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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Did that Crack of Fear thing years and years ago with an old timer named George Hurley (I think that was his name) Pretty cool crack system. Wasn't it first done by a Valley guy Chris Fredricks??
That's right, FFA Chris Fredericks and Jim Logan, early 60s. As for George Hurley, I have a photo somewhere of the handmade wood nuts, including a wooden camming device, that George used to make the "first all-wood ascent" (with Dave Rearick) of Twister, another runout offwidth/squeeze chimney on the Owls -- 1973.
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Chiloe,
Good info. 1973 was when we did our ascent. Unfortunately, (or should I say fortunately) this was before George made his wooden gear. Bongs and balls got us up it!Didn't George do some climbing with Kor back in the days? The other route I wanted to do when I was there was Turn Korner or Turn Corner or something like that. I believe Robbins did the first free of that one??
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Didn't George do some climbing with Kor back in the days?
George climbed quite a bit with Kor, many classic routes such as the FA of the Titan (Kor, Hurley & Huntley Ingalls). He's put up many hundreds of FAs over the years, still going strong.
The other route I wanted to do when I was there was Turn Korner or Turn Corner or something like that. I believe Robbins did the first free of that one??
Turnkorner, a pun on the FA party Kor & Turner. Robbins did the FFA, maybe he came up with that name (Oli?). That's the third classic old Lumpy Ridge offwidth/squeeze chimney, along with Crack of Fear and Twister. I felt proud to thrash up all three back in the tube-chock era, but Turnkorner was the one I'd call "fun."
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Turkorner is pretty cool to look at and climbs well too, with a slightly overhanging OW/Squeeze crux.
For me, Lumpy's Crack of Fear was most difficult at the left leaning exit of the first (second) pitch; it seemed it would be real tough right at that spot in the old footwear.
Mental Block was one of the few climbs I recall doing with Werner. I remember the first pitch had a weird down pointing flake that formed the thin jams before the long right facing OW corner, then a bulging sort of wider OW bit on the upper pitch.
Then there is that clean OW splitter on Rostrum's Blind Faith...
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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For me, Lumpy's Crack of Fear was most difficult at the left leaning exit of the first (second) pitch; it seemed it would be real tough right at that spot in the old footwear.
I thought the last pitch, the flared 5.9 chimney, was the fearsome part of the Crack of Fear -- always got my partner to lead that ("Hey, I'll lead the crux!"). The only pro on the last pitch was couple of tube chocks and they were just bunk.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Shoot, I don't have any vivid recollection of the upper section; maybe being wafer thin the tight squeeze stuff usually feels secure to me.
(If I tie in with a single wrap bowline on a coil, I can get my hips in Oompf Slot at the Dome in Boulder Canyon)
But the left leaning undercling following the crux has that transitional feel, from burly OW to a quick delicate/power footwork maneuver, which can be weird after settling in to OW mode, much in the way that transitioning from aid to free can feel strange.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Hey Peter, your story about Kim falling out a hard move into an easy chimney position on Vendetta is great. I can visualize both of you and the whole sequence, even though I have never been on the climb. Laughed out loud.
I don't get the connection of the name 'Vendetta' with Lloyd's and Gordon's aiding the first ascent and then Royal and Galen freeing later. Unless Royal and Galen renamed it.
More generally, when I was thin and on-width, I liked off-widths. Now that I am off-width, I don't fit so well.
Great thread.
Roger
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Roger. Compared to face climbing or climbing thin cracks, I'd have to think that size/weight is not as big an issue with offwidths. Personally, I'm closer to my best offwidth shape than to those others.
I always figured having a bit of extra mass, particularly in the shoulders area, actually helped in offwidths - gives you something to stuff in the crack.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Chiloe-
Turncorner, Crack of Fear and Twister are all great routes. Jimmy Dunn's route, Peaches and Cream (about 1974?), between Twister and CoF, is excellent, too, but a number grade harder, as is the crux of my route, Icarus, which goes wide through the big overhang 500 feet off the deck about 20 feet to the right of Turnkorner (1980).
