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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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You have my attention...
Keep it coming.
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mazamarick
Trad climber
WA
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Keep it coming, you've got me interested and looking for more...
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Hardly Visible
climber
Port Angeles
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Still listening, please post more.
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MH2
climber
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There are rumours that ladybugs still nested on the Chief as late as the 1970s.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Thanks, Andy! That's quite the lovely p'terodactyl - I didn't know they came in pink. (Perhaps there's a 'creation scientist' around who can advise.) I'll get back to work this weekend, scanning and posting.
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MH2
climber
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Thanks for spinning some oldies, Anders.
At what in the world of today is a stately, possibly even glacial pace.
"Take your time - though it’s late
heart strings will sing like a string of twine
if you take your time"
South Arete is a good route. We discovered it a couple years ago by accident after starting up a line of bolts just left of St. Vitus and then going a little further left. It has its own start, of course, which we have since been back to do. The route follows a loooong corner/crack but seems to be invisible from any distance. Quite the mystery. I think the bolts on the slab at the top are for another or other route(s) that have multiplied like ladybugs and dispersed across all the available rock.
We were also surprised and amazed to come across the feature whose upper aspect is shown as "unsure" in one of your ancient photographs, and which has since been correctly identified as being in the vicinity of Anxiety State, although that route makes an improbable traverse leftwards a little below the place shown.
I have nothing to add directly to a history of Squamish climbing in the 70s. A strong woman climber, Laura Jasch, came out to Vancouver from Chicago in the late 70s and on a return visit she told us a little about the Grand Wall (and about Cathedral in Manning Provincial Park). Laura was once cited for climbing in a no climbing zone and her reaction to that was published as a letter to Climbing in 1976 and in Games Climbers Play. She may be in need of a lawyer.
When I moved out to Seattle in '79 I did begin to hear about and develop respect for a few of the Squamish legends.
It is hilarious to think of Clean Corner as 5.6. Old Guy N.B. did that one with me and claims that in the era you are recalling he did that climb, "with a few pins and wires."
Once, just for a moment, the mists of time parted as I was belaying some guy, as he was leading out left beyond that crack on Teetering On the Brink, and as he paused on blankness and lifted one foot and then the other and carefully rotated his ankles to relieve the strain of relentless steep friction.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Sorry. Laura Jasch died in August 1984, from a rock and snow slide off Snowpatch Spire. There's an obituary in the Canadian Alpine Journal 1985, page 35. She was a professor at UBC, and of course a very active climber and mountaineer. I don't believe she climbed at Squamish a lot, but I remember seeing her occasionally in the late 1970s.
I'm flattered that Andy decided to be MH2. As they say about stamp collecting, imitation is the sincerest form of philately.
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MH2
climber
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"imitation is the sincerest form of philately."
Then you are aware that Mighty Hoax from little A. Cairns grow?
Get on with the mission, man!
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Of course - things go better with coax.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Please, no more linguist jokes.
Simon was the first person I met who really enjoyed top-roping. But that was before I moved to California.
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Russ S.
climber
Seattle, WA
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Very cool! I found 14, but didn't search the entire photo. Hard for me to tell what routes folks are on on the Apron with the fore-shortening. Thanks for posting the photo (and lets move on to the '80's!)
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Nov 21, 2008 - 03:59pm PT
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It is hilarious to think of Clean Corner as 5.6. Old Guy N.B. did that one with me...
Ah hah! Finally, someone who has actually climbed Clean Corner. I've gone looking for it, and never found it. Or maybe one of the things I rapped down was Clean Corner but since it looked like 5.11 OW I just assumed it couldn't be.
Would you be willing to climb it again? With Mari & me? Or at least hike to the top and show me where to rap in?
D
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MH2
climber
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Nov 22, 2008 - 12:50am PT
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Clean Corner
Neil Bennett looking down Clean Corner
Neil Bennett looking up Clean Corner
Neil Bennett on The Prow, photo by Tim Auger
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 22, 2008 - 01:18am PT
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Jim Baldwin did the first Canadian ascent of El Cap, the Dihedral Wall. I'm not sure who was first after him, but could well be Neil and Gordie.
Edit: And Chouinard's parents (?) were Canadian, so maybe that would count for something. When did he first climb El Cap?
I like those photos of Clean Corner, a stout route done in 1962 by Dick Willmott and Dick Strachan. Originally graded 5.6, by the 'old' Squamish grading system, though maybe they used bits of aid. Probably 5.9 or harder in reality. Apparently lots of wide stuff - Ed, JayBro and Russ would approve. It's rarely climbed - I only know one other party that's done it lately. So the photo of Neil, who climbed a lot at Squamish in the 1960s and still is climbing, and the route, fit well, even if slightly pre-1970s.
And yes, OK OK, I'll try to take the hint. I was at the Access Society annual meeting tonight, so that has to be a good excuse.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Nov 22, 2008 - 01:22am PT
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I think Neil (and Gordie?) did the fifth ascent of the NA.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Well, I’m finally back, and have some more pictures and stories. My apologies for the delays – I’ll try to do better.
