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| Messages 1 - 27 of total 27 in this topic |
BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 8, 2009 - 12:48pm PT
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I'm was going through the Mt Starr King Register and found an entry by Eric Beck (right side of page)
If Eric is out there, how was the descent? Down climb?
Has anyone done it "no hands"?
I'm guessing this was done to fill in recovery time after the fall on Middle Cathedral (page 162 in Camp 4 by Roper).
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Ha - good find!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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BBA,
Eric is here on ST. Hopefully he will notice the post. His contact here is, "Eric Beck".
Interesting also is the register showing Bruce Cooke reached the summit the next day. "Both routes"? and solo. Bruce was a wonderful older climber who hung out at Indian Rock back in the sixties and seventies, mentoring and being friends with just about everyone. A very good friend of Higgins also. We have discussed him a few times in recent years here.
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Jingy
Social climber
Flatland, Ca
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IDK - But it seems that Eric was spooke by the decent.... At least that's what he wrote from the top of the hill..
Good luck!!!
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Wow, what a trip into the past. This was a 2 day trip to bag Starr King and Mt Clark. I was in mountain boots. The descent was indeed scary, backed up and down several times before committing to the moves. Still here, though. Camped up the drainage that evening. After Clark, got a bright idea to descend straight to Merced Lake. This turned out non-trivial, with a moderate amount of high 4th.
How do we survive the bright ideas of our youth?
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Buju
Trad climber
the range of light
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last year about this time:
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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such an amazing thing this internet chat. Eric Beck chimes in! I love that dome. It's location, remoteness and vantage point are all wonderful....but climbing it with less than two arms? We had 2 sleeping bags when I did it...nice little bed up there...
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dmalloy
Trad climber
eastside
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craziest thing is, I just saw Eric at the Happys on Sunday (and last Thursday, for that matter) and he now has TWO arms!!
The dude regrew an arm!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Wow BBA
On June 27th, Dave French and another party with Dick Irvin-that register is full of "oldies but goodies."
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2009 - 11:07am PT
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I'm currently digitizing the microfilm reel and will have to figure out what to do next with it. It is slow work, but what a trip to read the entries and names.
HEY GUIDO - What do you know about Dave French?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I thought this was going to be a John Wesley Powell story.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Dec 10, 2009 - 12:01am PT
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Any more pics of this place? A profile pic? top down views of climbers coming up? I've often wondered about Mt. Starr King. Funny how it just made it in the park and Wamello and Shuteye got shutout. At one time I think they were all inside the boundary?
EDIT: Nevermind... just found the previous thread!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 10, 2009 - 12:10am PT
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Does that make Eric a one-armed bandit?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Dec 10, 2009 - 12:16am PT
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BBA
Well first off he is not French. Bay area climber of the 60s. Dozier, Morton, Beck may be of help??????????Certainly our very own SR would have all the "facts".
Irvin I last saw in Nepal in 85, so not much help there.
cheers
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Dec 10, 2009 - 12:26am PT
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Buju
Trad climber
the range of light
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Dec 10, 2009 - 01:52am PT
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more pics
we brought a set of nuts, a few slings, and a half length of noodle rope. i would not hesitate to do that thing ropeless now. suuuuuper cool feature.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Dec 10, 2009 - 03:15pm PT
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BBA
Recollection from the past: I think it was around 61-63, Pinnacles where Roper and I were putting up some first ascents. French and team had been dicking around with the West Face route on the Machete Ridge for years and we were impatient. Roper gave them an ultimatum around the campfire one night, finish the route tomorrow or we will finish it. They completed the route the next day and Roper and I did the second ascent a day later. All that I remember was there was a short bolt ladder, steep steep climbing and horrible rock. Since this was the era BHH, (before hard hats), the belayer had to place his pack over his head for protection. Pretty sure it was French.
cheers
Guido
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 10, 2009 - 03:22pm PT
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Was that Bill's Bad Bolts?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Dec 10, 2009 - 03:32pm PT
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??????????
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 10, 2009 - 04:31pm PT
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It looks like the years have been hard on the cairn put up in 1935, almost reduced to nothing in tuolumne_tradsters photo (a great one it is, too). This is what it looked like in 1938 - holding up well in the weather. There is a note in the register for 1935 where some guys say they erected a big cairn on top.
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micronut
Trad climber
fresno, ca
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Dec 10, 2009 - 04:37pm PT
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Awesome thread. That last photo is amazing. Any of yall done it in winter. I always thought it would be a cool ski approach. By the way Eric, how is Lori doing?
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 10, 2009 - 05:09pm PT
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Dave Brower and Joe Specht did the first recorded winter ascent on March 9, 1937 on skis. For some reason there was a wave of patriotic climbing in January 1976 (Bi-centennial). Someone along the way also did it by cramponing up. I need to get a searchable version of the register to find things more easily.
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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Dec 10, 2009 - 11:34pm PT
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Guido -
There is a David French who lives in Bishop - old climber type.
Anyone know what aspect Messick skied?
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Dec 11, 2009 - 12:22am PT
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BBA - thanks for posting that photo. I had no idea the original cairn was that tall.
BTW, the 5.9 west face route on Mt Starr King is high quality.
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 12, 2009 - 05:58pm PT
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And if Dave French is a computer user, ask him to take a look here at supertopo and tell us what he recalls about his climb. The stories people come up with are great.
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dmalloy
Trad climber
eastside
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Dec 12, 2009 - 08:19pm PT
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The David French who lives here now teaches at Bishop Union High School and still does some carpentry and other woodcrafting, he works at a shop right down the street sometimes. I know he has done a whole lot of backpacking, but have never heard him talk about climbing. But if I see his truck at the shop tomorrow, I will poke my head in and ask him...
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Dec 13, 2009 - 01:56pm PT
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Guido & BBA,
I knew Dave French in the 60s. Al Macdonald helped me start climbing when I moved to Berkeley for school in the Fall of 62. In the summer of 1963, Al, Dave French, Gary Westernof, and I did the FA of the Northwest Face of the Lost Brother. Gary and I were still beginners; I led just one pitch. It was also my first rock climb with a bivy (although Al and I had done a bunch of descents in the dark -- it wasn't till later that I realized you could finish a climb in the daylight).
Dave moved to the Palo Alto area after graduating, and I ran into him once in the early 70s at one of the bouldering areas on the Peninsula. I left the Bay Area in the fall of 74.
And, since this thread is about Eric Beck during his one-armed recovery period following his fall on the DNB, I remember his arm in a cast with a right-angle bend at the elbow. When eating fried chicken, he could not lick his fingers.
Remarkable coincidence that Eric soloed Starr King one day before Bruce Cooke did it. I am not sure how old Bruce was then, but he was an old guy compared to any of us. At Indian Rock, he would do one of the overhanging routes without using his feet, just letting them dangle while he did a succession of pull-ups and quick grabs to the next hold.
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