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McHale's Navy
Boulder climber
Panorama City, California
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Nov 17, 2012 - 10:52pm PT
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Thanks Cole! And, CaChing, I just ordered the Stoney DVD - the trailer is great. I'm glad to hear Stoney is all wet too - makes me feel better about having to to go to the gym (up here in Seattle)! The Seattle Bouldering Project is pretty cool.
It will be fun digging up the photos. I know I have a slide of top-roping the main biggest face at Stoney left of CS crack. Got most of the way up, past that short vertical isolated discontinuous flared chimney feature about 1970 - never tried that one again but should have!
Has anyone documented climbing out at Box Canyon? Is there anything going on out there these days? That big arch was a great big wall training ground and I put in belay bolts above it (on lead) to free the face above it but never had the chance to do it either. Sounds like we did the arch free but is was nailing.
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FRUMY
Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
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Nov 18, 2012 - 12:49am PT
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Thanks, great pic.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 18, 2012 - 07:01pm PT
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Here are a couple Box Canyon pics I took. Dick James is in both. One is him standing at the base of the old rurp route below the right end of the arch. The arch is much bigger at its left end. The 2nd photo is of Dick coming over the lip of the arch above the rurp crack after traversing the arch. 3rd photo is of me during a net hammock bivi under the arch taken by my friend Otis. Photos are no later than 1970 and can be as early as 1968. I was 18 in 1970. The Box Canyon area is closer to Santa Susana Pass than Stoney.
Dick worked with me at the Pumice Mine at Mono Craters and at the pumice mill in town in Lee Vining! We were on our way to Alaska after I got out of high-school and somehow got hung up at the mine. Yosemite may have had something to do with that. I quit after a couple of months after coughing up pumice 'foam'. Dick had quit earlier because for some reason the jack-hammers blew his for-arms. My last job was as a sawyer so I skirted the jack-hammer blues.
This photo Otis took of the me and the gear for the Box Canyon Arch is at Stoney. The ropes date the photo too.
I'll end this post with this shot of Dan Wourt (not sure of spelling of last name - pronouced Wert). This is on the front face of Turlock and he's traversing one-handed. The hardest one-handed route I ever did at Stoney was what looks to be now called the Yabbo Mantle (lieback to undercling to mantle bowl). Kamps could do that route one-handed and I basically followed his lead!
Dan Wourt was a photographer and he got me into it a bit and had me buy a Pentax Spotmatic. That's probably what this was shot with. Dan did some Needles exploration with me including some early trundling in the late 60s.
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matty
Trad climber
under the sea
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Nov 18, 2012 - 07:42pm PT
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Thanks Dan really enjoy your words and seeing those photos. Classic stuff.
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Cole
Trad climber
los angeles
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:13pm PT
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Awesome Dan! That last photo especially is so rad, wish we could have included it in the documentary. BTW, thanks for buying a copy! I look forward to hearing what you think.
Those Box Canyon photos are awesome too. I drove around and looked at those walls a couple times but never hiked up to the base or climbed on them. I'm not sure anyone has in a long time, maybe someone reading here will get motivated to check the area out. If you got more pics keep em coming!
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Dennis Hennek
climber
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:38pm PT
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I love this thread, always have. Stoneys the place I started climbing. On my bicycle at 10 years old I would ride over the the Santa Susana Pass, with my brothers, to Coraganville, and watch actors stage gunfights around the movie sets. At that time I lived in Canoga Park, and graduated from high school in 63 with Boche and Mclean. I later moved to Chatsworth with my family and lived on 5 acres on Chatsworth Street. We had horses that I could ride to Stoney and climb or into the hills behind. That area is now bisected by a freeway. A lot of great memories and friends from that time. Since its now November and raining, remember to let the place dry out before pulling again.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:53pm PT
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Dennis, A few years before I started climbing I lived in Chatsworth and my family had horses as well! We only had 1/2 acre though! I wanted to rope calves and make a roping team with my step-dad but he was too chicken!
I still have the issue of Summit Magazine with Dihedral Diary in it. I must have read that story 100 times and I clearly remember being at Stoney hearing about you and Don on the NA Wall. I can still feel the energy of that day.
