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spenchur
climber
Flagstaff/Thousand Oaks
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Highball bump
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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The baby boomers used to call mixed liquor drinks "highballs."
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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KLK said.....
'Maybe in GB. But in SoCal the word goes back to at least the early 1980s.'
So, it looks like it migrated, like; Big Macs, crap TV, teeth that are unfeasibly white, 'send', 'dude', 'stout', 'honed', 'rad' etc etc ;-)
I'm surprised no one has commented on the proximity of the term to another SoCal technique exported the world over, though Skyballing perhaps comes closer.
Regards,
Steve
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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that was really the generation before the boomers. like my parents
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Nice contributions!
Adge Last finishing the famous, and excellent, Stanage problem Not To Be Taken Away. Recent pic, from 2010.
When I learned climbing, in Northumberland, late 70s, some of the crags had no protection possibilities and no trees or boulders at the tops, just heather and grass and sheep--so, no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves.
Highballing is far more colorful.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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Crunch,
Do we know each other?
Steve
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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An example of what Crunch describes.
Steve
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Charlie B
Social climber
Santa Rosa, Ca
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Here's one of my favorite shots on one of the best highballs around.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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. . . no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves
Interestingly enough, Walter Perry Haskett Smith employed the same strategies when he more or less created the sport of rock climbing in England in the 1880s. No ropes at first, just scrambling up steeper and steeper terrain, high enough to be quite dangerous, but of course not of present day difficulty. What goes around comes around . . .
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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. . no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves'
Mind you, we were blessed with generally good landings...... and we became very adept at the dismounts.
Steve
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Not to be taken away is such a cool line. Awesome thread.
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Great bump Ryan D,
This thread has got some first rate historical photos from some of the OG's.
Especially like Largo's So High Tennis shoe shot. Holy F*#k! So high in tennies?....
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jun 26, 2016 - 10:03pm PT
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This is a thread that deserves a second wind. Just in the last few years, the phrase "highball" keeps getting stretched to the breaking point.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Jun 26, 2016 - 10:53pm PT
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What is the definition of a highball? Or are we meant to "know one when we see one"?
It is easily treatable.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 27, 2016 - 08:19am PT
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Great thread!
I think the word highball is much older than the baby boomers.
"There goes my eyeball into my highball" appears in an old jazz song Leprosy which can be found in the Unofficial Old College Songbook along with a host of other fine little ditties.
http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1950s/1950s_the_unofficial_college_song_book_(PB)/index.htm
I first heard the song as a kid when my dad used to break into it leaving me wondering just what this adulthood thing was really all about.
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dikhed
climber
State of fugue and disbelief
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Jun 27, 2016 - 09:19am PT
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With the shorts you guys were into wearing I would say that highball describes the spotter's view
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Jun 29, 2016 - 09:44pm PT
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Have there been any fatalities or serious injuries in recent years while engaged in highballing? As I rapidly approach eighty all this stuff looks very scary. Even as a young man I only did this sort of thing on rare occasions.
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