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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Feb 20, 2010 - 10:51am PT
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Can't verify the Robbins story, but Roper, having I-12 completely wired, did it unroped.
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Barto
climber
Minneapolis, MN
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Feb 20, 2010 - 12:57pm PT
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THE Eric Beck? The "There's a leisure class at both ends of the social spectrum" Eric Beck?
I have repeated this quote so often in so many situations. This is actually a celebrity sighting for me!
Thank you for your brilliance--and at such a young age! : )
Barto
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Evel
Trad climber
Slartibartfasts Newest Fjiord
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Feb 20, 2010 - 01:19pm PT
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Yo Randisi!
What's shakin Dude? Duderino Duuuuudddddde Dudius Maximus Give me a shout Dude!
Dude Evel
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Feb 20, 2010 - 03:54pm PT
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There is a pretty good chance the Loughman story might not be true. He was not all that grounded especially when it came to lore. I knew him well and actually still am in touch with his then-wife Amy. It is now forty-seven years later. I have never heard the tale and it would be really unlikely for Royal to be this lame.
As far as I-12 is concerned, in the heydays of the early to mid-sixties there were a couple climbers that unroped it. Then for a period, no one did and actually a bunch of routes sort of vanished from the known world for a while. By 1968, I finally couldn't stand it and had to start unroping it as well. Vandiver soon joined me by 1971 or so. I think for quite some time we were the only ones firing it this way. It isn't very hard, just overhanging and highball.
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EP
Social climber
Way Out There
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Feb 20, 2010 - 04:15pm PT
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I-12 was the last thing I climbed the day before I left Berkeley to live in
the Central Valley. I told one of the regulars I was going to climb it, and he asked me with all seriousness, " You're gonna top rope it?"
You bet I did. I climbed it, but I am glad I had that rope.
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C4/1971
Trad climber
Depends on the day...
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Feb 20, 2010 - 09:32pm PT
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Eric,
You took me on my first climb in 1971. Church Bowl Chimney as I recall. I didn't surf for over ten years because of you. But I met and lived with some great folks, and enjoyed some beautiful places. Many thanks for that Brother!!!
Vincent Goetz
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Feb 22, 2010 - 01:32am PT
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Speaking of Indian Rock and I-12 and .........................
There actually were a number of unroped ascents of I-12 in the early 60s.
For belay practice we use to sit on top of I-12, gather 5ft or so of slack and jump off. Roper was the master at this and on one occasion dam well created a crater below when the belayer let him fall. Beck I think you were there that day?
Here are some old shots of BBA, Bitchin Bill Amborn, on the bolt route next to I-12. Many climbers got their first taste of slings on this route. Photos by BBA's momma.
1960
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Feb 22, 2010 - 11:09am PT
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It is really kind of moving seeing these pictures of Bill Amborn doing the old bolt route on I-12. By the time I was a denizen of Indian Rock, the bolt route had been smashed and otherwise removed and there was no more aid climbing anywhere at Indian Rock unless you were stupid enough to go practice hooking on boulder routes....and I never actually saw anyone aid climb the feature. But there still are today vestiges of that aid climb on the overhanging face and ceiling below. Cool; I had always wondered when that route went extinct. There was a similar practice route at Cragmont. As Joe says, these spots were where it all began for many of us back then.
Here are 3 of the Guido images pimped to the extent I can with 132K files.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Feb 22, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
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tx for the pix, guido.
the one with the driveway in the background is especially cool.
the vegetation was pretty different then.
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scuffy b
climber
Where only the cracks are dry
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Feb 22, 2010 - 06:48pm PT
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Luke Freeman would routinely solo I-12 in the mid-70s. Up and down.
It must have been after Vandiver had a change of heart, because he
wouldn't do it anymore, and was impressed by Luke.
Vandiver would routinely solo his special Center-Direct overhang variation
though, which Luke thought was really impressive
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FredC
Boulder climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Feb 22, 2010 - 10:12pm PT
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I also heard that story of Robbins falling off drunk, maybe from Mike, I don't remember. But the punch line was that if you were drunk enough you could fall right down on that hard ground and be just fine.
Wow, real cool photos of that old bolt route! It was gone by the time I started out there too.
I do remember that there was one bolt that still had a hangar on it sometime in the early 70s, and one day Vern Clevenger and someone else...maybe Dennis? and I tried to pull that guy out. The intact bolt was placed straight up vertically into the rock so we figured it would just pull out and that would be real cool!
