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Ligur
climber
PD
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Feb 17, 2006 - 09:10pm PT
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Classic!!!!!!!!!
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Feb 17, 2006 - 09:53pm PT
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Darrel,
Great story! All these years I never knew who Tobin did Valhalla with. That was a busy weekend. The first time I met Tobin was the next day. I was just finishing revelation on the weeping wall with a couple of friends from NewPort beach. Steve West and Alan ???
Being only 15 Steve drove me around, so in return I climbed him around. Got back to the base of the route to collect our gear and there’s Tobin sitting by himself reading a book. I thought, what a weird place to read a book? Asked him if would like to climb with us and he says nah taking a rest day. Oh? I say…why?
I did Valhalla yesterday! Instantly my friends look at me probably searching for any kind of expression of amazement. They knew I had been preparing myself for just that route.
So we leave and just out of ear shot I turn to my companions and say were doing it tomorrow. I told them if that cocky guy could do it we could too.
So we did the sixth ascent the very next day I always got plenty of leading in doing every pitch. That afternoon we run into Tobin again so we were pleased to tell him we just did Valhalla too.
The following day we drove him home to Covina where he lived with his mother. The next weekend and each there after the rest of the season we would pick him up and take him home and I finally got to swing leads with someone.
Robs, I couldn’t find any of those sliders. They came a few years later and were a Charlie Porter design. I hope no one actually did a climb with those cams of mine! Could you imagine the liability issues of today? They worked the best in quarter inch deep brick joint. I can’t believe the stuff you remember!
The museum sounds interesting! Anyone that’s been to my house already thinks I live in one.
Mike Graham
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Dimes
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Feb 17, 2006 - 11:06pm PT
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Since Hensel and I were basically joined at the wing so to speak for so many years and others are relating how everyone got connected I thought it fitting to tell our story of chance. A small climbing store that had an indoor climbing wall (back in 1975 no less) in Loma Linda. Every Wednesday night is bouldering night. Put up a new problem get a 25 cent block of chalk. Repeat a new problem get a block of chalk. Down rate a Hensel problem get 2 blocks of chalk. I Still got about 10 of those blocks left. Anyway, our parents would take my brother and I over after school and drop us off and then come back and get us. One night Hensel shows up and an improptu boulder off starts to happen. Hard problems are repeated and new ones added. Keeping with his quiet nature not much is said until it's time to leave. Comes up and ask if I want to go climbing on Saturday and to meet him at the Suicide parking lot. Since I am too young to drive he has to pick me up and drive me there. Say's we are going to do New Generation and Rebolting Development. Since I had done little climbing up there I had minimal knowledge of what was in store. Hensel led the real pitches of these classic slab routes and I managed both with only one fall. That was June of 75 and Henny and I still manage to link up and relive some of those grand old times. What a cool way to grow up. Climbing in the shadows of the worlds best free climbers, listening to the Stonemaster Lore and creating friendships and memories that still motivate us all.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Feb 18, 2006 - 01:45pm PT
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Henny, you're killing me with those old stories. And of course I remember Bobby. One of the classic guys from back in the Roubidoux days--and those were for sure some of the best days. I remember driving out there with Richard about 2,000 times and the best part of the whole shebang was trying to reckon what other clowns we were gonna see that day. Ho-ho man, as soon as we'd see you or Powell or Rob or whoever we'd just go off. We'd jump out of the car and everyone would stat yelling, "What the HELL are you doing?!" and then it was off to boulder ourselves to smithereens. I used to leave that place so gassed I couldn't even make a fist. Back then none of us worked on one problem for a month, rather we'd start at the lower parking lot and circle the whole freaking mountain and do about 1,000 or so problems, yelling and screaming the whole time. As much as trying to do your best work prsonally, part of the fun was always trying to goad and literally scream someone else up a route. And if one of the buds went "light" (as in "lightweight") on us--like backing off crumbly holds 30 feet off the deck--we'd all yell and shame the poor sap into risking his life all over again just to maintain the integrity of the group. Man, when I found myself up on the Smooth Soul wall and on Joe Brown boulder, sans cordage, things sometimes got a bit sketchy, but I never told no one as much. I remember one time we were on that wall below the stone bridge and some kid wanted to do that reallly hard mantle on the right side. Except there was a huge bee hive in a hole down and right and after Richard chucked a few rocks into said hive the thing started humming like a regular tornado. The kid mentioned the business of the bees and him being afraid and all and Richard said something to the effect that this just won't do, that the kid had to sac it up and go for the mantle bees or no bees. So he cranks into the mantle and the bees are all over him but we're screaming at him to bear it like a man and power through and he's shaking and crying and getting stung repeatedly but we're screaming lounder and he finally powers through it and on top is swatting himself upside the head trying to get the bees off. When he returns to the base he looks like he has Leprosy for all the welts and when he askes Richard if he's gonna do the mantle Richard says, "What, are you crazy? Look at all them bees!"
