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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 27, 2011 - 12:56am PT
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Great route with consistent quality climbing all the way up. I used to do it every season to get my footwork dialed. I have no idea what sort of shape the anchors are in these days...
My well used Meyers guide topo from BITD.
Very proud FA guys!
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Apr 27, 2011 - 01:29am PT
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i sent the first and third pitch. 06/98.
killer root.
we got rained off!
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Greg Barnes
climber
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Apr 27, 2011 - 01:43am PT
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In 1999 the pitch 8 belay had 2 bolts about 4 feet apart, the right one placed higher - clearly also doubling as the first pro on the 5.10 slab off the belay. The right hanger was bent and cracked open (about a 1/4" gap, clearly wide enough that if you clipped it and leaned back the biner would obviously pop out) - and also pulled out a bit from the wall. Someone had snuck some supertape under the hanger, but it was completely crispy.
So unless a rockfall duplicated what you'd expect the hanger to look like after a factor-2 fall on the belay, someone out there has a sketchy story of blowing a bolt hanger!
Funny side story - right after we replaced it a guy got all riled up and in my face for having "chopped Stoner's Highway." This was completely incorrect of course, and just based on the fact that the first bolt was no longer easily visible from the ground, while before it had been a doubled 1/4" bolt with red retreat webbing!
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Apr 30, 2011 - 04:20pm PT
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Dale Bard and I did the second ascent. Stoners was one of the first routes to venture out into the big, wide open faces between the crack systems on Middle Cathedral, and the first ascent made quite an impact at the time.
I think it was the spring of 1974, and I had just arrived for my first full season in the Valley, a year after the first ascent. My high school friend, Largo, had already made Yosemite his residence the year before. As usual, John was a fount of motivation: “Hoh man, you need to get on Stoner's Highway, right away!”
I teamed up with Dale and we got an early morning start.
We started up that multicolored face and moved well. I was at the belay at the start of the crux pitch and was just getting ready to start climbing when Dale pointed out a group in the meadow below. It was Bridwell, Long, and other valley regulars; they had come over to watch us, and had set up a telescope.
Well, this upped the pressure a bit, but I tried to ignore it and just focus on the moves. Pretty soon I came to a good foothold and a bolt with the smooth, crux section above it. I went up a couple moves, scoped out the holds, then down climbed back to a little ledge. I made a quick hop down at one point and from below there was a commotion.
“Did he fall?” I distinctly heard a spectator say. The voice carried like he was right behind me.
Well, now the pressure was on and for pride’s sake, I really wanted to solve the crux without a fall. But the reconnaissance had revealed the likely sequence and after a few calming deep breaths, I made a pull to a balancy high step and reached a large hold for my left hand. At this moment it occurred to me that, while I was beyond the crux moves and completely secure, those in the meadow had no way of knowing that.
I recalled a time at Suicide Rock when Richard H. and I were belaying John on a tense lead with a potential fall right onto the hanging belay. As John lead up on dicey holds, he ignored our calls of “How is it?... Have you got it?” Only silence, and our anxiety grew. We imagined that Largo's 180 pounds might come down and obliterate us at any moment. Suddenly John’s hand reached out past the rack hanging on its sling and made a leisurely scratch of his right butt cheek, which resulted in howls of laughter from the belay. This gesture became part of our lexicon and was used whenever the leader wanted to signal that the hard part was over.
In a moment of inspiration, I now executed a slow motion, and highly exaggerated ass scratch with my right hand, hoping that even the distant observers could see it. I was rewarded with the unmistakable bellow of John himself, who happened to have his eye to the telescope. Largo’s laugh is a force of nature face-to-face. This time, it seemed to echo between Middle and El Cap, directly behind us.
The spectators left and we carried on, but the climb was not over, not by a long shot. Farther up, I completed a lead and belayed Dale up to a two bolt hanging belay. Dale got out his belay seat, and sat down, so that he could rack up for the next lead. In a split second, we both dropped, but only a couple of feet. What the ….? Something had failed, and we both realized at the same instant that we were hanging from one bolt, not two!
In a flash, we unweighted the anchor, and got our feet onto face holds. We then tried to understand what had happened. We were horrified to find that the bolt had sheared off flush with the rock. Closer inspection revealed that there seemed to be corrosion in the remaining visible metal. We were almost physically sickened by this. Our confidence from the successful pitches below vanished and we were terrorized. But we still had to finish the climb.
