Marginal Thinking

Climb hard - play hard - live hard. But be safe.

The Camp 4 parking lot at Yosemite was full when we arrived Friday
night/Saturday morning, so I parked a la San Francisco, i.e. illegally.
Well, actually, legal and illegal are defined loosely out here.

I checked my watch, the one with the cool blue indiglo light.  1:30 am.
Then I checked the passenger side of my car.  My sister had puked out
the side while we were heading down the winding road to the valley.
Just wanted to make sure it was clean.  It was.  I guess I was driving 
a
little too fast - as always - well, at least fast enough to keep the
puke from sticking to my car.   

I had wanted to pull over, but there was no place to stop, and I knew
another car was behind me about 1 minute back.  I've seen too many rear
end collisions in my life, so, I just kept on going.  Is that brotherly
love or what?  Hey, I at least stopped at the bottom of the hill to get
her a drink of water.

We set up our tents b/c we heard rain was expected.  By 2am I was naked
and cozy in my bag.  I set my alarm for  6:30 am, thinking that would 
be
enough sleep.  I forgot to account for the fact that I had only been
sleeping an average of about  5 hours a night for the past week because
of my busy schedule.  Sleep deprivation is something that just never
seems to hit home with me.  Yawwwwn.

I actually woke up at 6:30, but laid around til about 7 thinking about
the nice day ahead and the light dusting of snow we drove through the
night before.  Nature finally called, so I got up.

It was a little chilly that morning.  The sky looked like it was going
to be a warm day.  So much for the accuracy of Internet weather
forecasts for rain.

I went to plan what routes we'd hit that day, then remembered that we
didn't have a route book.  Armin thought I had a route book.  I thought
he had a route book.  Maybe if we thought hard enough, we would have a
route book.

Sure enough, I thought, Armin thought, then we realized we could just 
go
over and borrow one from Aaron.  One of his partners, Tony, had a route
book.  He thought Aaron had brought a route book, so he said we could
use his book for the day.  Ten minutes later, he realized that Aaron
thought someone else would bring a book, so Aaron never brought a book.
Apparently, everyone was thinking way too much on this trip and only 
one
route book was brought.

Armin & I thought we'd go up After Six at the Manure Pile Buttress 
below
Yosemite's famous El Capitan.  But, since we were still thinking, we
then thought it would be a good idea to go buy a route book.

We headed over to Curry Village and went straight to the Mountaineer
Shop. Tons of route books.  They were all out of _Yosemite Free 
Climbs_.
I guess someone at the shop thought someone else had placed an order 
for
more books,
so they never placed the order.  A mind is a terrible thing. 

The great thinker behind the counter suggested to the great thinker in
front of the counter (that would be me) that I could probably find a
copy at the Village Store or the Ansel Adams gallery.  The Ansel Adams
gallery?  I think not.  Well, we didn't want to spend half our day
looking for a book, so we decided we would just hit Glacier Point Apron
since we were already so close.

Armin, Ryan and I got our gear together and started the hike to the
Apron. Armin had climbed The Grack, Center Route on the Apron about a
year ago, and I had just climbed it as my first lead about a month
earlier.  Of course, I thought he knew how to get there, and he thought
I knew how to get there.  Somehow, our thinking got us there, although
we still didn't have a route book.

Aaron had told me of a good climb to try on the Apron, but I forgot 
what
it was called.  The only routes I knew of were Center Route and the one
to the right of it that Tuan had lead while I was on CR.  

"That's called Marginal," Aaron told me earlier that morning, "No.  You
<> don't want to lead that.  It's totally run out."  

I remember that Tuan mentioned the route only had about 2 spots per
pitch where you could place protection to stop your fall.  He thought 
it
would be fun for me to rappel down to it and top rope the route.

I scrambled up to where other climbers were just starting the Center
Route and asked if I could take a look at their route book.  They said
sure.  Then one said,

"Hey, is that Armin?"

Turned out it was Candice and her partner Elizabeth.  They were at site
5 of Camp 4 that morning.  The climbing world is very small indeed.

I looked at the book to try to find a climb that we could do.  But, I'm
pretty clueless about what's cool to do and what's not.

Well, since I was doing so much thinking already, I finally decided to
put my brain and common sense aside.  I decided I would lead Marginal.
Yikes.

Each pitch looked about 100 feet or so.  Without using my Excel
spreadsheet for calculations, I was able to derive that I'd have a pro
about every 33.333 feet, so if I fell, I'd at most only whip about
66.666 feet.  Seemed fine to me.  Again, I had my great thinking cap 
on,
the same one that left me without a route book for the trip.