We hooked up a rope on that sucker and all three of us slowly started weighting the rope until we were all hanging on it. It was so scary, we expected to get dropped on the ground and the bolt and hangar blasted into our heads...nothing. We started bouncing on the rope and still nothing.
I think that darn bolt is still there.
Fred
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Feb 22, 2010 - 11:57pm PT
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Those are good questions but I have little recollection. As a matter of fact I had forgot about the Watercourse routes! You know there are enough of us out here to write a bloody book on Indian Rock. Bouldering with Leif Patterson, Bruce Cook, Tavistock, Roper,Pratt, TM, Rowell , Steck, Long and many others was an incredible experience!
The funny thing is, when I was a year old I lived at the very end of Shattuck Ave which is almost on top of Indian rock.
It was our Stony Point.
Couple of nostalgia shots from the late 50s. Anybody have any shots of Bruce Cook or others?
Hey kid, when is your mom coming to pick you up?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Feb 23, 2010 - 09:33am PT
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Randisi,
Probably one of the hardest problems back in the mid sixties were the Far Left Watercourse. A strange deceptive little problem of four real moves at most. Actually pictured behind Young Guido just above, where he stands in "The Pit".
Although I-12 wasn't more than a V2 (if that), you felt "exposed" up there, 30 feet up and would get gripped of course; it was about 10 moves long, overhanging and again deceptive. There were many no-hands routes that actually were difficult, some one-hand ones too. Galen loved these and also the one-hand-one-foot ones. Some of these he would time too and get all competitive. I remember racing Galen all the way around Indian Rock on one foot (and you could not change your operative foot too). Quite hard to finish the whole loop. And just great for your knees 50 years later. All this was before Mortar Rock up the street had more than 5 routes and trees were cut out of there; long before Nat's Traverse.
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stonefly
Social climber
Alameda, California
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Feb 23, 2010 - 10:06am PT
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Feb 23, 2010 - 11:50am PT
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Jeff Foott, who lived nearby, and had everything wired, would often walk by Indian Rock after school with an armload of books, in street shoes, naturally. One day he observed a group toproping the watercourse with little success. He said, "Hey fellas, that looks like fun. Would you mind if I tied into that safety line and try it?" Of course he fired it and said, "Gee, that was fun, thanks fellas".
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FredC
Boulder climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Feb 23, 2010 - 11:14pm PT
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Whenever I even considered doing I-12 unroped all I had to do was to feel that critical left hand hold expand when I got my fingers into it. Several of us believed that it expanded a bit.
The most memorable unroped ascent of I-12 was Cliff Coleman. Oh man, he was a bold guy. He showed me some very outrageous skateboarding stuff one day out on Indian Rock Ave.
Fred
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Feb 24, 2010 - 06:53pm PT
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I guess Royal could weigh in and clarify if he fell off I-12, but maybe it's more fun to watch us speculate. I think it was Vandiver who told me he asked Royal long ago about it and got a smile, but nothing more. Maybe Royal knew half the secret to being and staying a legend is mystery.
As for falling off I-12 and being fine on flat ground below, I have to attest to falling off water course way up at about I-12 height on some easy, wet, snotty stuff after a rain. I landed exactly where an I-12 fall would land. Result: broken heel, my second. I think anything above 12-15 feet can break bones even for a flat landing, though of course we had no pads in those days. My first broken heel was falling into the North Sea (and onto rocks just below water) outside Aberdeen, Scotland. Very humbling, those falls. Made me fully averse to soloing, which was never very attractive to me anyhow, well, except for self belay stuff which I also found dangerous and ultimately unsatisfying.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Feb 24, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
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Sweet BITD pics. Never been to Indian even though I live in the South Bay. I got stuff down here to keep me busy.
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tarek
climber
berkeley
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Feb 24, 2010 - 07:43pm PT
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in the version I heard (started bouldering there in '85), Robbins dusted himself off, went back up and fired...
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scuffy b
climber
Where only the cracks are dry
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Feb 24, 2010 - 08:06pm PT
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Many years ago Ben Borson told me that a friend of his had fallen from
I-12 with no ill effects. He said this guy was a skydiver, or at least
a parachutist, and thus well-practiced at landings.
Also, that on at least one occasion, he had jumped out of a second-story
window to greet a friend who was passing by on the street.
I believe this friend of Borson's was also known to LongAgo.
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