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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 28, 2008 - 01:40pm PT
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JB and Largo- had any of you guys been up on the East Face before the freeclimbing explorations began?
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Jan 28, 2008 - 04:09pm PT
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I'm at work and can't spell this out thoroughly. Steve Wunch and Jim Doninni had been up to the enduro corner. Bachar and Kauk went up and freed tht one. A few years before I did the wall aid/free style and did the pitches up to the Slot and after the changing corners pitches (at 5.10d). The biggest question on the FFA was the last pitch, which was very sketchy because the only pro were stacked, tied off pins and it didn't follow the old aid line and was mossy. After it cleaned up it was only 10d but on the FFA if felt like 12d and I thought if I ripped I was going for a huge one. I think there's a bolt there but not on the FFA.
Kauk went back shortly after our ascent and led all the pitches, starting a trend and in my mind, baging the most significant free ascent to that point. Bachar repeated the trick soon thereafter and I went back up later as well.
More later.
JL
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 28, 2008 - 08:19pm PT
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I remember that last pitch clearly. No bolts when I was there.
Right off the ledge, some hard 11a-ish cranks past a couple of reasonable fixed pins on steep rock soon gives way to slab climbing up a thinning and slightly decomposing longboard of a flake. More pins but these ones weren't staying put if things got wild!. Finally, after miles of crack work you have to step out left away from the flake on pure friction scoops for a half dozen moves to the thank god rotten ear and a reliable piece once the overeager hand jam is displaced!
Just like that you're sitting down taking in the view of Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon!
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 28, 2008 - 08:34pm PT
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Yeah
We talked about it during Tissack, Kauk and I. He wanted to do the first continuous all free ascent. I told him after we get down and I'll jumar and you lead all the pitches.
Ron really wanted to do it and we agreed to our idea.
We bivied at the base the night before because Ron thought it would probably take all day and wanted to make sure we got off before dark. Hahaha
We got to the last pitch around 11:00 in the morning. Ron was jokingly complaining to me that I'm jumaring too fast and he has no time to rest.
Bachar rides his bike about the time we are at the base of the last pitch to see what the state of the ascent is at.
He scans the route and doesn't see us anywhere and assumes a conclusion that we couldn't have completed the route that early and we must have bailed and are descending from the base or are already back at the deli.
We see him at the deli and he asks Ron why we bailed ......
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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Jan 28, 2008 - 08:53pm PT
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"Does anyone still do it as an aid climb, or perhaps a largely free, partly aid climb?"
Many.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jan 28, 2008 - 08:57pm PT
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word
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2008 - 09:18pm PT
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There are bolts on the last pitch now?
I seem to remember a 1" angle stuck in a hole and tied off was the protection till you reached that crappy flake.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Jan 28, 2008 - 09:32pm PT
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No, there are not bolts on the last pitch.
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Jan 28, 2008 - 10:38pm PT
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One day Ron and I were looking for something new to do and Ron said there was this cool looking corner pitch at the base of Washington Column. We hiked up and it did indeed look pretty rad for the time. We did the first pitch and sat on the ledge looking at this boulder problem layback with a fixed pin in it. We weren't clear that it would go. I gave it a try first and started doing it. I got to the ledge at the base of the corner and decided to belay there and bring up Ron. He lead the next pitch first try as well and we rapped off. All in all, it seemed like a pretty cool short free route that would soon be a Valley classic.
Later that evening we ran into Largo at the Mountain Room Bar and he asked what we did that day. We told him we freed the third pitch of the East Face of the Column. His eyes widened in semi disbelief and said the whole route might go free. He said we should go up and try to free the whole thing.
We did, more or less.
The real first free ascent goes to Ron when he lead every pitch without falling. I did the second and Dale did the third in the same flawless style that was established by Ron Kauk.
Croft turned it into a boulder problem. Man, times do change.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2008 - 11:04pm PT
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Dale did the "fourth" ascent, eh? I always thought it was Ray and Vern.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Jan 28, 2008 - 11:27pm PT
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Astroman was always a goal, but I never got back to the Valley between 1971 and 1986. Then, I had just one extra day after a trade show in Long Beach. I caught a bus up to Yosemite in the evening and met my old Colorado buddy, Randy Joseph. We had a few bears and went to bed. Got up in the morning and did the classic route, visions of Kauk, Bachar, Long and Werner in our heads the whole time. The route lived up to it's reputation for variety and quality. I blew it at the top of the enduro pitch with a sloppy fall. Randy rectified that and we continued to swing leads. The last pitch was a let-down, though. I was totally ready for a scare-fest, and was amazed when it was all over after a few moderately difficult moves.
The descent, on the other hand, was sketchy indeed!
-AstroJello
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 29, 2008 - 02:16am PT
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Mark,
Not sure if you've seen my history of free climbing (Wizards of Rock). I got some good first hand commentary from Bachar and Long, and probably others, detailing the history of the first free ascent.
