Hey all, got a question about the second pitch of Big Chimney.... Does it make a difference which direction you're facing when going up from the first belay station? We gave it a try this afternoon and it was bordering on being quite the unpleasant mess of brute force, grunting, wiggling and swearing. Afterwards, my second mentioned that had I turned around (I lead it facing the carriage road) there were all sorts of holds which would have made it much easier and that where I had placed protection forced her to go facing the same way. Oops... It didn't occur to me to even look at doing it facing the other direction.

Thoughts?

Thx.

-a.

Yes.

Sounds like you were facing the wrong way.


True.


You owe her a beer or 4. And dinner.


Kinda says it all, doesn't it?

Thanks Marc. I figured I screwed that up. I saw a couple holds and some chalk, so figured that was the way to go rather than checking out the other side. Oh well.

On the upside it did make beer:30 come around a bit sooner than it otherwise would have, and who doesn't like beer:30?

I'm still learning to climb chimneys and find the best lessons have all been in Yosemite, but the daks/NH have plenty to offer as well. All other things being equal, you want to have your back against the lower edge if there is any slanting component, as you can then rest easily between moves. Head on a swivel helps, too.

Heh.... I found myself wanting to turn around at one point on P1 and was wishing for a.... how to put it politely... smaller butt.

Shortly afterwards I found a good stance and reracked everything to the front loops and was much more comfortable. That said, somewhere on P2 I managed to disconnect the rear straps to the leg loops and was back where I stared comfort-wise. I'm thinking I may swap out the easily drop-able leg loop connection for something a bit more more permanent since where I climb drop-ability isn't much of an issue.

Um, no. Doing them that way means you're squirming up them on your back - expending a lot of extra energy. Resting is easy - moving up sucks (and pretty much negates the benefits of the rest). It also means that you have your weight on your back instead of on your feet or knees, resulting in less friction and holding power. Treat a chimney like a slab climb, but with the added advantage of being able to use your butt/back to increase frictional force on your feet/knees.

I've never been in a horizontal chimney, but I've been in plenty of others. I quess it only works for me.

I'd say it depends. I've climbed a slanted chimney with my back on the lower side because the overhung side had more features. So I climbed it like an overhung 5.11 crimpfest with the ability to rest against my back every second move. If one side is more featured than the other, it makes sense to have your hands and feet against that side.

True enough. Are you talking about a chimney in the Gunks, Red Rocks, a desert tower, or Yosemite? Yes, it all depends. My response was strictly for the general case. However,what was the rating for the chimney you did as "...an overhung 5.11 crimpfest..."? If it was in Yosemite, I'll just bet it was rated 5.9.

Ding! Correct.

For slanting chimneys without (very good) holds on one wall (and which aren't significantly flared), back on the higher wall is, in general, the "correct" posture. The reason is that the difficulty of moving up in chimneys is typically associated with getting your back off the wall. (Scraping your back up the wall, thereby covering it with gobies, is one of the tell-tale signs of the beginning chimneyer). If you are "lying down" in the chimney, then getting your back off the wall (either with just hand pressure or hand and one foot pressure) means that you have to work against both body weight and the wedging force exerted by the leg(s). If you are "standing up" in the chimney, than hand pressure just has to balance the wedging force of the feet in order to free up the back. So in general you won't have to work as hard if you face the "correct" way.

Put more briefly, you want gravity to help, not hinder, shifting your back up.