The razzing we used to give each other and the sheer joy we used to experience back in those days was reallly the heart and soul of the Stonemaster movement--always much more of a wacky cultural expedition than a climbing fandango.
JL
Add on: Henny--Saab Man was actually Don Watson, who was a super good boulderer early on but then vanished to never be seen again. He had no bolting gear on Solid Gold. He got freaked just following. Strictly a boulderer, but he's the ony guy I ever saw solo all the routes on the Joe Brown boulder, including that super creaky, 40 foot long 5.11 in the middle.
Rob--Yep, his name was Phil Haney. He did the first free ascent of English Hanging Garden at Big Rock sometime in the late 60s, and for me, that route was 5.12. He also did the Candlesticks problem WITHOUT the candlesticks--Candlestickless, which has to like V10 at least. Never seen anyone repeat it. I never even got close, and not for lack of trying.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Feb 18, 2006 - 07:51pm PT
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I remember looking at Candlesticks, but I couldn't imagine doing it without... not that I did it with!
What is wierd for me is that you guys were all around but somehow we never interesected... it sure would have helped my climbing. Knowing my nature I probably avoided you all because I didn't think I could climb with you, what I didn't understand at the time was that behind the loud, you all pushed each other to be better. All one had to do is show up and try.
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rmuir
Social climber
Claremont, CA
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Feb 19, 2006 - 09:39am PT
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Great story, Henny! Here's my recollection of our first ascent of Valhalla, in April, 1972:
Towards the end of my second year at UCR, I was feeling pretty confortable with SoCal granite. I was living in a house with several other climbers, and Jim Hoagland and I began testing the hard new routes at Suicide that Bud Couch had been constructing with his (older) friends. Once we realized that things like Sundance, the Iron Cross, and Chingadera (at Tahquitz) were do-able, we began pushing hard faces with our smooth-soled boots like PAs, EBs, and (later) Fires.
Rubidoux, in addition to being a bouldering haunt, became a place where we would practice moves we imagined to be like the cruxes on the routes we "wanted" in Idyllwild. The hottest thing on the planet (to our way of thinking) was the new Couch route, Valhalla. They had done all the hard work of placing the bolts and done each individual pitch, but (we believed) that Couch, Larry Reynolds and Mike Dent had still to do the first continuous ascent. We waited, for a suitably respectful length of time, but the stylish single push didn't come. The rumor was, this puppie was the first 5.11 face in the US, and was harder than other face route in the Valley. Since we were on a roll, having just done an early ascent of the Iron Cross, we started loitering around under Valhalla.
Hoagland was a quiet, very intense boulderer and the first pitch of Vahalla looked to us like a boulder problem. With a HUGE aura. So, one afternoon, we clipped the first bolt and several falls later, we found ourselves at the end of the first pitch. Well. That was more than enough for that weekend!
The next Saturday, I led the first pitch without a fall, so we were clearly learning the moves. Jim took several longish whippers on the crux of the second pitch, and we bailed later, quite mentally initimidated. Couch, by the way, had numerous times happened to wander below "his" routes to see us kids; and both Jim and I were quite cowed by his presence. Largo does a good job painting the tension we budding Stonemasters felt. I'm sure he felt that The Sunshine Face was HIS, dammit! (And, actually--back then--it really was.)
