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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Thanks, all; glad you enjoyed the story. It is fun to remember those days, which, in the words of the song, "pass you by in the wink of a young girl's eye."
Anders-your story beats mine by a factor of two. Two bolts failed and then you rapped off the remaining one? Yikes!
Dave, Randy, Henny, Eric- I can't believe you guys were in the same position of having to trust that one lousy bolt three years later. We must all have been living right!
Rick
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Stoner's is an excellent route, but will certainly keep most people's attention... continuously interesting and intricate climbing. Here's a fashionable pic from BITD.
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Double D
climber
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Love the butt scratch Ricky.
My first trip to the valley (to climb) was with Rik Reider that weekend. We watched in awe from the river. I can't believe you guys were so young. At the time you seemed like "old guys" to me. The hauling must have been horrendous. I thought you were using massive amounts of chalk on the hauls as a plume of smoke drifted from each belay. (-;
Man, that thing in PA's...now that's inspirational! Those things blew in a big way.
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Jonny D
Social climber
Lost Angelez, Kalifornia
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did it in 2003 or 2004 in a party of 3. had a great time. i remember thinking i would have rather lead the first pitch than followed it, less runout that way.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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One of the sweeter aspects of the route is that the climbing usually moves away from the ledge strikes...the falls look pretty clean.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Rick, we didn't have much choice. It wasn't a steep rappel, and as mentioned, the second in effect downled the pitch. Hail Mary sort of thing.
Oddly, it was with my friend Simon, in 1978, and we were climbing today.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nice position! Wandering up the center of Middle Rock.
On a much wetter day!
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Done the first 5-6 pitches a whole bunch of times cause I love the route, and done the whole route once.
The second pitch got somewhat scarier when the fixed knifeblade protecting the 10b move disappeared. Bring some small aliens and brass nuts/screamers for this climb.
Lots of trippy route finding on the climb. You think the cruxes are over after pitch 5 but then on Pitch 6 (i think) there's a strange long runout right off the belay and you can't really see you next gear very well.
Look a knarley whipper off this pretty solid lieback upside down and backwards once and almost landed in the laps of my two partners. Later they admitted that they accidentally pulled me off!
Peace
Karl
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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If you can do the first 60', you can do the whole route.
I think I now understand why I found Stoner's such a hard climb. My partner and I climbed the 5.7 start on PR before traversing into Stoner's.
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teamwhipper
climber
Bay Area, CA
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I saw Karl's upside/backwards fall; you were maybe a pitch above us. It looked horrendous, and we thought you were going to be in seriously bad shape, but you didn't look messed up when you rapped by. Looked like your chalkbag cushioned the impact! It was a busy day on that route; we had friends a pitch above you, and we were just below.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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These face climbs on Middle, and especially those on The Middle Apron ... really are connoisseur's stuff comprising minimal bolting, creative route finding, sparse but critical and accommodating natural protection; all supporting elegant moves and many rope lengths of climbing.
Dave Nielsen at the base of Stoner's, leading pitch one and following somewhere high on the route, 1982 or 1983:
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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I saw Karl's upside/backwards fall; you were maybe a pitch above us. It looked horrendous, and we thought you were going to be in seriously bad shape, but you didn't look messed up when you rapped by. Looked like your chalkbag cushioned the impact!
Unfortunately, I was wearing a camera in a butt bag and it dug into my back when I fell, killing the camera!
But I escaped with my hide, my back was just bruised and I didn't actually crash into my partners creating an apocalypse!
Glad somebody saw it, it must have looked gengis.
Peace
Karl
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henny
Social climber
The Past
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Great story Ricky. I thought I recalled talking to you about Stoners and you saying you did the same thing as I did at the single bolt rapp - wish your partner "good luck" and then unclip and stand there. Difference being, you sent Dale first cause he was lighter, I sent DE first cause he was heavier. And judging from the belay bolt failure I'd say those "rumors" of bolt failure on the Middle were more than stories.
I've had a couple of instances where anchors failed. Once on The Last Unicorn at Josh - the entire anchor at the end of the first pitch came out when I went to clip it. I think those were fixed pins or something and it had fractured the rock enough that a block of rock (pins included) fell out when I clipped it. Vogel can probably remember the details on that one better than me - wait - he's even older than me.
The other one, while doing Dream On at Squamish a protection bolt on the crux pitch literally fell out just from the act of clipping a draw into it. That kind of wigged me. Now what? Ended up sticking it back in, clipped it, and down climbed back to the belay. When a bolt falls out like that you suddenly become leary of every bolt in sight. I sure am glad fatties are the standard now days.
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Tattooed 1
Trad climber
Sebastopol, Ca
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How does Stoner's Highway compare to Beacons From Mars in terms of difficulty and runout?
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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I've had a couple of instances where anchors failed. Once on The Last Unicorn at Josh - the entire anchor at the end of the first pitch came out when I went to clip it. I think those were fixed pins or something and it had fractured the rock enough that a block of rock (pins included) fell out when I clipped it. Vogel can probably remember the details on that one better than me - wait - he's even older than me.
Even at my age, it is hard to forget that. Henny and I went back to establish a second pitch -- only the first pitch had been climbed at the time. When we originally climbed the 1st pitch, we had put a baby angle in the crack behind the sloping belay ledge with a bolt on the ledge itself. Everyone rapped off on that anchor.
For whatever reason, a fracture formed in the ledge, running from the pin and directly through the bolt hole. As a result, the adjacent rock and entire anchor just sorta fell out. I quickly drilled a bolt anchor on the wall above the ledge, and in the process, nailed my thumb with the hammer (which cut short our attempt).
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henny
Social climber
The Past
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It's coming back to me now.
I quickly drilled a bolt anchor on the wall above the ledge
"Quickly" is relative. I had no trail line and no way to pull up a drill, so ultimately ending up settling for a tipped out single #4 friend as the anchor (behind a flake not on the ledge.) "Hurry up and get up here with the drill. Oh, and btw, don't fall." Good stuff (when looking back).
I had forgotten about the smashed thumb.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 14, 2011 - 03:15pm PT
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Bump for real climbing!
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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May 20, 2011 - 12:31pm PT
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Found some more Stoners pics, but this one of DE and EE -- giving that "Ho Man!" look at the base -- is classic.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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May 20, 2011 - 01:03pm PT
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Rick A wins the tale telling award on this one so far!
Plus input from 2 FA guys and input from numerous other early ascents.
Classic Supertopo.
Hey Cmac, I suggest a "Classic History Supertopo Archive" link with above mentioned criteria.
I nominate this thread. There are numerous others lurking around here and it would be nice to have them in their own little house eh?
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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May 20, 2011 - 01:30pm PT
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Now that is a climbing photo!
Can't deny, the crack on the last pitch (ensconced in green, velvety moss) is surely one of a kind! What beautiful rock this route traverses.
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