Voluneer t Wall IV 5.10 A4-, 700' Cartwright- Ilgner-Whittemore, 1985; FFA: 5.12a Ilgner-Ilgner, 1990 fr i s t asc e n t

Whtede i si s, Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina I Arno IlgNer

The dream of “becoming somebody” is really by —and I imagined myself hides the holds. But the left-hand side has an a shallow way of looking at life: it makes you performing great deeds as they had done. overhanging headwall. Here, the rain cascades focus on how different you are from others, a After college, I moved out West to work in through the air and hits the slabs far below. preoccupation that usually translates into fig- a Wyoming oil patch and to hone my No moisture; no lichen. Thus, the middle uring out how you are more important. Some- skills at places like Devils Tower and Yosemite. section contains a large white, barren spot— times what it takes to wake up and find your When the oil patch dried up, I took odd jobs. the namesake of Whitesides. real place in the world is a precisely timed slap. In 1984, at age thirty, with no clear path, I North Carolina climbers made the initial When I was in high school in Middle moved back to Tennessee. I remembered first ascents on the right, weaving their way Tennessee, some friends took me to a forty- Whitesides, a 700-foot wall in the Blue Ridge through licheny slabs. It’s not easy to find foot limestone cliff along the Duck River. We Mountains of North Carolina, and I thought protection: the gneiss is practically devoid of nailed pins into cracks and occasionally into it might help me “become somebody” in the cracks. The crystals and small edges sometimes the soft rock itself; then we hung on them and climbing world. break. I’d heard stories of leaders securing their looked around for more protection. At home, During storms, water runs down the lower- belays by bracing themselves on moss hum- I read all the climbing books I could find— angle right-hand side of this cliff, causing the mocks. Whitesides soon became known as a The Great Days by Walter Bonatti, The Seventh lichen to grow into huge, green, curling leaves. place for death routes. The North Carolinians by , I Chose to Climb The sun then dries them into a gray mass that who had the mental fortitude to climb them

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ALP33_82-99_FIN.indd 88 12/13/10 12:52 PM would look over toward the Headwall and a.m. to get everything to our high- simply say, “It’s impregnable.” They figured point. Beyond it, the rock became rich that if the right side was already dangerous with mica, and it was nerve-wracking and difficult, the steeper left side would be too to hook some of the friable edges. At dangerous and too difficult. last, some large sections of stronger I decided that North Carolina climbers quartz and white feldspar appeared. were pansies. I was a real man from Tennessee, We had entered the white spot. and I would impregnate their virgin wall. A six-foot roof barred entry to the All the way back to Davy Crockett and the sweeping Headwall. We perched on a Alamo, Tennesseans volunteered to fight ledge that I called “Highmen,” a play impossible battles, hence the nickname on words with the female anatomy. “Volunteer State.” I hadn’t done any of the Although it was now early evening, we right-side routes, but how hard could that had to make a little more progress. I Headwall be? If it required a mind of steel, aided up to the roof on Tri-Cams and I would summon it. After some runout hooks, and I reached around the lip to first ascents in Wyoming and big walls in a large horn. I hooked it and swung my Yosemite, I already had a reputation for being weight out, dangling over 500 feet of able to deal with fear. emptiness. Two incipient short cracks emerged through the fading light. I For my team, I recruited two Nashville locals made some hook moves to reach them who had done only a little climbing: Mark and placed two copperheads. Cartwright and Eddie Whittemore. The gap Each effort upward put me over in our experience meant that leadership would even more emptiness. Mark and Eddie default to me—insuring that I retained most created these copperheads in their of the glory. On May 18, 1985, we packed garage. How strong are they? I didn’t two haul sacks for a three-day attack. We have a headlamp, and I didn’t want hiked to the top of the cliff, where cavers had to keep going, but I was the leader, established a rappel station to practice their and my partners relied on me. For the ascending systems. There, we rigged a 700- first time, I began to doubt whether I foot static rope for our descent. could actually live up to that trust. I Steep, lichen-covered slabs led from the did some more hook moves, and the base of the wall to a vertical dihedral. Above edges disappeared. Above, the wall that point, the wall turned white and reared looked blank, steep and dark. I drilled back, disappearing into the clouds. On the a and lowered back to the security first day, I felt in my element, scraping away of the ledge. the annoying lichen to find holds. To save The hardest climbing was still time, I ran it out instead of drilling. There was ahead. How could I have been so sure something satisfying about creating a route that we’d finish in two days? I felt as too scary for others to do. After four pitches, if someone had slapped me, and the we were halfway up the wall. sting persisted in the night air. The One more day, I thought. And we’ll bag the cold peanut-butter sandwiches stuck first ascent right from under the North Carolin- in my throat. I sipped droplets from ians’ noses. We rapped two pitches to bivy on our remaining water to wash them Register Ledge. Before turning in, we planned down. Did I really have that mental our strategy. Mark would take 5, while strength that others said I did? Eddie and I belayed and hauled. I thought Eddie and Mark got into their about what it would be like to haul those two bags on either side of me. I crawled heavy sacks: I should get rid of any extra weight. into mine, sat upright on the ledge We don’t really need this much water if we’ll be and dangled my legs into space. Highmen, In the morning, Mark rummaged through off tomorrow. I dumped it all out except for impregnable, to be somebody, am I mentally the food sack looking for breakfast and pulled two quarts. tough? Words and thoughts streamed through out oatmeal packets. I knew we didn’t have The next day, however, it took until 11 my head as I gave way to a fitful sleep. enough water left to cook, so I quickly emptied

