Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
|
|
Henny and KLK make some great points to explain why Tahquitz and Suicide are not the centers of the So Cal climbing scene they once were.
The skill set needed to succeed in climbing even moderate routes at these areas involve a lot more than whether you can avoid back-clipping a draw or not. There is a steeper and much more time consuming learning curve in climbing trad routes (be they bolted or not).
Last year I lead Man Who Fell to Earth again. The bottom section was more difficult than I remembered. And although the "crux" up high was hard and all, it was the long run out from the first bolt to the second that had me thinking a long time before committing.
|
|
Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
|
|
Whoever says there is not much unclimbed rock in Idyllwild, is mistaken;...there are hundreds of new lines to be climbed....sure, Bob Gaines has snagged most of the unclimbed rock left on the established rock on Tahquitz and Suicide....but go to 1 hour rock, beyond the N. Face of Tahquitz, or South of the South face of Tahquitz....or up on the high ridges N. of San Jacinto, or hell...all over the place;...there is rock up the butt all over the mountains......and guys like Dave and Kendall Vaught and Frank Bentwood and some by Bob Gaines.......it's more than you could ever climb in a lifetime.........but it's mostly all a hike to .....there lies the crux of the biscuit.......Check out these few tasty tidbits for a sampling......
http://www.joshuatreeclimb.com/Otherareas/newidyllwild.htm
|
|
apogee
climber
|
|
Todd, ssshhhhh!
|
|
Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
|
|
Believe me;...it's the same at Joshua Tree...or most places on planet earth.......climbers are lazy;......I can't get anyone to go climbing with me besides Tucker and Resa because I climb more than 20 min. from the road........it's really no big secret;...you can see rock from the parking lot all over the place.......but hiking up to it.....maybe through some manzanita.....well;.......probably as safe as a lock box on the bottom of the ocean....................
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
"but go to 1 hour rock, beyond the N. Face of Tahquitz, or South of the South face of Tahquitz....or up on the high ridges N. of San Jacinto"
Yeah, I've been over some of those ridges. Scott and Rob did stacks before they left Idyllwild. And I left a number of projs unfinished when I left.
But it's nothing like the ease with which a top-end boulderer can still find and establish classics at Black Mt or Tram, let alone the jillion other obscure areas.
|
|
Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
|
|
flag 'em, tag 'em, & bag 'em.
Then post up the pictures: we want results.
I want my TacoTime™
|
|
steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
|
|
Long time ago, we used to head over there couple times a year. Then just sorta stopped going for some reason. Love the place, need to get back.
Remember the annual "wine & cheese party"? Ran across these guys up on top in June of '93.
Doing a little bouldering at the City Park/Campground
As I recall, this was called the "Tits Boulder", for uh...obvious reasons. My buddy Fred standing on the "tits."
Wonderful moderate on Suicide, Flower Of High Rank.
In the middle of Whodunnit, Tahquitz
At the top of Whodunnit, Tahquitz
|
|
F10
Trad climber
e350
|
|
Paisano Jam Crack BF (before friends)
|
|
Dimes
Social climber
Living in the past.
|
|
So I will chime in on the story about the first ascent of Someone You're Not. Big Chicken and I are up replacing bolts on the Caliente. Henny raps and pulls the old bolts and then I rap and replace them with new bigger ones. When I get to the ground I ask him, "did you see em'" He mumbles "ya I saw them". What we saw were a perfect set of orange edges going right up the steepest part of the headwall 20' or so right of Caliente. There was no mystery that we would be back next weekend to give the thing a go. It was just to alluring to pass up. The 5.10 slab below the headwall went quickly. The headwall was just as cool as it had looked-perfect sharp granite edges that lead to the top of the headwall and then stopped. We got the headwall bolts in off hooks. I gave it the first go and quickly realized that this was going to be as hard or harder than anything we had done bouldering at Rubidoux. After falling off after my first attempt I started barking like a dog and Henny held the rope tight, instead of lowering me as was customary before another try. For our first time ever we started hangdogging, letting go of some of our traditional roots and hence the name-Someone You're Not. Over the course of 5-6 days spread out over several months we would come back for a day of "aeriel bouldering" attempting to solve the baffling crux and the hardest set of moves that probably either one of us had ever tried or done.