All the best,
Pat Ament
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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Jan 29, 2008 - 02:26am PT
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I wonder how often this thing gets onsighted. It's within mortal reach but doesn't get done much. Lucho fired and Honnold and probably a couple of other hardmen but I know a lot more people that haven't onsighted as have.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jan 29, 2008 - 03:27am PT
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My first time, I 'took a biscuit', as the Brits used to say, near the end of enduro, just as the sun enveloped the scene. Maybe should not have closed the mtn room the night before? Got it together to lead the harding slot, though.
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Climbswithtits
Social climber
Fresno
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Jan 29, 2008 - 07:55am PT
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Actual History of Astroman:
The features in Yosemite Valley are made of granitic rock that was emplaced as plutons miles deep during the late Cretaceous. Over time the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and this rock was exposed at the surface where it was modified by erosion.
The oldest of these granitic rocks occur along the Merced River Gorge west of the valley and are thought to be 114 million years old. The El Capitan pluton intruded the valley forming most of the granitic rock that makes up much of the central part of the valley including Cathedral Rocks, Three Brothers and of course El Capitan. The youngest pluton of Yosemite Valley is the 87 million year old Half Dome granodiorite which makes up most of the rock seen at Glacier Point, the Royal Arches and its namesake Half Dome.
Cathedral Rocks at SunsetFor the last 30 million years, glaciers have periodically filled much of the valley. The most current glaciation, the Wisconsinian was not, however, the most severe. Ice ages previous to the Wisconsinian were colder and lasted longer. Their glaciers were huge and covered nearly all the landmarks around Yosemite Valley except Half Dome, Eagle Peak, Sentinel Dome, and the top of El Capitan. Wisconsinan glaciers, however, only reached Bridalveil Fall in the valley. The glaciers widened the valley, but much of its width is in fact due to previous stream erosion and mass wasting along vertical joints in the valley's walls.
After the retreat of many of these glaciers, a stand of Lake Yosemite developed. The valley floor owes its flatness to sediment deposited by these stands (the last glaciers in the valley were small and did not remove much old lake sediment). The last stand of Lake Yosemite was about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) long and was impounded by a terminal moraine near the base of El Capitan. It was later filled by sediment, becoming a swampy meadow.
The parallel Tenaya Canyon and Little Yosemite Canyon glaciers were, at their largest, 2,000 feet (600 m) deep where they flowed into the Yosemite Valley near the base of Half Dome. They also formed Cloud's Rest behind Half Dome as an arête.
Near Glacier Point there is 2,000 feet (600 m) of mostly glacial sediment with at least six separate sequences of Lake Yosemite sediments. Here, huge and highly erosive pre-Wisconsinan glaciers are thought to be responsible for excavating the bedrock valley floor, and much smaller Wisconsinan glaciers were responsible for depositing glacial debris.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Jan 29, 2008 - 09:14am PT
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"Croft turned it into a boulder problem. Man, times do change."
Nice line, John.
Speaking of prehistory, Alan Bard and I nailed the route as a warm up to the Salathe, but we were looking at all the pitches as free possibilities. I remember that the possibility of it going free was talked about in C4 before we climbed the route. Later, that season or the next, I told Royal at a RockCraft session that I thought it would go free--not that I could do it or knew when someone else would.
Royal scoffed and said it would never go free. I gave him a serious look and asked him how he could say that with such definition--everything was going free in the early 70s.
He sort of smiled, realized that he was on shaking ground, and said, "If it never goes free, I will have been right."
My reply was, "Yeah, but someday you will be wrong. Predicting it will go free is much safer."
I think Ron, John and John did it the next spring.
Now that it is a boulder problem, maybe I should try it. "Astroman, the uncut delusion."
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Prod
Social climber
Charlevoix, MI
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Jan 29, 2008 - 09:43am PT
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Great thread.
How did you guys come up with the name?
Prod.
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Jan 29, 2008 - 10:03am PT
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We had a tape deck with us and that seemed to be the song that we played when things looked tough....
Here I come to save the day.
A little boy inside a dream just the other day
His mind fell out of his face and the wind blew it away
A hand came out from heaven and pinned a badge on his chest
It said get out there, man, and do your best
They call him Astroman
And he's flying higher than
That old faggot superman ever could
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Jan 29, 2008 - 10:38am PT
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Hey John, if you guys were Astromen, who might Superman have been?
Just asking?
Buzz
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Jan 29, 2008 - 10:57am PT
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If I was still climbing in the Valley all the time I'd strt probling the wall to the left of the S. Face (Bridwell Faint route area) because there's some cool looking stuff to do over there that will surely go free. I was always meaning to go over there as well as over to the left side of Sentinel but never made it to those places - shucks! Big vert walls, both of those. And vert with features, which are always promising.
JL
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