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klaus
climber
Slauson & Crenshaw
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Dec 28, 2015 - 09:39am PT
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Maybe Erik Sloan will cut the tree down and power bolt a Mid-pitch anchor as public service?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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A Dog's Roof
Did somebody say A Dog's Roof? HEY! I DID A DOG'S ROOF! IN THE 80's! ME! ME, GODAMMIT! You CANNOT talk about the 80's without talking about ME. I was THERE, THERE, THERE. (And I took one hell of a whipper -- fell from out of that shallow dihedral -- dead easy 5.8 terrain --above the roof almost to the ground. I was in this brief but productive period when I was leading everything on a single 8.8mm Edelrid rope because it was so light and smooth it was like trailing a kite string.)
Before the whipper:
Regaining composure after the whipper:
American. F*#king. Legend. Bitches.
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L.A. Woman
Social climber
Pasadena, CA
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too many names to look at...was ERik Eriksson on the list? He was there with the best of the bad asses too...I was there...watching.
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L.A. Woman
Social climber
Pasadena, CA
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Dick Cilley was there too...
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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I was born down in Visalia in the 80's. Did you guys hear about that when you were up in the valley? It was a pretty big deal.
best quote of the thread.
that and bvd being an american bitch.
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Reeotch
climber
4 Corners Area
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bvb, you don't "regain composure. You get pissed off and get right back on the thing. . .
Must be the mustache
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Jun 23, 2016 - 10:56pm PT
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bump
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 02:56pm PT
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^^^^^^^
True, drinking at the Deli was cool.
But the rest of what you wrote is all bullsh#t.
I was there, Todd was received well by many in the valley when hanging around camp4, though there was also disagreement with the tactics. It was civil. Beers were shared.
The "Valley Syndrome" bullshit came later with an article by Smoot whom in the literacy tradition of Krakauer, needed "good guys" and "bad guys".
Not saying there wasn't disagreement with styles, but it wasn't the myth of elite valley locals snubbing the visionaries as many have come to hyperbolise of the era.
There were so many visiting climbers with whom the local "elite" were quite helpful with information, gear, and local 'secrets' who then went on to be universally acknowledged for pushing new standards.
I remember it as a very open time through the 80's, though it did kind of implode on occasion, like Bachar's punch out, but most of the time there was the standard open curiousity and competition that healthily thrives in a cutting edge environment.
In the big wall world, I still often reconnect with someone I knew way back then, sometimes I don't remember them even though they tell me of an epic we might have had together, who tells me how I helped them with gear, info, and friendship during what might have been a week or two visit. I don't buy this whole "valley syndrome" crap as representative of the era.
I was living there from 1983-1986, then spent many months each year though about 1990'or so, it was really only a short time--probably around 1990--that the bitterness between styles really made the place suck. That's how I remember it.
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Michael Browder
Mountain climber
Chamonix, France (Oregon originally)
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Jul 30, 2016 - 03:10pm PT
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I was there too. There was a lot of snubbing. No matter what some want to remember.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 03:13pm PT
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Furthermore, a lot of what was being developed/pushed in the 90's really began in the 80's, including:
Fast walls
Clean walls
Free walls
Slacklining
Rope Jumping
Bouldering
Probably BASE, though that generally wasn't climber crossover back then (except for Base104)
All these things were explored and upped in the 80's, a lot of relative unknowns could be cited here, like Rick Cashner, who arguably was as bad ass as Bachar in terms of bold, technical climbing and pioneered many early first one day ascents, years ahead of the time.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 03:16pm PT
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can you recall any specific snubs? If I ever snubbed, I would like to apologize.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Jul 30, 2016 - 03:45pm PT
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I was there a bunch for short periods during the 80s. Things changed from '81 to '83
I Agree that a few strong groups held the spot light. Some were publicly scathing, then when the sun went down in camp were cool. Some were the exact opposite.
it was a very charged atmosphere if you climbed 5.11. Climbers would appear at the base as I was racking up . (One in particular? Not you!, I'm sure!, but Waiting to start Serenity/Sons,)
Trying to tell me how to climb, no -stick clip- this no -traverse in- that, I got pissed when some one said then you have to wait, cut in line,
I went to the climb just below? Some one knows what it is a thin seam finger crack, sweet 5.11 climbing. I onsighted the rig with ten nuts & hexs.....
I went to the ditch every other year (once or twice more than once a year) from 1979 till the early '90s.
Still . . . .