Henny finally solved the mystery, climbed his way up to the "perfect pair" two knobs similar to a set of breasts, one even with a nipple like protrusion. An incredible sequence that really kind of "just happened". I think in all, 8 days were spent before the whole thing went down as a single lead. No known second ascent and another one of those Henny routes I wish I could say that I have done.
"I respected him as the master and he respected me as the student and that is the way that it will always be" and really still is. Thanks man for letting me share a rope with you all these years and teaching me through your quiet introspective ways how to stand on the "ultra extreme".
Powell
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
Dimes, nothing wrong with the modified ground up approach. still not a pre-determined out come, especially at that grade.
F10, nice pics.
|
|
graham
Social climber
Ventura, California
|
|
Nice Kevin!
|
|
hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
|
|
There were no fixed pins on the corner section (there was one one below the face cruz though) of the Green Arch the couple times we did it in the late 70'. Many, many small wired stoppers were required. Stout and calf pumpy to the max!
And Randy, I did the first lead of The Man Who Fell to Earth back then, after Eric and Fred "equipped" it....and I don't remember a thing about other than quite "funky."
|
|
graham
Social climber
Ventura, California
|
|
yeah that photo of the green arch up thread did seem pretty "equipped" I too remember only a pin at the face traverse.
|
|
mooch
Big Wall climber
The Immaculate Conception
|
|
Speaking of 'Whodunit'....
Mrs. Mooch exits the chimney on Pitch #3
Some fun exposure on pitch #5
|
|
henny
Social climber
The Past
|
|
I did The Man That Fell to Earth as a warm down immediately after the SYN FA. Almost wished I hadn't as it came really close to blowing my buzz. Funny how we all seem to come back to the word "funky" when we talk about it.
"the perfect pair", ah yes, quite the alluring feature(s). I was pysched to finally get to see them up close and personal. (hehe)
Since KP talked about the name I'll add a little more. It also had multiple meanings.
Mainly for the reasons mentioned by KP.
Second, the crux had shut us down dead cold even though it looked doable. That became frustrating. All I had to do was a couple more moves and I couldn't even keep it together long enough to do that. If I couldn't do a couple of moves, I wasn't anybody (proving this false became a good motivator).
And last, this was around the time of the "Hades in an easy afternoon" episode as well as shortly after a good French climber failed miserably on Caliente. Well... SYN on Idyllwild slab. This seems pretty d#mn territorial/vain/arrogant in retrospect. Even kind of embarrassing now. But at the time the Hades episode was still annoying.
Most people probably think the name was given based primarily on the last reason, which it wasn't. It was really about us poking fun at ourselves, and for more than one reason.
Thanks Kevin. The people around us help make us what we are. You have certainly done that.
Thanks Randy. Your comment about SYN's significance at T&S was quite a compliment.
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
Well, if that vert section on SYN is harder than the hardest period comps at Rubidoux or wherever, then it has to be at least V8 and probably harder. That would certainly crank the route grade up higher than 13a, so LST's judgment is probably reasonable.
|
|
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
I love granite!!!
Look at mooch's first pic where you see the salt/pepper of the granite.
I need to check that sh#t out!
|
|
drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
|
|
I'm offically jonesing now.
|
|
Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
|
|
When I did Green Arch it had several pins and I liked it like that.
I would also like to request that someone compliment Henny again so I can post-up the
Super Chicken cartoon intro to slag him a bit.
tnx
|
|
Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
|
|
The pins have come and gone on green arch as long as I have been doing it. Last summer it was like a sport climb with so much fixed gear.
I recall an ascent back in about 1990. I led, and clipped a few pins which were there then. Brent came up next, and whe he got to the bealy I was astonished to see a couple of those pins jangling on his sling. So he says to me "I am supposed to clean the gear as second, am I not?" They had been easlily removed by hand.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!