Visions of the Valley. feeding Nostalgia

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JuanDeFuca

Big Wall climber

Chatsworth

Jul 29, 2005 - 10:07pm PT

I think I might have been to Yosemite every year of my life?

Juan

Wrathchild

climber

right behind you

Jul 30, 2005 - 10:36am PT

You're making me all weepy...

BASE104

climber

An Oil Field

Jul 30, 2005 - 02:07pm PT

I first went to the Valley in 1980. First morning we were up early laughing, and this figure sleeping in a bag rolled up in visqueen right next to us, hopped up like he had been electrocuted, and let out this cackle. "I like to laugh, too! Ha ha ha ha!" Yabo. Meeting the other people in our site, Lepton Man, Kelly Repp and this really kind girl. I can't spell her name, so won't try.

Rivets were dowels and 1/4 inchers were belay anchors. I passed a hanging belay once that was a single 1/4 incher and some heads (that you actually placed) on this overhanging part. It sometimes seemed like the FA'ist was trying to kill all who followed, but I don't think it actually happened. I could be wrong, though.

Having the whole right side of El Cap to yourself for a week..more than once. The only line might have been on the Nose.

Werner saying to me in the C4 lot, while eating an enormous bowl of spinach: "Eat your spinach and you can be an Astroman, too."

Before Olde E showed up, actually free climbing every day, all day, on the Cookie or down valley. Olde E seemed to throw a lethargy over many (me included) when it showed up in the mid-eighties. Or that's when I got sold on it.

The Narrows was rated, I beieve, 5.7, and it was. To keep from falling, you just inhale.

And yeah, the green guide. It made you feel like a hero reading all the A5 and A4 pitches on the Zodiac, even though they weren't anymore, and the trade routes were all less than ten years old and not trade routes at all. Being bewildered by FOUR bolts below Zorro roof. It seemed so excessive.

Mescalito when it was totally mint. No scars, no fixed crap to speak of. It was sublime. And not too hard. That may have been the most wonderful wall I did, quality wise. And spending a whole day on the Bismarck with no doobage. I guess what was the point?

Last time I went to the valley, getting a site was hopeless, so I got my brother in law, racked up and filled our water bottles, bought some food, and climbed up to Sickle in the evening. It was hopeless on the valley floor. He had never even done a Grade II. I tutored him as we went and he led almost half of the pitches below C5. I was pretty proud of that. Massaging his brain through
that second morning mind explosion.

A few years later I met Deucy. Although all of us wore white painters pants and were filthy...I think Deucy was trying for some sort of record.

And Swami belts were definitely not hard core. I took some good whippers on them and they never cut me in two.

Was it better then? Only because there was so many fewer climbers. I can only imagine the scene five years earlier.

Wrathchild

climber

right behind you

Jul 30, 2005 - 03:09pm PT

Not pokin' fun, I got all weepy thinking about a beautiful place in time that is no more. Sure, that solitude still exists else where, but not with all the amenities like the Grill.
-heavy sigh...

Ouch!

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2005 - 04:34pm PT

"Werner saying to me in the C4 lot, while eating an enormous bowl of spinach: "Eat your spinach and you can be an Astroman, too."

Is it true that Werner was the inspiration for Popeye the Sailor Man?

phil

climber

eastside

Jul 31, 2005 - 10:44am PT

Hey Kath
My first trip to the valley was when I met you, summer 97? You had just finished the bus. And still I've been able to enjoy the poached campsites, stealing firewood from the lodge for our c4 fire, free showers at curry, slumming at the Ahwahnee for sunday brunch not having taken a shower for weeks and falling asleep in the great room reading the paper, skinny dipping in the merced, meeting amazing people (famous and not so famous), watching the antics of Beyer, the Hubers, Magoo, Micah, the stupid and wierd politics of SAR, having Merry talk my ear off and still catching her every morning to do it again, watching the dirtbags eat better than me (I bought mine) while snatching pizza at the Loft, mornings in the cafe with the usual suspects, running into Swilliam leaving the TM store with his daily sixer of OE sans bag, catching Hans doing the dumbest thing every (Pine Line road-to-road for time??!!), sharing great meals with great new friends and comforting others when we lost some of those friends also.
Is there anything better than this community, be it the Valley, J-tree, or wherever?

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Jul 31, 2005 - 12:04pm PT

April '76, my first night in C4.
I find a spot and go back to the pinto and throw my camp stuff into a Forrest haulbag and sling it over one shoulder. It thumps into my calves as I walk.
But then suddenly it doesn't.
Another climber has lifted up on the other strap to help me along.
Georges Bettembourge introduces himself and Dave Cheesmond.
A week and a half later we do the Nose.

