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survivalmademedoit
Trad climber
Grantham, New Hampshire
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Talk about major flashbacks! What a great find! Mark Vojtko here. Kinda wild catching up after all the years.
What is the latest on Mt. Woodson? Santee Boulders? Mission Gorge?
Who's still climbing out of the old gang? (Paul Dowdy?, Werner Landry?, Tom Scott?, Dan Curley?, Adrian and Jeff?, BeeHay?, FROG?)
What's up with all this indoor training, hang boards, multiple pairs of shoes, runners without knots, etc? What happened to the good old days when you thumbed a ride to the cliffs, smoked a joint, and started climbing?
Drop a note if you can..........thanks!
Mark
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DJMac
Big Wall climber
Bonedale, CO
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Fun thread. I remember a lot of the photos posted. Climbed at Woodson in the late 70's, then again when I was living in SD mid-80's ... loved that place, and many more in the area.
Thanks for the flashback, and sharing photos!
 John McMullen
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scuffy b
climber
just below the San Andreas
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Hey, Mark and John, be sure to check also:
Hardest Woodson Offwidths
and
Woodson Shindig
They're loaded with good stuff.
How you doing, John?
Moyles
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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hey mark, i remember you. didn't you take that photo of roger wilson on waterchute that wound up in the '76 edition of the josh guide?
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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Hey bvb, what's up these days anyway? Give me a shout.
Curt
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MisterE
Trad climber
One Place or Another
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Mar 16, 2009 - 11:20pm PT
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bump
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Mar 17, 2009 - 12:09am PT
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Hey BVB, I'm positive it was one of the Vojtko bros that took that shot indeed...
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nature
climber
Tucson, AZ
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Mar 17, 2009 - 12:13am PT
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my eyes!!!!
and think about the kittens!
poor kittens.
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eliot carlsen
Social climber
San Diego
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Sep 26, 2009 - 04:50pm PT
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Bump for Woodson Classics. One of the Top Ten Threads of all time.
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gonzo chemist
climber
the Twilight Zone of someone else's intentions
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Bump for a great old thread and awesome area.
Counting down the days until the annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage!
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Mimi
climber
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Mar 27, 2010 - 02:51pm PT
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Bump for Greg's original Big Teaser thread.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 25, 2010 - 05:54pm PT
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Ultra Classic Thread Bump!
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TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
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Sep 25, 2010 - 07:24pm PT
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Somebody was asking about Ric Piggot(maybe it was on another thread i was reading today).
I started climbing at Woodson in '71 with the RCS and spent 100's of weekends/weekdays up there up tell the mid 90's. i met Ric up there as early as '71 and discussed such dreams as climbing the "N.A. Wall" on our very first meeting...last saw him on the "Big Hill" around '89-91.
The last i heard about "a" Ric Piggot, was of a gentleman who went by that name living in the Escondido area who was exiting the I-15 freeway via an off-ramp(circular)and the truck door he was driving flew open and he, with one hand(left)on the steering wheel, reached with his right hand to attempt to pull the passenger door close. He was thrown from the car and killed.
He worked for the county(so did RP), was the same age as the Ric we know, and drove a pickup truck(so did RP). I assumed it was the RP that i new, but did not know anyone to contact at that time. I did drive down to the A-16 store, and the local R.E.I, but neither of those places/climbers employed within, had ever heard of a RP although they frequented Woodson on a regular basis.
I believe it was the mid/late 90's but could have been the early 00's that i read the story. It was reported in the S.D. Union/Tribune. I just happened upon it. I had long since lost tract of any climbing/Woodson friends. Of course someone like the Linder's(sp) would know.
But since reading these and other posts which allude to Ric being in such various places as Tahoe/Reno/LV, etc. I have come to believe it was just an eerie coincidence/some other guy with same name?
So, that is about all i know. Hope Ric is doing well/living large...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 25, 2010 - 08:00pm PT
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I talked to Rick at the first Supertopo Woodson shindig in 2007. He said he'd basically stopped climbing and was back into dirt bikes. PhantomX would recognize this, as I do, as a classic case of the 'itus'.
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TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
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Sep 25, 2010 - 08:23pm PT
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"classic case of the 'itus'..."
Not sure of what the "itus" is...
