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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Apr 13, 2010 - 12:04am PT
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Fred touche and Ivan Bandic tried the Vulcan's Thumb not long after doing the FA of Perkins pillar. They climbed on snow up the SW face gully to the notch at the base of the final rock tower and said it was the most horrible crap you can imagine. I was glad I'd stayed home with the flu.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 13, 2010 - 12:19am PT
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i realy think we should auction it off some how.
Maybe we should require the Americans to take it as a condition of taking our water?
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Apr 13, 2010 - 12:24am PT
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Ghost: I for one, will agree to share those choss-piles: only if you first annex us.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Apr 13, 2010 - 12:25am PT
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Dick Culbert, my brother Bob, I, and a couple of others tried Vulcan's Thumb in 1965(?). It was September, not the best time, admittedly. We climbed the rock to the left (north) of the gully Oplopanax mentioned. The plan was to rappel into the notch from the peaklet just to the north. We made it to almost to the top of the peaklet before bailing. We knew we were beat. Nightmarish rock; I think we had one or two ropes cut by rockfall during the descent raps. We did figure that the gully in winter was the way to go.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Apr 13, 2010 - 01:09am PT
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Calling this virtual museum "A People's History of BC Mountaineering" is a bit of a stretch. Someone mentioned upthread that the last 30 years or so are missing. Also missing is any mention of the Interior Mountains. For you coastal [and southern] people that's the Cariboo Mountains, the Monashees, the North and South Selkirks and the Purcells. Just minor league stuff like Roger's Pass, where it all started, the Bugs etc. etc..... They probably got a bigger grant by claiming to cover all of BC.
Bruce Fairley isn't history in the Coast Range, or anywhere else. He did a big route down there last summer [2009], and it should be in the next CAJ.
Tami is partially correct when she says that VOC was primarily a dating club. When I was a member it was both a dating and a downhill skiing club, but definitely not a climbing club. The climbing was done by the aptly named Splinter Soc. Talking of dating, that's also where Tricouni met his wife!! I always say that I should have married a VOC girl as well. Hindsight.
Tricouni takes too long to type, so I'm just going to call him Nails. There is a good picture of Nails on this museum site, which is credited to Barry Hagen. I noticed an uncanny resemblance to a photo which i took of Nails on the third morning of our ascent of the U Wall. I would go as far as to say that it looks EXACTLY the same. But museums never make mistakes.
On a slight tangent, I received my complementary copy of Kevin McLane's new guidebook 'Canadian Rock--Select Climbs of the West' this afternoon. It's terrific. All the very best rock routes in Alberta and BC. Quoting from the back cover:
70 climbing areas
1300 climbs
2300 pitches
800 photos and topos
one different feature about this guide is that it does not list the names of the FA parties, so no ego trips here.
----so much to climb, so little time.
Cheers H.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Apr 13, 2010 - 01:15am PT
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Hamie:
Tricouni takes too long to type, so I'm just going to call him Nails. There is a good picture of Nails on this museum site, which is credited to Barry Hagen. I noticed an uncanny resemblance to a photo which i took of Nails on the third morning of our ascent of the U Wall. I would go as far as to say that it looks EXACTLY the same. But museums never make mistakes.
Oh yes, they do make mistakes! Glad you pointed that out; I'm about to email and get it fixed. (I've pointed out another error to them as well.) I didn't know who took it, but makes sense that it was in U Wall days.
Glad that Fairley is still making history in the Coast Mtns.
Glenn
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Apr 13, 2010 - 01:23am PT
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Make that Hardass Nails!!
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Apr 13, 2010 - 01:24am PT
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Hamie:
Calling this virtual museum "A People's History of BC Mountaineering" is a bit of a stretch. Someone mentioned upthread that the last 30 years or so are missing. Also missing is any mention of the Interior Mountains. For you coastal [and southern] people that's the Cariboo Mountains, the Monashees, the North and South Selkirks and the Purcells. Just minor league stuff like Roger's Pass, where it all started, the Bugs etc. etc..... They probably got a bigger grant by claiming to cover all of BC.
Several people, including me, have pointed out that it's essentially a Coast Mtns site. There are other institutions (ACC, Archives of Cdn Rockies, AAC) that have extensive archives of Rockies stuff - not sure about the Interior Ranges. The North Van site can't compete with them. But you are probably correct: the $$ they received from the Feds was probably tied to something broader than just SW BC.
But, some years ago, I contacted Archives of Cdn Rockies about donating some very early Coast Mtns and Omineca Mtns stuff - they were supremely uninterested. So those photos are at UBC now.
There's lots of room for different approaches to a "History of Climbing in BC." The North Van site is just a start, I hope.
Glenn
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 13, 2010 - 01:58am PT
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hey there mighty hiker, say, thanks for the interesting post...
wow, tami is here... say, there, and hey there, tami...
happy to see you,
god bless your day, night, or whatever, as to whatever time
it is now... (it is tue, 1:51 am here) ...
:)
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 13, 2010 - 02:14am PT
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one different feature about this guide is that it does not list the names of the FA parties, so no ego trips here.
Another full on guidebook botch. If it was truly an egoless guidebook the authors name should be absent as well. Kevin what are you thinking ???
