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krutley
climber
here, now
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 10, 2010 - 05:15am PT
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I was a late-comer to the Idyllwild scene, late 70's I'm always pretty general about time/date specifics, sorry. Aug and I'd been dropped off in the pm by our friend (late)Chris Robbins. Grandstaff was in there later, i think. Aug and I had no $$, only a g of white stuff, which i'd been paid in lieu of the 100 i really needed. We split it into 10ths and would sell enuf to the kids at the market so that we could eat dinner that night, save the leftovers, then pirate camping in the park near the river (city park?). Right before the $ disappeared, we met Fred E at the market, recovering from hepatitis, and he took us in. I stayed for the next year, becoming fast friends with a few, acquaintance to most. I was mostly poor, super strong. I was 19.
Livin in Pine Cove, bored, walking around one day I walked by this plaque signifying a relativity experiment from days long gone. Seeing a trail behind it, I thought, "maybe...", and discovered a mass of moss/lichen-covered boulders which we began cleaning, developing.
John did an article which i never got to see, I think there were pics of Mike and Mari, et al. Thing I remember most was that double-dyno he pegged. First try he brought his hands up in front, came away cursing and bleeding from the loss of knuckle skin. He didn't quit. The next try, and all subsequent, he did this amazing butterfly move with his arms, flying through the air, chin and chest millimeters from the stone, eventually pegged the thing. I don't know if anyone else ever pulled it off, at least not then.
Any pics of that move, anyone? or the article?
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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May 10, 2010 - 08:11pm PT
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Ah, yes. The Relativities offer some pretty fine bouldering, and a change of pace from County Park. Johnny's dyno was a killer problem, and I have a vague recollection of someone else bagging that problem in the mid- to late seventies. (Ricky or Yabo perhaps?) It was a pretty happening place when it first was new.
There was another good dyno that we did to the left (?) of John's... Another fine throw itself, I believe we called it "Distant Relative".
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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May 10, 2010 - 08:13pm PT
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I remember "The Relativity Face" being a really fine problem as well!:)
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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May 12, 2010 - 10:18pm PT
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Yeah Mike,
The double dyno was called "Speed of Light," right? I never could do that thing but remember Relativity Face being really good.
Curt
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RtM
Boulder climber
DHS
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May 13, 2010 - 12:07pm PT
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Heres a shot of the Speed of Light Dyno
Great problem! I'm sure it has had a few ascents. I think Buck fires it off on the vid "Soul Cal".
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 13, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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an rtm appearance!
and a pic of someone not doing speed of light, heh.
relativity face is terrific, but high ball.
that mountain has boulders like that about every 1/4 mile, scattered through the forest. about the only ones folks used to climb were the ones right next to one of the major roads.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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May 13, 2010 - 12:29pm PT
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"that mountain has boulders like that about every 1/4 mile, scattered through the forest. about the only ones folks used to climb were the ones right next to one of the major roads."
That's not exactly true there. I used to trop all over the place with Kurt, (Krutely) who started this thread, Auggie Klein, Steve Sutton, and a bunch of others, all in the mid to later 1970s. We just never had a camera.
Hey, where can I see "Soul Cal?"
JL
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 13, 2010 - 12:39pm PT
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I used to trop all over the place with Kurt, (Krutely) who started this thread, Auggie Klein, Steve Sutton, and a bunch of others, all in the mid to later 1970s. We just never had a camera.
And a good thing, too, otherwise the place would look like an ant hill of pad people.
For the moment, everyone goes up the Tram instead. At least until the new Black Mt. guide gets finished.
Soul Cal: http://www.climbit.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=4&idproduct=18
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krutley
climber
here, now
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Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2010 - 04:52pm PT
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Beautiful shot. Thank you for that. It'd be nice to be on real time with you guys. I nite owl it on the other side of the ball to try and get in a conversation, but i'm so bleary-eyed and sweaty...
Seeing that shot is palpable for me. I'm concerned about my mind making unfaithful promises to my body, were I to visit, but if i can... Another problem comes to mind, forgive my lapse, was it that problem that Grandstaff found, the Sunrise boulder? John, did one of us get that first, or was it Randy?
Talk about attachments, my inability/ability to avoid the present moment -- ahh, but Idyllwild has such great memories... next thread has to pull Darryl Hatten into the mix, or Fred's 3 night inability to come down from something. Stop me from spreading rumours, please. I don't want to be sharin info people don't want renewed.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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May 13, 2010 - 05:49pm PT
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The most difficult Black Mountain problems I ever found were with Kurt, up at the old YMCA camp. There was some wicked hard stuff up there. I'll have to walk around the place sometime and the lower areas and point out to the new guys what we did BITD.
I do remember Speed of Light, and getting it 2nd try, so we never thought it was that hard. Kurt also had a really hard alternative that came in from the right, where you traverse dead left to the mantle, and that always seemed harder to me than the regular dyno (V8??) way.