A week or two later--after serious bouldering sessions at Rubidoux--we returned with very calloussed tips. Jim also brought along a different shoe for each foot--a stiff one for that too-small, sharp edge on the crux. (I think it was a PA on the left, and a Calcaire on the right foot.) Now, PAs were de rigeur for the rest of the pitches, and he actually changed boots at the second stance.
So when Jim, Steve Toy and I worked-out the moves to Valhalla and eventually completed the route without falls on the third attempt, we had arrived--in our none-too-humble opinions. I think we really frustrated Bud Couch who wanted to finish Valhalla in one go; but he had left the route standing for many months, and we felt justified. And, it couldn't have helped to have a dozen later ascents happen almost overnight, by a ragtag bunch of kids who hadn't paid any serious dues yet. But such is youth.
Now, Gramich, Largo, Rocko, Randy, Evans... Let's hear your individual Valhalla tales.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Feb 19, 2006 - 09:46am PT
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Reading these stories, I can't help but contrast how it was with the Poway Mountain Boys of the same era and what it would have been like if you guys had spent a whole lot more time at Mt Woodson.
We had some guys with great natural talent (and great personalities) but we weren't nearly as competitive. For instance to get into the PMB, you just needed to be able to juggle, and, um, pretty much be from Poway (unless you had a climbing van or something to offer, then we might give you honarary status).
I'm thinkin', if we rubbed shoulders with you guys a bit more, we would have gotten better, faster. On the other hand, if you guys bouldered at Woodson, you probably would have been doing even crazier things in the wide crack arena.
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John Vawter
Social climber
San Diego
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Feb 19, 2006 - 02:35pm PT
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This is a great thread. Keep those stories coming. Haven't heard anything about New Gen, and No Go Ledge yet. Mike?
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Feb 19, 2006 - 04:10pm PT
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You guy’s are demanding too much typing out of me right at the moment :-)
I’ll put something together sooner than later.
MG
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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Feb 19, 2006 - 04:42pm PT
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and a retelling of the story of the Pine Cove party when Pete Minks pissed on the Brit flag.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Feb 19, 2006 - 07:28pm PT
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I'm almost positive that Ricky Accomazzo and I did the next ascent after Rob. Once we heard Rob had done it, we had it in mind to do it soon. It came down in one of those sponatneous ways that sometimes happens, when you find yourself on something on the spur of the moment without the pressure of thinking and fretting about it beforehand. I think it was a weekday. In any event there was no one at the rock at all. We'd been climbing all day around the corner and were just stumbling by and simply went over to the base of the route to have our first close look. I think at that time the only routes we'd done on the Sunshine Wall were Hesitation and Sundance.
The first pitch started with a mantle and just above we could see 2 bolts closely spaced so I said to Ricky, Hey, this doesn't look so bad. We're here so why don't we just play around on this first pitch. At that moment we had absolutely no intention of doing the whole route, or even the first pitch. I remember thinking I was going to run into some horrendous move somewhere, but aside from a hard, thin step down move by the second bolt--stiff, but far easier than the dime work we'd been up to at Rubidoux--it didn't seem tot bad. Ricky followed without incident.
So we found ourselves on that ledge looking out right at the crux bit. Seemed pretty straightforward to get to the first bolt--just a traverse right on good holds. So I said something like, "Yo, Ricky, let me take a little look at this thing, just for future reference." I had no plan to actually climb the thing, but since I was there I wanted to at least see what genuine 5.11 looked like up close. So I went out and clipped that first bolt and stood there on a big black foothold looking up at the crux bit just above. I was surprised because I could see what looked like pretty good edges, and the second bolt was only a few body lengths above as well. I was like a diver on the end of the board, not sure if I really wanted to try this and not sure if I wanted to go back to the ledge.
