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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jun 11, 2013 - 11:27pm PT
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Have been doing a lot of exploring and desperately but feudally been throwing myself at some John Gill problems while the kids play on the beach. Have done some bouldering but with Jack's bum ankle not much roped climbing. It has been really nice in the needles this year and a strong crew of locals have been putting up a bunch of new route in ground up and hand drilling when bolts are needed.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jun 12, 2013 - 01:02am PT
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I'm sure John Gill would be highly amused to see someone throw themselves
at one of his problems feudally. Would that be with a lance or a mace?
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jun 12, 2013 - 01:30am PT
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I guess spell check doesn't fix everything, but even with those tools I am sure I could stick that crimp.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Jun 12, 2013 - 01:34am PT
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Mike, nice to see that pic of that wall up the trail from Camp Remington. I've put up a half dozen solo routes on that wall. I'll have to get my pics out of the two walls in that area. When your going down into Remminton, and go to the second bridge crossing in Camp Remington, park there and walk up past the cabin on the left side and there's a really sweet canyon with a small creek, really narrow bottom with rock on both sides for the first 1/4 mile or so. Fun place to explore. If you walk it all the way it hits the trail (old road) up past where your pick is. Not talking about Monkey gulch either, few see this one.
Have you done the Remington needle there yet. I ticked that one off my Conn list about 15 years ago. In the 70's you could drive up that road (wilderness trail), but back then I was into the Needles area on over to Elkhorn and Horse Thief. We used to get fire wood up there, still kicking myself for not spending more time in that area back then. Trying to make up for it in the last 10 years or so, one of my most favorite places in the hills.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jun 12, 2013 - 10:08am PT
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Johnboy, seems like a great area. Just did a lot of hiking and some bouldering, but would love to do some routes. Let me know if you would like to get out there sometime. Mike
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Wonderful times in the Needles in the late '80s and early '90s.
Can't believe it has been almost exactly 20 years since I last climbed there.
I soloed Four Little Fishies on my way out. Haven't been back. Kinda breaks my heart. Some of my very best climbing memories.
What the hell happened to all the trees? Those damn beetles?
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Yeah, Pine Bark Beetles. Untreated areas especially were devastated:
What the picture doesn't show is that inside the park, in order to control infection, they've cut down something like 175,000 trees.
Behind Rushmore looking up to Harney Peak
Picket Fence before:
Picket Fence after:
Stripped like this, some of the mystery of the place is gone...
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Thanks for the memories, posters. I had the privilege of climbing there with Bob Kamps for several summers in the 60's.
Just for fun, here's an old photo of me on a FA there. Tiki is near the reservoir I believe and I think my partner was Dick Laptad. Could find the date if I leafed through an old diary, but who cares about dates. The place and climbing experiences there are timeless anyhow.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Tom's ascent of Tiki was August 22, 1966 with Dick Laptad and Bob Kamps. This 5.8 route was surpassed the next day by when Tom made the first ascent of the 5.9 Pooper Pin with Vivian Mendenhall and Dick Laptad.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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I LOVED those forests. Seeing that is way more heartbreaking than missing the last 20 years.
Scott "Vice" Van Orman and I spent a year sharing a surveying job that needed 5th class climbers to mark the boundary of the Black Elk Wilderness. (A few of the corners were on 5th class summits.) Each of us did two of the four 10-hour days the crew worked every week. $7 per hour, and a joy, every day. Great gig. I'm shocked to see those massive swaths of devastation. Depressing.
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Thanks Rich for the date.
I should translate my old hand scrawled diary into digital form and load onto the cloud so if no when the next big earthquake hits the SF Bay Area and knocks our house down I can still reference the old climbs in posts on supertopo. I mean, what else to do after all I own is gone, presuming I'm still alive?
But as long as I am alive, I'll remember days in the Needles as I'm sure you will too.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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I have climbed there my whole climbing life and the place will not be same in my lifetime. Lost a little charm but at least the rocks are mostly the same. The north side of harney is devistated. A forest of 40ft stumps with the crowns of the trees sitting like 30 ft diameter tumbleweeds everywhere you look.
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MisterE
Social climber
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There is an interesting little
psychological game
that tears at the sensibilities
climbing in the Needles.
The first is that the crystals
feel slippery to the hands
and yet get surprisingly good purchase
with the feet.
But the mind is tricked, initially -
what feels slippery to the hands
MUST be slippery to the feet.
The stretch of trust is extended
by the extra layer the feet have
between the rock and flesh.
The second BIG DEAL is
(the already mentioned)
laceration potential
for even the most minor of falls
(or brushing against the rock even).
The combination of these things
is firstly terrifying
and secondly humiliating.
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Nohea
Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
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Great threat OP! Aloha
Mr. Gold very good stuff.
Thanks all, this was an enjoyable view and read.
"And miles to go before I sleep"
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jul 20, 2013 - 12:41pm PT
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Wyorockman and myself got out for several pitches in CSP after going up to old baldy and getting rained out.
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WyoRockMan
climber
Flank of the Bighorns
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Jul 20, 2013 - 11:51pm PT
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Thanks for the tour Mike! Can't wait to go back.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Spent the last four days in the needles. Beautiful weather and good company. Labor Day signals the beginning the best season for climbing in the Hills. Few people, crisp weather, sticky rock and low gravity.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Labor Day signals the beginning the best season for climbing in the Hills. Few people, crisp weather, sticky rock and low gravity.
Spot on.
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