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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jul 27, 2007 - 06:26pm PT
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Bob, that's a funny story about Kevin.
Caylor, the Royal Gorge. I first went there with a couple guys I was more or less teaching, Phil Dean and Ralph Zarnecki. We rappelled and down-climbed into the canyon, walked west along a ledge toward the wall, and one of the fellows promptly sat in a particularly dangerous cactus. It was like having about 40 or more one-inch-long sewing needles stuck full length into various points of his buttox. It was a serious injury and all we could do to get him back out of the canyon. Then I met Fred Pfahler, who had a car and a new bin full of pitons I was determined to test out. He had no experience, but up we went on that steep wall of the Gorge.
To digress, I wrote a postcard to Royal, after doing the climb, and told him we'd climbed the Royal Gorge. He wrote back, "Any relationship to the Robbins gullet?" A bad pun.
So up Fred and I went on the blackish brown, sometimes red rock. One pitch looked scary, and I was not looking forward to leading it so offered it to Fred. It turned out to be the hardest pitch. With me telling him how to jam his hands and how to hammer pitons, etc., he led the pitch. I was relieved he did it.
I returned the next year with Fred, Rich Goldstone, and Bob Williams (the dancer-mathematician from the east, not Boulder's Bob Williams, the swinger boulderer). We did a new route up the steepest part of the wall to the left of the route Fred and I did, going up very vertical rock. They were all learning, and I wanted to practice big wall technique, with two climbing and two prusiking, so we were somewhat slow since they had never prusiked anything, and we didn't have jumars yet. We decided to go slow enough to do a bivouac, reaching a small ledge a hundred or more feet directly below the bridge's northeast end. That was a beautiful bivouac with my friends, lots of stars, good food, the rattle of the boards of the bridge when a car drove over...
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jstan
climber
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Jul 27, 2007 - 08:22pm PT
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I made up a story about a climb on the Slime Wall that, I think, pretty well captures the people. No one thought it was funny 30 years ago. So, of course, I will try again.
McCarthy is lacing up his shoes underneath April Showers or TTT. He looks up,
Jim: "Claude(Suhl), has that been done?".
Feverish leafing through the guide,
Claude: "Hold on a minute Jim." Then, "Yeah Jim. It's been done."
Jim, "Who did it?"
Pause.
Claude: "You did it.".
A longer pause.
Jim: "How hard is it?"
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jul 27, 2007 - 09:21pm PT
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Ho ho. When we founded the OFMC, we made it one of the entrance requirements that you had to have made the first ascent of the same route twice.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jul 29, 2007 - 03:53am PT
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John, is the point of your story that many Gunks climbs look alike? Or that with so much brain stress and climbing, people tend to lose their memory? Or that the passion of climbing is so much the main focus that climbers just do a lot of routes there and don't even pay too much attention to what routes they've done? Or are there other meanings I'm missing?
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jstan
climber
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Jul 29, 2007 - 03:11pm PT
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Oli:
Probably most of those. But it is an actual phenomenon. Richard's comment that this is an entrance requirement for OFMC is true.
What do I think? Historically we have thought doing a route is the rock analog of Whymper on the Matterhorn. And that, after being "Done" each becomes a unique "Creation". I am not so sure anymore.
You know how nutrient gels are fabricated so they are favorable for the growth of bacterial colonies? Perhaps rock routes are an equivalent but the product is a core memory or experience in the mind of the climber. For example, ten feet to the right of the Bachar-Yerian there probably is a similar "route", if one wanted to put one there. But what is the point? A person can go up and do either, to get the same experience or memory, if you will. If you can put them ten feet apart you can as well put them five feet apart, and so on. Such redundancy really only diverts one's attention from that which is important. The experience that can be had there.
Jim has done hundreds of superb routes so the route really is not the point anymore. A beautiful day on excellent rock that is able to give you whatever experience you are seeking. Now that is something no one can forget.
Look at the face of El Capitan. Wouldn't you say that is a "gel" on which we may thrive?
I just read chapter 1 of Jello's amazing “A Solid Companion”. Can you tell me it made any difference at all what physical part of the mountain he was on?
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jul 29, 2007 - 11:03pm PT
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Those are good and interesting thoughts, John. I think perhaps routes in Eldorado are more "distinct" than in the Gunks, not necessarily harder or more significant, but structurally more diverse and more colorful.
I agree about just going up and climbing. Often in Eldorado I could more or less start up anywhere and be happy, even on easy rock. Yet climbs such as Vertigo or Super Slab are so physically dramatic and gorgeous, with all those colors, as though the sun were setting in the middle of day, and that vertical but suprisingly moderate wall of Yellow Spur... I guess we got a little more into the notion of the route being as individual as a soul. Going up Over the Hill, you look west at the snow-covered high country, while climbing the smoothest, gray, beautiful sandstone in the canyon. Ravens frequently cruise that area, and their cackle is the only sound other than a small breeze among some pines, or you hear your own breathing, or the sound of a shoe against the rock. If a lace came undone, it might be like that proverbial pin dropping in silence.
