A First Ascent route on Angels Landing
~ Zion National Park ~
Brian McCray, Ammon McNeely & Kurt Arend
Ammon McNeely
The days were hot and dry so we busted hard, to get the job done and get on with what life was going to deal us next.
Well, we busted hard enough to run out of material.
The company that made the acoustic panels that we were installing couldn't keep up with how fast we hung them, from the steel.
The boss informs us that we have a few days off, due to the lack of material.
"Oh boy, what will we do with our time off", we asked ourselves.
"Indian Creek, Monument Valley?..... Hey, let's go to Zion", we finally decided.
The other workers in the arena couldn't believe how we climb around in the high steel, hang out in our harnesses for hours and pull up panels with ropes.
They assume that we're a little nuts.
"You should see what we do on our days off", we would tell them.
Well, this is a perfect example.
We left the arena around 9:30pm.
Nobody had any climbing gear so we headed straight to Las Vegas to retrieve it, but first we made a quick detour to what we were calling home..
After stopping at the temporary condo for showers and personal items we were headed into the night, for a five hour drive to the "City of Sin".
LV was reality around 3:30 in the morning, we crashed out hard for three and a half hours of sleep.
"Good enough", we later said.
I awoke with a rap on Brian's van door that we were traveling to Zion in. Kurt "Burt" was letting me know that it was time to rack up.
It took a few hours to get the gear organized, but we were soon heading North, towards Zion National Park.
As we got closer, our enthusiasm got greater.
"Aaarrrgghh, what shall we sail first", we considered.
I told Brian that Spaceshot will go under an hour if we hauled some serious ass.
Well, that pretty much sealed the deal. We headed into the canyon, arriving around 4:30pm..
The energy was high. Our plan was to free solo the first two pitches and start belaying at the headwall.
We wanted to go fast, not only to shave time off the previous record.... but to attend our friends wedding party, Dean and Jill (Congratulations!!!).
We finished the route in a record one hour and thirty six minutes.
Burt met us at the base of the raps with a cold beer and water for Brian.
We were only a few hours late for the wedding celebration in which we were "forced" into dancing all night, eating and drinking until the sun came up.
The next morning we focused into our reason of going to Zion.
Our objective was a line that Kurt had been scoping for a few years. When he showed me the line I couldn't believe that it hadn't been climbed.
"So you want to go up the big maw" Brian, asked?
"That looks like Hell", I chimed in!!
The first pitch proved why nobody had tried the unclimbed features.
I was on lead and traversed a horizontal crack that had questionable protection.
"I don't trust ANY of this crap", I kept saying.
"Watch me..... I'm Committing"!!
I hooked my way through some very desperate flakes and placed a pin.
The pin was sheite.
I hooked some more.... as I looked down. I half freed, half aided on hooks.
"PIIIiiiiNG"......... a hook blew and I scrambled a few free moves to compose myself on another hook.
"Man, he really loves those hook moves", I heard Brian saying from below.
I traversed into a C1 ramp that I was VERY grateful for.
"Wheeeeeeww, the hard part was over", I thought to myself.
I drilled a one bolt belay and backed it up with a few good pieces of pro. The bolt was a spinner.
I looked around at the ledge I was on, strewn with boulders, flakes and rubble. Brian cleaned the pitch and I hauled our bag.
We planned on doing the route in a push, which made our supply of rations pretty light.
When all three of us got to the ledge I looked around and said, "Hey, we should name this ledge".
"How about 'Purgatory Ledge'", Brian said.
"Do you know where that is? It's the place you wait, before you know if you're getting sent to Heaven or Hell".
Perfect.
Brian, started the next pitch which was a bit dicey. A knife blade, a few beaks and then some marginal protection.
The gear got better and Brian was soon out of sight. He rounded a small "Sandstone Nipple" and made a natural belay.
Burt jugged the free line and I cleaned the pitch.
Burt lead the next pitch, "The Maw".
Brian and I felt like we were bowling pins at the end of a lane. If anything came off, we were sure to be hit.
No gutters would catch those balls.
Luckily, Burt did a great job trundling everything away from the inevitable lane.
He hand drilled a two bolt belay and we were ready for the next move.
By this time it was dark. It took all day to get up three pitches and we knew that the upper pitches were going to have some serious route finding.
After plenty of council we all agreed that for the routes sake, we should go down and continue in daylight.
We B-lined to the Bit & Spur for their famous burritos.... they were calling our names.
We bivied, woke up and headed for the local java house.
We ascended our fixed lines and were soon to our high point.
I had the next pitch which had two options (and will probably have a variation).
I took the most obvious, which means the most straight forward, and easier looking line.
Some free climbing, a TCU placement wich you couldn't test, lead to a few beaks in a row.
A good crack and then a dirty ramp sent me to some 5.8 mandatory free climbing.
A VERY expanding flake was next.
I half freed, half aided past this crux into some expanding nailing onto a good ledge.... that seemed to hover on the face like the "Boot Flake", on El Cap.
I drilled two bolts and yelled, "Lines fixed"!!! and slumped down, next to the cactus.
The next pitch proved to be a doozy (we made the right dicision in NOT trying it in the dark).
Brian started out in the unknown, blank face. He hooked, free climbed, hooked some more.... and finally placed a bolt.
This went on for five hours. It was spectacular to see every crimp, hook and edge, utilized.
He only placed bolts for protection when he knew he would be smashed.... and lost in the red sea of sandstone.
It was a brilliant pitch.
Burt spotted him, being the human shield, sacrificing himself if Brian fell.
"That was REAL, bro".
Burt was off in the dark somewhere and I looked with a brow raised at the belay. One TCU and a couple of Manzanita branches the size of my thumb.
"Yikes, don't fall"!!.
Burt kept climbing left and got himself into a pickle. He was traversing a slab, climbing on dried moss and as he unweighted it, they broke.
He got further and further out left until he couldnt go up, down, back or forward. He was stuck.
"Stay put Kurt", we yelled.
I got on lead with the extra gear that we had.
I bushwhacked for fifty feet, placed a bolt, hooked.... did a free move.... and whiiipped!!!
I fell twenty feet on to the sandy ledge, just as the bolt caught me. It was a dumb mistake. I grabbed a loose hold that I should have known that was suspect.
I hand-over-hand back to the high point and with all the adrenaline flowing I busted the last easy 5.5 corner to the summit.
We drove back to LV, that night...... with grins from ear to ear.