Here are 2 more shots of mine of Dick James nailing at Stoney. The ceiling is around the backside of Stoney and the other overhanging wall is just around from Bethoven - it's that wall that looks like grease is seaping out of it. I took photos just now of these prints since they are too big to scan. Click these for enlargements.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Nov 18, 2012 - 11:04pm PT
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Hey Dan, you remember my dad Blair Glenn? He has talked about you a ton, nothing but great stuff. He lived with you for a bit in san jose or campbell, said you would all work out like crazy on the safeway rock wall.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 18, 2012 - 11:36pm PT
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Sure! There were some crazy times in that apartment! What's he up to? I sure lost track when I moved to Idaho. I went to visit Bill Burns and never came back but that was after moving back to SoCal. What was the name of the local Stoney Point up there above Los Gatos? I remember being at Winchell's Donuts to builder and a guy pulled up on a motorcycle wearing my stolen Holubar expedition down parka. It was very convenient that there was a cop there also.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Nov 19, 2012 - 12:52am PT
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castle rock. My dad lives up in the hills right next to summit rock and castle rock, owned a tree service for the last 36 years. Saratoga tree service. Did you really run barefoot in the snow? (one of his stories about you)
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 19, 2012 - 01:06am PT
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Running barefoot in snow is not that big of a deal. I did it some in Idaho in about 20 degrees F but don't remember doing it with Blair. It's easier to walk barefoot in snow than run, and safer in terms of getting impaled. This pic below is from 1985 and the short story in Rock & Ice was 1989. It's kind of like walking barefoot in the snow! My original story was edited a bit so what's here is a little tacky in places - like the contact lens thing! Click for an easier read. The blurry thing near my right pocket is my chock bag - there just for psychological security. Just kidding there, it's just a ghost image from scanning.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Nov 19, 2012 - 01:28am PT
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I once ran across a 100 yard parking lot barefoot, through 20 inches of new snow. Hurt like friggin hell.
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dncs_w_bldrs
Boulder climber
NY to Cali
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Nov 19, 2012 - 02:30am PT
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Wow those are some great photos, Dan! Thanks for sharing. I love seeing old Stoney Point photos. It's awesome to be a part of the history.
Sooo..when will Stoney be ready to climb? (given it doesn't rain again within the next few days) Thanksgiving, perhaps? I do appreciate the rain, but I'm antsy after 3 weeks of no climb time!
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Nov 19, 2012 - 01:23pm PT
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Dan.... Thank you for taking the time to post up old photos.
I started climbing at SP in 1973.... Bob Kamps would show all of us around and I recall him saying.... "McHale did that one a few years ago"... many times.
You did the Yabo Mantle one handed!!!!!!! The Boys now have something to shoot for.
One thing that always amazes me is how many good climbers grew up in the San Fernando Valley.
Was it the out door lifestyle, and having a formation like Stoney close by?
Please keep the shots comming and please let all of US know if you get down this way, we would love to show you around the Point... its all cleaned up, there are many new problems and a whole lot of motivited young climbers
who are tearing it up.
And to Dances.... It's starting to dry out now (monday am) Thursday might be good. I'll post up later in the week.
Guy Keesee
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 19, 2012 - 03:27pm PT
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Thanks for the invite. I better get in shape! Stoney Point shape that is!
The San Fernando thing must go back to Jack Lalanne and beyond. I did jumping jacks to him in front of the TV when I was 10. My serious fitness did not really start that early though. I could not do a single pullup at Columbus Junior High at the beginning President Kennedy's fitness programs. My friend Joe Brown started taking me to a gym in Santa Monica when I was pretty young and I built up pretty fast. When I graduated from high school I could do several chin-ups with 100 lbs hanging around my neck. I know Joe was influenced by the whole muscle beach scene and I'll bet Ken McNutt was also! Joe at age 68 or so is doing 500 mile bicycle races. Ken had a big influence on me. He was 55 when I was 16 and when I turned 55 I was a bit dissappointed that I had not lived up to my image of Ken. As I got older I always told myself I would maintain some resemblance to Ken when I turned 55. I'm hanging in there though and have been recovering from a few injuries like everyone gets.
