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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Nov 12, 2005 - 07:01pm PT
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I heard a friend say Tobin Sorenson had something to do with putting up SR, any of you folks know if that was the case or where him getting on it fell in the timeline of things?
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LEB
climber
Glen Gardner
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Nov 12, 2005 - 07:09pm PT
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healyje,
Well, in fact, someone on this very forum is kindly sending me a book (en route, as we now speak) and I am most looking forward to reading it.
P.S. to that person - a public thank you in addition to the thanks I sent you via email. Also, that detailed info you sent me was fantastic, as well.
Lois
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Nov 12, 2005 - 08:03pm PT
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It would have been fun to have Tobin there during the attempts but I think he was down in school. This route was like a boulder problem. Short of being the first guy to do it, “having something to do with it” may be only the contribution of figuring out a move beyond the last high point. Or far point in this case.
Not to dash your friends memory of Tobin (since he was my best friend) he may be mixing this up with his Turinga wall route in Australia. It’s second pitch had a roof that dwarfed SR. Probability just as hard at “grade25” (sorry to side track this thread)
Werner, I’m trying to recollect the slings through the roof. In fact I deleted a post prior to yours to the contrary,( I needed time to ponder it). I do remember a pin or two and a point that was always left in out toward the lip. I also seem to remember Dale B. trying to lob a piece in at the very end after we figured out the turn around near the lip. It looks like your memory may be better than mine :-)
Lois – I’m so glad you have a book coming!
mg
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Nov 12, 2005 - 08:06pm PT
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Lois, that was kind of them no doubt, but any of the outings offered earlier could, in an hour, give you more real understanding than will come from that book. It's same differnce as assisting in a surgery and reading about assisting in one - incomplete at best. And hell, not many people ever get the kind of offers you've gotten from folks here.
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KarlP
Social climber
Queensland, NorCal, Iceland
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Nov 14, 2005 - 05:19am PT
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gramicci: what's this "Turinga" wall thing you're talking about that Tobin was on in australia?
I know his name is on quite a few nice lines around the country, but I can't think of anything with a sizeable roof that he was involved in, aid or free.
Cheers,
Karl P
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Nov 14, 2005 - 07:23am PT
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mg,
I'll double check, but I believe my friend said he got it from Tobin's younger brother who he was with when he went to do SR.
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Nov 14, 2005 - 10:37am PT
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It is highly likely Tim could of belayed Tobin when he did it. But Ron had already put it up. Tobin would blow through on the weekends from SLO and pull off some great stuff. He did an early accent of “Tales of Power” I saw him that afternoon when he got back from it he was pretty stoked. He would have been a good candidate to link the two back then but didn’t that day.
KarlP, This is probably worth another thread but the short version is. Mount Arapiles Victoria Australia. He repeated most of there test pieces and puts up one of his own. No one there could even do the first pitch. Not that it was super difficult it was just different (for them). I remember the roof looking crazy, something that would tear shoulders right out of its sockets. Rechecking the spelling it my be “Tyringa” I have a picture but would need to scan it, unfortunately the roof is cropped in the shot but it does show it being a bit ominous.
He was well traveled.
Cheers, Mike
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KarlP
Social climber
Queensland, NorCal, Iceland
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Nov 14, 2005 - 12:48pm PT
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gramicci: fair enough, I'm a northerner, so not as well versed on the araps history.
There's a bunch of interesting roofs at Araps, but I don't have an araps guidebook handy to work out what you're talking about.
Henry Barber was FFA on Kachoong, which is a fairly famous roof there, but he was a few years earlier than Tobin. (They both visited much the same places, doing fairly similar things)
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Nov 14, 2005 - 02:57pm PT
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KarlP, I see your from Queensland, Cool..I had a lot of fun at frog buttress.
I'll email you some info so I don't sidetrack this thread.
Mike Graham
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cultureshock
Sport climber
Lewisburg, PA
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Nov 14, 2005 - 11:59pm PT
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From the closeness im guessing its "Tjuringa" Wall which is above the watchtower faces at Mt Arapiles.
On that wall there is a climb with the same name Tjuringa which is graded 25. I havent checked that route out, but i do remember seeing a quite massive roof in that area.
More info:
http://www.chockstone.org/Arapiles/Arapiles.htm
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 17, 2007 - 02:52am PT
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A flash from the (recent) past. Thank you.