I remember thinking,"Damn! All the best lines have been bagged. Wish I'd been here ten years ago."

In '84 I ran into Dave in Oakland. Georges had been killed by rockfall.

In '87 at SIA I meet Catherine Freer and my partner from the T-bird, Earl Redfern, and I compete for her attention. She says she is going to do the Hummingbird with Dave.

Five people and I have no idea why I'm the last one breathing.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Jul 31, 2005 - 12:32pm PT

Oh here's one I almost forgot:

December '76, very COLD and the nights are long and there is little firewood to be found.

The afternoon's entertainment consists of a bear 40' up a tree by the Lodge. Finally the tranqs kick in and the ursine goes for the biff, but when she craters it wakes her up and she runs for a couple hundred feet before doing a second face plant.
The entertainment immediately shifts to the free for all going on at the tree.

You see during her fall Mrs. Bear slowed herself by breaking off some large supplies of much sought after firewood.

Rhodo-Router

Trad climber

Otto, NC

Jul 31, 2005 - 01:15pm PT

hey T*R--
if you underpump the Whisperlight some forms of cooking besides snowmelt are sorta possible.

Ouch!

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 31, 2005 - 03:35pm PT

The early days in Camp4 gave birth to some weird goings on, not the least of which was the Dirtbag's Delight, a hole in a log with moss growing around it.

Rumor has it a famous climber who had a bit too much joy juice and wildwood weed, chose a hollow log that happened to be home to a porcupine. NPS brought him up on charges of animal assault.
When the judge saw the porky seemed to be none the worse for the experience, he threw the case out of court but made the climber reimburse YOSAR for a pair of needlenose pliars and a bar of soap. The old porky just sat in the witness chair grinning like a mule eating briars.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Jul 31, 2005 - 04:05pm PT

I just have to ask,
who in YOSAR handled that one?

Ouch!

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 31, 2005 - 04:14pm PT

Ron, maybe Werner knows.

Speaking of TRs wildflowers, somewhere during my mountain meanderings, I ran across a blood red flower that pushed up through the melting snow in the spring. Maybe 2 to 3 inches across, the bloom was absolutely gorgeous. I don't recall if it was in the Rockies, Cascades , or Sierras. I think it might have been a protected species. I think it grew pretty high up.
Sure left a good feeling in your eyes.

Roger Breedlove

Trad climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Jul 31, 2005 - 04:50pm PT

Hey t*r, you are one lucky kid to have spent time with Carl Sharsmith and Ferdinand. They defined Tuolumne Meadows, in different ways, for lots of us. Ferdinand's memory wasn't so good and it would take a few minutes at the gate for him to remember who you were, then he'd lighten up and be glad you were back.

Carl's flower walks were a great introduction to looking at the small-scale beauty of the Meadows as well as the big, scenic vistas.

In the nostalgia department, one winter I decided that I would stay in the Valley, in Camp Four, in my tent rather than move to Squaw Valley or Berkeley. Nobody was around. I was cold and everything was damp. I finally moved in with a girl friend that worked for Curry. She had a nice place behind the post office. I had to act 'clean' to fit in.

I remember camping in Valley in the mid-60s before I started climbing. The Valley never seemed crowded and it was fun to hang out. After I was living there, I remember taking long cross-country hikes in the Sierra each summer. They were my vacations. My future bride and I would time them to maximize the probability that we would be rained on or snowed on above the tree line and at least ten miles from the trailhead. Every year was a special treat.

One year we spent three days in our little tent, eating and reading and...well you know...until we decided it wasn't going to stop. The rain part. Then we walked out, soaked to the bone, Levi’s dragging, looking for good Mexican food in Bishop.

Hey, Kath were we in the Valley at the same time? After 1975, I was in and out until 1980.

Roger

phil

climber

eastside

Jul 31, 2005 - 09:55pm PT

Kath

Good memory...and need-a-belay is doing better than he ever has, and he and I are still friends.

I always thought it was cool seeing your book at Marty's shop in Mammoth (I moved there in '01 and stayed for 2 years, now back in the bay area).

Glad to hear you're doing well and that Mark is still getting out.

The photos look great.

Take care Kath

Watusi

Social climber

Joshua Tree, CA

Aug 1, 2005 - 12:36am PT

Eastside is a glory place!! And God bless Ferdinand, he was very cool!!

Ouch!

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 1, 2005 - 12:41am PT

Blinny, that's gotta be it. It looks so much better poking from
the snow.

Ouch!

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 1, 2005 - 12:44am PT

As it has since the beginning, the sun has set on another hot summer day in the Valley. Day is done and the night belongs to Ol' Bear #46...or is that someone else...