SMOKE WALL

THIS IS GONNA BE A B‑GRADE

When in September 1942 Joska Smítka together with Ladislav “Fifan” Vodháňel first ascended the valley wall of Daliborka in Skalák, they had a great day. Both of them thought that they had never climbed anything harder. So for the first time the letter “b” appeared on our sandstones after the difficulty of the route “VII”. The “Smoke Route” (today “Smoke Wall”, ed. notice) VIIb, as they named their climb, still attracts young and old sandstone climbers after eighty years. Such a combination of a logical line in the centre of the wall, varied climbing, a bit of run-outs and historical value? It’s a rare thing to find.

Andrejka Obrochnikova climbed the route on the sharp end for the „Lines and their Stories“ of eMontana Magazine. We discussed the historical context with Vladimír “Chroust” Procházka Jr. who documented Bohoš Svatos and Zdeněk Hluštík on the route in 1974. The “Smoke Wall” fascinated both Joska Smítka’s generation and the next one — Radan Kuchar, Bogan Svatos, Karel Cerman and other guys from the “Old Party”. That is why they filmed it in the mentioned year (see black and white photos below, ed. note) and maybe that is why six of the six climbing photos at the beginning of the first part of the Hruboskalsko guidebook are from “Smoke Wall“. Just a beautiful piece of rock and ring-bolts in the right places.

If you haven’t climbed it yet, what awaits you there? Here is an excerpt from the description in Fifan’s 1954 guidebook: “Now we make an extremely difficult traverse to the left using slight holds to the ring. The transition to the ring is the key to the wall. (…)“ Who can solve the boulder problem above the first ring can write their send for a hard VIIIc (6c fr.). Then there’s a beautiful layback in the corner, the second ring and the final off-width, which shouldn’t be underestimated.

FASCINATION WITH SMOKE WALL

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION

L. Vodháněl — J. Janků (Guidebook Český ráj pro horolezce, 1954):

“We climb under the overhang (belay knot) through the gap that divides the slightly inclined northeast face. It is now extremely difficult to pass to the left using slight holds to the ring. The transition to the ring is the key to the wall. After crossing the smooth wall above the ring, continue along the sharp layback up to a narrow platform (sling) and then along a narrow crack in the dihedral to the second ring. From this, continue higher to a small balcony at the top of the wall, where we climb through a horizontal tunnel to the left into a crack and use this crack to finish the climb.”

In the war years, not many climbers were walking in Skalák, but the new route immediately aroused interest. The first repetition was made by the co-author of “Fifan”, Vladimír “Chroust” Procházka Sr. and Břetislav Vorel, who also documented the event.

A photo from the first ascent was once discovered by “Chroust” the younger in the album of Slávek Šebík from Přerov, who studied with Smítka in Pardubice at the industrial school and followed him to climb in Skalák. “Chroust” the younger had the same photo in his father’s album. The dates matched, so it is a guarantee that it is really a photo from the first ascent of this wall.

By the way, not all personal diaries from the Protectorate era can be trusted. Quite a few climbers were active in the anti-Nazi resistance, so some often made false entries just to be sure. “For example, when the climbers traditionally gathered at the Maják tower on Christmas Eve, my dad would write: I went to visit my aunt. I went to see her beautiful children…” explains Chroust Jr. If the diaries had fallen into the wrong hands, there would have been a problem.

FOR THE PRAISE FROM THE LEGEND

Alča Čepelková about her relationship with the route

When I started climbing, “Smoke Wall” was one of the routes that a climber simply must have. A picture from it adorned the cover of Vladimír Procházka’s book Basics of mountaineering, at that time (1979) the only available literature with instructions on how to learn how to climb and not kill yourself.

The first time I was taken to the second end of the rope about two years after I started climbing (which means 1975, author’s note). Getting from the knots, traversing under the overhang to the first ring was the most dreaded place. Then we made a human pyramid to better holds, got good at the second ring and continued to the top. I really liked the route, so I then climbed it twice more over the years, and have done it on the sharp end.

