Classic Ice Primer- Chouinard Catalog 1968

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Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 8, 2009 - 08:56pm PT

Ha!
Good one Steve.
I leap frog Jack's intention with my post any you just did the same with me!!!
I have that same Eiger/Dru article on the griddle...

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 8, 2009 - 10:49pm PT

Sorry Roy! My poster's bunyan got to twitchin'.

Hilarious story about the wheel chair slide show! Tobin must have been pretty smooth to get you out of the burn ward.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 8, 2009 - 11:46pm PT

Since we have the color picture…
We may as well go for the full article!

From climbing number 51, November/December 1978

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 8, 2009 - 11:47pm PT

We know light is right Jack,
But when is it just plain skimpy?

RDB

Trad climber

Iss WA

Feb 9, 2009 - 12:52am PT

Hey guys how about scanning in Jack's 1979 AAJ article on Huntington? And to complete that season is there anything written on the S face of Denali?

lucasignorelli

climber

Torino, Italy

Feb 12, 2009 - 04:01pm PT

Rick A:
>They had identified what they considered to be the three hardest >Alpine routes in the world at that time: the Harlin on the Eiger, >the Gousseault on the Jorasses, and the Voie de L’amite on Pointe >Whymper of the Jorasses. All of these were unrepeated and, more >importantly, had been established using siege tactics: fixed >ropes and the like.

Hi Rick,

just as a matter of historical truth: the Gousseault route on the Jorasses was NOT first climbed using siege tactics. In the first serious attempt, on the 1971 ascent and the 1973 climb, Desmaison fixed only few initial pitches, but the rest was climbed in one push. And by the way, even the number of pitons used in 1971 and 1973 may have been exaggerated under the influence of the gigantic controversy that followed Desmaison rescue.

Both 1971 and 1973 climbs were some of the last occasion "traditional" ice climbing techniques (i.e. single axe) were used in the Alps (before the advent of "piolet traction"). Because of that, Desmaison and his mates had to maximize rock climbing, and this largely justifies the large use of aid. Particularly in 1973 (when Desmaison had not to resort to desperate survival tactics as it had been the case in 1971), aid was really used when needed (btw, Giorgio Bertone - one of the member of the 1973 team - was one of the finest free climbers of his day)

This of course doesn't detract one bit from Gordon and Tobin extraordinary feat in 1977 - they opened an almost entirely new line (see here)
http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=2945

they did it in an immaculate style, and the result was possibly one of the hardest mixed routes in the history of alpine climbing.

Jello

Social climber

No Ut

Feb 12, 2009 - 04:34pm PT

It's interesting to compare those routes that were done on both sides of the Atlantic back in the early to mid-70's. I haven't done the Desmaison or the Dru Couloir, but I would compare the MacIntyre-Colton with the Ramp Route on Kitchener, the Super Couloir with direct start (Tacul), with the Grand Central Couloir (Kitchener). Ice and mixed climbs longer and more difficult than these are generally found only in Alaska, some in the Andes, and most notably, the Himalaya.

-Jello

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2009 - 05:02pm PT

What astounds me is that we have a voice for just about every big, classic ice route in Europe on this thread!

Thanks for sharing!

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Feb 12, 2009 - 05:10pm PT

It's just that I love the feeling of fresh, cool mountain air rushing up my dress!!!

Tobin was ALWAYS a smooth talker. He stuck around the hospital for a while as I recovered and the nurses just LOVED having him around. He was a very loveable guy.

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Feb 12, 2009 - 05:12pm PT

Roy,

At least I had the good sense to keep my "knickers" on in the photo!!

That issue is classic. Jim's mug shot on the front and me on the back cover. UGH!

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Feb 12, 2009 - 05:47pm PT

The full story on the Dru Couloir direct has yet to be told.

As I remember it Randy Trover and Mugs joined up as one team and Steve Shea and I roped up as another. Both teams has their sights on the Dru Couloir. No one was even thinking about anything else. So all four of us bivouaced at the top of the tram, in the tram station that night so we could get an early start the next day.

AS it turned out Steve and I got ahead of Randy and Mugs but we all found ourselves at the start of the climbing difficulties at the same time.......For some reason it was decided we should all rope up into a party of four, with Steve and I at the head. Steve and I swung leads while Mugs and Randy followed behind. We have two ropes. One for leading and the other for Mugs and Randy to follow on. We bivouaced that night on a 'cozy" ledge that just fit all four of us. The bummer was that late afternoon snow showers would roll in and dumped snow would collect at the head of the couloir and we keep getting hit with these mini avalanches.....

