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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 17, 2007 - 05:11pm PT
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So Stratoshere is quite the gigantic plumb?
More on that item if you please Leonard.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Nov 17, 2007 - 09:45pm PT
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Is the OW slide flipped? River looks like it's flowing the wrong way. This is all I have to go by, as I have yet to take the Air Voyage. Looks like you'd take a big one if you blew it with that rack, though.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Nov 18, 2007 - 12:16am PT
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Good call R.R. that picture is indeed reversed.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Nov 19, 2007 - 05:28pm PT
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STRATOSFEAR!!! Finally. The ST forum has such a slant toward California climbing that I'm sure relatively few can really appreciate what a climb this is. I'm not sure if there is anything in Yosemite that can compare with the combination of difficulty and scariness. This climb has captured my imagination since I first heard of it 17 years ago. I wanna do it before I die....
Thanks, leonard.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Nov 23, 2007 - 01:47pm PT
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In 1979 - 1980 I was in Africa serving our government when I suffered a debilitating injury. My leg got buckled backwards and my foot split my lip. Total destruction! Four months later I got back to the States for reconstructive surgery. I was at the peak of my climbing game and consequently driven to rehab and return. One month after my completing the grueling rehab I went down the SOB gulley. My friend Tom Pulaski was guiding a client up the S. Arete of the Painted Wall. They planned to bivy at the bottom of the SOB and start early the next morning. I offered to carry their bivy gear back up and they reluctantly accepted. Tom gave me a pair of cross country ski poles for the hike. That was my first experience with treking poles and I have been a convert ever since. As I was very, very slow Tom & Dan cruised on ahead leaving me to my thoughts and processes.
Everything went remarkably well untill I got to near the bottom of the gulley. I pulled up on a big flat topped boulder to survey the scene. I could see Tom & Dan setting up for the night. I could see all the amazing walls that had consumed so much of my life. I could see the wonder and immensity of it all. I was blissing. Then I turned to continue my descent. The movement caused me to lose my balance and I tumbled over the edge. Now I'd done it. I was so sure it was all over. I was falling backwards watching my climbing career evaporate in front of my eyes. I believe I fell about twenty feet, landing flat on my back with my fall being broken by my back pack and a dense tangle of brambles. I was unharmed, stuck in the sticker bushes and laughing my arse off. It took me a good twenty minutes to extricate myself from the briar patch. I joined back up with Tom & Dan and had to explain the severe lacerations all over my exposed skin. Fortunately Dan was a doctor and gave me first aid and a clean bill of health. What a trip! In the morning I very slowly climbed back up to the rim carrying everyones bivy gear. It was tedious and tiring but I was alive, unharmed and exstatic!
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clustiere
Trad climber
Rock Ridge/ Oakland CA
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Nov 23, 2007 - 02:25pm PT
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Boy I sure miss that place. Seems like every route there gets respect from climbers of all abilities. It definately has the Valley beat on inevetable adventure factor. Till next time I sleep among the cecada bugs.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Nov 25, 2007 - 09:23am PT
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Another great story, Philo.
I just read Pat Ament's account of his first trip to the Black Canyon with Kor in Games Climbers Play (reprinted from an article in Mountain 50). What a great short story! I don't always like Pat's writing, but this one, albeit short, is an absolute gem. Pat was 17 and Layton 25. I started off climbing with guys older than me, and the story resonated with some of my early recollections of being on hard, scary stuff and being more afraid of my partner (Rick Piggott) than of the climb.
Layton Kor, for me, is the most interesting character in the history of American climbing. Kor and the Black were made for each other.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Dec 16, 2007 - 11:47pm PT
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In the late 70s I had a wild haired idea. A first ever winter ascent of a major wall in the Black Canyon. The Nose in Winter. Or as we came to call it "Picking the Nose". At first every one thought I was crazy. Probably true. But eventually four of us Gunnistoners decided to give it a go. The team consisted of Tom Pulaski, Bob Dickerson, Jimmy Newberry and myself. Gear was gathered and elaborate preperations were undertaken consisting of raiding the Newberry's General Store supplies for wall food. We took off from Cimarron in Jimmy's beat up and overladen Dodge Power Wagon on a vividly crisp winter night and arived at the North Rim to a gloriously unburdened morning sky. Good omens all around. Back in Cimarron Jimmy's wonderful but worried mom undoubtedly lit candles for us all just like she always did when Newberry went adventuring. Everything went swimmingly right up until we had to actually hoist the piggiest packs imaginable or our backs and head down the double black diamond ski chute otherwise known as the Cruise gulley. Somehow we survived the descent just slightly frayed about the edges. No one spoke it but I am sure none of us wanted to reverse the approach. Hauling usually sucks but hauling a weeks worth of full winter wall gear for four up the initial towers of the Nose of Chasm View really blew. We eventually fixed a couple of pitches above the upper tower and settled in to a cramped but comfortable bivy. That night we dined on the weirdest assortment of snacks and condiments I could imagine including sticks of butter crammed into mangled bags of cookie crumbs. Mmmm crum-cicles. I was utterly amped! This was what climbing was all about to me. This was the real deal!