Somewhere upthread, Roger said to Lois that:
"Belay comes from the Middle English word beleggen, meaning to beset or surround. Originally, belaying was a sort of entertainment in which two combatants were tied together on a rope and were made to cross rough country for the pleasure of the paying crowds — think of the gladiators and the slaves. The race usually ended on a hill or promontory with the first person to ascent being given a chance to do it again with another combatant. The loser…well the loser lost."
Climbers borrowed the word belay from mariners. A sailor "belays" a rope when he/she anchors or secures it. Mariners had a well-developed vocabulary of specialized words to do with ropes, security and technique, which climbers borrowed freely from. (Did you know that "grommet" originally meant a cabin boy?)
Roger should be given considerable credit for his imaginative game, which might otherwise be called a red hairing.
There is a Norwegian verb, aa belegge. One of its meanings is to place under arrest. As old English and old Norse were close Germanic cousins, no surprise both successor languages still have much the same word, even if they use it differently.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Jun 17, 2007 - 12:15pm PT
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He was returning home from a radio interview in Munich when a drunk driver killed him.
Not to pick nits but it was actually a solo car accident early in the AM according to Wolfgang's biography...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 17, 2007 - 02:43pm PT
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that's what I heard too, ala the band associated with Hot rod lincoln (not Commander Cody)
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 19, 2007 - 11:07am PT
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bump for those who are just newly aware of the LEB thread drift phenomena...
...a sort of Emily Lattela free association riff on the thread topic...
enjoy
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Jul 19, 2007 - 11:52am PT
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Don't kid yourselves.....those pics of SR are upside down!! Little bit of photoshop and voila! Caveman (as we say in caving...come south where the big ones are!)
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jul 19, 2007 - 11:59am PT
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that's what I heard too, ala the band associated with Hot rod lincoln (not Commander Cody)
have you heard the story bout the hot rod race
'tween the ford and the lincoln that was settin' the pace?
well that story's true, i'm here to say
'cause i was driving that model a...
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duncan
Trad climber
London, UK
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Jul 19, 2007 - 12:59pm PT
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From Alpinist 17:
"In 1979 two other famous foreigners, SoCal Stonemaster Tobin Sorenson and UK gritstone climber John Allen, arrived. Like Barber before them, they opened a visionary route many local climbers had considered unattainable: the smooth Tjuringa Wall (25). A Tjuringa is a sacred Aboriginal stone, and the roof on the second pitch might indeed seem to require some form of supernatural power. Child recalls that the born-again Sorenson told Aussie climbers that God would protect him if he fell. A year later Sorenson died in the Canadian Rockies, soloing the North Face of Mt. Alberta. He left behind a legacy of intense boldness and vitality; partner John Long described him, in Tales from the Steep, as "alive in a way the rest of us were not." It's easy to imagine Sorenson still a part of the vivid Arapiles landscape."
I knew John a little around that time and I got the impression that, of all that he had climbed with, Tobin was the climber and person he had most respect for. The first pitch of Tjuringa is a beautiful wall, the top pitch is the roof. I only have pictures of the wall because we never got as far as the roof. Probably a good thing too as with 1984 gear it only had one poor peg in about 20' of horizontal.
The roof, 2007 style: redpoint on pre-placed gear. Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/redanon/
First pitch, 1984 attempt, my pal Jeff climbing
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Wild Bill
climber
Ca
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Jul 19, 2007 - 01:39pm PT
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Haha, Ed, thanks for reviving this thread. Duncan, awesome pics and story.
As a relative noob here at ST it's interesting to see the LEB thread drift phenomena is very old. Like, so old that I can't believe LEB hasn't been run off or banned. And I'm still not convinced that LEB is not actually some other poster's sock puppet. I know Locker says he spoke with her at length, but we know Locker's brain is addled (as he readily admits - hippie lettuce, glue, etc). Anyone else ever actually see or speak with LEB?
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duncan
Trad climber
London, UK
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Jul 19, 2007 - 03:42pm PT
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Thank you Bill. I've edited my post to make it clear that the 2007 photo is not mine (nor me climbing, alas). I thought it was a fine shot and it gave a good idea of what Tobin was capable of back in '79, and without all those pre-placed micro-cams and wires!
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