I had a brief conversation with Ricky who said from his position it didn't look that far to the next bolt and anyhow, the rock below was totally smooth and a fall would surely be a harmless skidder. No big deal. So I said, well, let me just go up a few moves and check out the holds.
The next part was one of those rare times when you feel like you're in some kind of totally different space, like you're watching yourself as you're doing something. Oddly, I didn't feel any pressure because I still was in "discovery" mode, not at all going for it. Just checking it out, thinking I'd probably jump off after a body length or so.
So I start up, climbing slowly, working off pretty good edges. Now the bolts at me feet but I'm still feeling solid and Ricky says the edges are looking pretty cherry and he's wondering where the crux is--probably up above. I distinctly remember cranking up another move and then pausing, clinging hard but still in control. Then I spoted a bomber slanting edge up and left. I latched it and my body automatically yarded up and I stretched out my right hand and got a big, bomber rill. Then the world came rushing back to me.
Ricky's voice suddenly got real excited and he said, "Man, you mantle that thing and we got it!" No way to reverse it now. And if there was anything I was doing a lot of those days, it was mantles. But I was super nervous now--like a thief who'd broken into a palace and was about to be caught. But I made the mantle okay and clipped the bolt and Ricky started laughing. We had another conversation about if that was really the crux or not and Ricky said he was sure of it--he'd been studying the description in the guidebook for weeks. Strangely, I felt sort of confused. I'd just flashed Valhalla and had no idea how to process the experience because in my mind the thing was some titanic problem. Then Ricky says Hurry up, I want to try it, and a little while later, Ricky hikes it as well--something we later attributed to having found the "hidden hold," that big edge out and left at the crux.
Next weekend we did it again, with Richard leading the first pitch.
This was a huge thing for us because we were still so unproven-especially to ourselves. I think the spontaneous, "Let's just have a look at this" approach worked in our favor because we hadn't put any thought into the thing. We just got up on it, and the rest is history.
The plain fact is we'd been climbing way harder things at Roubidoux for months. Our bodies already knew how to climb 5.11A thin hold routes, and beacuse our minds didn't get in the way, we just climbd the thing. Over the next few years I must have climbed Valhalla at least a dozen times, but it was never the same as that first time with Ricky.
JL
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kevin Fosburg
Sport climber
park city,ut
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Feb 19, 2006 - 08:59pm PT
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Were the Stonemasters the ones who chopped the bolts on the bolt ladder on the Salathe creating the mandatory 5.10 free climbing?
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Feb 19, 2006 - 09:38pm PT
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Kevin,
I’ll get this out real quick. I can not tell a lie.
This is an excerpt from an interview I did with Mt. Magazine. Seems like another lifetime ago. What I said then is probably what I would say today.
“In my eyes the Salathe was being destroyed, mainly due to the appearance of extra bolts placed by climbers who did not have the ability to climb it in the style of the first ascent. I figured that if I raised the standard of the route a little it would attract higher quality climbers, I know that sounds like I was playing God or something, but I just had it in my head to chop them. Several people got upset, including Robbins, or so I heard. The bolts were replaced within two weeks and the free climbing that I'd done, which was about 5.11, now has big holds chipped on it. When Salathe was first done only 1 3 bolts were used, but now it has over 20. In the end the route turned out to be worse."
All this made Graham a baddie, an ego-tripping hot¬headed upstart. But this image did not last for long. The first breath of a wind of change was beginning to blow across the States; the concept of free climbing, using the nut not the peg, had reared its ethical head and was beginning to be practiced by a growing following.
Salathe Wall, however, seems doomed by its excellence to attract climbers worldwide,
some of whom will obliviously place unwarranted aid to compensate for their own inadequacies.
I’ll leave it at that, I still stand by what I did.
Mike Graham
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rmuir
Social climber
Claremont, CA
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Feb 19, 2006 - 10:36pm PT
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And this Stonemaster, who did the Salathé Wall in 1974 when it still had 13 bolts, saw the route as it was meant to be.
As has been said many times before--and from its very inception--the "Stonemasters" label was a joke! Still is.
