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Gripped e-Mag, Issue 5, Full Edition |
February, 2007 |
In This IssueWelcome to The Gripped e-Mag |
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Jean-Pierre (Pee Wee) Ouellet on Sphinx Crack 5.13b/c, South Platte, Colorado.The Gripped e-MagWelcome to the fifth issue of the Gripped e-Mag! Published monthly and full of interesting articles on climbing personalities, destinations, techniques and new gear that you won’t find in the magazine, the Gripped e-Mag is FREE and a great complement to Gripped Magazine.Register now to receive the Gripped e-Mag and you will be entered for a draw to win a Metolius Supercam valued at approximately $70 (see sidebar for more details)! Please feel free to forward the e-Mag to any other climbers that would find it interesting! If you have any comments or suggestions please contact us at info@gripped.com. 
Gripped Interviews Pete TakedaPete Takeda Exposes CIA MountaineersPete Takeda has been climbing since 1979 and mastered almost every discipline, including bouldering, big walling, sport climbing and more recently, alpinism. The 42 year-old Boulder native is also known to many climbers through his numerous published articles. Recently, The Thunder’s Mouth, a division of Avalon Books, published his book An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring CIA Operation. It describes how top American climbers were paid large sums of money to place nuke-powered spying devices on Himalayan peaks in the 1960s, and how one of the devices was lost. The Himalayan Club, based in New Delhi, awarded it the Kekoo Naoroji Himalayan Literature Award for the best book on mountains of Himalaya published last year.
Pete Takeda on Nanda KotWhat inspired you to write about Nanda Devi?On a cold October night in 1987, swilling malt liquor around a roaring campfire in Yosemite, someone spun a yarn about climbers trained by the CIA and paid huge sums to carry a plutonium-powered spy gadget to the top of a peak called Nanda Devi. Somehow it was lost or stolen, and provided fissile juice to a Pakistani nuke or threatened everyone in India with deadly radiation in the form of contaminated run-off into the Ganges River. I don’t think any of us really believed it, but the story intrigued me, and nearly 20 years later I began investigating. The facts proved more outrageous than even the best fiction, and threatened to fade into history as its participants passed away. What happened on Nanda Devi in the Cold War?The CIA’s Himalayan operation comprised eight separate expeditions and must have cost tens of millions of dollars in helicopter support, supplies and logistics alone. The devices ran up a bill of millions. The climbers were paid $1,000 per month ($6,200 in modern USD). It was a 1960s US mountaineering dream team and included Tom Frost, who to this day holds true to his oath of silence, Lute Jerstad, who suffered a heart attack and died in 1998 while trekking in Nepal, Jim McCarthy, who has retired to Jackson, Wyoming, and Dr. Robert Schaller, who is semi-retired. Barry Bishop, the first American to climb Everest, inspired these spy expeditions. The story might have faded away or been swept under the rug by the CIA, who would “neither confirm nor deny the existence nor non-existence of the records responsive to,” the episode. But in 1978, Outside published a feature, albeit without enough evidence to really confirm much. Kenneth Conboy and Captain M.S, Kohli of the Indian Navy later wrote a book that detailed some of the operational aspects of the story. These accounts created a storm of controversy and accusations all the way to the office of the Indian Prime Minister. An inquiry stated that the device, “could have fallen on the southwest face of the mountain” and “though damaged outwardly as a result of the fall, could still be intact.” Why did you decide to go to Nanda Devi yourself? Did you hope to find the spy device?As a writer, my style usually followed a first person adventure narrative, so to accommodate that, I had to go. I really felt that I was the right person in the right place at the right time. I had the climber’s background, an obsession with the project and a writer’s ambition. It took all three. There were always reasons while going broke selling the book proposal, risking my life during the expedition and suffering through a tight writing deadline – to quit. I regret nothing, but if I had it to do over again, I’d probably stick with a day job. We had very little hope of actually finding the device. The device, called a Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, Model 19C comprised 4 lb of alloyed Pu-238 and Pu-239 that fuelled the electronic transceiver intended to eavesdrop on China. What was the most difficult part of the journey?The rollercoaster ride of arranging a peak permit and ultimately being denied permission for Nanda Devi. The area around that peak is closed to access due to “environmental degradation.” One can assume that the Indian Government also would like to avoid having anyone stumble on the plutonium. One of the hardest parts of the actual trip was acclimatizing on a peak called Nanda Kot – a neighbour of Nanda Devi – and a mountain upon which the CIA planted an identical plutonium-powered device. We were avalanched multiple times and trapped in a crevasse for four days. Mountaineers and trekkers across the Himalayas were dying left and right during the huge storm that buried us. In the crevasse, what emotions/transformations occurred?Once past the fear of being entombed alive, crushed, or suffocated, I was in a weird way elated that we were experiencing a life and death struggle. I’m as afraid of death as the next person, but I really think you find something elemental in a pure struggle to live. We basically went up the mountain, got buried alive, survived and came back to Base Camp forever altered. Read the book for the details. In the present world political climate, what can we learn from the CIA expedition experience?Given the political climate and the United States’s role in it, we need to consider the impact of our personal choices on the rest of the world. Also, the end does not justify the means and our actions, even if taken with the best interests in mind, have ramifications that will outlive us all. The Nanda Devi plutonium will be toxic long after we are all dead. Though we found no trace of the device, tests of our silt samples from the banks of the river issuing from the Nanda Devi glacier show radiation several magnitudes above normal. More tests, to be completed in the next few weeks, will reveal whether ASNAP plutonium is present. Is there a long history of western countries interfering in the affairs of Asian countries under the guise of mountain exploration, or was the CIA expedition a one-time affair?The CIA has a history of meddling in that part of Asia from 1945 onward. Before then, so did the British, the Russians and the Germans. Any important writing projects on the way?I have two viable book ideas, but I am writing magazine stuff to build my breadth of skills before pursuing the next book. Oh yeah, I am going to Pakistan this summer for an unclimbed 7,400 m peak. Where can folks get your book?Amazon.ca, local bookstores or www.petetakeda.com
Better BetaCam placement rulesAs the founder and head designer of Metolius, Doug Philips has spent an immense amount of time testing and improving cams over the last twenty years. Here are some tips on cam safety based on his vast experience.