I remember the name, but not the actual sequence for the Sunrise Face. There was another super good big ass overhang that Kurt and I found but it ended up being in someone's back yard after construction. I think it was called Sunset Overhang or something like that and it was absolutely fly.
Another good one, not too hard but super classic, is Moroccan Roll, next to the Big Greenie face, at camp ground at Black Mt. Sh#t, I could go on and on. Kurt and I really did some exploring.
Now for a real obscure one: "There's Snakes Under There." Remember that one?
Lastly, the Relativity Face was as I remember a big ass steep wall like 25 feet high with some sketch 5.11 thin stuff right at the top, so you had to fire it or take an ankle breaker ripper. That one always lit my lamp but I never did it too much because the fall was so awful, onto rocks and from way the f*#k up there. Dan Hirshman was the first guy I ever say solo that face and the rest of us followed but always a little concerned. There just ain't much there.
JL
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gonzo chemist
climber
Crane Jackson's Fountain St. Theater
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May 13, 2010 - 08:24pm PT
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I have a few friends who have spent the last few seasons finding new boulders at Black Mt., and putting up new and HARD problems. Rest assured, that place is seeing plenty of action. And not just on the old standards...
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RtM
Boulder climber
DHS
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May 14, 2010 - 11:54am PT
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klk - "and a pic of someone not doing speed of light, heh."
huh? is that not the Speed of Light Dyno??
Whatever it was, it was a cool dyno
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 14, 2010 - 12:46pm PT
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gonzo: we probably know some of the same folks. yeah, lots of new development at black, although folks tell me that the tram pulls in most of the crowds. we'll see when i'm back at the end of the month. i can remember a july 4 at boulder basin when i was the only car in the campground. those days are gone.
rtm: just givin you a hard time. sorry i missed you at jtree. i'll ring you before i head down in a couple weeks.
on relativity and the jillions of similar, small areas: if i were still a local, i'd be nervous about relativity getting much public attention. there have been issues there, and it's easy to imagine it getting shut down if it becomes really popular.
lots of the old areas closed even before i left town: the wave, sunrise, grandstaff overhang, and on.
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RtM
Boulder climber
DHS
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May 14, 2010 - 01:09pm PT
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well, I do recall a No Trespassing sign when we, uhhh, walked back to the car!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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May 14, 2010 - 01:13pm PT
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RTM - That photo of the dod in the red shirt is absolutely on the Speed of Light.
Everyone needs to keep it on the down-low at this and other areas.
JL
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 14, 2010 - 02:35pm PT
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hey craig-- no, we just did the black mt. tour. but yeah, that's speed of light, just from a different angle. and most folks do it (or did it) as a double.
i never did it-- it was my nemesis. i could hit that hold every time, but then i'd fly off into the leaves. although i never went back there after maybe the mid-1980s. other folks i knew pretty much just walked up and did it.
it wasn't until much later that i saw a photo of largo on it that i realized it was a double dyno. turns out everyone i knew who did it doubled the thing.
maybe that's changed.
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krutley
climber
here, now
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Topic Author's Reply - May 14, 2010 - 03:25pm PT
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klk - forgive my ignorance, but what's the diff b/w a double and a double dyno?
 sorry to hear that so much has gone private up there. what, you've gotta boulder at night, w/ infra-red now? maybe it's a new trend, night-stealth. I'm sure all good ninjas do it.
John - that name makes me laugh, There's Snakes Under There! Foggy inklings but nothing clear. I assume it was the usual rattlers. Can you elaborate?
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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May 14, 2010 - 04:56pm PT
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Yeah, it looks different when shot from the left. It's impossible to get a good shot of that problem for several reasons, mostly the trees, which make the light real funky.
What made the Speed of Light novel is that there weren't a lot of big, full dislocate dynos back in the mid 70s, when this was first done. Had I known this and other problems would have generated such interest I would have purposely sought out some really hard project dynos. With my big ass hands and weighing 210 lbs, at least, I used to have a hell of a hard time keeping up with the other Stonemasters on the thin cracks. But the big dynos came pretty easy, and BITD, the Speed of Light was no big deal. I only wish now I'd sought out some true testpieces.
Oh well, next incarnation.
JL
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 14, 2010 - 06:53pm PT
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What made the Speed of Light novel is that there weren't a lot of big, full dislocate dynos back in the mid 70s, when this was first done. Had I known this and other problems would have generated such interest I would have purposely sought out some really hard project dynos.
Yeah, seventies was the Golden Age for double dynos: BK Double, Fatted Calf, Double Clutch, Speed of Light.
John, didn't you do the sit start to Caveman? That gets V10 now. But yeah, if the dyno on Speed of Light was, say, eight inches farther, it'd be Hale-Bopp and would probably still've been in yr range.
Not easy to find a natural line with a mandatory double long enough to be difficult, but short enough to be possible.
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