Dig it... The "Stonemasters" are a bunch of friends. That's it. Not a team. Not a movement. Not a company governed by a Board of Directors. "Stonemaster" is just a concept, not a tangible thing. ...a loose assembly of climbers who respect each other and have enjoyed each other's company. Some have done foolish things, a few have done brave things, most have taken great pleasure together in doing inconsequential things, and one or two have died along the way doing these things. But these things--and the stories surrounding them--are chiefly about individuals not some fantasy assemblage of indicted co-conspirators.
So, Mr. Fosburg... The Stonemasters didn't chop those bolts! A couple of guys did! For their own individual reasons. (Albeit noble ones, to my mind.)
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 19, 2006 - 10:46pm PT
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Gramicii aka stonemaster bad boy, hahahahaha
I remember the days like yesterday, the sweet smell of the cedar pines and the electric energy from that crew.
Stonemaster is a consciousness that will never die.
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Feb 19, 2006 - 10:58pm PT
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Well put Robs, Werner!
Valhalla – I can already see I can’t recollect the events during the ascent as well as those who went before me. Our bouldering mostly was limited to the beach at corona del mar. sure we made the odd pilgrimage to Rubidoux by public bus from Santa Ana. Even had the smoothsole slab pretty wired and a few others problems. Most of the preparation was done a suicide itself. Classic weekend warrior when your 15 with school during the week then bumming rides to the crag on Friday night. That was easy for me since my chauffeurs really wanted to do the cool routes. Like I eluded in an earlier post what pushed me into doing it spontaneously was the fact this guy Tobin whom I had never even seen before at the crags did it the day before.
That morning hiking up to the base went fairly quick. I don’t remember saying much I was pretty much in auto pilot right up until tying it. My partners were cool and pretty excited with the prospect of doing this route.
Steve West was great, a very conscientious belayer knew very well how to keep the right amount of slack in the rope and he knew I was sensitive too that. It was very well engrained in me that the rope was to only hold you in case you fell and any other tension was grounds for execution. The route itself was a blur I actually thought the first pitch may have had a single harder move but I believed in the saying 5.11 is just 5.10 done wrong. I don’t remember any phantom hold out and left maybe that’s why I fell twice on the second pitch? Definitely a sequence to the problem.
I do remember pulling off that mantle with a grin ear to ear. Then looking back at Steve just sitting there smiling at me. After leading the first two pitches the third was just magic. Alan our other partner (Robs I thought you would of remembered his last name for me by now) gave it a good go. I wasn’t mean with the letting out slack ploy but I do remember right after that day Alan just up and joined the army. What’s the motto be all you can be?
So I recon that was the sixth ascent. Two weeks later I did the seventh with this guy Terry Emerson who lead the second pitch in fine style can’t remember if he flashed it our not but I had the sequence fresh in my head from before. Although I still thought that first pitch was still just as hard as the first time I did.
The third and last time I did the route was an interesting day and I will let RickA tell that tale with HB. OK?
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Tarbuster
climber
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Feb 20, 2006 - 03:59am PT
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My concept of the Stonemaster formula:
[rudimentary tools] + [sophisticated movement skills] x [strict performance ethics/unbridled commitment] = excellent constraints for galvanizing character and conviction.
Or: sh#t gear + gonzo = a lot of great routes!
Not that I would know: In ’75 I was not mastering any stone. I was getting a wedgie from a Whillans Ballbuster and scratching my way out of The Trough in case hardened PA’s. The next year I decked off Zig Zag and tumbled, belayed but cordless, down the ramp into a bush at the edge of the final drop. (Thereafter I rarely forgot to finish tying my knot)(Thanks Larry).
The Stonemasters was a tight knit subculture that bred a combination of self reliance and interdependence. It had its icons, sets of codified behavior, rites of passage, and mentorship.
My childhood pal and I learned from Basic Rockcraft and gumbied along, mostly leading sideways until we were fortunate enough for some mentorship- er, well, on rare occasion a Stonemaster was alone mid-week and needed a belay. For Doug it was Richard who slapped him in the back of the saddle for the day, replete with a boom box ‘reppin Jimi. Richard’s girlfriend just hung out. Harboring any notion at all that a rockclimber could actually have a girl we sported hard-ons for a year.