As I remember from a bio-psychology class years ago, memory is greatly enhanced by the flow of adrenaline, and that's why I think for a time I had almost a photographic memory for routes in Eldorado. Each climb was so different, adding to the way the pictures formed in my mind. I still remember all that, all those holds, those little sideways push moves, a tiny edge, anchoring to a dinky bush, a piece of lichen staring me in the face, a balancy mantel above pro... All of those moments and years are such a grand panorama in retrospect, and so delicate. Yet from time to time someone asks if I remember a climb I did with them, and to my dismay I can't recall. Some of those memories simply seem to vanish for whatever reason, while others remain forever indelible...
I will never forget looking down the vertical wall of Northwest Corner at your serious face... I wrote a vignette about that recently. Actually I have been entertaining myself of late by writing vignettes (intense little paragraphs) about various climbing friends. I've done a wild one of Bridwell and one of Higgins, one of Robbins and you... I have entertained the notion of starting a thread called "vignettes," to post these and to invite others to say something crisp and rich and clean (and brief) about someone special... Haven't got my act together, though.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jul 30, 2007 - 12:26am PT
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Pat,
A lot of Gunks climbing is on one of three long cliff faces. It isn't all the same by any means, but it is possible to get a bit confused about what you have or haven't done after the years roll by, the ascents pile up, and the brain turns to mush.
Well, even before that. I started a thread called "Guess the Route" on Gunks.com a year or so ago by posting a cool picture I thought would nonetheless be tricky to recognize, and the game caught on and there are now over 15,000 entries.
Still, there are many Gunks routes that are immediately recognizable, even to those of us who are beginning to suffer some, shall we say, momentary lapses in our recollection ability. Here's a picture I took about ten days ago on a route whose beauty and position make it pretty hard to forget:
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WBraun
climber
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Jul 30, 2007 - 12:34am PT
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That is a nice location and shot Rich. Very nice.
I never been to Gunks, I'm in jail now (work).
But I have a file and am planning my escape.
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jstan
climber
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Jul 30, 2007 - 12:41am PT
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Well, you are probably right Pat. Every area has its own quality.
At any event Richard has just demonstrated my brain has already turned to mush. If you are worried about that eventuallity, take my word for it. It isn't all that disagreeable.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jul 30, 2007 - 01:47am PT
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When I was a kid, the idea of new routes was strongly impressed upon my imagination. Kor would say to me, when I was 13 and 14, "I just did a new route, man." He would go on to describe its horrors and wonders, and when he and I and a few others started doing routes on the then virgin walls of Eldorado, every new hold was imprinted in that fertile imagination of my younger self. Of course I got interested in writing a guidebook to the climbs at age 14 and so took special notice of every hold and crack and face and ledge and fluff of grass my mind was capable of gathering in. Everything to me was beautiful, even the ugly rotten rock you had to hold in place as you climbed past it. That photo, Rich, makes me wish I had climbed in the Gunks. I can't believe I never did, of all the places I visited. I can imagine I would have loved that place, had it been my boyhood experience...
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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History living (as of about a month ago):
Photo by Patty Matteson
Left to right:
Joe Bridges FOV, Dick Williams, SV, John Bragg, BOG, Richard Goldstone VCL, Claude Suhl, FV.
Legend:
FOV = Friend of Vulgarians
SV = Senior Vulgarian
BOG = Baby of the Group
VCL = Vulgarian-come-lately
FV = Founding Vulgarian
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WBraun
climber
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Richard !!!!!
What an awesome group of guys you are.
All glories to your future ......
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Excellent photo! Nice to see that people keep up our avocation, and are still out challenging themselves as they mature.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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That's a wonderful group of classic individuals. I can't believe how young Dick looks. He must not age. Now the white beard, Rich, that is distinguished. I sense the strength still in those forearms. Good to know John Bragg is still around. Give him my best. Last time I saw him was when he and Stannard and I climbed in Eldorado... I love all that green, the bushes and trees. Gill just wrote me an email and said the competition was on, between him and me, to see which one looks the oldest now. On the Rock&Ice online page there is a revolving set of images, one of Gill that comes up for about half a second... He sent me a photo of him doing a front lever with legs apart. I told him what bad form that was, and he wrote back, "Yeah, yeah..."
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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By the way, in that "competition" of which I spoke, I win hands down.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Pretty honed bunch of Vulgarians (and friends) there! Sometimes I think of visiting, but a shot like that reminds me that those forearms are ripped from hoisting the sandbags onto out-of-staters...
I've enjoyed company recent years of Roman Laba. He's just back from a backpacking and scrambling trip to the Pyrennes.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Great photo! Inspiring to youngsters like myself, who have only just recently received aarp spam.
Oli, sometimes you are too hard on yourself.
OT, you should head to Vedawuoo for the 2nd part of the boogaloo, not THAT far from Fruita. Maybe a third the distance I'm driving. I guarantee you a laugh, or I'll buy your gas!
Fingers crossed style edit; glad to see this thread back on track.
Further enticement style edit; maybe I can come up with a story of myself as a seven yr old learning the ropes from the Stettner bro's.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Two more shots of history living.
Bragg in the Near Trapps, Gunks
Bragg on Frogland, Red Rocks
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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buuump
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Feb 20, 2015 - 02:01pm PT
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hey there say... wow, a very needed bump...
wow... yes, living history thread, is a very needed review, here...
i sure love and appreciate ever SINGLE one of you...
thanks for being here and sharing your lives, and your loves,
and your pain, and your losses, with us...
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