Canopy retrieval duty
Well, I just got done with a 2 day ropes/rescue course taught by Lee Hardesty. Watching Brian and Lee pull Maggot off the wall during the TB was a wake up call for everyone who saw it. Many of us realized that we did not have the skills and knowledge to do what those guys did. I've climbed for years, but I've never gotten beyond reading the rescue books. In a situation like that (Maggot hanging by 1 line on a sandstone flake), timing was critical and these guys had to have set some kind of speed record in getting to him, not to mention getting him back up on top. So after everyone left the boogie, we were left with a canopy half way up the wall flapping for everyone to see. For one, someone might see it and think that it was someone trapped up on the wall, for another, it isn't the best advertising for BASE in the area, and thirdly, it is straight up littering. Lee and I joined forces to retrieve it.
On day one, Lee showed me how to set up the anchor and pulley system, then made me set it up. On most sites, you would just rap down and get the canopy. Here, it is so overhanging that just going down the line leaves you hanging out in space 20 feet from the wall(and canopy). After Maggot was pulled up and hauled out, Brian went back down for the canopy. He spends alot of his time in Yosemite and he did some kind of crazy king swing like freaking Tarzan and swung in under the roof, grabbed on and put a piece of protection in to keep him from swinging back out. From here he was able to rap down to the canopy but didn't even have time to get the canopy before wall strike #2 happened and he had to go down to get Marty.
Well, Lee and I weren't up for the Tarzan thing, so we had to come up with a different solution. Lee wanted to use his new fishing pole, so he went down the line, armed with that. He managed to snag the canopy, but the fishing line broke. He came back up the line as we were running out of daylight. I asked him if it was scary hanging out in space like that and he told me that I would find out what it felt like the next day.
I spent a rather restless night thinking about what it would be like to hang out there, but resigned myself to the task as only being fair. I had a different plan for myself. Lee showed up the next morning and I proudly showed him my grappling hook that I had fashioned out of 3 hooks from the ends of tie down straps (see picture). I had duct taped them together to form my weapon.
We got out there and Lee showed me another pulley system as well as presenting me with my very own Traxion Pro(rescue/hauling pulley). I went down the line to the canopy and yes it was freaking weird and scary. I would start to swing my grappling hook around in a circle and the motion would start to rotate me away from the canopy, so I would just keep swinging my hook until I rotated back around towards the canopy and then let fly. Eventually I managed to snag the canopy and pulled myself in to the wall. The canopy had managed to get some more lines around some different flakes and as I was pulling these, big rocks were falling down around me. Again, very weird and scary. I was finally down to the one line that Maggot was actually snagged with. What I found out was that the poker chip that is in the stabilizer(slider stop) had been wedged in so tight that I could not pull it out. I got out my trusty pocket knife and started cutting through the canopy. I knew that once I had cut all the way through, I would swing back out into space. Although at this point, I was convinced that the rope I was hanging on was not going to break or that my Gri Gri was not going to magically disintigrate, it was absolutely bizarre to cut this last piece of the canopy away and be pulled away from the rock out into space.
For those of you who saw Brian ascend the rope during the rescue, this is not how it goes. I'm not sure how he cheated, but I'm convinced that no one can ascend a free hanging rope in the time that he did. I will have to review the video, but I am pretty sure that we will be able to spot the small electric winch or the anti-gravity belt that he was using. Ascending a free hanging rope, my friends, sucks! Even with Lee sharing some of the burden by simultaneously hauling me up with the rescue pulley system.
Anyway, if you got this far in my narration, I hope you got a laugh and enjoyed the story.
A million thanks to Lee for showing me the ropes. I won't be as quick or smooth as those guys were, at least I now have the knowledge to do what we all witnessed on that Friday out at Mineral Bottom.
JP