[Facing Page] Arno Ilgner climbs the insecure slopers of Pitch 8 on the Volunteer Wall Behind him, Eddie Whittemore sits on “Highmen,” the main bivy ledge of Volunteer (IV 5.12), twenty-five years after he made the first ascent.Scott Perkins l [This Page] Mark Wall. “The name was a play on words,” the author explains. “It represented the last Cartwright holds a boom box in 1985, imitating the photo of Randy Leavitt on El Cap. comfortable point before breaking through to the most difficult part.”Arno Ilgner

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ALP33_82-99_FIN.indd 89 12/13/10 12:52 PM a packet into my mouth. Mark and Over time, I let go of the idea Eddie looked at me as if I’d gone of “becoming somebody.” My crazy. I laughed, puffing oatmeal brother Mark and I finally freed / Robert Bösch erdmannpeisker flakes into the air. the Volunteer Wall in 1990. By Eddie put a Van Halen tape then, people were free climb- into his cassette player to get us ing The Salathé in Yosemite. going. The doubts of the previous Whitesides’ Headwall didn’t seem night dissipated. I jugged to our so groundbreaking anymore. I was highpoint and drilled another bolt. always a step behind what others The hard, white feldspar created were accomplishing anyway. I just crisp edges excellent for free climb- accepted it. ing, but I couldn’t find any places It took another ten years for for nuts or cams, so I hammered in me to understand that climbing homemade copperheads wherever I was about more than first ascents. could, and I hung on them while I Bonington hadn’t set out to be an looked for more protection above. important figure: his great deeds Once I located it, I committed to were merely a result of doing to the next point— what he loved. The people who just as I had as a teenager along the instructed new climbers and who Duck River, so many years ago. worked to preserve access contrib- The angle of the rock finally uted in their own way. Each was decreased, and the lichen returned. part of a whole. As I brushed it off, fragments of I turned forty. I was still gray danced and swirled in the working in dissatisfying jobs, and wind around my head and landed my life felt superficial and mean- in my eyes. By now, my fingers ingless. I realized I wasn’t any better looked as though I’d run them [Photo] While revisiting his route in 2010, Ilgner fell, and the copperheads ripped. Af- than the North Carolina climbers. through a briar patch. My lips ter a fifty-plus-foot whipper, he came to a stop, holding the blown gear. Scott Perkins What had helped me—and what and throat were parched. Since I had hindered them—was not skill couldn’t decide how to get through the next before I drilled a belay. I pulled up 600 feet of or experience, but something about my mind. bulges, I just picked a belay spot, dangled rope to retrieve the aiders. Because I hadn’t climbed those right-side from two hooks and prepared to drill. When Mark and Eddie arrived at the routes, I didn’t have any preconceived ideas We were only a hundred feet from the , they appeared shell-shocked. I realized about the danger of the left side. In reality, the top; I was going to make my mark in climb- they’d agreed to come along out of naiveté. steepness of the Headwall made the falls safer. ing. In a split second, the hooks skated off And there we were: the three of us