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scuffy b
climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
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May 25, 2011 - 06:08pm PT
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Gill/Chouinard guide to the Jenny Lake boulders
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steve shea
climber
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May 25, 2011 - 06:14pm PT
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Longs Peak It's Story and a Climbing Guide By Paul Nesbit. Besides going to Komito's and the Longs Peak ranger station this was it. I'm talking late 60's here. I bought my copy from the little Holubar Mountaineering shop on the hill in Boulder.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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May 25, 2011 - 07:54pm PT
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Gill/Chouinard guide to the Jenny Lake boulders
Not sure if Jim would approve - Yvon wrote a lengthy section on geology that began with "the boulders are made of stone" . . . oh, I think it ended there too.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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May 25, 2011 - 08:07pm PT
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I have a lot of the usual ones:
But how many of you have this true classic?
I thought not. Still, the one that influenced me the most, and remains truly classic, is my first Roper Yosemite Valley guide, that was the standard when I first started climbing.
Thanks, Steve, for the inspiration.
John
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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May 25, 2011 - 08:40pm PT
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Here are a few of my top picks:
Yes, the YDS originated at Tahquitz and the 1956 Tahquitz Guide ushered in the Decimal Rating System. It was also one of the very first pure rock climbing guides anywhere in the US. Pocket sized and meant to be used. Arguably one of the most influential guidebooks of all time.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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May 25, 2011 - 09:02pm PT
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The old "Hunk" guide of the O.C.
Did Someone mention the Hunk Guide?
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 25, 2011 - 09:07pm PT
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my hunk guides are long gone.
i wrote a guide to larrabee/clayton beach years ago. also long gone.
lots of folks overlook that original tahquitz guidebook.
at one point, you could pick up us guidebooks featuring 4 entirely different grading systems.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 25, 2011 - 09:23pm PT
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Yvon wrote a lengthy section on geology that began with "the boulders are made of stone"
But the Jennie Lake boulders aren't just any rocks - don't they make their own weather?
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o-man
Trad climber
Paia,Maui,HI
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May 26, 2011 - 01:09am PT
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High Over Boulder by Pat Ament and Cleve McCarty was the first guide book that I ever owned.
It was my reference to many adventures in Eldorado, The Flatirons, and Boulder Canyon.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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May 26, 2011 - 03:44am PT
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The Hunk guide was legendary! hehehe, and fun too.
1955 guide to Pinnacles national mon is up there in my mind with the term legendary.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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May 26, 2011 - 05:40am PT
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1955 guide to Pinnacles national mon is up there in my mind with the term legendary.
That one, alas, I don't have, but it used to be available for check-out from the Fresno County Library, and we used it until I sprung for Roper's Pinnacles Guide. The 1955 Guide had a few real gems, though. It described the first few feet of Condor Crags (into the bowl) as "a balance pitch on tweak holds." Its picture of Photographer's Delight (captioned Mechanic's Delight) looks like the summit of the Lost Arrow.
The 1953 CLimber's Guide to the High Sierra is another classic, particularly its description of the Yosemite Valley rock climbs. I don't have a copy of that, either, but one of my regular climbing partners, Tim Schiller, does. We still use it for descriptions of pre-1940-ish climbs, when we feel like emulating Ed H.
John
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o-man
Trad climber
Paia,Maui,HI
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May 26, 2011 - 03:48pm PT
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This is actually a good guide book not perfect mind you.
The reason that I most like it is that Peter saw fit to put an image of a climb that I did the first ascent of on the back cover. He also gave the climb a full page against the introduction.I haven't heard from Peter in many years. Peter and I had some issues over climbing style( I didn't think the Platte was the place for rap bolting.)back in the day. That aside I always enjoyed his presence on and off the rocks.
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scuffy b
climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
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May 26, 2011 - 04:42pm PT
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These are big boulders, big enough to make their own weather.
Many a hapless ant has lost his pride, if not his life, tumbling down
the Badille-like North Face of Falling Ant Slab.
Using the Gill/Chouinard guide, we were able to locate and dispatch the
glorious East Face of Mt Fonda, without a flagman.
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mooch
Trad climber
Old Climbers' Home (Adopted)
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May 27, 2011 - 03:15pm PT
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Recently paid $155 for a copy of The Needles guidebook. Worth every damn penny too! More over.....it's in near mint condition. Must've been Tiki-Ger's copy. ;)
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2011 - 04:23pm PT
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Was that guidebook about guidebooks real? That looked rad, I want one.
The Needles... sell it while you can 'cause Kris Solem is gonna have a new one out and it's gonna be bitchin'.
I'm up in the air with black and white vs. color. Maybe it's my age and the era I grew up in, but sometimes black and white is just so classic and stunning. Pictures (especially of climbing) often look more forboding in black and white. But pics of girls in b&w suck so there you go...
Haven't heard much about Vernon... he did a ton of legwork on those 3 guides... they were stark but the covered so much territory, and new ground in a lot of places. They always got me there. But the uncertainty of the unknown kept me awake a few nights prior for some of those routes, I'll say that. The dude is still a machine when it comes to hiking, and he's still climbing, and finding new areas. That's cool. Forever stoked.
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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May 27, 2011 - 05:23pm PT
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I am with Bobby D on 'Rocky Heights'. Great guide and very entertaining.
