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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 6, 2008 - 11:54am PT
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Just for grins.....What do you think is the proudest effort in NH by Ed or Henry?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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...Or Jimmy Dunn?
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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toss up between 'The prow' and the 'possesed' for Jimmy
I would guess women in love direct finish for 'Ed photoby'
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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"Black flies, little black flies...
always the black flies no matter where yah go,
dying with the black flies picking up the bones....
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pimp daddy wayne
climber
The Bat Caves
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Healyje. Joe English hill is the Bomb! I never saw anybody there either. That place is so misty. I saw a ton of un scrubed boulder problems.....
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Yeah, cool place, just had to stay low key for base security. Good blueberrys, too. It was a great place to get a feel for climbing again, you could solo all over the thing with abandon. I believe I read somewhere that's where Potter got started.
I couldn't begin to say what Webster's proudest routes are as I didn't get out that much over those two years. Pretty much everything I saw of his was bold, hard, and required vision for him to put them up. Being a sandstone guy I was just starting to get comfotable on NE rock about the time I left. Never making it to Arcadia was my main regret about the time I spent back there.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Just for grins.....What do you think is the proudest effort in NH by Ed or Henry?
I'd let them pick their best routes, but from a later perspective it's striking how both looked at familiar, well-climbed sections of cliff and saw something new, taking the game up a notch. Early in his career (early 70s), Henry did this for a bunch of previously aided crack climbs on the Barber Wall and elsewhere, including New Hampshire's first 5.11, Lichen Delight (1971). Many of these routes are classics now.
Ed saw some outstanding big lines, later in the 70s, on other sections of cliff -- notably Pendulum Route, 5.11d (1976), or the classic Last Unicorn, 5.10c (1978). His hardest routes still have stout grades for trad lines today, such as Wonder Wall, 5.12a (1981) or, with Henry Barber, Women in Love, 5.12a (1978).
Jimmy Dunn of course made great contributions too, including some very classic lines such as The Prow, 5.11d (1977). My personal favorite among his routes is Camber, 5.11b (1978).
Mixed in with the best-known names in each era are quite a few other climbers who were climbing near the same levels. It takes nothing away from the top guns to note there were others making breakthrough efforts too. According to Ed's guidebook, the second free ascent of Women in Love was done by Mark Hudon and Max Jones, just a few minutes after Henry and Ed made the first!
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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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pcousar and I were climbing 11c and b respectively and thought we'd give that striking Shadowline a go.We had small cams and could not get NE where on it.FA Hartrich,who I saw this morning,on passive pro."11d,though most parties,if they get up it,find it harder"
I think we tried toproping it to get our gear and couldn't even do that.
Some pretty burly onsites back then, "11d" on passive gear.
I onsited Vultures the first time at Sundown.....and never managed to again.10d and "hard for the grade"lol.
Webster built good routes.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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There are a fair number of them tricky-for-the-grade ancient finger-crack routes, on odd crags around the White Mountains. Especially challenging, as you note, when done without modern cams.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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When I get my Billion...
I will have casts made of the Airation buttress, Barber wall and Ethereal slab and then repro's will be placed all over my 'Back 40'. :)
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Chiloe - BTW:
you remember this little gem from 'the day' ?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2008 - 10:44pm PT
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Rurp and a guidebook for five bucks!!!
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Steve, you keep doing it! Great memories of great places, people, and times. I spent two days in winter (Repentence and Recompense), and one day in summer (The Prow) on Cathedral, but it was enough to get a feel for the place. North Conway is a little hub of thrumming energy and spirit.
-Jello
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 10, 2008 - 03:03pm PT
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Chiloe-
"a fair number of them tricky-for-the-grade ancient finger-crack routes"
From the Ross/Ellms guide:
"THE MISSING LINK III 5.9+
Another one of those nasty five nine pluses..."
#########
Jello-
"spent two days in winter (Repentence and Recompense)..."
Jeff speaking of ice in those days,
I still schlep these around in my archives,
the one on the left look familiar?
img of tools
memorabilia of 'the day',
when I was young, dumb and...
Yes that is a 68' split windshield I had :)
#########
Any body have a copy of the FWA image,
Bragg leading, as I recall with a 'climbaxe'?
########
Speaking of the magic of N.Conway and the mt Washington Valley, remember the Limmers?
In a recent email from a friend back east:
"Also, I find little places where almost nothing has changed. Last week I was in North Conway and drove to the building where the Limmer boot shop used to be. I knew it well as a teen ager, had two pairs of their boots that I loved, and bought most of my climbing gear there. Well, my God! It is still there. And it hasn't changed at all. Walking in, seeing the same workbenches in the same places, smelling the same mixture of glue and leather was like walking into 1965. I had known old Peter a bit and his son Francis with whom I stayed one winter while climbing on Washington. Last week I was talking to young Peter, the third generation to make boots there."
http://www.limmerboot.com/
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2008 - 11:40pm PT
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How about a little Double D VMC, Mark Synnott's favorite from Mark Kroese's, must own, Fifty Favorite Climbs, 2001.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Jan 11, 2008 - 01:07pm PT
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Trundlebum, loved the ice tools! Because I used to have all that gear, and they might still be somewhere in my attic.
Here's some classic New Hampshire ice climb (I don't recall which one, or even who took the picture) in 1979. Classic ice gear -- Forest Mjolnir in my right hand, Lowe Hummingbird you can barely see in the left, I think that might even be a black-taped climaxe in the hoster. Leather double boots, Chouinard crampons, old Salewa tube screws, the whole bit.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 12, 2008 - 11:49am PT
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Nice old school ice shot TB!
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slobmonster
Trad climber
berkeley, ca
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Jan 12, 2008 - 12:04pm PT
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Vultures, ugh. .10d my ass.
I can very much appreciate the ice photos... though I'm still young-ish, I learned to climb with some Big Birds and crampons scavenged from the AMC rescue room/cache. It was hard, exhausting, and tenuous without interruption. And man did those newfangled tools change everything...
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 12, 2008 - 02:13pm PT
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Some more old frozen shizzle from the unfortunetely shortlived North American Climber inaugural issue, July 1975. Some of this is outside of New Hampshire.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 12, 2008 - 07:01pm PT
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Nice stuff, keep it coming !
The Asolo leather doubles,
Dachstien sweaters and mitts,
Woolrich Malone's or knickers and socks
ahh yes
Steve I did not include (in old ice tools photo)...
My old style Chouinard alpine hammer.
It 'was' one of originals, teeth only at tip.
long ago released from ice duty...
I cut off the pick and turned it into a wall hammer.
When I did it I thought:
"Ruining a future collectable?"
rationalized thus:
-I got way more use out of it as a wall hammer
-It was a 1/2 useless ice tool anyway
(I think it's forte was starting in ice screws)
I love it as a hammer,
used it recently smacking some iron for old time sake.
At 70 degress the tool was being pressed for sticking performance.
Beyond 80 degress it was all but useless, the droop was no where near enough.
I will never forget trying and (praying) to make that tool work for me.
Constatly reciting in my mind the article Chouinard wrote about being up in the Mendel Couloir,
clutching upwardly with an 'ice dagger' for a second tool and thinking I had it pretty good at the time.
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