Tower of Power Repeated!

[LK Day]

And don't even consider falling before you get the tricam in. I still think the slung flake is more a theoretical piece of protection. A theory we'd probably be better off not testing. I've added another photo to the online guide. It shows the runner at the lip (tricam placement) and some small wired pieces that I fiddled in while sitting on the big flake. I do not recall the wires as being very confidence inspiring.

[caribe]

And don't even consider falling before you get the tricam in.

If it did not scare you to death, and if the prow would not come down on you Wile E. Coyote-style, I think the fall would probably be clean!

[Crankmas]

how can anyone not like trad climbing? Thanks for reopening my eyes guys

[LK Day]

The head game of trad always held great appeal for me. I think I enjoyed solving challenging protection problems almost as much as the climbing itself.

[pigsteak]

biting my tongue....

[LK Day]

biting my tongue....

Aw, come on man. "Those who can climb, do. Those who can't, fiddle around with gear" Piggie

See, it's easy.

[rjackson]

Ahhh... Mr Pigsteak... I saw the glint in your eye on your last ground up FA.

Also, I totally agree with Larry, nothing better for your head game than "fiddlin' with gear" and quite often the puzzle is as exciting as the climbing.

[Wolf]

And don't even consider falling before you get the tricam in.

If it did not scare you to death, and if the prow would not come down on you Wile E. Coyote-style, I think the fall would probably be clean!

I have no doubt that the slung flake/prow would hold a fall, but there is another pointy prow laying in wait underneath that I think you could swing into with bad results. The tricam placement is super bomber, but not super obvious. I missed it the first several times I came out from under the roof. I was cursing Larry's memory and had resolved to go with a number 4 stopper that wasn't optimal when I finally saw the placement. After you pull the roof and get on the face, a few moves get you to a good number 1 cam placement followed shortly by a bomber #3 cam placement, both in horizontals. Larry may not have noticed these because of his limited cams, or he may have traversed farther right before topping out. I went to the left of the tree, although going to the right of it looked less shrubby but more rope draggy and less direct.

[LK Day]

I think Caribe was joking with the Wile E. Coyote imagery. Like you I don't think the flake would fail, just that it would be a nasty fall. Great news that there is protection above the tricam placement. I was carrying #1 and a #2 rigid stemmed Friends. I simply missed the #1 placement and the #2 placement was so poor that I didn't bother with it the second time I climbed that pitch. I believe the line I took went up and maybe slightly right. Very clean series of mantels on steep, sound rock with no bushes or rope drag.

[Wolf]

If I hadn't put in those hand-sized pieces in the horizontals there wouldn't have been any rope drag being farther right and it would have been cleaner. My guess is that you went that way.

[LK Day]

So Dan, did you have "fun"? Are you glad you did it? It sounded like Caribe was pretty stoked, but if you've offered an opinion I missed it. Just wondering. In any event, congratulations on a fine lead of a mean old classic.

[SCIN]

Is it really a classic if only 5 people have climbed it?

[LK Day]

Good Question. An instant classic in '79 and it remains one today. A nasty, mean old classic, just ask Caribe. To the best of my knowledge a grand total of four people have climbed it from the ground up in traditional style. But who's counting.

[Wolf]

I had fun, no need for quotation marks. I'm definitely glad I did it. It was one of my more memorable climbs.

As for classic, classic is in the eye of the climber. The first pitch would probably keep me from calling this a classic, but I'd still recommend Tower of Power to a certain type of climber. Sharma probably considers Jumbo Love a classic, but it's only seen one ascent.

[SCIN]

Wow, classic is really getting misinterpreted.