Dale lead up and we were both relieved when he was able to get some wired stoppers in 20 feet up. But the real fear came later on the rappels down. There was no choice but to rappel off that single, now highly suspect bolt. Dale went first and I wished him much luck before I unclipped from the anchor. Dale moved like a cat down the pitch, down climbing with his free hand and hardly weighting the rope at all. Dale was (and still is) extremely lean and a good 20 pounds lighter than me. This weighed heavily on me when it was my turn.
Had a good story when we got back to camp, though. There is a thin line between a good story and the end of earthly existence, but that is the essence of climbing. Stoners Highway remains to this day one of my most memorable climbs.
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Bad Climber
climber
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Apr 30, 2011 - 06:13pm PT
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rick! Stories and history like this make ST a blessed place. Wow, talk about a hairy moment. My experience on Middle consists of two trips up the east butt., twice up DNB, and one and a half times on the north butt. What a great stone! Oh, and a couple of times on the first five of Frenzy. Glad to hear there's an alternate rap route to clear the crowding. But Stoner's? Always out of my league but oh so beautiful.
BAd
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 30, 2011 - 06:14pm PT
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Now THAT is a fine story Rick!
Thanks for telling it. Love that butt scratch detail!
Those skinny old Rawl splitshaft bolts sure sucked especially having to trust just one with your whole show!
The belay at the top of the first pitch of Space Babble was one 1/4" Rawl backed up by a #2 Stopper stamped MG when I first got there. I sent down for the bolt kit right away and put in a 3/8" Rawl before bringing anyone else up. Even the bigger Rawls are garbage as it turns out!
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Apr 30, 2011 - 06:20pm PT
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Rick A - thanks for a terrific story. One of the best I've read here.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Apr 30, 2011 - 06:53pm PT
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Yeah! Really nicely told, Rick.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Apr 30, 2011 - 09:06pm PT
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This thread needs some pictures:
Here is a picture of Eric Erikson on Stoners when DE, EE and I did it in May of 1977. Think this is top of Pitch 5.
Check out DE's EB in the foreground. We would wear those shoes until they were full of holes -- we could not afford the $30 or so for new ones very often.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Apr 30, 2011 - 09:28pm PT
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More Stoners, EE leading what looks like Pitch 6.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Apr 30, 2011 - 09:35pm PT
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That's badass. Right on, Rick.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 30, 2011 - 09:40pm PT
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Thanks for the stories!
I had something similar happen at Squamish once. Semi-hanging two bolt belay on a face climb. Led on up, clipped the first bolt, it broke off in my hand. Carefully downclimbed, hung on the belay, and one of the two belay bolts broke. We rappelled very gingerly - IIRC, the first to rappel in effect placed and clipped into protection wherever possible, sort of down lead rappelling. The idea being that even if the one remaining bolt popped, the whole fustercluck would somehow hold us before we fell too far.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 30, 2011 - 09:41pm PT
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Wow, Rick - great story! Thanks for sharing that adventure.
Mixing the in joke with the audience of friends and the nearly blown belay anchor is almost like a designed summary of the best and worst of climbing!
Truth is often better than fiction....
compare to BrassNuts' 1987 photo - not much has changed in 23 years!
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Apr 30, 2011 - 11:12pm PT
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Nicely told story Rick. So did you invent "You're gonna die!" when the visuals wouldn't support the hand signals? You clipped a lot of bolts on Middle; I am not sure I would have done so if any of them had busted off on me.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Apr 30, 2011 - 11:23pm PT
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Nice pics RV. They bring back memories.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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That's a great story Rick, and from Kevin as well. Fond memories. There must have been a dozen guys who pitched in on that route and none of us really knew what the hell we were doing.
JL
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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The smoke shows the way...on the Stoner's Highway! Always liked that name.
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Here's my Stoner's Highway story: I did this route in the fall one year in the late 70's. The plan was to smoke a joint of good home grown on every belay and then "scramble" up the U shaped bowl and not get benighted. We achieved about 1/2 of the first goal, all of the second and none of the third, but it was ok because we had lighters.
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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If we were I would also suggest that we be the last.
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