and two The holds were bigger because they weren’t the edges. I fell past vertical rock and my haul sacks hanging from two crappy quarter- exposed to as much weathering. last placement: a lousy copperhead. The wall inch bolts, while they waited for me to lead It was thus that I finally made my choice: to steepened, and I was surrounded by nothing them off this wall. As I traversed across the create a life’s work in the sport I loved, teaching but air. After fifty or sixty feet, I came to last difficult pitch, I looked over to my wide- mental fitness to climbers. Recently, I talked with Acceleration test. a stop just above the roof. I spun about in eyed companions and tried to joke. “You Mark and Eddie again. They told me that when Setting the pace. Two hundred athletic skiers push themselves to the limit at the ski test on the Julier Pass, Switzerland. space. Another slap. Just as I start to feel know, some people might consider this a little they started to make first ascents themselves, Their fi ndings: fast, lightweight, compact and safe Pure Ascent equipment helps you to push further into the mountains. confident, I get knocked down. Van Halen was bit dangerous.” They didn’t seem to find my they applied a lesson they’d learned from the Follow the red track of the Mammut mountaineers: www.mammut.ch still playing, “Might as well jump….” Well, I comment funny. Volunteer Wall: “Just go and deal with whatever know what we’re calling this pitch. Mark and Eddie led a couple of easier comes up.” Long before I realized my vocation, My aiders, unsecured, continued drifting pitches, and we pulled ourselves over the top. in my own way, I’d been a teacher. past Mark and Eddie to the bottom of the Despite our mishaps, I was beginning to feel What I remember most, now, though, is wall. It was early afternoon, the air was hot, as if I’d made a step in Bonington’s direction. pulling through the six-foot roof during the first we had less than one quart of water left, and I We’d name our line the “Volunteer Wall”—a free ascent with my brother. I had to stop and had no idea what to do. sign that Tennesseans could still show North look around. What a glorious position to be in: Fortunately, some climbers (most likely Carolinians what was possible. I was hanging my ass above 500 feet of air, and North Carolinians) happened to be walking I didn’t feel any fear or any need to hurry on. I along the base, and they agreed to tie the aiders My next goal was to free climb the route, just felt that I was a part of my surroundings. Rules on the CD Manual to the end of the caver rappel line that hung but for the next five years, that six-foot roof The sun warmed me, the wind cooled me, and close to us. I worked my way back up to my had it in for me. Once, after I committed to as I gently gripped the holds, I looked down at The logo should be shown Albaron Jacket Men Nirvana Pro Tusk 9.8 mm Rope PULSE Barryvox against a black background highpoint, moving cautiously and resting often. the moves, I fell and slammed into Highmen the lichen-covered slabs far below, and I yelled, z This time I climbed toward the line of weakness Ledge. That impact hurt more than a slap. “This is awesome,” as loud as I could. Logo: grösse 15 - 40 mm For sizes 15 – 40 mm 90

ALP33_82-99_FIN.indd 90 12/13/10 12:52 PM 228x276_Alpinist_USA.indd 1 26.07.2010 07:39:53