John Gill must have been the guy that started the more specific exercise regime. Being specific is important. When I moved back to LA from San Jose I decided I wanted to cross-country ski race and while in San Jose I had the idea to ski on the beach for training. That's exactly what I did and wore the fish scales off some Track skis at Santa Monica. I did that at night since it was a little weird. I won my first 2 citizen races at Mammoth and Yosemite and more in Idaho. It was like that with the small climbing wall I made that I could change the angle of by leaning it against a tree or letting it hang from a rope for overhangs. It was what I called my mantle board and I could bolt various sized mantles to it and practice doing one-arm mantles with the board at various angles. I'm thinking of making a living room sized version that is not so tall.
It was important to have the Sierra Club around too. I actually first started climbing out to the extreme west end of the valley with a friend. We got the alpine bug from somewhere - like that Spencer Tracy movie. If you look out to the end of the valley toward Thousand Oaks there was a ridgeline that looked like an eagle spreading it's wings. That's where I hung out if I was not fishing on Malibu Pier. We bought some nylon ropes from a hardware store and would scramble and hang ropes over horns of rock and rappel Dulfer-Style. When I first went to Stoney we would hang a rope on that lip of rock up on Rock 1 and lower off. My mother at some point called the Sierra Club and I got hold of their schedule from the RCS and learned of Stoney's existence. My first time there, she just dropped me off and I could see somebody climbing up the far left crack of the main face there. I practically ran up to it and followed the guy up. It could have been Tom Higgins for all I knew. My first real climb was free-solo! I had no idea! I thought the ropes were just for going down. I joined the RCS and learned just enough to be dangerous and never did completely finish my card. Hey, climbing was all about rebellion and there were always people to show you the ropes! I never went to my last rolfing session either!
Getting back to San Fernando energy, it was just the shear numbers of people, just like the Bay area, that created the numbers of good climbers. Couple that with some friendly competition and some of the most amazing climbing in the world, just a few hours away, and the rest is history.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 20, 2012 - 12:54am PT
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Hello Dan McHale. thank's for posting ur pictures.
Stoney point got me ready for my hardest big wall the Tis-sa-sack route in 2001. i thought it b kool to put ur rack pic along with mine.
the roof picture is the best because i've pounded that thing also.
Ryan Mattock
P.s .
to Dennis Hennick
you still have a box of bolts from Westridge Mountaineering on hold!!
greatness for stoney crew!
Dennis Hennek wrote on the Stoney Point thread!!!!
Nov 18, 2012 - 06:38pm PT
I love this thread, always have. Stoneys the place I started climbing. On my bicycle at 10 years old I would ride over the the Santa Susana Pass, with my brothers, to Coraganville, and watch actors stage gunfights around the movie sets. At that time I lived in Canoga Park, and graduated from high school in 63 with Boche and Mclean. I later moved to Chatsworth with my family and lived on 5 acres on Chatsworth Street. We had horses that I could ride to Stoney and climb or into the hills behind. That area is now bisected by a freeway. A lot of great memories and friends from that time. Since its now November and raining, remember to let the place dry out before pulling again
thank you sir!
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Nov 20, 2012 - 01:18am PT
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Ryan, was there a big rockfall up there on Tis-sa-sack in recent years? I saw a video that looked like it was close. Did you post a TR?
Is Westridge gone? I could not find it in a search.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 20, 2012 - 02:07am PT
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hi dan!
the steep half dome Tis-sa-sack route is/was fun!
no rock fall when we climbed it in mid-sept of 2001.
recently in may/2012 i climbed the prow with dave katz and could see the angel rock scar which has been there since dec 2001.
i owe all my rock craft skill to stoney point.
edit:
prow katz may 2012.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 20, 2012 - 01:18pm PT
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When I climbed the NW Face of Half Dome (back in 1980, when I was 16) there was a party on Tis-Sa-Ack that was sending down huge trundles. They even had to rap off to get a spare rope after one of their ropes was cut. You think that would scare one away but strangely, ever since then, I've always wanted to climb that route.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Nov 20, 2012 - 01:23pm PT
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Getting back to San Fernando energy, it was just the shear numbers of people, just like the Bay area, that created the numbers of good climbers. Couple that with some friendly competition and some of the most amazing climbing in the world, just a few hours away, and the rest is history.
Dan.... that sums ITall up pretty nicely.
You talked about Ken McNut..... I remember him, he was all buff, as old as my Dad and owned a BMW motorbike. He could do all the problems and I recall being warned about getting on a handball court with him...
It's really great of you to post up about Stoney, please keep the pics comming.
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