Armin said, "You're going to lead Marginal?!!  Wow.  You're CRAZY!
Well, I'll follow you!"  Not much arguing there.

At the time, I didn't stop to think that this was only my third lead
outdoors.  At the time, I didn't stop to think that I could seriously
scrape a lot of skin off if I took a lead fall, or worse.  At the time,
I was letting the beauty of the rock overwhelm me and just let my
adrenaline run. At the time, I was using marginal thinking.

I organized Armin's rack and tied in.  Armin wanted me to put on a 
chest
harness in case I took a big whipper.  Good advice.  Unfortunately, I
hadn't gotten around to buying a climbing helmet yet, so nothing to
protect that great thinking brain of mine.

"Climbing", I said.

"Climb on", Armin replied.

The first pitch to the tree was pretty easy.  The route is on a big 
slab
that sits at a 40 or 50 degree angle or so, maybe steeper.  You can 
walk
up it if you know what you're doing.  Most people opt to place their
hands on the rock for balance, then slowly walk their feet up.

Halfway up the first pitch, I realized something.  "Oh!,"  I yelled 
down
to Armin and Ryan, "Make sure you guys have double-backed on your
harnesses."

"Always."  They yelled back.  I climbed on.

Before I knew it, I was at the first belay point.  I tied into the
webbing already on the tree, then put Armin on belay.  He followed, 
then
Ryan followed.

We were now about 20 ft below a small roof that looked about chest 
high.
A nice crack led right up to it.  I began leading the next pitch and
followed the crack.  When I got to the roof, I realized it was about as
tall as I. Yikes.  So much for my judge of distance and height.  The
binocular vision that distinguishes humans from fish apparently wasn't
working for me.  Today, I was a fish.

I looked for a way to get above it.  Nothing there.

Just then, a climber below us yelled, "Hey! Have you ever done this
route?"

"No!"  we yelled back in unison.

"Well," he yelled back, "I've done it a couple of times.  The route 
goes
to your left.  You should just step over the roof.  There's a pro above
the roof."

Well.  Now I had to down climb.  I think Armin was getting a little
nervous about my leading, especially because I really didn't know where
the route was.  So much for my photographic memory.  I was a dumb fish.

I got back to where Armin and Ryan were then traversed left.  A few 
feet
before I got to the roof, my left foot slipped and I started to slide.

"Shit MIKE!"  yelled Armin, "You're really starting to scare me!".

"It's do-able", I thought as I remembered what Aaron explained to me
earlier, "You just gotta concentrate."  

But, he was talking about another route.  "You don't want to do 
Marginal
- it's really run out."  

"You don't want to do Marginal."

"You don't want to do Marginal."

I recovered and move forward.  No turning back now.  

I got to the roof and looked over it.  I saw Elizabeth and Candice
(forgot her name) so I said, "Hey!  How's it going?"

I then looked up to figure out where the route went.  The next belay
point was about 100 ft away, maybe more.

Fear hit me.  "SHIT!!" I yelled to Armin and Elizabeth, "I gotta go
_THAT_ far to the next belay? !!"

"That's why they call it Marginal,"  yelled back Candice.

"It's do-able", I thought, remembering Aaron's advice.  "You just gotta
concentrate."  I decided to forget the line about, "You don't want to 
do
Marginal."

So, I concentrated on my feet.  Step.  Breathe.  Step. Step. I made it
over the roof.  A hanger was there and I clipped in.  Aaah.  Heavy
breath of relief.

I continued on.  

Step. Step. Step.  Slip.  Panic.  Grip the rock with my fingernail.
Aaah.

Balance.  

Step. Step. Step.  Step. Step. Slip.  Panic. Panic. Panic.  

Grip the rock with any fingernail not broken yet.  Aaah.  Balance. 

Step. Step. Step . . .

I looked down.  Armin and Ryan were below the roof and I could no 
longer
see them.  Thus, they couldn't tell me where the route was.  I was on 
my
own.

Step. Step. Step.  Step.

Whew!  I made it to the next belay point.  I tied in and Armin 
followed.

He got over the roof with out a problem.  

"I can't believe you're leading this Mike," Armin yelled up to me as he
was climbing.

"Hey," I yelled back, smiling.  "It's a lot of fun isn't it?"

Ryan followed and we got set up for the next pitch.  It looked as if we
were about 150 ft from the top of the route.  My rope is 50m, or 165 
ft.
We could make the climb in 3 pitches, although I remembered the route
book showed 4
pitches.

I climbed on. 

"Whoa Mike," Armin yelled up.  "You're climbing pretty fast."

