 415m (#5.5)->380m (#7) - if we rapped off 5.5 we could have avoided station 6 altogether, in theory of course).

From our guide book topo I knew there will be a traverse move to the right, which was a real concern, on rappel, traverses are hard to do, especially on high-angles. When Vera dropped on rappel and out of sight it passed about 10-15 minutes when I thought this is enough time to finish the pitch. Instead, she came on the radio and said "I see a piton". Anchoring on a single old piton is pretty bad idea, especially that we didn't carry hammer to drive it back just in case. I said: "no". It meant also that there were no bolts around. Another 15 minutes passed, she came on the radio again and said "there is a piton" - suddenly I realized that we might have a problem. I said "no" and then the radio went silent again. I remember I was thinking that if one of our radios drops or malfunctions we will lose communication and then we will not know what is going on. At the same time I knew it was same Vera with cool head and she will do her best as she always does in critical moments. I remember sideways and unconsciously I was preparing to watch her perform. And she did - this was the excellence never seen in humans "normal life".

It was very quiet. I held rap line on which she was hanging down below and felt the rope was going from tense to light and then I thought, finally she got it, but alas, the rope would go tight again and move side ways, rubbing against rock, making weak but distinct scratching sound. I called her on the radio "what are you doing?" and received no answer. After a few minutes she said "I need a knife". So I started preparing knife to lower to her on our emergency 30m twin rope, not so sure how she was going to receive it. Before I finished unwrapping it (brand new rope, just purchased at MEC night), I heard, "You might come down". This was a relieve: she seemed to have found the bolts, but the "might" part concerned me a bit. When I rappelled down, I saw Vera hanging on a bolt way off the fall line to the right, so much way off, that I couldn't reach her on my own if she didn't pull me hard on the rope. Still, it took three tries that I finally got to the bolt and connected to it with daisy chain. From what I saw, Vera seemed to defy laws of physics getting there, in free air! Also, she had to lock her belay device first at precise position and then "swing" - that's of course in theory, reality is a lot harder than theory as we all know. The knife was not needed after all, but I knew we might need it later on just in similar case.

PHOTO: At Station 7, after completing Pitch 6. With knife.

PanShiBo

Pitch 6 or "Should I go down?"

The first free-air ride on the Grand Wall / Black Dyke. Station 7 is sitting exactly on the fall line from station 6, so it seems that station 5.5 could have been made to rap straight down here (not sure the length - on 50 or 60?). again, it is rather strange the Station 5.5 is missing (neither as belay station or rap station) in our two guide books: it takes a lot of commitment (and $$) to build it.

PanShiBo

Multipitch Rappel or Lessons from The Grand Wall

JUST FOR REFERENCE

I am in the process of building brand new course, with working title "Multipitch Rappel or Lessons from The Grand Wall". This will be logical extension of our beginner's class "Alpine 101 - Rappel" and will cover must-have skills and essential equipment, with limit of two students max per instructor.

Will this course eventually take place or not, only the time will show. I might abandon it if I am bored with it, or put it on indefinite hold being busy with other projects (many!), but right now by drafting the curriculum I want to have something consistent and structured at least in my records. If interested on the status of this undertaking, email directly for details.

PHOTO: Pitch 6, first free-air ride on Grand Wall / Black Dyke. The much bigger one is still coming! 8)

PanShiBo

Pitch 6

This roof is big, but not as big as those that are yet coming. Hence it has no name, as others down the route (The Nubian Queen and Gargoyles).



Still even this small roof is sticking out so much that it is impossible to visit the cave, as we thought. Judging from the photo one can't say.

PanShiBo

Lesson From the Grand Wall - carry an extra belay device

During our rappel practice on The Papoose in preparation for The Grand Wall, Vera noted that dropping a belay device (e.g. during rappel reset) will be pretty bad, so better carry an extra one, so she purchased a new one at MEC night. Even we didn't lose one, it saved us a lot of trouble on Station 6 - we had to transfer from one rappel rope to another (at high-angle) and without her extra belay device it would be so much headache. Also, without belay device, one must rappel on a munter, which in free-air won't be fun! Not mentioning passing a knot with extra belay device is so much easier.