In the meantime, it started to be climbed “PR” and there was a lot of climbing of routes without building, so of course there was “Smoke Wall”. I found myself under it with Fanda (Čepelka, ed.) in 1990. He climbed it like nothing, he doesn’t even remember it, but it lured me in. When I managed to get over it cleanly behind him, I realized that this was the route for me. Just clip the first one, then the gentle ballet steps and soon it’s better — I know the rest. I went at it with an appropriate mix of joyful anticipation and awe.

It disappeared the moment my first attempt failed and I fell above the first ring. I was successful on my second try. It sounds ridiculous now, but back then I never rehearsed the routes much — I either climbed it right away or went from there, so that’s part of the experience of the trip too. The icing on the cake was the praise from Radan Kuchar (legendary climber of that era, ed. notice) himself, who was the chairman of TJ Český ráj at the time, and mentioned my climb in the yearbook as “not very usual”.

When I look now at the legendary photo by Bohous Svatos, in which Radan picks up Olda Kopal on Kouřovka from the first ring, I have a lot to remember.

PS. I climbed the route again after twenty-five years. A clean climb above the second ring was not a problem, but the optimism of memory punished me nicely. I went to the sharp end from the second ring, not remembering anything tricky, and suddenly I find myself in some nasty wide crack and somehow unable to move higher. Slight panic — I don’t have any proper belay under me! And so I dig myself deeper and deeper into the crack, trying all sorts of twisting and turning to try and break away, until my ribs nearly crack. If there’s a next time, I’ll skip the top crack!

I’D RATHER BE A PHOTOGRAPHER

A few words about “Smoke Wall” by Karel Vlček

In 1967, after the compulsory military service, I started going to Hruboskalsko. I didn’t know anyone. I wanted to climb something, so they found a climber named Vlčková, gave her gloves and I climbed “Údolní” Blatník and “Údolní” Podmokelská.

Three weeks later I wanted to try “Smoke Wall”, which I liked very much. I had a couple of slings and didn’t know how to place them. I struggled there for quite a long time, but finally I let go, I zipped out the slings and landed on the bench below the crack and held on.

I realized that I wasn’t going to be a top climber and went full on shooting. I joined a group of extreme climbers. Cikán, Schnabl, Ota Novák and Pišta Berežný. Ota Novák climbed without rope the “Czech route” (VIIIb, 6b, ed. note) to Kobyla and again without rope Cerman’s Soudek (“Cerman’s route” VIIc, 6a, ed. note).

GRAVITY IN PRACTICE

A happy snapshot of Chroust the Younger

Someone keeps a scrapbook of significant climbs — I climbed basically insignificantly, and therefore without records, but I tried and collected notches in my publications… Moreover, I took the “Gravity in Practice” picture with a borrowed camera, a two-eye reflex camera ala Flexaret, where the matrix is right to left and I didn’t have time to get it right, let alone focus — that’s why it’s a technically totally spoiled picture and it’s a wonder that it caught the attention of the jury of the “Vilém Heckel’s Shield 1975” competition and they even awarded it as the Best Climbing Picture!

The camera, it was a great Minolta Autocord, which I got under my arm in times of shortage for Bohus Svatos for the expedition to Annapurna IV 1969. When he was belaying Zdeněk Hluštík during the filming of The Friend from the Rocks, he had it in his pack under a rock and asked me just before the fall to take it out and take some pictures for him.

So I pulled it out and looked at what I was going to set on it — then I heard a slippery sole above me, just had time to look down into the matrix shaft and click, and there was Hlušťa with me. Then something clattered behind me. It was a piece of sandstone torn off by a sling Zdeněk had in there. If it had hit me on the head, I don’t know!!!

MEMORIES OF PETRA “KRYSKA” MÜLLER

I climbed “Smoke Wall” twice on the sharp end. Once it was with Ilonka from Koupák and the second time with Pája Urbánková. It is a cult route, which one saw on the photo in the guidebook and wanted to climb it too. Nice, long, recommended route. The chimney/off-width at the top is still tricky and the cliping the first ring after the traverse is a bit annoying. I never made the boulder section cleanly — I tried a couple of failed moves, but then we made a human pyramid. Is it hard for VIIIc (6b+ fr.)? I can’t judge. Generally, big numbers are not very popular in Skalák. When guys climb it with great difficulty, they often give VIIIb, RP VIIIc (6b+ fr.). (laughs)

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