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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Nov 20, 2008 - 11:13am PT
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Sams Point, Shawangunk Ridge above Ellenville.
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Nov 22, 2008 - 03:55pm PT
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Ron Kauk on Supercrack, 1976. Photo by Paul Baird.
Rich Goldstone inside cover of North American Climber.
Neil Pothier, North American Climber ad.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 22, 2008 - 10:00pm PT
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Nice shot a few posts back of a dip into Enchantment Lake! And, arguably, the oldest artificial climbing wall in the USA.
Nice historical shots too, Richross. Where did you get them?
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Nov 23, 2008 - 07:51am PT
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Steve, I got the historical Gunks photos from my dad. He was into nature and the local history. Glad you liked them. Here are a few more.
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Geno
Trad climber
Reston, VA
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Nov 23, 2008 - 12:24pm PT
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Harvey Arnold whose excellent photos started this thread allowed me to put up a few of Rich Ross in my previous post (see above).
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Nov 23, 2008 - 01:06pm PT
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Geno, Can you photoshop out that hat I am wearing in that one photo? I am afraid the fashion police might see it. That must be why Bobby D is smiling. Thanks to Harvey Arnold for the photos.
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MH2
climber
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Nov 23, 2008 - 01:08pm PT
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Thanks to oakie and Steve. I didn't notice first time through that Prussik and UW Rock are the scenery for the photos of Fred Y. Fred is doing either Left Hand Face or maybe Timson's Problem. Just to his right is the hand and fist crack that was a big part of my jamming education after all that face climbing at the Gunks and Devils' Lake. I'll have to put that learning to use if I ever end up in the vicinity of Red Tape, again.
Depending on when that Practice Rock picture was taken, about 30% of those foot impressions in the gravel could be mine.
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Nov 24, 2008 - 12:42pm PT
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Vern Clevenger on Mellow Yellow in 1980.
Vern Clevenger on Red Tape 1980.
Jim Damon on Supercrack early 90's.
Owen Silver leading Amazon and Michael Peters, right on top of Scare City. Early 90's.
Marco Fedrizzi on Blockparty, Mid 80's.
Rich Goldstone inside cover North American Climber.
Chuck Calef on Arms for the Poor, early 80's.
Rich Romano on Flashpoint. 80's.
Barbara Devine on Foops Trap. Mountain issue no. 97 Photo Harvey Arnold.
Jim Munson on Tuff Lady, FA late 80's.
My turn on Tuff Lady, 3rd. Photos Rich Romano.
Climb just left of Tuff Lady.
)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 30, 2008 - 12:31pm PT
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This is the first photo of the fabled Supercrack that I can recall seeing in North American Climber November 1975.
The caption reads "Looks like a hand eating jam crack, but Mohonk's Super Crack, Shawangunks, New York rates out at 5.11 and has ahd only one free ascent by Steve Wuncsh last fall. Photo: Paul Baird."
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 4, 2008 - 12:42am PT
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A little historical nugget from Mountain 21, May 1972. Bring back any memories? This was likely the first Gunks survey that saw international coverage. Any major magazine article on the Gunks come out earlier?
Rich, DUDE!
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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Steve, There was really no major magazine to do international coverage before Mountain appeared in the late '60s. It was the first climbing magazine that really sought the international market. Alpinismus (Germany) and Montage et Alpinisme (France)had somewhat earlier started a "glossy" modern-style format, but they were primarily focused on their national audiences. Mountain editor Ken Wilson very aggressively (and largely sussessfully) tried to establish it as the "magazine of record" in the climbing world. Ken was, and still is, very opinionated and out-spoken, viewing himself as the guardian of the purist British traditional approach to the sport. I remember him visiting the Gunks a few years after the article appeared and being very sarcastically critical of the number of fixed pitons then present on the cliff----though that didn't stop him from clipping each one he encountered!!!!!As for earlier articles about the Gunks, I presume that there must have been something in Summit---the only US magazine of the pre-Mountain era. It is also likely that one of the relatively frequent visitors from the UK wrote up something for one of the annual club journals that were/are a part of the climbing culture over there. But I agree that the posted Mountain articles were the first real international coverage of the Gunks and other New England areas. As a footnote, "my" article was actually written (and later published) as the historical introduction to Paul Ross's New Hampshire guidebook, which Paul then submitted to Mountain on his own without consulting me (not that I really minded).