Dismiss the people who had the wherewithal to put the route up by excluding them from the guidebook is a feature ? I think not. It is pure disrespect.
Approach Devils Thumb from Brandywine by snowmobile in winter. Possibly do it in a day with experienced riders / Winter Alpinists. I have a Skidoo 800 ready to rock and roll ... except I havent climbed in 10 years. Been a few years since I was out past Powder Mtn but heres a picture taken from Powder Dome summit or nearby.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Apr 13, 2010 - 02:31am PT
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Bmacd:
Approach Devils Thumb from Brandywine by snowmobile in winter. Possibly do it in a day with experienced riders / Winter Alpinists. I have a Skidoo 800 ready to rock and roll ... except I havent climbed in 10 years. Been a few years since I was out past Powder Mtn but heres a picture.
The photo looks like Cayley (north ridge head-on) with Pyroclastic Peak behind. Vulcan's thumb not visible - is hidden by Pyroclastic. (Those wilth a smattering of geology will recognize that, if a peak is named Pyroclastic, it's not going to be clean granite....)
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Apr 13, 2010 - 02:40am PT
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oops, my bad. the comment about no names, so no ego trips is mine. it wasn't on the cover, although the post does read as if kevin had said it. sorry all. sloppy reporting....
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 13, 2010 - 02:54am PT
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Oh Vulcans Thumb is behind Pyrocastic, okay my mistake. Well I have the approach dialed in, in fact seems I overshot Devils thumb that trip. Definitely a full day trip from Brandywine maybe more to climb it. Of course I am hardly up for a chostastic Winter FA, ....
Uhmm is there a problem with snowmobiles ? I have been out of the loop for a while .... Does trying to save Bute Inlet give me carbon credits for my sled ? Except we used a helicopter and a Cessna at Bute ... oh boy I can't seem to do much right.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 13, 2010 - 03:03am PT
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Ah okay found my shot of Vulcans Thumb, I believe ...
click photo to enlarge
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Chief
climber
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Apr 13, 2010 - 10:15am PT
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Another full on guidebook botch. If it was truly an egoless guidebook the authors name should be absent as well. Kevin what are you thinking ???
Dismiss the people who had the wherewithal to put the route up by excluding them from the guidebook is a feature ? I think not. It is pure disrespect.
Bruce, thank you for having the balls to call Kevin on his bullsh#t, revisionist, egregiously inaccurate and narrow interpretation of other peoples efforts.
His description of Cruel Shoes and Northern Lights relegate my involvement to that of virtual "also ran" rather than the guy that did the first ascent.
I also call bullshit on his claim that Loeks and Putnam got to the left side free from Merci Me before I did.
Sorry to go off on a tangent here folks but Bruce hit a long standing sore spot.
Kevin has chosen to arbitrarily misrepresent or qualify many peoples accomplishments in his guidebooks and I'm sick of it and speaking out.
Perry Beckham
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 13, 2010 - 11:56am PT
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Look at how much the Americans value their history of climbs and climbers who put them up. Parts of this forum are a passionate testament to those pioneers. Imagine what Steve Grossman or Clint Cummins would have to say about a yosemite guidebook with no mention of who the first ascentionists are. Hartouni has everyone in a searchable database.
Anders if you want a book project forget climbing in the 70's at Squamish and consider chronicling the people who explored the coast range right up to whats going on now out there. You will have a much broader target audience.
Bruce Kay what do you think the relief is on the east face of Vulcans thumb ? The final tower looks awful, our own version of the rockies except probably far far worse. Some sledder should go out there and shoot a few HD images of the east face and drop them off at the climbing shop in Squish to rile up the new blood.
Lake Lovely Water was where I hooked up with a very large breasted Exotic french Canadian girl .... something in the water ? Definitely so - Lake Firewater ....
Perry thanks for the morning wake-up call ! Guidebooks eventually form part of the historical record, their authors perhaps don't always realize their responsibilities at the time.
click for larger image
We climbed Garabaldi from Sentinel Bay once, that was a slog ...
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Apr 13, 2010 - 12:21pm PT
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Look at how much the Americans value their history of climbs and climbers who put them up.
This is correct, if by "Americans" you mean roughly three dozen fat, aging, cranky alcoholics most of whom would never even consider throwing down retail for a new paperback edition of practically anything.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 13, 2010 - 02:37pm PT
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Guide books are part of the historical record so discussing this here is not OT or Taboo.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 13, 2010 - 03:01pm PT
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Look at how much the Americans value their history of climbs and climbers who put them up.
We used to value our history in Canada, too. Maybe even moreso than the Americans. The trend toward ignoring history, or pretending it isn't relevant, is sad.
Maybe on a sport crag where all that's involved is putting up one more line of bolts among dozens, the name of the bolter isn't all that important. Or maybe it is, even then.
But any of us who has spent the hundred hours per pitch required to prepare a route at Squamish, or expended the sweat and blood required to get onto something new in the Coast Range, has got to be insulted by the depersonalization of our efforts.
No guidebook author is ever going to do the job perfectly. But most try. I hope the idea of leaving out the history that goes with our names dies quickly.
D
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