Sunday Photo – Lost Arrow Spire
Setting up a Tyrolean Traverse (as pictured below) is often logistically harder than the actual climbing involved to get there.
In this case, Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite Valley, Rick Lovelace and I hiked to the valley’s rim, rappelled from the fixed anchors on the right-hand side of the photo down into the notch between the wall and the spire, then climbed the spire while trailing a rope which was still fixed to the anchors. Once we got to the top of the spire (5.9 A2) we pulled the rope tight, anchored it off, then Rick used rope ascenders to climb back over to the rim while trailing a second rope. Once he got there, we rerigged the ropes so I could follow and then we could pull the ropes clean. It is a convoluted process, but well worth it in this case as it puts you in a spectacular location thousands of feet above the valley floor.
The group pictured above did the traverse after us, and just about when this photo was taken I called over to the guy in the middle of the rope and said “Hey, you might try to go easy on your rope – it looks like it is fraying.” He totally stopped and put his head down for a while until I realized that he didn’t know I was joking, so I called over again “Just kidding!” to which he called back “Don’t f*ck with me right now. I’m feeling very fragile.”
________________________________
To help support StraightChuter.com and get 15% off on a trustworthy Beal Edlinger II 10.2mm Rope from Backcountry.com, click the photo below…
Category: Sunday Photo
Andrew,
Did you at least buy the guy a beer later?
:) No – they were taking their time and savoring the experience (I think…) so we never actually met them face-to-face.
I am looking for Rick! Good friend in Tahoe and climbed a little with him in Yosemite. Lost track. Is there any way you could forward my email to him?