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Bushman
Social climber
Elk Grove, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2015 - 10:46am PT
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Hi Roy,
I've been out of the loop almost 20 years now but those were some epic times for all of us back then, good and bad. I didn't know anything about your illness a few years back and just want you to know I'm wishing you well and hope you are doing better these days. What an awesome job your friends here did in coming to your aid in difficult circumstances.
-Tim
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Feb 10, 2015 - 12:00pm PT
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Piton Ron did an early ascent of the Shield with Trevor Jones.
Maybe you can ask him about timing
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Bushman
Social climber
Elk Grove, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2015 - 12:14pm PT
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I climbed it around '84, it probably had many dozens of ascents by then.
The groove was a little dicey because out of all the fixed rurps, some had manky blown slings, I remember re-tying several with tiny square knots and making little 1" loops just big enough to clip and re-use, and the creak-creak of weighting and hanging on the rotten webbing. Only placed one rurp and a few heads on what used to be a famous rurp pitch.
Also, I remember trying to be super cautious climbing above chicken head ledge because we were told someone had fallen a short distance there and sustained a head injury sometime before we did the route.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Feb 10, 2015 - 06:33pm PT
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I see I need to update clarify some info:
Neither Tobin or I had the chance to actually see exactly how the rope was anchored in the crack. Tobin had stopped jumaring the pitch about forty or fifty feet premature and set up a virgin belay spot. Surely he came to his senses while he was jumaring and that is why he set an anchor early. I slightly weighted that crap rope at the belay and it instantly pulled out of the crack from above, swooshing past us and making a mighty snapping crack of the whip, which put us in a certain frame of mind. We wondered how it had been anchored because we could find no gear, but were so glad catastrophe had been averted we didn't seek to analyze it much, probably a little embarrassed to think about it much for analysis. Of course, now I wish I had questioned him about it more fully. At this time I was actually more the leader of the climb since I had more big wall experience. I didn't want to demoralize him in some kind of false superior way by bringing up the incident afterwards. And if I had been a stronger and wiser leader, it never would of happened. There is a more detailed account in Dean Fidelman and John Long's book, Stonemaster's …of the Seventies.
Dennis Adams, my older brother, was not on this particular ascent, Rick. He was however my first partner and coach, not to mention an original founder of the Poway Mountaineers and later became a very active kayak and canoe devotee. I wonder how his name crossed your cerebellum?
Under the Shield Roof, the fixed white rope's condition was such that it made made crunching sounds when even slightly handled and the kermantle sheath was heavily worn and barren in spots, presumably from the strong winds up there. I considered it unquestionably dangerous and 100 % fully expected him to rip the entire time he was jumaring. Fortunately, as always, he was very fast and once again proved the alpinists dictum which he lived by: Speed is safety.
-Bruce Adams
Edit: I was was just again reading over Werner Braun's excellent imput and I am wondering if a rope suspended from the lower Groove Pitch Anchor bolt Werner mentions, 40 or 50 feet down the crack, would appear to have been in the crack causing me to assume it at first. The funny account of Ron O's almost seems to pose itself as a solution to the puzzle. I personally have no certainty of the sequential record of the early ascents. "Groove Pitch was pinned up a bit."
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Feb 10, 2015 - 06:55pm PT
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Bruce,
I went back and edited my previous post to make clearer that I was quoting someone else's long ago post as the source of the jammed rope story. I had not even noticed that he got your name wrong.
Of course, I always knew it was you on the Shield with Tobin.
Rick
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cashlowe
Sport climber
Redmond, OR
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Feb 10, 2015 - 08:44pm PT
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Amazing history!!! Thank you for sharing, Tim.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Feb 10, 2015 - 11:28pm PT
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I think it was me up there with Tobin, but Bushman's photos posted shows a guy with hair on his head.
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Bushman
Social climber
Elk Grove, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2015 - 11:40pm PT
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Yeah Bruce, I take my hat off some times around my grandkids and exclaim that I had hair just this morning which is always good for a smile or a laugh.