I have that Tollhouse Rock guide as well as a few that followed. Got some nice ink in the mid-1980's edition by Kroll. Also have a 1976 guide to Lover's Leap (stapled 8x10" sheets). Anyone got that one?
Alec Sharp's Gogarth guide is pretty witty. Just what you would expect from a Brit.
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Guck
Trad climber
Santa Barbara, CA
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May 27, 2011 - 07:19pm PT
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Dingus, I would like to start the bid for your guidebook at $10.99.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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May 27, 2011 - 07:40pm PT
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Bruce,
I had a typewritten guide to Lover's Leap from on or before 1972, but I have no idea where it is. In any case, I know there was an earlier edition than 1976.
John
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scuffy b
climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
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May 27, 2011 - 08:57pm PT
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Randisi,
Sherman had (in 1992) the full thing, but he doesn't seem eager to
enlighten the rest of us.
At any rate, we found our way to Mt Fonda and scaled the East Face.
We had no flagman (a helpful suggestion in the guide) but luckily the
Park had just closed that section of the road.
John took pictures, but I don't think they were ever published or posted.
I did successfully ascend the Badille-like North Face of Falling Ant Slab
that day, as well.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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May 28, 2011 - 12:12am PT
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ok, here is one...
Guide to the Jenny Lake Boulders (1987)
John Gill
The three durable boulders a few hundred feet north of the Jenny Lake ranger station have provided challenging entertainment for several generations of Teton climbers. Dick Emerson, Dick Pownall and others probably established the first routes in the early fifties while working as seasonal park rangers or mountain guides. By 1959 most of the noteworthy moves that are not outlandishly contrived had been accomplished, including no-hands and one-arm routes. This guide provides descriptions of several of the "standard" problems that climbers have found to be provocative and physically stimulating. In some instances the dates of first ascents are given, along with appropriate historical comments. II-3, II-4 and II-5G represent the author's initial efforts to employ dynamic rather than purely static techniques in bouldering.
I. Cutfinger Rock: In the mid-fifties Dick Emerson, using dry forest duff as an anti-perspirant for the hands, climbed the classical slopping shelf route (I-1) on the right side of the bulging south face, reaching a sharp handhold on the edge of a large flake (which broke off in 1958). By the end of the 1958 season a complex pattern of routes had been established (using the author's innovation, chalk), including one-arm ascents of both I-1 and, with one cheat hold near the top, the center nose routes I-2. If Emerson's routs seems a bit mild now, try moving into it from a stance on the large foothold on the boulder, low and to the right, using a small knob on the right edge of the boulder as a starting handhold. Try continuing across the bulge in a horizontal traverse (I-3) (the reverse route has a demanding end move to the foothold and handhold described above). The direct nose route (I-2) can be done eliminating some of the indicated holds in a very pure way (1959). The currently popular sticky rubber soles do not provide the large advantage that one might expect on the glassy surface of this boulder. In the later fifties a popular climbing shoe at Jenny Lake was the Zillertal, a stiff leather shoe from Austria having a thin cleated sole of black rubber. Very good for edging, but marginal for friction. During the mid-sixties the smoooth-soled R.D., with leather upper became popular - still more of an edging shoe than a friction shoe. The later sixties and early seventies saw a shift in emphasis to friction-oriented footwear, like the E.B. and P.A. brands.
II. Red Cross Rock: Route II-1 was done by Emerson and others in the mid-fifties. The remaining routes were established by 1959, including a one-arm climb of II-1.
II-2 involves a pinch hold for the right hand and a step to a good left handhold, then a mantle over the rounded top.
II-3 requires using the obvious handhold under the overhang to step onto the rock, then pull dynamically and reach directly to the lip of the overhang above, avoiding the intermediate handholds of II-1, (1958).
II-4 is an obdurate route on the north end of the boulder: There is a horizontal fingertip hold for the right hand a couple of feet from the top of the rock, and a tiny edge just under the overhang for the left hand. Grasping these painful holds step off the ground onto a foothold low on the north side, pause, and pull dynamically to the top of the boulder (1959).
II-5 is a difficult route up the overhanging wall just to the left of the nose. Use a lie-back left handhold and a (chipped and enlarged) hold for the right hand. Pull onto the rock and attain a position that will allow you to reach up over the lip with the left hand to a small hold, and thence up. This route was first done sometime after 1960.
II-5G, the "Gill route", is really a pre-variation on II-5. In the fifties the initial right handhold on II-5 was critically sharper and smaller, and the author and others were unable to use it to advantage. In 1959 the author performed a dynamic lie-back on the left handhold and a small edge below for the left foot, avoiding the right handhold entirely, and, reaching over the lip of the overhang to the small crux hold with the right hand, was able to lock on and complete the climb. This remains a significant dynamic boulder problem.
III. Falling And Slab: This edging and friction face was a great favorite with climbers in the fifties who wanted to experiment with the edging capabilities of mountain boots and klettershue. Route III-1 is a classical traverse that has been done hundreds of times in footgear ranging from heavy boots to bare feet (Y. Chouinard, e.g.). There are several difficult no-hands routes, upon which once cannot help noticing the steep decline below that terminates in Jenny Lake. Route III-2 is an old edging problem requiring a long step up and to the left using small handholds - try it.
The first edition of this guide (by the author and Yvon Chouinard) appeared in 1958.
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