"Well," I responded, "This part is easy."  I didn't really realize that
my adrenaline was starting to get the best of me.  I was just happy to
be on the rock.  I seemed to flow with the rock.  I knew where to place
me feet. Where to place my hands.  How much weight to place on each 
foot
or hand.  I and the rock were becoming one.  Really.  I was in a zone.

About 40 feet above Armin, I got to what looked like another belay
point.  

"Should I set up a belay point here?" I asked Armin.

"Nahh," he said.  "We're not too far from the top."

I climbed on.

And on.

And on.

And on.

And on.

Tug. Tug.  Oops. I was out of rope.  

I looked up.  I looked down.  Now what?

Armin suggested that we simul-climb.  He would be basically solo a 
small
section since I couldn't belay him.  But if he slipped and fell, he
would drag me down with him.

"Please Armin," I thought to myself, "Don't slip."

If I fell, I would actually pull Armin up the wall, so he was 
relatively
safe.  Still, I'm sure Armin thought, "Please Mike, don't slip."  At
least I'd like to think that is what he was thinking.

I climbed the face, and Armin climbed.  Step.  Step.  Step. Step.

I made it to a nice crack section and just scrambled up the last 20 ft.
Whew!  My first 5.9 lead.  

I walked around on the ledge and looked for a place to set some 
anchors.
Elizabeth and Candice were already using the fixed anchor, and I didn't
want to tie into it til they rappelled down.

I gave up trying to set up anchors, and asked them if I could tie in.
They said sure then began to rap down.

I belayed Armin as he climbed.  He slipped.

"Whoa!" he yelled up.  "Hey Mike, did you slip on the way up?"

"Yeah,"  I answered.  "I think maybe 4 times or so."

"FOUR TIMES!!?!!" he said incredulously, "FOUR TIMES!  Geez, I would
have turned around after the first slip!  Man!  You are really CRAZY.
There's no way I would lead this thing."

The only response I could think of was, "Well, you'll just have to call
me Tuan Jr. now."

"That I will," he said.  "That I will."

He made it up and sat next to me.  A rock came loose under him and
rolled down the route.

"ROCK!" we yelled.

Ryan covered his head.  The party following us covered their heads.  
All
safe.

Ryan made it to the top, and we all enjoyed the view.  A single, 
ominous
cloud was surrounding Half Dome, so much that you couldn't see the top.

Looked as if it was snowing up there.  Below, we were basking in sun
light. Beautiful contrasts.

We rappelled down then joined Elizabeth and Candice for another climb.
We now had 2 racks, so Armin lead Harry's Daly and I did Chouinard's
Crack.  They were a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, I was so used to leading Marginal that I had to remind
myself to place pro more than once every 33.333ft.

We did the climbs without incident.  By the time we got down, the 
clouds
had moved in and it was getting cold.  We decided we had enough 
climbing
that day and headed to the Village Store to buy that elusive route 
book.

No such luck.

We headed to Upper Pines and joined my brother and sister.  I fixed us
my special Camping Taco's and we feasted.  Yummmmy.

Later, Armin and I headed over to Camp 4 to hang out with all the other
Chaos climbers.  Neva, Dave, Aaron, Steve, Tony, Elizabeth, Candice 
(and
their 2 friends), Scott, and Grace were all there fixing their climbing
grub.
I had never seen so many headlamps in one place in my life.  I was
literally blinded every time someone turned to talk to me.

We all talked about our days, and Armin & I related our fun on 
Marginal.
One of Elizabeth's friend's commented, "You guys did Marginal?  That's
one climb that's great to follow.  But I'd never lead it."

"You did Marginal" Aaron said, " SWE-E-E-ET!  See, it's do-able.  It
just takes a lot of concentration!  What was that, your second lead?"

"My third," I said.

Just then, the gravity of the climb started to sink in with me.  I
really was crazy, no stupid, no, absolutely insane for leading it.
Luckily, I didn't fall.  But if I did...if I did...

Well, no use worrying about something that never happened.  I was just
glad I did it and lived to tell, or in this case, write about it.

Armin and I left around 10pm to get some sleep.

I later laid in my bag thinking about the great day we just had.
Fatigue started to set in.  I began to get sleepy.  Without my
adrenaline, I truly realized the stupidity of my climb.

"From now on," I promised myself, "No more stupid stuff.  I should 
climb
within my ability, and right now, I'm a beginning trad climber.  I
should act responsibly and climb smart.  No, smarter."

Well, that lasted about 10 seconds, and just like any beginning trad
climber, I fell asleep thinking,

"Gee, wonder what climb we'll do tomorrow."

To continue the rock climbing series. . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the Matterhorn Peak series. . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the mountaineering series. . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the ice climbing series. . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the fly fishing series. . . -Click Here-