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snakefoot
climber
cali
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Aug 20, 2006 - 10:36am PT
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one day, went up and did the commitment, sellaginella and via aqua(onsight) trio.....on via aqua, the falls were ragin and I thought that damn flake on the crux was gonna blow, vowed to never do it again...kissed the hand rail at the top...
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Aug 20, 2006 - 12:45pm PT
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Went soloing with Walt one day and he convinced me to do a thin 5.9 face climb that I had never done before. He went first to show me the moves so it was not truly onsite. I got crossed up in the middle of the crux and was stuck and started shaking. Walt told me to grab his foot and pull through it. I told him to move and that I was not going to pull him off too if I fell. I was able to finally step back down and got the correct sequence and finally made it. What a guy Walt was, a true friend.
Ken
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Aug 20, 2006 - 01:57pm PT
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Walt told me to grab his foot and pull through it. I told him to move and that I was not going to pull him off too if I fell.
That is gnarly!!!
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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Aug 20, 2006 - 02:57pm PT
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Hi Peter, while that solo of yours sounds hairball, care to recount your episode on the first pitch of Reed's Direct many years ago. While technically not a solo since you were tied into a rope, but if memory serves me well, there wasn't a lot of pro between you and the deck?
Care to give us your first person account of that very scary misadventure?
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Aug 20, 2006 - 03:30pm PT
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Blazing Buckets, Yosemite: a new pitch above Reed's Direct.
Hanging out at the post office, beginning a new "three-day plan" day of bouldering and touring the valley on my fat tire single speed cruiser, Werner walks by and says, "Hey man, want to go do Energy Crisis?"
I knew the drill. We would hike down to the beautiful location from the parking area on Hwy 140, Werner would lead the ferocious 5.11d with a couple pieces of gear, set up a top rope, and then we would then do multiple laps until our lats were useless.
"Sure," I replied. It sounded like a great plan for the day. I jumped into Werner's crimson LeMan's, and we were off.
At the junction of 140/120, Werner takes a right up the hill. Uh-oh, I thought, he's going for a warm-up solo on Reed's direct, a route I had soloed with him many times before. Today, I didn't trust myself, considering my increasingly blurry condition due to the enhancements I had partaken in earlier.
"Well, I'll just sit in the car today," I thought to myself.
But of course when Werner grabbed his shoes and headed up to the base of Reed's, I couldn't sit still, so I did the same and followed him up.
Werner was half way up the second pitch when I got to the base. Tying my shoes on hurriedly, I followed him up. The jams seemed remarkably wobbly that day (and completely out of focus), and I overjammed to the hilt. By the time I got to the small ledge, just below the final wide section of the route, I was pretty much spent. After climbing up and down the first moves off the small ledge several times, Werner wordlessly offered me his foot as an emergency anchor in case I needed it, then I committed to the final moves.
Soon I was on the big ledge at the top of Reed's Direct, wretching from the effort, Werner off the the side, not commenting, but I felt his support. He began to boulder around on the ledge, and suddenly I jumped up and began doing the same.
Somehow, the next thing I knew, I found myself committed to the upper wall, about 15-20 feet above the ledge, holding on to some big rotten chickenheads. After a lame attempt at downclimbing the initial hard moves, I became concerned that if I fell at that point, I would bounce off the ledge and go for a 200 whipper to the deck.
Suddenly it all became clear--a line of holds into the final pitch of Reed's Left way off to the left. There's my escape, I thought. I made a few more moves to a giant chickenhead with a big quarter-inch rim that made for a great double handhold. The next chickenhead was way off to the left. My feet were on smears. I lunged with my left hand, and just as my left hand grabbed the next chickenhead (a not too good jug), the right chickenhead broke off. I swung around on my left hand, feet kicking. Below was a big slab leaning up against the ledge which for certain I would have skated off for the 200 foot plunge. Somehow I regained balance, got both hands on the small chickenhead, found some smears for my feet, and mantled onto the hold. Finally stable, I looked down, where Werner was shaking his heads slowly, looking a little annoyed that he just almost witnessed his friend splatting before his eyes.
The rest of the route was easy. I made it to the Reed's left chimney, downclimbed, and without saying a word to eachother (except for maybe a few "ho-mans!") Werner and I began our downclimb descent down Reed's Right.
I had a much better time doing laps on Energy Crisis later that day.
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Aug 20, 2006 - 03:36pm PT
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I remember onsight soloing Igor Unchained in the Needles with Bachar one day. THAT was kind of scary. I thought it was pretty underrated at 5.9+.
