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Scole
Trad climber
San Diego
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Jan 29, 2012 - 09:47pm PT
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My first memory as a child is of scrambling up the left side of the Captain with my parents (1962). As we were headed up, several giants (to a 4 year old) were coming down, carrying packs, ropes, and racks of pins. I was fascinated, and they were kind enough to talk to me for a moment.
That memory burned in my mind for years, until I got a chance to try climbing myself. I never looked back. I recognized greatness the first time I encountered it, and was inspired to spend my life climbing as well.
When I did the Dihedral Wall in 1980, it was the fulfillment of my childhood dream. Dihedral in not the hardest route, or even one of the most pleasant routes on El Cap, but the line is un-deniable.
What Todd did to Dihedral Wall is a travesty. It used to be considered very bad style to add bolts to an existing route, has that changed? I liked Todd as a person, but his ethics sucked, and those bolts should be removed.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 30, 2012 - 02:08am PT
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Hopefully there will be some sort of 50th anniversary event in the Valley this autumn, to mark the ascent, and Ed and Glen can speak at it. Maybe at the FaceLift? That would be rather cool!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2012 - 01:28pm PT
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Legends of Stone...
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Truenorth
climber
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Dec 18, 2012 - 02:35am PT
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Amazing to see a photo of myself, (Carl Huff) and Eric Beck and Penny Carr and the others at the top of the Dihedral Wall more than 50 years ago. Ed must have forgotten that I spent one abortive morning with him on the bottom part of the wall when he recruited me for belay duty early in the climb. I confess it seems a little strange - though very likely an accurate description - to be called weird by one of the oddest people I have known. Odd in a positive sense. I recall the walk in to the top of El Cap as stunningly beautiful with banks of snow here and there and that sharp pungent smell that comes out of the ground and off the trees when the sun warms the earth. Then the chasm, fantastic, 50 years ago, or today. Finally they topped out and on a perfect morning we all stood around made somewhat mute by the setting and the accomplishment. Or at least that is how I remember it. In any case thanks for posting this as I had no idea such a pic existed, and it does stir long dormant memories.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2012 - 10:46am PT
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Welcome Carl!
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Dec 18, 2012 - 03:51pm PT
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Trivia question; Anyone else here climbed the Dihedral twice like me? It reminds me of Walla Walla - a town so nice they named it twice! I liked the Dihedral awot!
Here's a Link to me and Jerry Yesavage doing it in 1972;
http://www.stanford.edu/~yesavage/Yosemite.html
(Not sure why this link does not work but save and post it in browser)
We both wanted to solo it but were probably too young at the time ( me 19 and not sure of Jerry's age). I wanted to break the 2.5 day record but we forgot the 2 lb. sledge hammer - haha. I tried to solo it in 1975 but got stormed off too early in the year in March. I came back and soloed it in June 1977 ( a year before Bev Johnson soloed it ) in 5.5 days after fixing several pitches. Both times did the West Buttress finish.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 23, 2012 - 04:36pm PT
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Lauria 80th Birthday Bump!
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the goat
climber
north central WA
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Jun 10, 2017 - 08:07am PT
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FA.s of the East Rib - Willis Wall and the Dihedral Wall in the same year? ^2 was good to you, Ed. A bump for this great thread 55 years down the road.
Steve G.- Do you recall anyone climbing the DW any faster than Hargis/Langdon (2-1/2 days)?
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Jun 10, 2017 - 10:08am PT
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Please do not forget Bevery Johnson First woman to solo aid that route. She was a cool cat, 1992 at the Devils Punchbowl with Peter Hayes and I at the Gorlla wall. R.I.P
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Jun 10, 2017 - 12:06pm PT
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Here are Bev's eyes looking up through a crack high up on the Leaning Tower in 1977. We both ended up solo on it at the same time as a shake down to solo the Dihedral Wall. What are the odds? I think she may have done a bivi half way up and I encountered her there at the ledge early one morning. We did the rest of the climb together but separate and bivied on the ledge a pitch from the top - an airy place! I tossed the end of one of my coiled ropes into the void to unkink it and a loud bang echoed upward. The end of my rope had exploded. 8" to 10" of the end of the rope ended up in the most amazing perfect and symmetrical cone-shaped frazzle! I saved it for years in a glass jar but finally lost track of it. I soloed the Dihedral Wall the next week and Bev went on to do it the next year.
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mooch
Trad climber
Tribal Base Camp (Kernville Annex)
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Jun 12, 2017 - 12:21pm PT
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Crazy to think how tough it would have been for Glen to nail that awkward left handed corner.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Jun 12, 2017 - 04:11pm PT
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But easy to clean!
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D.Eubanks
Big Wall climber
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Mar 18, 2018 - 04:13pm PT
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It used to be considered very bad style to add bolts to an existing route, has that changed? I was wondering the same.
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originalpmac
Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
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Mar 18, 2018 - 09:25pm PT
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Very cool.
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