PHOTO: Pitch 6, The Grand Wall / Black Dyke, Stawamus Chief, Squamish BC

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Station 7 - just under the unnamed roof, exactly on the fall line from Station 6, no-crazy-traverses and no-high-angle!, two bolts (belay station).

If the altimeter is correct (380m), then it is only 35m down from Station 5.5 (415m), next time should try to rappel just right off it - avoiding problematic #6. 8)





Photo by Vera:


Getting ready for 7th pitch.


Views of course are superb! Even better than Yosemite! No crowds either. 8)

PanShiBo

Pitch 7

PanShiBo

Why Vera requested a knife. PART 1.

Before The Grand Wall trip, we had practiced quite a few times in Squamish, getting used to our brand new ropes and other equipment.  I also scheduled "Rappel reset on a high-angle rock" alpine practice - there is a perfect spot in Smoke Bluffs for that. However, we were running out of time - before leaving for Japan in mid-June we also wanted to climb Mount Hood in Oregon. If we don't do The Grand Wall now, leaving unfinished business until return 1.5 month later meant we had to repeat the entire training set again, so we skipped the practice. Skipping this training was a bad idea, and only luck let as avoid big trouble.

Rappel reset is easy to do when there is a platform to stand on. On a high-angle rock it is not so: instead of standing on your feet,  you are hanging on a daisy chain connected to a bolt. Which means you must eventually release the loaded daisy chain somehow. When Vera, after her dramatic but successful battle with gravity,  finally reached station 6, it was exactly the situation of high-angle rock - she clipped her daisy chain to the bolt and hang on it. Only then she realized it won't be easy to unload it: she tried and failed. Why it is so is not obvious, since we know how to use leg prussiks and in theory it is what one is supposed to do, but surprise! - it didn't work! Why it didn't work will be explained further down (I hope), but the fact was the fact - Vera was stuck hanging on a bolt. It seemed that the only option available was to cut it, that's why the idea of the knife "naturally" occurred.

Obviously, had we not skipped the above mentioned practice, we would have been prepared for this (sort of).

PHOTO: Station 6. Two loaded daisy chains.

PanShiBo

Why Vera requested a knife.  PART 2.

Those who were trained and know how to use a leg prusik, should know that to do so one needs a rope to climb higher up and then  release the system - it only works along the fall line! In the photo above, there is no rope - because it was the traverse, the rope is lean to the left and the daisy chain to the right. As such, the daisy can never be truly unloaded - no matter how much one climbs the rope, it will keep pulling to the left and the daisy will be loaded to the right. So why in the end, Vera didn't need the knife? To be continued (I hope).

PanShiBo

Station 8 - a very good comfortable platform at 345m, two bolts, one with chain?





You may wonder, why to carry cams on a rappel? Originally they were meant to redirect our fall line, but actually were never used as such. However, who knew that I will need them dearly for aid climbing, later on!

PanShiBo

Why Vera requested a knife. PART 3.

At high-angle station 6 it looked very awkward to reset  the rappel, and we wanted to get out of this spot fast - hanging on our harnesses was slowly making our legs numb as the blood circulation gets blocked by the pressure. So we decided to use our emergency 90m thin 7mm rope. Vera did great - and her extra belay device was extremely handy transferring from one rap rope to another. Once she got on rappel she suddenly got on the fall line with daisy chain and it was easily unloaded, by me - because it was a bit high for Vera to reach the upper bolt. Now you can guess what happened next.

Side note: where was the luck you would ask? Watch the footage of Pitch 6 - you will see that should there not be the  station 7 just right on the fall line underneath the Station 6, we would have both Vera and me hanging on our harnesses for how long - who knows. The morning Raven was there for a good reason.

To be continued (I hope).

PanShiBo

TOPO of two Pitches 5-6.

This photo was taken yesterday at Alpine Practice at Ferret's Folly in Smoke Bluffs. It shows clearly that the distance S5 - S6 (for which our main 100m rope was more than enough) is the same as S5.5 - S7, so (in theory), rappelling off Station 5.5 directly to S7 will let you skip problematic S6, unless, of course it is what you are after - a little excitement resetting rappel on vertical rock with some air underneath 8)