Doug Phillips1. No matter how good a placement looks, you can never be sure it will hold.During my tests, about one in twenty good-looking placements pulled out when loaded. The challenge is to figure out why the cam pulled, and what could have been done to prevent this from happening. To understand why cams fail, we classify pullouts into six basic categories:
LubricantsAnything that gets between the aluminum cam lobe and the solid rock wall can act as a lubricant reducing the friction. Water is an obvious lubricant as is dirt or fine dust. A dirty seeping crack with a thin layer of moss can cause an otherwise good placement to consistently pull out. Poor rock qualityThere are three categories of rock to avoid: soft, smooth, and weak:
Cam movementCams will move from the motion of a passing climber, rope action and impact from a fall. This movement can lead to pullout failures, as the cam is no longer positioned to hold a fall. To prevent this, place the cam so it has room to move and still remain in a good camming position. A long sling will reduce unwanted movement and allow you to fall on the next piece without putting any outward tension on the lower cam. Cam pullout failures commonly occur with a sharp outward or sideways pull rather than the downward pull you had intended. Poor placementWide flares, bottoming cracks and irregular rock features make it difficult to get solid cam placements. Help optimize the security of a placement by maximizing cam-to-rock contact. Place good gear before and after difficult-to-protect sections. In my tests, I have occasionally been surprised by a bad looking placements that hold when drop tested. Most of the time however, if a cam looks bad, it will pull out. Cam DesignThe brand of cam makes a difference. Metolius cams are made with holding power as the primary design criteria. The main variables are cam angle, aluminum alloy, surface contact area, and cam alignment.
Poor maintenanceLike all technical equipment, cams require maintenance. This includes cleaning, lubrication, replacing old or worn slings and repairing frayed trigger wires. Be sure to retire worn out cams. 2. Place two good cams at critical spotsBecause one in 20 cams pull, reduce cam pullout by putting in a second good piece. This gives you a 99.75% chance that one placements will hold. Equalize them if possible. 3. Place the cam in as fully retracted a position as possible without getting it stuck. This is the green zone on our Range Finder system.Tight placements help to guard against the following types of pullout: Pullout due to cam movementRope movement shifts cams. Long slings help, but you can increase security by placing the largest cam possible. If the cam moves to a wider crack section it will still have good contact with all four cams. Pullout due to poor rock qualityIf the rock on one side of the crack fails the cam lobes on that side will begin to slip. A cam with a tight placement (green zone) has a better chance of holding. If the rock on both sides of the crack fails, the lobes dig into the rock. The tighter the placement, the more the cam can expand before failure. Pullout due to lubricationWhen the cam pulls because of wet or dirty conditions it will move through several inches of crack before failure. If only one side of the crack is wet or dirty, the cam lobes on the wet side will tend to slip first. If the cam is in an open position the cams on the dry side will tip out and the placement will fail. In a tight placement the cams on the dry side will not tip out, greatly increasing the chance the placement will hold. I’ve observed a tight cam placement jamming just below the original placement.
Undiscovered Gem – ArkansasChris Sharma’s ascent of Witness the Fitness and Fred Nicole’s recent repeat have renewed interest in Arkansas climbing – for good reason. Arkansas has bulletproof rock, a variety of climbing and great conditions during the winter months.
Jason Roy climbing on the the North Forty Wall, Ozarks, ArkansasHere are four areas worth visiting on your next Southern road road-trip: Sam’s ThroneOne of the more established climbing areas in the state, Sam’s Throne offers a user-friendly experience for climbers of all levels. Fixed top rope anchors on almost every route make the area particularly interesting for beginners. Horseshoe Canyon RanchWith its large number of bolted routes, great crack climbs and phenomenal bouldering, Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is the destination spot for the visiting climber. The area earns bonus points for its great facilities (camping, showers, cabins) and reasonable prices. Horseshoe Canyon Ranch information
Mt Magazine State ParkMt Magazine is an easily accessible state park with the majority of routes coming in at 5.10 or under. The rock here tends to be more vertical, yielding slabby technical climbing. Area 74This is one of the newer bouldering areas in Arkansas. Primarily steep and powerful climbing and a high density of boulders insures a thorough workout for the visiting climber.
BootyCam Doctor |
Contest of the MonthNow you can win a brand new Metolius Supercam valued at approximately $70, by subscribing to the FREE Gripped e-Mag.Simply forward us your email address to be entered for the draw that will take place on March 15, 2007. Enter as often as you like, just as long as you provide a new valid email for a friend that would also like to receive the Gripped e-Mag for each new entry. Offer closes March 12, 2006.
Congratulations to Laurena Green of Stratford, Ontario. As the winner of January’s contest, she is the proud owner of a Nicros Croc Blok training board valued at approximately $35.
Gripped Presents
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage toward our mailing and project costs.
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