But since you Greg, along Ric and a few others were a hot topic amongst the RCS'ers who intro'd me to the finer aspects of feeling like your part of something more significant then hugging a tree(Sierra Club'ers)if you were climbing a rock instead, bitd. And you guys(Ric et al)had built a somewhat dubious...i meant to say reputable name for yourselves, and were known as the somewhat dirtbag(something i could relate to back then)climbers who went by the name of "The Poway MT. Buds"(or 'poway mt. boys' perhaps) i will put the somewhat "dubious" rumor to rest.
Great, glad to here that Ric is still alive as of '07...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 25, 2010 - 08:41pm PT
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The 'itus' is kind of an inside thing. Seeing this bumped made me read through much of it again. I'm reposting what I can consider to be the best post - by Brunosafari.
After the awkward introductions with Royal, we separated into two vehicles at Poway High School for the drive to Woodson. Goeddel and I were in one vehicle and Denny and Robbins in the other. When we arrived at Woodson, Dave and Denny and I all at once excused ourselves to piss. With Robbins safely on the other side of a boulder changing into climbing clothes Dave and I anxiously asked Denny what happened on the drive to Woodson. Denny said he "showed Robbins Tooth Rock." (For non-locals benefit, the drive from Poway valley to Woodson lends a dramatic "helicopter view" of twenty-five foot Tooth Rock perched atop a steep hill). We felt humilitaed even further and upbraided him in hushed tones and demanded he tell us exactly what was said.
Denny proudly stated he had said "That's Tooth Rock, a Poway Classic!"
Dave and I almost started to cry, realizing any hope of recovering a pittance of dignity had now been punted into the bleachers.
"What did Robbins say," we demanded.
"He said nothing."
Dave and I squeaked out the word "shit" about three hundred times while shaking double clenched fists over our heads.
The pissing counsil did not end in a double suicide however when we ascertained that Denny had somehow managed not to reveal to Robbins that our Dad had climbed Tooth Rock and also our dog, POGO, via Yosemite Big Wall Hauling Techniques.
We walked up the Woodson road a ways and came to small friction boulder. Robbins did a few warm up moves on it and then calmly spoke:
"This rock reminds me of Yosemite!"
In his mercy, Robbins had with that one gracious sentance, supplied us with enough cause for positive self-esteem to see us through all personal testings of life for the duration of life. To this day, when I tell somebody here in Oregon about Woodson, I am careful always to say something like,
"The rock at Woodson bears a striking facsimili to some characteristics of glaciated and exfoliated Yosemite granite."
For our first real climb though, we made our way to Sickle Crack, the climb we felt had aesthetic appeal, but was not too showy. Still we were a bit anxious. Dave and Denny had done the climb before, but with the benefit of a top rope. I had not climbed it yet at all. Of course Denny and Dave insisted that I go first, obviously hoping that I would make them look good.
I still consider that one of my most psychologically demanding climbs and I still refer to it for confidence when I today try to trad the Smith Rock sport routes to an audience of famous-name international quick draw artists.
I liebacked and squimmied up the off- width as gracefully as I possibly could, definitely placing the requirement of style way ahead of safety, yet I really could not even see the rock. In my minds eye, I could only see Robbins behind me trying to contain facial expressions of alternating smirks and frowns.
At that time Goeddel rated Sickle 5.8. Almost everything we climbed we rated 5.8 if we never fell and 5.9 if we sometimes fell and 5.10 if it was impossible. Maybe that provides some understanding of Woodson grades.
When I mantled the top of Sickle, I recklessly skipped and jumped down the back as fast as I could, not wanting to miss seeing Robbins climb. I made it back just in time to see Robbins execute the final mantle. It probably took him at least thirty seconds.
After Dave climbed the route and Denny declined because it was obviously now too easy, we sauntered over to the boulder and crack now known the world over as:
"THE ROBBINS CRACK"
Less known worldwide is that previous to this incident we referred to the crack as:
"THE AID CRACK!"
That's right, none of us for even one nano-second ever imagined that crack to be a potential free climb. Instead it beaconed to us as the perfect training climb for future Yosemite nail-ups. This was not long after we had saved our milk money and bought our first precious "chrome moly Chouinard pitons. Some of them were angle pitons, up to an inch and a half, much wider than our soft iron Swiss Rings. Heck, with Yosemite angle pitons and runners hooked together like rope ladders, we reasoned anything could be climbed...even inch and a half cracks, aid syle.
