THE Grand Wall Rappel

PanShiBo

"No experience required"

It is this booklet from the Squamish Visitor Center that got us stoked: "..then we can do The Grand Wall too, alpine style, without the guides".  8)

PanShiBo

Luck #2 (..the morning Raven was there for a reason)

As if the luck on the Pitch 6 was not enough, the Mountain Gods gave us yet another luck: the tree below "The Two Roofs of The Grand Wall". Since the fall line ends way off the Black Dyke (bolted), without that tree, which is on the fall line,  we would have no anchors to set the (last) rappel off. Sun was setting down and we were running out of the daylight. Without the tree we would have either to rappel off the cams, or to run huge pendulum to the dyke. Luckily, we didn't have to.

Since we didn't see any rap station over the tree, not sure how other people rappel off those roofs, if ever. 8)

PHOTO: Fall (rappel) line from the Nubian Queen Roof, Grand Wall. Note someone has fixed (green) rope just below The Gargoyles Roof - it was not there when we rappelled.

PanShiBo

Why Vera requested a knife. PART 4.

You probably already figured it out: once Vera left Station 6 on our 2nd rope, I naturally had to face exactly same set of problems she did - same laws of physics that is: like Vera before me, I was hanging on the daisy chain and the first main rope, the two pulling me in opposite directions. So the carbon-copy of just finished struggle issued, followed by a "bonus" of unlocking accidentally locked backup prusik. Of course, the idea of the knife came up, and I even got it out at some moment ready to cut, but then put it away - you don't know if by accident you won't cut a wrong rope: I had two climbing ropes with belay devices, a daisy chain and a backup prusik all on my harness belay loop. Still, I had to act fast - my legs started getting seriously numb because of hanging in the air for a long time. Despite the intensity of the struggle, somewhere in the mind's background the names of Tony Kurtz on the Eiger north face and Joe Simpson on the West Face of Siula Grande were now and then popping out. A tiny voice kept suggesting, "why not just like them, simply give up?". I was running of muscle strength too. By the time I descended to Vera, I was almost entirely drained physically.

PanShiBo

Station 9

Right at the edge of the Nubian Queen Roof. High angle, two bolts, no chains.  The Gargoyles roof below.

Like Station 5.5, this one was never mentioned our two guide books.

PanShiBo

Station 9 (contd.)

PHOTO by Vera. Steep rock is a blessing here - you don't want flat platform on a roof - the edge will be sharper and harder on the ropes.


The fall line (Pitch 9) passes two(!) "official" belay stations from the guide books, completely out of reach.

PanShiBo

Station 9 - contd.

Specifically with "The Grand Wall" project in mind, we purchased a 90m static rope, but after testing it on The Papoose and Gobsmacking Wall in Shannon Falls, we were not 100% comfortable with it, so we bought another one, longer and thicker 100m rope  (MEC night - thank you Lulu for taking pains organizing it!). We made the new rope our main descending line, carrying a 90m as an emergency backup. Have we bought the "right" 100m in the first place, I am not sure we would purchase a backup and without it, the trouble would be surely expecting us here at Station 9. Below, the fall line is the longest on the entire route, ~60m of free-air, without touching anything: passing not only "official" stations, but also all the bolts or even any hard surface, all the way down! (90m of rope is only good for 45m rappel, meaning we would be left short by good 15 meters to the ground - Tony Kurz was short by less than 5 meters above the ground and it killed him).

PanShiBo

Pitch 8 - the shortest (15m only), ending on the top of The Nubian Queen Roof - (station 9), with two new bolts, one older one and a what remained after cutting even older ones. Station 9 is "a perfect roof-top rappel station"  - if such a word can apply here - below is 60 m of air, and it is sitting right on a steep edge. The steep edge helps the rope, and one can stand there on granite weaknesses, unlike Station 6 - easy to unload daisy chain.

PanShiBo

Station 9 - contd.
From the top of "The Nubian Queen Roof" we could already see the deck, which we had visited during one of our previous recon trips to The Grand Wall.

Photo by Vera: note that the Dyke is way off the fall line.


Nice and neat platform of Station 9 with vertical rock all around.


Luck #2 - the tree on the fall line. 8)

PanShiBo

Station 9 - contd.

Not just another selfie. It is a "From The Grand Wall, Station 9" selfie! 8)

PanShiBo

Pitch 9 - the 2nd and the longest free-air ride (~60m) on The Grand Wall. It begins from Station 9 at the top of "The Nubian Queen Roof" passes by "The Gargoyles" and lands just at the tree below, way off the Black Dyke. We had to connect two ropes 100m (8mm)+90m(7mm), a bit slippery but it worked. 8)

PanShiBo

Station 10
The last station on The Grand Wall. Good tree at 265m. Sun had already set down behind the mountains across Squamish valley and we didn't want to end up hanging just few meters above the deck in the dark, so once again combined two ropes (100m+90m), but it looked not necessary - 100m could be enough (in theory).