I've got some stuff in reserve now, which you'll just have to wait patiently for. But a question - should I start a new thread for this, Climbing at Squamish in the 1970s, Part II?
As time goes on, most of us realize more and more that our climbing adventures, while a great challenge in and of themselves, are memorable as much because of the people and the places as the actual climb. So I thought I’d now show a few pictures of Squamish climbers in the 1970s. There have already been some upthread – that is, photos with recognizable climbers, instead of the more usual blurry rear end from below. Daryl, Eric, Ghost, me, and others. The next sequence of shots will focus on climbers rather than climbs, with maybe a few stories - pointillist vignettes. Departing from my usual rule, some of the shots are from elsewhere than Squamish, as for now it’s about the climbers, not the climbs.
You may even recognize a few of the people – many spent a fair amount of time in the Valley during the 1970s, and indeed a few are Merrycans. I'm only sorry that I don't have more photos, though I gradually took more, and have some that will have to serve as retrospectives.
I’ve never shown many of these pictures, except perhaps to the person(s) who may be in them. There’s been vague talk about doing a slide show, maybe at the film festival here, or even writing these stories and pictures up in some publishable form, but that’s as far as it’s gone. At this point, it’s a sort of private slide show, which friends and lurkers can enjoy.
One friend who I’ve had many fine adventures over the years with is John A. (I’ll continue to omit last names, out of propriety.) He was recruited in about 1974, and as a somewhat older working man, with a vehicle, was good to have involved. He, Steve M. and I made our first trip to the Valley in late June 1974. One afternoon I wrote my last grade 12 scholarship exam, then we were off. We couldn’t believe how hot it was once we got there, but had two great weeks anyway. Here’s John soon after we got back, on the Wedgemount Glacier, just northeast of Whistler. (Other photos of it in the ladybug thread.) A nice weekend mountaineering expedition.
And speaking of Steve M., here he is, on Slab Alley in 1975.
A steady fellow, though I eventually lost touch with him.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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YC's first El Cap route was the FA of the NA Wall oddly enough.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Another activity we then did was backcountry skiing, though far less so than people do now. Access, techniques and equipment are much improved. Still, winter here lasts from October to April, and you need something to do. So with our double leather lace up boots, wooden skiis, strap-on skins, cable bindings, frame packs, and avalanche cord, we set out. Probably much the most dangerous thing we did in the outdoors in those days. Anyway, here’s Scott F., on the way into the Himmelsbach Hut at Russet Lake, just east of Whistler, in late 1973. That was the trip on which we read Advanced Rockcraft by candlelight.
Scott was then in grade 10, but an avid downhill skier. He went on to become an outstanding climber. On the trip, the screws on his bindings pulled out of his skiis – we fixed them by filling the holes with candle wax and matchsticks, then cramming the screws back in. The pointy peak in the background is the Black Tusk, home of many ladybugs. At that time, it was an adventurous day to get to the hut from what was then the top of Whistler, well to the west of where it is now. As the ski area has grown and encroached on Garibaldi Park, access has gotten easier.
I should admit that I was actually a snowshoer before I started skiing – the story that Norwegians are born with skiis on their feet apparently isn’t always true. Though I have been to Øverbø, the birthplace of Sondre Norheim, in Telemark.
Another good climbing friend was Len S. He was a football player in high school, and very solid and reliable. Here he is on Snake, in 1975 – we were eventually defeated by seasonal wetness, and had to make about eight 20 metre rappels to get down. Not my worst descent – John and I retreated once from very high on the east ridge of Bugaboo Spire, in foul weather, and had to make 16 rappels. By the end, we were taking the slings out of our nuts and friends, and tying them together to make anchors.
We often climbed at Lighthouse Park, in the northwestern suburbs of Vancouver, not so far from some of the sea cliff shots that Andy (MH2) has been posting. One or two evenings a week from April to September, bouldering, traversing and toproping. Another challenge was this odd stump on the trail down – the real challenge was doing it no-hands. Somehow John got up it. Note his natty red plaid lumberjack shirt.
I suppose this activity might be called stumpaneering.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Another seaside cliff is the Malemute, later the scene of various access problems. Robin B. and friends had done a good crack pitch up the middle of a sort of headwall, Quagmire Crack. One rainy August he dragged me back, and we did an aid route that diagonally bisected Quagmire. I wasn’t very happy about some hooking I had to do near the top, my first ever, and so Robin wittily named it the Unhappy Hooker. But he meant well, as always.
And another visit to Leavenworth. Here Eric leads Angel Crack – he’d just bought a new rope and some nuts, but as you can see his harness was a bit faded. That was Labour Day weekend 1975, a weekend which featured quite a lot of beer for several Canadians in Leavenworth, though not me. There was no way I could pass for 21.
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