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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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What an amazing thread!
I hadn't followed it because I never climbed there, though I climbed with a bunch of those from there. Gawd what a stupid merkan I am.
I need to read closer but, any of you Northern types know My brother, Dave, Anderson? Pretty sure he was from Vancouver, a piano tuner by trade, into the wide (runs in the family, what can I say?)did the first ascent of Lost World, on El Cap, had a bunch of Squ-ish stories, met a tragic end in a helicopter accident in Utah, late 90's, I think he was about the same age as Dr Hartouni, not young like Anders and myself (class of '56?)
I'm psyched to go climb up there, though I hear they don't allow n'er do wells such as myself, to pass their borders, these days, sigh.
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mastadon
Trad climber
Tahoe
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Jaybro, get out of here!! You're Dave Anderson's brother????? How can that be? I knew he had family in the NW but didn't know about any brothers floating around out there.
I did a LOT of climbing with Dave in the 70's and have a bunch of great pictures of him.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Not literally, we used to say that, as a joke. Since we had the same last name. Dave started it, he could go on for a long time with a straight face. In salt Lake (where we both lived) we used to spin a whole story about having gone on a mission together and all sorts of nonsense. Those were funny times...
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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I wish to state for the record that neither JayBro nor DaveBro is my son. (Raspy, tortured, wheezy mechanical voice): I....am.....not.....your.....father.
Now I wonder what eeyonkee has gotten up to? He needs to add some stories about their climb of Freeway, not to mention his adventure on Pipeline, a climb which Jaybro would firmly approve of. Paging Greg!
I wonder if my photo of Steven's Pass Motel is unique? Those not from Washington should note that that house of ill-repute is quite close to Index, and I've sometimes wondered if their proximity was coincidental.
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bobinc
Trad climber
Portland, Or
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I was a sophomore in HS the first time I went to Leavenworth ('78 or so). We came up from the Columbia Gorge and drove in from the east so didn't have the opportunity to see the Stevens Pass Motel. By the time I lived in Washington (mid-80s), the infamous motel was shuttered and the descriptive signs carted off.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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I do have a pipeline Jones.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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but Boogie 'til you puke is more of an OW challenge
And if the neighboring Scimitar doesn't make you puke, it will surely have you dry heaving...
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dirtyfloat
Trad climber
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Bump for a great great thread. Relocating to Vancouver in the new year, looking forward to spending some quality time up at Squamish.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 10, 2008 - 04:48pm PT
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While we are - ahem! - waiting patiently for stories if not pictures from the first ascent of Freeway, and the first free (solo) ascent of Pipeline, I'll add something about the first ascent of Pipeline. It's from 1967, which is a little pre-1970s, but a good story.
Pipeline is a 4 - 5 pitch route on one of the subsidiary cliffs at Squamish, now called Slhanay. (Formerly the 'Squaw'.) Some aid, and mixed aid/free routes, were done on the cliff in the mid to late 1960s, and then it was largely unclimbed until the early 1980s. With one notable exception.
Here is a photo of Slhanay, which I have shamelessly borrowed from the Squamish Rock Guides website.(http://www.squamishrockguides.com/squaw.htm);
(Photo Marc Bourdon.)
Pipeline is to the right of "Birds of Prey". In the middle of the photo, there's a big grey slab, which slants up and right. Its left side is bounded by a clean white wall, forming a right-facing corner called Right Wing. To its left, in the middle of the big white wall, is a left-facing corner that swoops up. That's Pipeline. The whole thing is a giant hourglass-shaped flake, tilted to the right.
Pipeline was first done in 1967, by Barry Hagen, Glenn Woodsworth, and Leif Patterson. The first half, to the point where it branches off from what later became Birds of Prey, probably wasn't too bad. However, they got to the base of the big corner - it's over 60 m long - and realized they had nothing that would fit it. Not even these, in Leif's arsenal, and now in the YCA collection:
The largest bongs ever commercially made.
At its narrowest, Pipeline is about 6" (15 cm), and it steadily widens. There's a pod in the middle.
So they left a rope or two and retreated. All three were scientists, and had thought about this problem. Indeed, Leif had a doctorate in mathematics from MIT. So Glenn and Leif visited my father, who then worked for Alcan. He had some aluminum tubing in the basement, which was donated to the project. I'm not sure if they cut up the pipe into correct lengths and took it up, or hauled it up and did it on the spot. Whichever, they cut segments which were seated/cammed by hammer, and so got up the climb. (They placed a bolt belay half way - rope not long enough.)
Perhaps the first use of what later became called tube chocks.
Probably the second ascent of Pipeline was in 1979, when Greg went up one fine day and free-soloed it - a very stout effort.
As MH2 mentions, photos of climbing Pipeline, and indeed other stuff for the widefetish and buildering crew, are at http://www3.telus.net/public/7394243/climbing/offwidths/episode5.html
I wonder what became of all those aluminum bits that Leif, Glenn and Barry mostly left in Pipeline? Museum-quality stuff. If they were still there in 1979, I wonder how Greg got around them?
Perhaps Greg will now add stories and photos about Pipeline, and Freeway.
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MH2
climber
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Dec 10, 2008 - 05:11pm PT
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Waiting patiently....
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mastadon
Trad climber
Tahoe
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Dec 10, 2008 - 06:39pm PT
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That's gotta be one of the burliest first free ascent stories I've ever heard. Done in the day when there were no sponsers, camera crews, people on the ground cheering, rescue top-ropes, nothin'. Zip, zilch, nada... No one to hear you scream when you fall.... That's the kind of life-defining event that would change a person forever.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 11, 2008 - 03:05am PT
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Another good friend from Squamish in the 1970s, who’s still climbing, is Simon T. He appeared about 1975, through mountaineering like most of us, and has graced us with his presence ever since. An always cheerful and energetic companion, and a fine climber, too. Here he is climbing at Hedley Bluffs, a cliff that is most of the way from Vancouver to Penticton (Skaha).