The morning of the second day Steve and I look up at this thinly iced corned system and just assume this is the route. In fact the standard route split off left and assumed more complicated climbing. Steve figures "what thehell. It looks climbable" and just heads on up. I figure that he's a better climber than I so I owe it to him to just belay him as he tackles this vertical, poorly protected pitch. I follow and lead an easier and shorter pitch, which is then followed by another hard scarey pitch led by Steve..........Now you have to realize that Steve Shea was probably at the top of his mixed climbing game and was one of the best mixed climbers in the US of A back in the mid-seventies.............He was grumpy and he swore alot but he ALWAYS got the job done and he never quit. NEVER! So now the snow showers are beginning again and as Mugs and Randy jumar the pitches behind us I sit and watch as the snow piles up around me, enclosing me in its cool cocoon ........

It's late afternoon on the second day. Everything is covered in snow. Steve has been on this hard lead now for a couple of hours and then finally I head a yell from above. "Jack. I'm in the main couloir. Come on up". So, Steve has completed the lead into the Dru Couloir and is only waiting for me to follow and then for us to go up...........Then a yell from below, "Mugs and I have to go down. We have a train to catch to Amsterdam. We have to leave". Mugs and Randy needed both ropes for their rappel and we needed both ropes to go up and over and out..................

After a very long time and much shouting through wind and snow, it was decided to go down and out.....to bail.
Disappointed but also somewhat relieved. I always felt bad about coming down from that effort. I think if we had just continued and completed the climb it would have been a great statement about Steve's skill and ability since he did most of the hard leads. We would have spent another night out but we would have survived OK and gotten down the next day anyway...........but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do.

One week later Tobin and Ricky went back up and did the complete route to the summit of the Dru. Finished what we began. I forget where Steve I were. I think I was still camped in Snell's Field but went up to solo the North Face of Le Courtes. Steve might have met up with someone else and gotten on another route.........and I can only guess at what Randy and Mugs were up to in Amsterdam.

All-in-all It was a damn fine climb with good company.......and it was a warm, fuzzy feeling to have Tobin and Rick show the locals that YES!, Yankees CAN climb ice.....Keeping IT in the family so to speak. Showing the French how to climb in their own backyard. That was what felt so good!

Wee Jock

climber

Feb 12, 2009 - 09:12pm PT

Hi Bldrjck ... I think that you yanquee had already shown that you could climb alpine ice in 1975. John Bouchard and his pal Steve (of the unpronouncable last name) - or was it Rick Wilcox?? did the third ascent of the original route on the Dru Couloir in a day - just beating Terry King and myself to the bronze medal for the route (we did it the next day)! I remember steaming up the Droites NF full steam ahead with Kingy a few days before that, racing those Yanquee 'A' team B*gg#r$ to the top!! All good fun - we left Dirty Alex and Black Nick (our other 'B' team) footering around in the rimaye like a couple of grannies!!

I did the second ascent of Bridalveil Falls in Telluride in 1976 with Steve Shea in very lean conditions ... we drove to the foot of the route(!!) - don't remember him being grumpy at all. We had a good laugh, mind, and didn't hang about on the route at all. Yup, you chaps did know how to climb ice!

BTW, what is Steve up to? I saw him on Ripley 'Believe It or Not' many years ago falling down a couloir that he was skiing on Grand Teton and then getting up and walking away.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2009 - 09:33pm PT

Some Bridalveil visuals from Glenn Randall's Vertigo Games.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 12, 2009 - 09:55pm PT

Wee Jock, Jello, Luca, & Jack!
Lovin' these first-hand stories.

I've seen that footage of Steve Shea falling down that couloir.
He just keeps going, and going, and going.
Fairly incredible that he walks away.

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Feb 12, 2009 - 11:20pm PT

I think Steve is still falling down that couloir.....

I heard that Steve lives in Jackson, WY and runs rivers now. I believe he got out of climbing.

Yeah, John Bouchard got the attention of the French. Climb their hardest routes, solo one or two more and then run off with the most desirable woman in the valley...
Style is EVERYTHING!

Jack

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Feb 12, 2009 - 11:27pm PT

Jeff,

How about an account of your ascent of Hungo Face on Kwande. Now THAT was a route well ahead of its time. Hard, run out ice climbing in a pretty remote valley.

Jeff, tell us a story.