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o-man
Social climber
Paia,Maui,HI
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To bump this great thread along I thought I would share a piece that I put together a while back while I was recovering from a a nasty injury and I was very board and still under the influence of prescription pain meds.
I have thought that I should probably edit the piece but it is, what it is.
I tried to capture my feelings about the subject as best I could at the time
If you have time check it out.
http://rockerwaves.blogspot.com/2011/03/back-in-black.html
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cowpoke
climber
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o-man, cool story
(I just kept wishing I could see the pics au naturel because it is such an awesome place)
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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I was most fortunate to climb Comic Relief/Direct start to Lightening Bolt Crack finish with the mighty Platinum Rob before he headed West and made a name for himself in Yosemite. He did some beautiful leading, connecting some pitches and of course crushed the Lightening Bolt crux . . . I did not onsight the crux. The lead he did on the "direct start" first pitch was even more impressive . . . it is awkward and technically stout.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Oct 30, 2015 - 02:04pm PT
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The Scenic Cruise is considerably better than any route in Yosemite of comparable length and grade.
Care to discuss? I happen to agree.
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philo
climber
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Oct 30, 2015 - 09:25pm PT
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In my opinion the original Cruise route is superior to the Scenic Cruise variant.
An astounding wall by all accounts.
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Nick Danger
Ice climber
Arvada, CO
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Apr 26, 2017 - 01:51pm PT
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OK, I know this is but one of several righteous Black Canyon threads here on the taco, and not even the most recent. That being said, this particular thread makes mention of so many of my bros and other significant climbing folk in my life, that I have to post. A most sincere thank you to the folks who posted stories or mentions of Billy Westbay, Jimmy Dunn, Jim Nigro, Jimmy Newberry, Phil Broscovak, and Tom Pulaski. These are my bros, this is my climbing family.
And the Black is Sacred Ground
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Apr 26, 2017 - 03:40pm PT
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And the Black is Sacred Ground
Can I hear an AMEN!!
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Apr 26, 2017 - 03:43pm PT
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I'll give this a shot...
I'm not a B.C. vet but one time my roommate proposed doing Lost Cities. We left Boulder and for whatever reason took the back way. I kept saying we need to buy food but stores kept passing by as my partner driving kept saying "city market" in Gunnison. The music kept playing and sure enough in "Gunny" we rolled into the parking lot at 10:03 PM. They close at 10:00. Undeterred my partner said well we have 1 lb. of bacon. I looked at him and just put my foot up on the dashboard.
We woke in the morning and cooked 1 lb. of bacon. I filled my two Nalgene Bottles and my partner was like "hey man I don't have a water bottle". He grabbed a half empty coke bottle and filled it. Then used his shoe string to make a tie-off string. Unsure of where the hell the "Prisoner of your hairdo gully" was we went down Grizzly Gulch. About halfway to the river we realized this ain't it. So we slog back out. We then went to the visitors center to ask for directions. Now keep in mind its now 8:30 AM and Lost Cities is grade V 5.12. Brent the ranger at the time was very helpful as he gave us ride to the "Hairdo Gully" but asked about our plan. I looked at my partner, at this point like WTF? He just smiled and said thanks.
Well we had to simul ALOT! Some missed belays. Some munge. Lots of Classic. And we mantled the "summit", the last move is literally a mantle just as the sun disappeared. Out of water, no food. I was wiped out! Definitely the hardest thing I've ever done!
We walked back to camp with only beer in the cooler. No food. BUT we settled into camp mode with several climbers around a campfire stoking the stories of each's day and this very nice guy who was still cooking made my partner and I STEAKS!!!! And we had wine and beer and told stories, a woman played a guitar and it was bliss!
I love that place (for some weird reason) and I love the company.
Cheers!
S
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Apr 26, 2017 - 04:01pm PT
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C'mon, that story is just too good to be true for a Black Canyon adventure. Actually, I shouldn't put it that way. There have been lots of crazy Black Canyon adventures. It's just that it seemed that you went out of your way to decrease your odds of success, went for it anyway, and succeeded. Give the rock a sporting chance - Bravo!.
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Apr 26, 2017 - 04:58pm PT
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eeyonkee? I think it...I think some times things happen...And you don't know why. Let me post a new story of a glazed doughnut.
Never meant to step on the true serious nature the Black presents.
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Apr 26, 2017 - 05:29pm PT
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O.K. so I'll give this another go.
My friend down the street a new friend I met in the "valley" proposed we go to the "Black". This is my first time there. I'm 26? He recommends Astro Dog. BUT says we will approach it via the North Rim. I had no idea what that meant. I'm just trying to do everything RAD. Before kids...
We get to the rim and he shows me the route. I can't explain.... but maybe looking at El Cap first time intent on climbing it?
His name is Eric. I will put that out there because someone...not sure who (Josh Warton?)...his roommate...freed the Nose down there. Anyway it was written in Climbing as Epic Eric and this story I'm about to tell is in it.
So anyway we go down and get to the Tyrollean. I'm looking at the entire river disappearing under the whole river bed which is like a river bed of house sized boulders and that damn tyrollean is right over the water fall! I have not done a "real" tyrollean until now and when I got to the end and got off I puked.