"That's the way it's done in Yosemite! That's how Robbins climbed Tissaack!"
In all fairness, remember, we had never seen jam crack climbing demonstrated. We could barely conceive how one could climb an inch an a half crack by jam or lieback and still be able to place and hammer and clip a piton. It went without saying this was an aid climb and we wanted to show it to Royal for his approval. And not wanting state the obvious, none of us mentioned it was our "aid climb."
I can still recall this moment just as precisely as if I had never smoked weed.
I can still recall this moment just as clearly as when Mary Jo Fisher kissed me behind Meadowbrook School in seventh grade.
I can still recall this moment just as profoundly as when I saw each of my children being birthed, red, and roped up and covered in juice of emancipation.
We had no intention of climbing the crack, we just wanted to show it to Robbins as if to say we were aid climbers too and had places to use chrome moly pitons.
Robbins walking toward the crack. He inserted his hand. We witnessed a rhythmic cadence of blurry, ascending, and silent motion wherein he tagged the summit and then rapidly downclimbed. Upon touching the ground he took a step, tilted his head, smiled, nodded, and in perfectly even breaths, calmly remarked,
"That's a good one."
We were unable and unwilling to say a word. We were in flabbergasted shock. We could not move. We avoided eye contact with Robbins and with each other. We were enveloped in a thick fog of shame. If Robbins found out that we aided free climbs, we knew we would one day be laughed out Yosemite before we could ask a ranger the location of Camp Four. It was an understandable case of the thin ice of human pride.
Finally, Goeddel suggested we go elsewhere!
Later Dave showed Robbins a face climb problem. It involved a reach and Dave was six feet four inches I believe. To our happy amazement, Robbins had to hesitate on that move. And then it was time to go.
Robbins had unknowingly opened the door to making our dreams a possibility. By 1973 Goeddel had climbed the Nose and Denny had climbed Half Dome and I had shimmied my way up a few routes myself. But Woodson was never the same again after the cracks began to speak aloud.
Over the years I have heard quite a few disparaging remarks and have observed some lofty attitudes and tones of judgement toward Royal Robbins. For me they are explained my the injustices of history when taken out of context. Like when I bouldered once with the great face climber, Bob Kamps, Royal Robbins will always be to me a personal, touchstone of greatness. I will never forget his kind, even respectful attitude toward we dufuses, and the inspiration of his climbing style. At the same time, I recall Robbins never actually stood atop the Robbins crack. What a frikken' poser, man!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 25, 2010 - 08:51pm PT
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Outstanding slice of history!
I bet Robbins would have topped out if he knew it was the FFA. LOL
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TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
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Sep 25, 2010 - 09:39pm PT
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Thanks for re-posting this veritable classic by Bruno. Here's my favorite line:
"I can still recall this moment just as precisely as if I had never smoked weed."
Hilarious...
I remember one story about either your(Greg Cameron), Dave Goeddel's, or possibly Ric's younger brother soloing up Robbins Crack(to the very top, lol)and taking a fairly good ground fall whilst down climbing it. I believe he broke/sprained his ankle or something? I remember the first time(and every time for that matter)thinking about that story while initiating those first few moves on the descent.
Robbins is a good bloke. George M. told me loads of great stories about RR. He use to work for Royal as a guide, and thought the world of him. I only met RR(more like crossed paths with him)a couple times. Saw him solo allot of the stuff we were getting roped up for on several occasions. And on one 5.10 that he was on-sight soloing(a new climb at nob wall)down climbed from the crux(about 80ft.)after asking one of us if we would care to belay him on the climb.
Incredible what his generation of climbers achieved. The free climbs at Tahquitz, and walls like the Salathe' where retreat or rescue from the upper half was NOT an option/possibility.
BTW, where ever i/we went, whether it was Woodson/Corte Madera/Tahq-Suicide/JT, and later the Valley if we heard the PMB's had done it then we had to try(emphasis on try).
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Mimi
climber
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Sep 26, 2010 - 12:56am PT
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Great story, Greg. Nothing like nice aid cracks.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Feb 27, 2011 - 05:47pm PT
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Big Ole Woodson Bump!
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Let us know!