We climbed at Hedley sometimes in the 1970s – hoping to find somewhere dry, and Canadian, to climb in spring and autumn. Skaha wasn’t really explored until well into the 1980s. However, there was an Outward Bound school at Keremeos, a town not far from Hedley, and they climbed regularly there.
There was also a semi-commercial climbing program called Mountain Craft, which operated in the mountains northeast of Whistler. It was run by some ex-Brits, one of whom went on to start an outdoor recreation program at a community college in Vancouver. Other than that, some of the local clubs had instructional weekends, focusing on mountaineering skills, with some rock climbing. That was about it. We might have learned more quickly had there been courses and books and guidebooks and all that, but many of us mightn’t have been very keen on that kind of structure.
I’ve done my share of introducing new people into our little world, sometimes in a fairly structured fashion. Despite that, I still firmly believe that the things that are central to climbing can’t be taught – responsibility for one’s self, accepting and managing risk, having the fire that makes you want to climb, judgment, and leadership. Some of which was brought home by an adventure that Simon and I had in 1978.
“We were climbing on the Chief one day, in the merry merry month of May…” Except it was June, and we were climbing on the Malemute. A nondescript route called Mirkwood Forest, which is three or four pitches, up to middle 5.10. Here’s Simon, following the second pitch, which leads to a two bolt stance belay in the middle of a slabby face.
Just above, there’s a corner that’s often wet. We got partway up it – I can’t remember who was leading, or if it was wet. Anyway, the leader went to clip a buttonhead, and the shaft broke off. It is kind of funny, in retrospect – we thought the darn things (Rawl ¼” x 1 ½” compression bolts) were reliable, and behaved accordingly. But there we were, hangar and a bit of steel in hand, looking silly.
There were shenanigans getting back to the belay. We decided to rappel. I went first. About half way down, I heard a ‘ping’, and dropped a little bit. Simon said “Try not to bounce. One of the belay bolts just broke.” I slid as gently as I could, clipping one of the ropes to any bolts and other anchors available – I figured that if the other belay bolt went, we might then have a chance. Not long after, Daryl took his big fall off Zorro’s Last Ride, also due to a bad buttonhead. There was a defective batch in circulation.
These events quickly led to the introduction of Bosch power drills, five piece stainless bolts, rap bolting, chipping, gluing, and the end of climbing as we knew it. And it’s all my fault! If only we’d kept quiet, joked about it…
Don’t let me get started on people who write guidebooks.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Dec 11, 2008 - 10:35am PT
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So those tubes were definitely in place when I did the route in 1979. They actually gave me pause with each encounter, as I had to get my shoulders in really well in order to bring my leg over the tube. The tubes actually made the route a fair bit harder for me. Frankly, I wish could remember the day and climb a little better than I do. Not only am I a lousy story teller...I can't hardly remember the story I'm telling.
As far as Freeway goes, I remember even less, since I was not personally involved with the ascent. I do know that it took Rob and Tom a few days of effort, and we were all psyched for them. I believe that they rated it 5.12a (back then, 5.12s were pretty rare for our group), and it still had a little bit of aid on it which has since gone free. While Tom and Rob were on Freeway, George Manson and I did the FA of a rather obscure climb with OW, Wild Turkey.
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MH2
climber
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Dec 12, 2008 - 12:58am PT
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WILD TURKEY !!!
Note that it was done in 1979, within the Mighty Hiker mandate.
One of my partners and I, or at least I, have a running joke that goes, "Look Tom, there's no one on Wild Turkey." So far Tom hasn't said okay let's get on it.
According to another partner, Brendan, he and I met Kevin McLane and Utah Steve Seats as they were coming back from Wild Turkey. According to Brendan they said they got well worked by the route.
One day at the Squaw (Shihani-who?) Tom and I met Gord Ross who took the photo of John Furneaux on Wild Turkey that appears in Kevin's latest guide.
I hear the siren call of Wild Turkey.
edit: the guide says line of the finish uncertain for the FA - there are 3 exits now described each of which sounds awful
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MisterE
Trad climber
My Inner Nut
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Dec 12, 2008 - 01:23am PT
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Man, that free-solo story of Pipeline is the stuff of legends. I mean Earl-Wiggins-Black-Canyon-Solo quality all-out-there.
Can't wait.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Dec 12, 2008 - 09:32am PT
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I originally wanted to name it, Midnight Movie (for some dumb reason). I got talked into Wild Turkey by George and gang sometime later that night after drinking a bit of the namesake.
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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Dec 12, 2008 - 04:47pm PT
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Anders wrote:
"There were shenanigans getting back to the belay. We decided to rappel. I went first. About half way down, I heard a ‘ping’, and dropped a little bit. Simon said “Try not to bounce. One of the belay bolts just broke.” I slid as gently as I could, clipping one of the ropes to any bolts and other anchors available – I figured that if the other belay bolt went, we might then have a chance. Not long after, Daryl took his big fall off Zorro’s Last Ride, also due to a bad buttonhead. There was a defective batch in circulation. "
Some of this batch must have made their way down south to Index. Around 1984 Jon Nelson and I had a perfectly good looking anchor blew out on us adding some spice to an otherwise already exciting day. We thought we were doing an FA until we got to the anchor. After hearing about the Squamish bolts we always blamed these bolts on visiting Canandians!
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