Gee? No? Me?, I'm only signed onto the climbing webs sights in hopes that photographic evidence of my existence turns up. Some where someone has pictures.
I was a hundred pounds of wire, ran up sh#t.N they took bets as to the length of my survival in the Rocky Mountain N. Park dispatch office, where I climbed with Ned Gillette.
I had climbed with many well known climbers, was personally known by sight to some at the climbing school, having been taken climbing as a child,
still looking like that boy, seen as a no one from nowhere I was treated to death sandbagging in 1983,
My 3rd or 4th trip to the ditch, so between '81 & '83 some thing changed.
Ahh the better desecration, of the myth of a welcoming Valley, it would be better to show
False support of heroes, but if you did not strut, show-boat,and spray, you felt un-welcome
This has been brewing since Flip Flop, reminded me that Xavier, was really amazingly nice to me, that's it, one foreigner and a bunch of stoners who barley climbed ( Mark Lyman?)
I did not care then it was fun and competitive,
you guys were the best, it was and always will be a locals only show, in many ways.
it was intimidating enough to throw one self at the walls.
Never mind the egos of soon to be or already arrived granite masters who ran up the big stone, in times , that we, most of us, hoped to climb 7-8 pitches.in.
I do not doubt that the blame, for this aggressive, defense of valley standards
was coming from A righteous place,
it existed and to some extent went on that way for years
till the visitors skills took over en-mass, hard to say when; around 1991(?)
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 04:11pm PT
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I wish people would name it up, I think it was a few key individuals that people refer to. I hung out with guys like Werner, Coz, Schultz, Walt, none of whom I ever saw snub anyone, quite the opposite in fact, and were quite ready to lend gear and talk about approaches, cruxes, concerns, etc, about any particular route.
I admit there were a few people hanging around whom, frankly, could be out of line with histrionics, but it wasn't the norm and way obvious from a distance that they had a chip on their shoulder, same as you'd find at many climbing areas. I have some friends who don't want to climb in Boulder to this day because they have heard the scene is all elite and stupid, but I always had a good time in many months in Boulder, and it was the same there back in the 80's--there were some who were threatened about sharing the resource and didn't make you feel welcome, but most who were glad to see more potential climbing partners learn the area once you balanced your 'talk' with a climb or two.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Jul 30, 2016 - 04:17pm PT
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Yeah I would love to switch this to a Boulder bash,
but really no can be but hurt about climbing slights from the 80s,
an extra bolt here or there
does not compare to the pin cushion approach available to some big named climbers today.
Or the Strange actions Book Of Revelations thing. What are the chances that of the few lines I'm familiar with in the ditch that one got such treatment, if I admit my transgressions
Will that make Nanook stop? Should he stop? If his vision is the one that is coming , I'd better take up kites or boarding or kite-boarding that safe right? No artificial aid bouncing off rocks. . .
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 04:20pm PT
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^^^^^
True, dat!
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 30, 2016 - 04:30pm PT
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Yo....I vividly recal Pat Ament introducing slack lining to Camp 4 in the early 70's.....and bouldering was alive and well in the 60's.....you might recall the Pratt Mantle.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2016 - 04:35pm PT
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I suppose my point is that it was actually much more civil than is sometimes imagined--notwithstanding the late 80's punch out and the WOS ropes (which was a whole different era, 1981 as Gnome suggests).
There was resistance to sport climbing, which eventually got overwhelmed due to positive visions of guys like Kauk, but to argue that there shouldn't have been any resistance is worthy of debate. It's clear that consensus is possible when you see unbolted areas like the Gritstone in the Peak District. It's more that Yosemite had a greyer line as to the appropriateness of sport climbs at the time, due to the diversity of crags. But this Valley Syndrome idea goes a lot farther than an argument about bolts and dismisses the fact that the groundwork for a new era (the types of adventuring mentioned above) was being developed at the time--it wasn't a bunch of has-been slackers as people sometimes infer, quite the opposite.
Edit--Jim, not saying those things were necessarily 'invented' in the 80's, but they were certainly getting pushed. Pat was likely on chains, the webbing came on in the 80's for example. Personally, I pride self as one of the only slack liners who could go from a hang, mantle, sit, then stand on the tensioned webbing. We probably had the first "high lines" in the Valley (though Adam G and Jeff E. had been pioneering in other areas). Then of course later the first Lost Arrow slack line came in very late 80's which established it as a pursuit in its own right. (This is all in contrast to the retrospective video histories which imply slacklining was invented by Chango in the 90's, for example).
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