PanShiBo

Station 10 - contd.

We started with a tree (Station 1 at The Upper Black Dyke) and ended with a tree.

PanShiBo

Pitch 10
Our last pitch on The Grand Wall. We finally touched the deck right  after the sunset, it took us 9 hours to descent 350 meters. 8)

vera

整整过去半个月了，我对Grand Wall Rappel碎片一样的记忆，经由博士的report，一点一点地拼起来，在我的眼前渐渐变得清晰，现在终于可以说点什么了。

Chief从来就没有列在博士的list上，因为我们的兴趣在登山，不是攀岩。每次去Squamish，只是借用那里的资源，为alpine服务。在我们为今年夏天做准备时，去Smoke Bluffs练习，经过了Squamish的Vis Ctr，无意中看到了做广告的小册子，我就随意翻起来，结果看到了Grand Wall Rappel。这里吸引我眼球的是“rappel”，而不是Grand Wall，因为我喜欢rappel 自由的可停可行的感觉，每一次rappel的经历，都带给我特别的享受。说者无意，听者有心，博士听我在念，广告里说的连一点经验都不要，那我们岂不是绰绰有余？Why not？From Grand Wall, all the way down, it must be very cool! （是啊，真酷，酷到天了！）当然不用guides，我们自己干！ 博士的行动力不用多说，马上，立刻！买了Grand Wall的横幅、还有新版的Squamish攀岩的书，研究路线，记录书中所述每个pitch的Data，并设计相关的练习。Multi-pitch的绳降，我从来没有经历过，应该follow什么样的protocol，就是博士要去制定的。这个微软的高级软件工程师，思路超清晰，一步一步，循序渐进，在每个实践的环节里，随时针对新情况，做相应的调整，比如说redirect，再比如说，将我们平时的dynamic绳子换成static，并大胆启用7mm、8mm的，分别验证它们的可行性、与我们的belay device是否match，. . . . . .，就这样，至少五年里没来过Chief的我，成了这里的常客，跟着博士踩点，去Gobsmack、Papoose做模拟练习，一次又一次频繁开在海天高速，爱读中国成语故事的博士，对“知己知彼、百战不殆” 不仅看懂了故事，而且还深谙其理。

Finally，激动人心的时刻开始倒计时：5月24号，Grand Wall Rappel，Trip Status： GO！

PanShiBo

Keep in mind, that my altimeter was not calibrated and all above mentioned altitudes must be used only for pitches' elevation drops:

The deck's "real" altitude is 164m, measured with hand-held calibrated GPS.

PanShiBo

The End

I don't like being tested in alpine, it is a bad habit which often ends up in so called "epic trips" (or worse).  My philosophy is to practice for twice harder conditions than the upcoming trip. All our alpine trips have been like that and therefore safe - we posses all the required skills and equipment (like our recent climb of Mt. Hood - just a very enjoyable fun day out).

The Grand Wall trip was different. We didn't know the route and have not seen anybody reported on that. So we didn't know what to expect. Despite that we practiced "hard", we skipped a very important training and only pure luck saved us from huge embarrassing trouble. Well, people are born to make mistakes, aren't they? We learn until the end, the very end I mean.

PHOTO: Our tradition is to make a final shot at the car, to record our return time. The line on The Grand Wall that we descended is there and will be there forever, something nobody can take away from us. 8)


Driving back home we realized that we won't make it to Vancouver without filling the gas, and I remembered - there is no gas station at Lions Bay anymore, so we made a u-turn and returned back to Squamish, passing The Chief as if he didn't want us to go away so quick. Until next time. 8)

Ice cream from gas station in Squamish

WanchaiBoz

:aa10:  :cheers:

PanShiBo

WanchaiBoz
:aa10:  :cheers:

! 8)

PanShiBo

"The craziest day in my life"

For curiosity, after we came home we made a phone call to that guiding company that offered the "Grand Wall Rappel - no experience required" trip which served as a motivation trigger for us. We wanted to know where the guides take their clients. Nobody was at the phone so we left a message to call back. At 10 p.m. someone called back. According to the rather confusing conversation, the route certainly is not the entire Grand Wall (~8 low-angle pitches no longer than 100ft each: the wall is ~1,150ft high), and certainly is not the Black Dyke ("no air-time" - we had three big roofs to deal with - The Nubian Queen, The Gargoyles and "Pitch 6"). Also, contrary to what the booklet says, they don't bring clients to the top, only to "somewhere near it". The price tag: $500 per person. What it is exactly we still don't know. 8)

PanShiBo

The Three Roofs of The Grand Wall

From top to bottom:
1. Zz roof
2. Nubian Queen Roof:
3. The Gargoyles Roof