I shortly ponied up for some eebs and liberated ‘dem balls by tying into a 2” swami. Thankfully, Powell ‘learned me what a dime was, one day Henny provided a real opportunity to edge and crimp, and for a couple years E repeatedly shoved my ass out out on lead -with a diet rack.
In the space defined by the advent of smooth soled shoes and the reign of the nut, Stonemasters owned the stage. Once, while squaring a dimp, Yabo told me climbing 5.11 crack with nuts was often a life or death proposition. Gee wiz, with Yab-a-ho the one man tribe, the whole enchilada was a white knuckle ride.
Largo rallied all us n00bs to the real goods like a carnival barker on a hot Sunday afternoon. He gave one the sense that the leader of the Stonemasters was a position up for grabs, defined by whoever took the sharp end at any particular moment.
Searching for Stonemaster crumbs: Bartlett hooked me up. While guiding for Don Wilson’s fading school in my last fresh pair of eebs, Navy Seals as Jugmonkeys, I squirreled up through the Harding Slot. When the men piled up onto the ledge they exclaimed: sh#t, we’ve jumped out of low flying airplanes and killed guys with our bare hands and this is way wilder!
The August years of the Stonemasters where already trailing behind: cams were out from behind Jardine's shirt, I witnessed John Lonne piloting New Gen in board stiff blue suede RR’s (one last time?) and Bachar was out on a methodical rampage with his lats and sax.
But now, persistent still, the miracle of the words: HO! MAN!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Feb 20, 2006 - 05:51am PT
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All this sounds pretty reminicent of our experiences in SoIll in the mid-70's. We all started climbing a couple of years older than you guys, but the "discovery" modis operendi sounds exactly the same though we didn't have nearly as many existing routes or as much of an established culture to contend with as you Stonemasters. But the result was similar, we all "cluelessly" rambled about without any preconceived ideas about what we couln't do and so ended up doing quite a bit in hindsight. The only group moniker ever (briefly) attempted was "Mississippi Roof Rats" and we didn't have nicknames. We did have one short intermingling with the Stonemasters when one of our own, Doug Drewes, spent awhile in c4 one summer sometime in the late 70's or early 80's. When next we saw him he did have quite a few entertaining tales to tell of hanging out playing guitar, chess, and bouldering with a few of you. I know he said everyone was open and friendly. He still speaks very fondly of that summer.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Feb 20, 2006 - 10:16am PT
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Roll call of the old dads:
DH and KP- Wonderful to hear from you guys. Hope all is well. Thanks a lot for DH’s telling of the story of Tobin and Valhalla. The day that you describe was the first time that JL and I met Tobin. We walked up to the base of Suicide and, inexplicably, Tobin was up in that tree next to the rock. This could not pass without comment, so we struck up a bizarre conversation with him from the ground, but he never really explained what he was doing up there. Then, later that day, we see this eccentric new kid leading Valhalla!. I always wondered why he happened to be in that tree and now the mystery is solved!
RV-I had completely suppressed the ritual of the “trees”. I do recall that all any passenger in the car had to say was, “tradition,” and the driver was compelled to perform the maneuver ( kids, don’t try this at home, it was really stupid)
RM- about Autopilot at Rubidoux. JL, do you remember the following? It may well be accurate. You and I had worked on the low crux of that boulder route for most of a day, unsuccessfully. Later, we each came back, alone, and solved the problem. When we met each other the next time several weeks later, we each casually say to the other, simultaneously, “By the way, I finally got that problem we were working on.” In comparing notes, we couldn’t figure out who actually did it first. I named it Autopilot, because after the crux, the rest of the moves seemed to flow without conscious thought, probably because the notion of a fall from high on that boulder to the nasty, sloping landing was unthinkable. Johnny, I take issue with your recollection that we were not competitive with each other!