I remember hiking up to repeat Jimmy's climb with him shortly after he had done the first ascent. We were discussing climbers we knew who might be candidates for best free-climber in the country. Jimmy was adamant that John Bachar was the best. I hadn't climbed with Bachar, but I had climbed with Henry Barber, so we argued the merits of those two greats all the while we were climbing. At the time, Jimmy himself was one of the best. I was honored that he wanted me to repeat "Peaches", and confirm its' quality. In retrospect, how could you choose between two great artists - Barber and Bachar - both absolute masters?
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Peaches and Cream is HARD. I remember absolutely cruising Crack of Fear and struggling on P & C the following weekend. I'd like to give Icarus a look.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Icarus is one of the coolest looking things at Lumpy.
What size is that roof crack Jeff?
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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I think it's about 5" or so, Tarbaby. I remember I couldn't get a fist jam, so had to improvise some stacks, with a 180 to get a foot over the lip. Someone else (a better climber!) could probably do it in a more straight-forward fashion.
-TwistedJello
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Going back a bit in the thread, I see in my old climbing ledger that I led Edge of Night, but I can't remember anything about it for some reason. I usually remember every climb. I suppose if I could remember where in the Valley it was I'd remember it all again.
About Crack of Fear. That was my favorite climb for a long period of time, and I did it about 20 times, with Bill Briggs, Charlie Fowler, Dave Rearick (who, by the way, invented and gave some of us those wooden nuts -- George H. didn't produce them), and Rearick gave them to various people. He gave me one wooden nut I still cherish that is perfectly round, the size of a baseball. I've never wanted to use it, for fear of scratching it. The Crack of Fear is a perfct climbing lesson from top to bottom, starting as a hand crack (or a difficult finger-tip lieback variation), then a knee size crack, then stemming, then arm bars, then arm locks, then face climbing, a lieback move, then an offwidth (going up to the crux), and then a sweet face climbing move (the crux), and later a mantel followed by an overhanging flare, and by the time you get to the top you've done just about every kind of move a climber can do. That's the kind of route I love and will always remember... I never used the tube chocks, big friends, or such, because that's part of the climb, getting in enough shape to feel good and feel free on those moderately scary runouts...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Crack of Fear was good fun and pretty straight forward even in EB's. Peaches and Cream, on the other hand, was horrendous.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Oli:
...Dave Rearick (who, by the way, invented and gave some of us those wooden nuts -- George H. didn't produce them), and Rearick gave them to various people. He gave me one wooden nut I still cherish that is perfectly round, the size of a baseball. I've never wanted to use it, for fear of scratching it.
You're right, I should have credited Dave Rearick as the artist behind these nuts. Here's my old photo of their rack, right after George Hurley and Dave made the First All-Wood Ascent (FAWA) of Twister.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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I started off with wood on Peaches and Cream...but quickly went flaccid.
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E.L. "One"
Big Wall climber
Lancaster, California
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Eeyonkee,
One of the classic lines of all time!
Cracko
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goatboy smellz
climber
boulder county
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Hmmm... a 5.f#ck me desperate thrash fest, why not, I'll add it to my summer tick list under Testes Parked.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Those are saweet, Chiloe, how big a screamer has anyone take on those? What a scary project that would be.
EEyonk, that must have before enzyte, Viagra, priapisms are us, etc.
BTW how are the pullups coming?
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Those are saweet, Chiloe how big a screamer has anyone take on those? What a scary project that would be.
That I don't know, but on Twister (apart from the low crux) I think nobody wants to fall. It was a lead to take seriously in the old days. What's the mood about that route today?
And to connect the wood-nuts photo to several other themes upthread ... it was taken as we hiked down after climbing Crack of Fear. My partners that day were Tom Kaufman (mentioned by Rick L regarding the Oliver Perry Smith FA) and Joe Herbst, a man fluent in the language of offwidths.
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