They never knew me with hair on top of my head or with a beer in my hand or a ciggy or joint in my mouth either, of course giving up hair was completely involuntary, ha ha!
There's a couple more shots of Tobin on the route I found I'll post later.
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Bushman
Social climber
Elk Grove, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2015 - 01:17pm PT
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There's a couple more shots of Tobin on the route I found I'll post later.
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Bushman
Social climber
Elk Grove, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2015 - 04:04pm PT
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More Tobin pics from other routes forthcoming.
-Tim
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Feb 12, 2015 - 04:28pm PT
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Let me put this to rest (Werner should have remembered.)
I made the 7th ascent of the Shield in June '76 with Trevor Jones of Calgary (actually ex-pat brit).
We had the same idea about retreat potential so Trevor trailed the old rope cleaning the pitch after the roof. It didn't reach much farther so Trevor just took the end, made a single knot, and placed it like a nut in the crack (but made it "fit" with his hammer).
We never thought anyone would be crazy enough to jug a stiff mystery rope.
At least the crack he arrived at was A1 and he could get a good anchor for Bruce.
Didn't the same team free my route on the Diamond the prior year?
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Feb 12, 2015 - 04:43pm PT
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There was lots of crap white kernmantle hanging around the Nose from when Glen Denny had fixed most of the route for filming. I vaguely recall there was a thin red thread running through the sheath. I know about that stuff, because Haan and I had rappelled from Sickle using that cord about ten years earlier. The shite creaked like Hell back then!
Werner, please tell me it wasn't some of that stuff that you found around the Grey Bands!
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 12, 2015 - 05:06pm PT
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Ron (Toker Villain) thanks for clearing up the mystery.
I remember watching you do the direct start to the shield roof.
It was you right?
WOW!!!!
Trevor hammered the knotted rope into the crack and Tobin was crazy enough to jumar that rope
without knowing what it was ultimately anchored to.
LOL !!
rmuir
No it wasn't a rope from Denny's old fixed lines for sure.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Feb 12, 2015 - 05:13pm PT
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Well Werner,
your memory is a bit off again.
I finished the direct start with Yaniro the following year on the 11th or 12th ascent.
(I wanted to lead the pitches I had followed).
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 12, 2015 - 05:52pm PT
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Good for you Ron I've done the shield twice too.
Thanks for the photos of Tobin, Bushman
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eagle
Trad climber
new paltz, ny
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Feb 18, 2015 - 11:11am PT
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GREAT OLDIE SET OF PHOTOS
I HAEN'T DONE THEM ALL BUT THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST EVER, AT LEAST THE ROOF PITCH AND THE HEADWALL PITCHES, CLIMBS ON TE PLANET
I DID THIS IN 1977 WHEN IT WAS STILL A4. SOMETIMES WONDER WHAT A KICK IT WOULD BE FOR A 3RD TO CUT LOSE FROM THE BELAY UNDER THE ROOF AND JUST SWING OUT THERE...YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
IF ANYONE HAS DONE THAT PM ME AND TELL ME ABOUT IT
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Feb 18, 2015 - 12:02pm PT
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Great to get the story confirmed, once and for all here from Ron and Bruce! The rope Tobin jumared was attached to El Cap by a jammed knot in the headwall crack, akin to what I have read they use in Dresden.
It bears repeating: Yikes!
Ron- It was a different Bruce Adams--the Colorado Bruce Adams, not the California Bruce Adams posting here (Brunosafari)--who freed with Tobin your route D7 on the Diamond .
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melski
Trad climber
bytheriver
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Feb 18, 2015 - 02:20pm PT
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very cool bruce,one of my favorite routes ,havent seen or heard from you since the mid eighties in alaska, are you in oregon or colo.??
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 18, 2015 - 06:05pm PT
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Ricky,
Thanks for clarifying the two Bruce Adams!
When I met the Colorado Bruce Adams, I asked: didn't you climb with Tobin?
He knew I was from California and answered: I did, but I'm not the Bruce Adams you're thinking of.
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