MG- about the early gear you made, I still have one of your prototype, lightweight daypacks, which predated the Golite style of weight- saving packs by about 20-25 years. I also have an early, Hawaiian-style shirt from Gramicci, with a pattern featuring a figure bouldering. If you look carefully, the shirt of the figure who is bouldering has tiny Stonemaster lightning bolts all over it.
GC- didn’t’ know you were just down the road, we should get together. Do I recall correctly that you and I were college sports rivals, prior to meeting at Woodson or Tahquitz?
JL- on the ”hidden hold” on Valhalla. You’ve got a good memory; we thought everyone else might have missed that one. In retrospect, it was one of those occasions when the climbing seemed less difficult than it should have been, compared to our vivid imaginings and too many close readings of the guidebook descriptions. Remember when you, Richard and I did the Prow, one of our first big walls and first experience in using hooks for aid? We had imagined a blank wall where you would have to squint to find a tiny nubbin to hook, and we were a bit disappointed that the hooks were actually A-1 placements on large flakes.
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Feb 20, 2006 - 11:15am PT
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Per John Vawder’s request
New Generations
With a name like that we obviously thought a lot about ourselves and what we were doing back then. But oddly enough how we came to do the route that day was quite to the contrary. There was no plan didn’t even consider working towards doing it and not even in the backs of our minds… well at least mine since I can’t speak for Tobin Sorenson.
It was a period when we could pretty much just do any climb we tried We were establishing a number new routes back then in the only style we knew which was on the lead and it typically found us needing to stand on less than small holds. Needless to say you could get real fatigued and fast.
I was experimenting with different types of footwear back then. The mountain shop I worked for had a small boot resoleing setup. I was mostly using PA’s and switching to RD’s occasionally. My though was to make a stiffer boot for just that, standing on tiny edges for the twenty or so minutes need to get the resemblance of a decent bolt in. my choice for this experiment was the Black Galibier “Calcare”.
The first order of business was to rip off its lug sole and replace it with a smooth PA sole. Bingo! it made the perfect edging machine. A very different technique from today’s sticky boot, not very forgiving. It required a very precise foot angle and placement. Usually heel down five or so degrees with the trick being not to change the angle as you stepped through. The classic fault of less than adequate foot work is lifting your heel which pops the foot right off.
Test diving the boot on the weeping wall was fun, felt like short skis underfoot. Largo catches a first glimpse at this point and it’s a ho-man where you get those. John if you remember this your parents came down to Ski Mart that next week and I set them up in a pair for you.
That warm spring day we found ourselves at the base of sunshine face just looking for something to do maybe a little bored. I never did a route more that once or twice… Ok, maybe three times. It’s just me, I don’t see the point. My loss because I never got to have the chance to get something ruthlessly wired.
This was a day we needed some new territory to explore. So just like that it was a, lets go check out this thing above “no go ledge” a seemingly abandoned project. Strapped on my trusty boots tied in and didn’t bother with the drill kit. This was just a classic boulder problem the only hassle was you should have a rope to do it. The decisive move was I remember a thin mantle and having to high step to it. Got it my third try and Tobin went nuts! Kept shaking head and saying “I can’t believe you did it”. I said yeah, but tie the bolt kit on the rope because I don’t want to have to repeat it. Putting myself at considerable risk I got enough slack down to him to get the bag to me all the time standing there focused not to move my feet one tenth of a degree.
Sorry for the bolt being a little bit of a spinner but allowed me to carry on with the rest of the pitch which was unfortunately anticlimactic. In fact I think the balance of the route was pretty contrived. Seems to be a problem when too many things start coming together.
Tobin never prided himself on being a much of a boulderer so found it a little tough that day. But we were both pretty stoked with the end result. I went back once after that with John Bachar and some friends from Yosemite. Dale Bard, Ron Kauk and Kevin Worrall. John and I did the route this time I led it in EB’s and found it quite a bit easier John cruised it too. That was a cold April weekday almost a touch of snow in the air.
Even then it was funny seeing how quick things change. But I want to know why do they still call it “no go ledge”
Mike Graham
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