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Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:15 pm
by dioid
Read a lot of trip reports but didn't find conclusive answer.
If the leader leads on 70m rope and fixes it at his end will the reminder of the rope be enough for the follower to lower out safely using either 4:1 or 2:1 on the pendulums just below and just after Dolt Hole?

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:15 am
by MoapaPk
Which Nose? CA? NC? CO?

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:47 am
by fatdad
The one with Dolt Hole. That'd be El Cap. Plus, let's get real. There's one Nose.

Sorry. Don't know.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:35 am
by dskoon
MoapaPk wrote:Which Nose? CA? NC? CO?


C'mon, Moapa! Get real!

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:52 am
by logsden
Had a 60m and I don't recall it being an issue at all. I suppose you could link the pitches funny though.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:31 am
by The Chief
Get on it and find out. Like the rest of us did.

That is all part of the adventure.

It is what climbing is all about, remember.


PS: First time I did it was with a 50, four years after you were born.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:51 pm
by dioid
Thanks for the info

I will get on it and find out, just want to increase the chances of success.
As I'm coming from Seattle and only have 6 days for the route (don't convince me to quite my job) I want to prevent problems before they happen. The 80/20 theory right? When the preparation is 80% time to perfom is 20% and vice versa.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:09 pm
by The Chief
dioid wrote:I want to prevent problems before they happen.


If shit don't happen, why then even bother getting on the route. That is 100% of why we did Walls, that is, BITD!

Have fun, be safe and remember, if you get in over your head, bail. The Image ain't going anywhere soon. You can always come back another day when better prepared.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:08 pm
by fatdad
If you're on a limited time schedule, protect your lines from poachers if you're fixing to Sickle. I can think of at least three occasions (twice on the Nose and once on another El Cap route) where we showed up bright and early only to find another party jugging our fixed lines. On one occasion, since the poachers were a party of four, we effectively had to call off the climb since we couldn't wait an extra day for that party to climb far enough ahead of us to not monopolize the bivies.

The other time our lines got poached we could wait an extra day but then got rained on in the Stovelegs and had to bail anyways. I think I'm cursed on that route.

Re: Will 70m rope be enough for lower-outs on The Nose

PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:02 am
by dioid
That sucks. Are there any ethics/rules related to this? Does it mean if I get to the climb at 3am and there are other peoples fixed lines I get to go first?