Sometimes I think the miserably uncomfortable and sleepless Black Canyon butt bag bivies are better than the cushy ledge kind. At least the weather doesn't sneak up on you that way. Newberry and I were in his two man hanging tent (it might have been an original Lurp Tent) and sleeping plushly. In the early morning it became apparent that not all was as it should be. First off the tent was frozen shut. Secondly everything was covered with rime ice and soundly frozen to the wall. We were engulfed in real time winter. This weird storm had snaked up canyon leaving a 500 foot wide vertical glacier in it's wake. And we were smack dab in the middle of it. Later in the day the at times white out conditions would clear and we could see that below and above us the rock was freakishly clear and dry. Lacking a shred of common sence I wanted to go up. My youthfull ambition far exceeded my experience. A heated debate ensued atop the frozen ledges of the upper towers. Me vigorously fighting to push on just like Maurice Herzog and a slew of other digitally challenged over achievers. My three amigos stoically insistant on retreat. They were of course right
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survival
Big Wall climber
arlington, va
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Dec 17, 2007 - 10:44am PT
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Beautiful pictures!
Hey Tarman, you no post story on my "beginner, near death epic tales" thread. You numba 10, not numba 1!! I specifically asked for your input! You tryin ta tell me you didn't have a beginner epic?
Chuckles,
Bruce
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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Dec 17, 2007 - 10:59am PT
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I love this thread - here's to the Black...
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 19, 2008 - 01:35am PT
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This was one of the first articles on the Black that I can remember by Ed Webster from Mountain 56 July/August 1977. The adventures of Lil' Eddie and The Hobbit!
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Jan 19, 2008 - 01:47am PT
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The Hobbit..Bryan Becker...strong, bold and in the right place at the right time.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 19, 2008 - 11:46am PT
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With a heart of gold and a family too, that enviable Hobbit!
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swill
Social climber
Colorado
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Jan 20, 2008 - 08:22pm PT
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Black Canyon climbers Bryan Becker and Chuck Grossman at my wedding this past august. Too many of these types lurking about that afternoon for comfort.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Jan 20, 2008 - 08:57pm PT
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Chuck and Bryan now there are two hard core dudes. Great picture!
I don't know who you are Swill but if those two cats were entertaining your wedding then you must be a pretty cool dude!
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho
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Jan 20, 2008 - 09:29pm PT
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Yeah but that's Chuck on the left and Bryan on the right and those are the faciest and shiniest shoes I *ever* seen Chuck wear. Good call on the wedding entertainment.
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swill
Social climber
Colorado
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Jan 20, 2008 - 10:14pm PT
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Phil you know me. Anyhow Chuck and Bryan were simply entertaining themselves while waiting for the big meal...... they were in fact entertaining all those guy's, Pete G, Catman, Max K, Woodman. They were all waiting with great anticipation for food, beer and wine. What was funny is my wife is an Outward Bound lifer and all the old hardcore climbers certainly had all her optimistic outdoor educator female friends on edge the entire night.
Chuck has certainly cleaned up his fashion over the years. Here a couple of good one's of him in the past looking good. I like the bare feet and underwear.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Jan 21, 2008 - 06:52pm PT
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(previously posted on the Mountain Project site.)
Regarding the Leisure Climb on North Chasm Wall...
This is my least favorite climb in the B.C. Prehaps I am tainted by a few past shadows. For me this route doesn't even rate the distinction of"pile". I never appreciated the names "Leisure" Climb or "Casual" Route, or for that matter "Cruise".As Jimmy Newberry so succinctly put it long ago... "It's desperate in the Black". There is nothing "casual" or "Leisurely" in the B.C. Even when compared to the "desperates". I for one (as well as several other of the old time Gunnison climbers) felt that "misnomers" like these were,at best a disservice to the area and at worst an invitation to disaster. This proved to be the case for one of my other shadows. As the most available local climbers, Dave Henritze and I were called in by the Rangers to aid in the body retrieval of a hapless soul who gravely underestimated the seriousness of the "Leisure" climb. He had gotten off route by going straight up the crack to the roof. The same variation several posts on this thread have mentioned. "I can taste the beer already" were his last words after winning the argument with his partner over route direction. Falling off at the sketchy roof he pulled all of his ill placed gear and cratered below his belayer. Neither Dave or I were enthralled with the idea of "body bagging" as neither of us were rescue team "regulars". But we both felt compelled to bring a fallen kindred home. At the last moment our plan to climb up, lower off and facilitate a helicopter pick up was bullied out of the way by the R.M.R. team and their prized cable wench system. We spent the rest of a decidedly Un-leisurely day sitting with the head ranger watching in horror as this system consisting of joined 150' lengths of 1/4" cable with no backup system lowered a stokes and two rescuers to the dead climber. On the way down they dislodged several enormous blocks that exploded all around the already mangled body. Thankfully, none of them were direct hits. On the way up the over loaded winch struggled, getting stuck under roofs and on flakes. Aghast we watched the rescuers repeatedly climb into the stokes and all over the corpse in an effort to kick the rig free. What would have taken us only a few hours of unpleasant duty ended up taking the entire day well into the bleak evening. The scene is still a ragged ugly memory for me. I could never get over the thought that this body bag/door mat had once been a living vibrant person, someone's child, someone's friend. Sorry if this recounting disturbes anyones' sensibilities or hubris but IMHO it is important to understand that there is nothing "casual" or "leisurely" down there, IT'S DESPERATE IN THE BLACK! Respectfully Phil Broscovak
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swill
Social climber
Colorado
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Jan 21, 2008 - 08:22pm PT
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Grim story Phil. Thankfully there have been few fatalities over the years. The canyons reputation has always acted as a very good "riff raff eliminator" to quote Ken Trout.
On a lighter note I had dinner with Glen Rink a couple of weeks ago and he told a great story about Jimmy Newberry suggesting they try the second ascent of "Mirkwood." Sadly I can't remember it. It did end in defeat though.
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