Following Johhny B up the Dike route in Toulumne was super fun, too. Then we cruised around the back side and found all sorts of cool bouldering.
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WBraun
climber
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:09pm PT
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Hahaha
Boy we sure had a lot of fun in those days, John. He he he.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:14pm PT
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Dang John M Deuce Mama!
that's a boot kickin' story bro...
whuta great thread, so many reel deals.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:19pm PT
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Dang James,
Your story is like the Flying Dutchman, that ghost pirate ship.
I've now seen it twice.
If you were looking for critique and I know you are not,
I liked the first version better.
Less "worked".
Tighter more soulfull punch line.
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Russ Walling
Social climber
Out on the sand, Man.....
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:20pm PT
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A few come to mind:
Back in the day, there used to be this train of people soloing the Left Ski Track at Josh.... every morning the train would roll out and there would be like maybe 6 or up to 9 people on the thing at a time.
So it is now time for me to join the train. I'd done the route like maybe twice before, have never led it, and was never really that solid on it... so the train takes off and of course everyone is ahead of me because I'm sketch.... Bachar is up there, Cashner, Lechlinski... Gilje, maybe a couple of others... Lechlinski is my personal coach and sometime rope gun so he is waiting for me with beta just above the crux......
I get up on the thing with a steady stream of beta from above... of course I blow it and vibrate off from the fin.... I land cat like in the talus (ode to John Gill).... Lechlinski is razzing me pretty good and tells me I almost had it...
I shake out and head back up again.... I do the big reach off the fin and start to xylophone my left hand up toward what we called the "chip", a miserable sloper that can be liebacked, but not pulled on directly...
I have the chip and just as I drop into the layback my low foot does the famous PA skate routine... I pitched again, kinda sideways this time and deck pretty hard... not really as cat like as before.....
Lechlinski is sure I can do it now and offers up much encouragement.... I go back up and shake through the entire crux section as Lechlinski cheers me on... finally into the hand crack I can sorta rest and contiue to the top without incident.
So I guess I got it third try.... I don't think I ever fell again on that damn thing... must have done it 300 times since then.
I was off the sofa and hadn't climbed in probably a year... so Charles Cole and I go to solo Walk On The Wild Side....
He sends me up first... I don't even know where the route goes.. so I'm soloing away in my Levi Jacket... which was kinda tight so I could not put my arms up fully over my head... minor problem / annoyance..... anyway, he is doing his thing below me and I end up off route to the left... super sketch grains and kinda steep....
He finally looks up and freaks as I'm stinkbuggin and looking like I'm going to pitch off any second.... Oh and the wind is howling too....
So he loops his arm through some anchor slings about 2 pitches up and says "I'll spot ya"... I'm like 25ft above him!!!! I look at the fall, the angle of the rock, the size of Charles, and decide this is a pretty good bet... I do the moves all wiggly style with the exaggerated stinkbuging that the Levi jacket is forcing onto me....
Don't think I climbed again for another year.....
Largo is persuasive... he took a string of us young fools over to the WaterChute in Josh... "ho man... it's a trick move... you guys can do this..."
Maybe we can... never done it before, but with Largo running the show we all think we can climb about 4 grades harder on the solo than we can lead... Largo goes first, and just shimmies up the thing...
I go next and find it pretty damn hard.... at one point I'm slipping down the thing faster than I am going up... Largo is just above me giving pointers, but will not offer down a leg.... I stop my slide and manage to get the thing...
It did not go so well for the other Sheep Buggers below me.... one guy is flailing wildly just after the start and finally flames out and slides to the ground....
The next victim gets well up into the slot where the real business starts (save for the opening move).... he is laboring pretty hard and I'm trying to keep well out of his desparate grasps for my leg.... we both watch as the dude pops out of the narrows, hits the starting ramp about 15ft below and does a full flip onto the desert floor and rolls away into the bushes...
Largo says something like, "Ho man... Anyone that does a Jack-in-the-Box launch that grand is usually done for the day..." He tells me we should keep going though... we do and top out.
The guy who took the winger is already using valuable beer ice on his ankle when we get back to the cars....
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:36pm PT
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nice russ,
how comes yer always so darn tootin' serious.
t-try some humor for a change eh sport?
plus, member when we useta fritter away the whole day at our proud pad in cholla ville, then fill our back pockits with beers, each guy then jumpin'in his own car (buckit), and hightail it to the solo fields out in josh land?
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Mimi
Trad climber
Seattle
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:37pm PT
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That's priceless stuff Mussy.
Weren't you a Sheep Bugger early on?
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Russ Walling
Social climber
Out on the sand, Man.....