So we start climbing. 5:10, 5.9, 5.10....5.11 scary face and we get to the 2 boulder and we take a break. Looking at time we had a few hrs. We climb on. At some point I started looking at our beer cooler and how f#cking far it was a way and we still had to rap the route. We bailed somewhere around the crux.
On the rap we missed seemingly every anchor and we were leaving sh#t left and right as it got dark. We made it. Now the tyrollean back across. Out of water Eric drank from the river. I refused. We slogged back up that damn Cruise Gulley again and I bonked at 1:00am. I had that glazed doughnut in my pocket but couldn't eat it I was too dehydrated. I think we fell asleep for an hour or two then woke up and Eric wanted to go back to the river to get a drink!
I told him "lets get to the rappels" and somewhere up we found a cave that was dripping water. I pulled my bull sh#t parka out and collected water for about an hour. I got enough for both of us to drink and split that squashed glazed doughnut! Charged for the moment we navigated the rappels as people were rapping in for the "Cruise" etc. I even ran into people I knew from Boulder who said "you guys look like shit". We topped out at 8am? 26 hrs after our descent.
An unsuccessful attempt but will never forget it!
Cheers!
S.
By the way I used to post as skywalker but lost touch...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Apr 27, 2017 - 05:22am PT
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Like that one too, skywalker! In 1992, I too did a long route on the south side, the Flakes, right next to Astrodog, while camped on the northside. I actually wrote about in this very thread over 10 years ago. Here it is again. What's funny to me is that the "guy" happened to be Mike Pennings, a young Mike Pennings, who was actually on his way to Alaska after our Black Canyon outing. He was definitely the fastest partner I've climbed with. Bold son-of-a-gun as well.
Kevin. The Flakes is a good one - apparently it does not get done much. I did it in 1992 with a guy I'd just met the week before, climbing in Boulder. I don't know that I'd recommend this, but we did it by starting on the north rim, hiking down the SOB gully, and crossing the river to get to the start. After topping out, we did a short hike to the next downstream gully, and bushwacked down that thing (with one rappel), crossed the river again, and hiked up the SOB. The route has some memorable pitches. As long as you feel solid on 5.9 wide (like free-solo solid), it's not all that scary.
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wbw
Trad climber
'cross the great divide
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Apr 27, 2017 - 08:27am PT
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Hey Greg, it's Brad who you started this thread with. It's been a while since I've checked the thread. Unfortunately it's been a lot longer since I made it down to the Black. This is less a story and more an opinion about something that I think is sad.
When I climbed the Checkerboard Wall with Derek and Matt back whenever it was (seems like it would have had to have been close to 25 years ago), all three of us were absolutely impressed with the effort of the 1st ascent team, Ed Webster and Chester Dreiman. To think of approaching that long, relatively smooth face without a bolt kit just seemed visionary to us, and also very bold. It was the epitome of what inspired climbing should be. Doing the route, the runouts and route-finding difficulties were significant, and it just reinforced to us the legendary status of those two Black Canyon pioneers.
I've recently read a discussion about a bolt that was added to that route. I think the hanger has since been removed, but it blows my mind as to how that could happen. Why would anyone even carry a bolt kit so many years after the first ascent team did the climb in such inspiring style, facing so much of the unknown in a smooth 500 ft. route?? When a route with such history is later changed by someone less skilled and not up to the challenge of such a route, we lose something important to our sense of identity as climbers. It's not that I'm an extremist, or for that matter a particularly skilled climber. (We didn't need a bolt kit on our ascent; we had Derek.) But I just can't imagine having the gall to put a bolt on that route.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Apr 27, 2017 - 08:55am PT
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Just looked on MountainProject.com. I didn't know about the bolt. I probably did it 5 times pre-bolt. It's a great Sunday route when your bigger route is on Saturday. Agreed that it is a travesty of sorts. Don't climb in the Black if you are not going to bring some game.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Apr 27, 2017 - 11:58am PT
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Hey sorry if people are getting sick of me bumping these Black Canyon threads. I'm on a mission from God.
Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is the difference in the quality of the rock between routes on the North Chasm View Wall and routes downriver from the SOB Gully on the north side. I have now been on three downriver routes (Pathfinder, Porcelain Arete, and Sistine Reality) to go with my North Chasm View Wall routes (a bunch) and it's clear to me, as a geologist, that the North Chasm View Wall is mostly pegmatite-intruded granitic (plutonic) rock, whereas the downriver routes are pegmatite-intruded schist and gneiss (the "country" rock that the granites intruded). If you play around on Google Earth, it is clear that the North Chasm View Wall is significantly steeper, overall, than, say, the Painted Wall. The schist and gneiss is just not as strong at fighting mass-wasting. You can see it in this screenshot. I would have to think that the red line coincides with a significant fault.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 28, 2017 - 08:56pm PT
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Skywalker stories are the bomb!
and my partner was like "hey man I don't have a water bottle". He grabbed a half empty coke bottle and filled it. Then used his shoe string to make a tie-off string.
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