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Edifying as it is to be the encaptioned one, a respect for the truth obliges me to report that the Rich Goldstone in the photo soloing High E is not the Rich Goldstone I have known for now a bit more than 65 years. In fact, the intrepid soloist is Matt Hale, and the faux Rich Goldstone is not the soloist, but rather the fully-grounded photographer.
Just to keep my street cred intact (as if soloing an exposed 5.6 entitled one to any kind of cred in todays climbing world) the real Rich Goldstone had just finished soloing High E and took up his position as photographer in order to immortalize Matt Hale.
And now that I've revealed this much, I might as well go all the way and mention that this particular conga line of soloists had at its head that Fall day the venerable Jim McCarthy, whose lustre is cetrtainly not dimmed by the fact that he is neither in the picture nor is entitled to any credit for taking it.
Finally, if all this unencumbered romping seems perhaps a bit too carefree, let's tip a glass to another frequent High E soloinst and dyed-in-the wool gunkie, Chuch Loucks, who, on the Southwest Ridge of Symmetry Spire, paid the ultimate price for his love of ropeless mountain travel.
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MH2
climber
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Are you sure Chuck was ropeless? I was told, "He ran it out 80 feet and then did a very un-Chuck-like thing. He fell."
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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"let's tip a glass to another frequent High E soloinst and dyed-in-the wool gunkie, Chuck Loucks"
Glass tipped!
In this case, an '89 Chateau Meyney Saint-Estephe.
Hopefully worthy of the man.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Hmm. Interesting history.
Inverted Layback shot is especially interesting. I followed that once and the rope went to the right, not up and left. I wonder if that is just a question of where gear got placed or actually a difference of where the route is currently climbed.
I remember it being strenuous, but not exceedingly so, given the grade. But a buddy of mine blew out a bicep at that spot.
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jstan
climber
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http://www.americanalpineclub.org/AAJO/pdfs/1977/inmemoriam1977_306-315.pdf
CHARLES LOUCKS
1932-1976
“Chuck” was born in China, the son of American medical missionaries,
educated in the United States and taught in a Long Island school. For
the past fifteen years, climbing was his real vocation. Spring and fall
his habitat was the Shawangunks, though on long weekends he could be
found at Poco-Moonshine or the White Mountain cliffs. Come summer
he climbed mountains. He ranged from the Alps to the Brooks Range,
the Canadian Rockies to the Wind Rivers. He fed on gorp and glop and
could cook a one-pot feast under any conditions. He climbed gracefully,
smoothly, with a rhythm and balance always admired by onlookers. He
brought enthusiasm and puckish humor to every climb. On Easter he
was known to have climbed Bunny in the Gunks to distribute jelly beans
and a plastic rabbit. He shared his enthusiasm by introducing young
people to the sport and teaching them the wonder of the classic routes.
Essentially a private person, few people could say they knew him
well. Yet he was highly prized as a climbing, tenting, traveling or
bivouacking companion.
For several years he served as the New York representative of the
AAC and was a past member of the house committee. He was a serious
collector of Alpine literature and spent many evenings at the Club library
sharing his knowledge of the books and photographs.
Charles Loucks died of injuries sustained in a fall while climbing with
friends in the Tetons on August 27, 1976.
EARLYN CHURCH
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Thanks for that JStan.
He sounds like an outstanding fellow and now I know a little more about the man to whom I've raised a glass.
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cowpoke
climber
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In the very cool article posted from Mountain, there are references to "artificial" climbs, e.g., for Cathedral it notes that there are both free and artificial climbs. Is this a synonym for aid climbs that is no longer used? As someone who didn't start climbing until the early 90's, the term conjures up images of glued holds and the like, but it can't be that...can it? If it is a synonym, i would love to know why it was dropped from the lexicon? Sorry for my ignorance, but I'd never heard/read this term before.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Yes: artificial = direct aid.
It's natural to climb directly upon the rock using your hands and feet!
And a woeful unnatural act to bang in pitons and stand on them using wrunged ladders and stuff.
Unless you were Kor and those of like ilk, for whom the real climbing only started when it got nasty, steep and artificial.
I don't know why it was dropped; aid also used to rank as sixth class, fifth being free climbing.
But this is mostly inference on my part, based on some of the prevailing knowledge when I started in the 70s, so we'll get some good historically accurate detail from the real guys in a few more posts perhaps.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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The term comes from French for "artificial climbing," escalde artificielle. Probably in use since the 1930's, and still the common term today in France, ``artif'' for short.
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