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:39pm PT
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Naw... that was Craig Fry and crew. I hardly knew any of them. Tardy might have been one.. and Sewell.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:40pm PT
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He was their leader Mimi.
"But Ya Know, if'n yer gonna lead, ya gotta have a place to go..."
Werd.
(mickey rourke, "rumble fish")
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:44pm PT
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plus nevermind this netsketch superfun hoodoo.
ima' go do my fave V0 lowball, right now.
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Mimi
Trad climber
Seattle
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:47pm PT
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What a coincidence, I just did mine.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 20, 2006 - 08:50pm PT
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yup.
firein' up the beemer rat now.
swank shag carpit', a nice steady ska brewin co steel toe milk stout buz and i'm off.
er, up.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Aug 20, 2006 - 09:42pm PT
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Too many to sort out right now, though a few stand out.
Once In the middle of a multi-day, no-partner Josh solo binge, I found myself onsight soloing Sail Away, with people at the base. I got to the crux and it seemed thin and sketchy and thin and I wished I was somewhere else. I backed off the move and stepped back and got more pumped,, about three times. Finally, I went for the move (EB's) got it and breathed a sigh of relief.
Back at the base one of the witness' said. "I thought you were going to fall and die. I decided if you did, I would throw up, walk away, and quit climbing."
A few years earlier, my first trip to Josh, we wandered around with one of the older guidebooks (the red one?) and I was compelled by that photo of Dick Webster, RIP, on waterchute. I reached up and found it to be slippery and weird. Then I rationalized that it was "only 5.9," and 'I Knew, I was a Stud,™' (I was maybe 22 and knew it all) . So I pulled the move and soloed the climb. At the top, I let out a signature roadrunner call, wondering where my buddy, who should have been right behind me was.
"Man, I think your friend broke his ankle," said some blonde California dude lurking on the summit.
Turned out it was only sprained, his onsight solo having been less succesful. In any case it was a long drive back to Laramie highlighted by;
1) a stop at Granite Mtn where I onsight soloed Magnolia Thunder Pussy. Said Partner, Al Robinson*, a 'god among men™'did the approach on crutches, just to be nice.
2) The naked lady in the Van in Raton(?)
3) the almost total explosion of the engine in my '73 superbeetle
about Colorado Springs, and the ensuing, 20hr, 2 cyl, 200 mile drive home.
"Three day plan"-hehe
*below, Al Robinson present whereabouts, unknown.
I would pay money to know where he is now.
Photo may have been day one of three.
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marty(r)
climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
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Aug 20, 2006 - 10:24pm PT
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There needs to be a whole "three day plan" thread. REALLY!
Continue.
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Aug 20, 2006 - 11:27pm PT
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A few more rambling solo memories:
I used to enjoy riding my bike down the hill from Tuolumne rescue site, soloing routes on the way down to the Tenaya Lake where lots of friends would be hanging out on the beach windsurfing and what-not, and where I could probably get a ride with my bike back to camp. A regular routine would be West Crack on Daff Dome, the regular route on Fairview Dome, then a nice warm down on South Crack on Stately Pleasure Dome. One day, I decided to solo the route to the right of South Crack (I forgot the name). I had never done it before, but it was rated 5.9, how hard could it be? I got above the inital crux (a corner/crack) then was faced with a 10' section traversing straight left from above the corner. It was one of those handhold-less sections, with nothing but smears. Super insecure. Didn't look good. I was up there probably about an hour getting the gumption to go for that section. I tried retreating back down the corner a few times too, but it was too tricky to downclimb securely (I must have forgotten Jim Erikson's wise words to be absolutely certain that your downclimbing skills are up to the task when soloing). It finally went okay, but there were high levels of fear on that one. Too high. I think I lightened up on soloing for a while after that one.
Hey, anyone here want to retell the Crashner stories (Spiderline and on the Golf Wall area)? He was the master of recovery from the big falls--incredible! I remember coming to California for the first time in 1980, meeting Fish and Mike Frericks (sp?) in Joshua Tree, where moments after arriving to Hidden Valley, Fish (who I had never met before, or even knew his name, or he mine) invited me up to the base of Spiderline to see Rick's brain matter on the rocks. I didn't go see it with the ensuing crowd that made their way up there, but the story made an impression on me. (instead, Mike took me up for my first Josh solo of Mike's Books--actually my first solo ever:
Mike: "hey, you a climber?"
Me: "yeah"
Mike: "You like soloing?"
Me: "sure!" (never having ever soloed anything before)
Mike: "Let's go!" And we did.
And I really did like it.)
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