Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
thesiger
Trad climber
A desert kingdom
|
|
Outstanding thread. Thanks Anders.
|
|
Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
Just thought I'de give this thread a bump to keep it up there. I like your writing, Anders and Tami's sense of humor. It would be really great to hear some of the others you've mentioned chime in. I have some observations about my trip to Daryl's Memorial with Dave Y. and Rich A. that I'de like to share on this thread if it's O.K. with you.
|
|
bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
|
|
Great stuff Anders...keep them coming.
|
|
Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
The more I think about it, this thread is probably not the best place for my comments. I think what I have to say might cause somewhat of a shitstorm among the yanks, so with respect for Anders, I'm going to work up a seperate trip report. Cheers. gotta get to work. Anders, you too,more stuff.
|
|
Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
|
|
The more I think about it, this thread is probably not the best place for my comments. I think what I have to say might cause somewhat of a shitstorm among the yanks
Wayno, I really don't know how anything you say could cause more of a shitstorm among the yanks than what they already yell at each other in every second post in every second thread on this forum.
Daryl was part of Squamish climbing in the 70s, and this thread is about Squamish climbing in the 70s. Perfect place for stories about him.
I'm on a very tight deadline right now (which is why I'm working on a beautiful Sunday instead of climbing at Index with Mari), but I've got a Daryl story that I'll try to dig out and post to this thread tomorrow. It even involves a "Who's-the-manliest-man contest" between Daryl and a yankee. Which the yankee lost. Of course.
|
|
hafilax
Trad climber
East Van
|
|
I was thinking about this thread while I was climbing Mushroom today. Keep'em come'n.
|
|
MisterE
Social climber
My Inner Nut
|
|
Hey, MH, I took my first BIG whipper on you route "Seasoned In the Sun" back in '82. That last rattly hands bit to the good ledge that happened to be sandy early in the season. Thanks.
Erik
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
Hi, I’m back! I went to Squamish today, and after visiting family, hiked up all the summits of the Chief, collecting a big bag of garbage en route – FaceLift training. I bet none of YOU climbed three summits today! I found three plastic bottles, so earned $0.30 for my efforts. I considered blueberry picking, but maybe next weekend. I may be able to post some photos later – the next subject will probably be slab climbing. But first some editorial.
All posts having to do with climbing at Squamish in the 1970s, or the dramatis personae, are all welcome. Especially from those who were there, or knew the people. Questions or comments, too. There probably wasn’t anything really different about us or what we were doing, but we had a flavour of our own.
The thread about Daryl is at http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=192446 There are many stories that could be told about Daryl, and indeed others who were around then, but may not need to be told here.
Daryl was quite a character. We used to get pestered by the people at the border, en route to Leavenworth or Yosemite. Sometimes to the point of strip searches. I’ve always tried to keep a low public profile when it came to authority figures – picking fights with bureaucrats, let alone cops, is rarely wise. Once we crossed, on the way to the Valley. Daryl was asked what he did, and he replied “I’m a topper”. He was quite proud of it, as it’s specialized and dangerous work – a topper is the guy who goes up a long way up a big tree and cuts off the tip, to reduce splitting of the main trunk when it falls down. (The “tip” can be 10 m long, 1 m thick, and weigh hundreds of kilos.) Daryl wasn’t just a logger, he was a topper. It was fun hearing him explain this to the border guy.
Eventually Daryl morphed into urban tree work, and in a sense that’s how he died. But in his glory days, he was handy with a chain saw – that is, one with a 36” or longer bar. One for real men. In some climbing areas, it’s a “rite of passage” to buy a power drill. In Squamish, it may instead be buying a chain saw – lots of climbers own, and think they know how to safely use, them. Scary stuff. But none of them has what Daryl would have considered a “real” chain saw.
I am astounded that Erik W. took a long fall on Seasoned in the Sun – it’s an eminently protectable climb. Although soon after the first ascent, a guy from Victoria “went for it” on the upper half, and took a 30 m+ fall, for which he earned the nickname “Death Fall Steve”. He just missed cratering. As Eric mentions, there’s a ledge above the climb, with the usual gravel and rocks. When we first did the route, a well-rooted stump had to be left in the middle. Some years later, we went back, and spent several enjoyable hours trundling boulders off the ledge. Eventually, we scored the desired direct hit on the stump, and knocked it ass over teakettle into the forest.
Anyway, it was a nice walk today. Some now claim that the Chief has four summits – they are separated by the imaginatively named North North, North, South, and South South Gullies. (Shades of “Left Side of”, “Centre Route” and “Right Side of” XYZ Pinnacle!) The summits areas are generally rougher rock, perhaps because the receding glacier exposed them first, and they’ve had longer to erode. And it is a lovely walk. There are little sub-loops that lengthen it. Plus a swimming pool size pothole right at the north summit, which is filled with water year round. The only pothole I know of at Squamish.
Another fun climb is Sunshine Chimneys, which is directly behind what is now the campground. Quite a variety of stuff, including tunneling between two giant blocks for quite a way, then popping out onto a steep wall at treetop height. Nominally 5.6 or so. I did it with Eric on a rainy day in May 1973, and am still not quite sure how he got up the slab at the end. He always was gifted. Later that day, I took a good fall out of the top of Big Daddy Overhang, trying to get over to Sentry Box and off.
As far as clothing, hair styles, music, and popular culture go, perhaps the less said the better. The first wave boomers (1946 – 55) had, as always, left devastation in their wake. I will never forgive them for disco or polyester, just for starters. Luckily, few of us were much concerned with fashion, except with respect to music, and perhaps as exhibited by members of the opposite sex.
The town of Squamish and its popular lumberjack mayor, Pat Brennan, provided a lot of support to Baldwin and Cooper in 1961. Their climb of the Grand Wall got Squamish a lot of attention, right after the highway opened. By the early 1970s, climbing had mostly fallen off the radar there. We went into town to patronize the low budget restaurants, such as the Tastee Freeze and the Lotus Gardens (“Chinese-Canadian Cuisine”), but that was about it. Most of us weren’t of legal age for a few more years, and usually couldn’t get into the bars. Eric and Daryl, and then John A., were a bit older, and able to get beer for others who wanted. Once we got cars, even if borrowed from our parents, we would sometimes drive the 3 km into town, and see what mischief could be managed – there were a few confrontations with the adolescent males of Squamish, but nothing too scary.
Knowing the characters involved, it is much more likely that the collateral down jacket that Tami refers to was the Langtang one, not the exploded one. The timing is just right.
|
|
Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
My thoughts were more about the Memorial than Daryl himself. Maybe I'll post up tomorrow, I'm going to sleep on it.
|
|
Keeper of Australia Mt
Trad climber
Whitehorse, Yukon , Canada
|
|
Yup. the Mighty Hiker is on a roll with this one - sweet stuff.
In 1970 I was hunkered down for three months amidst the monsoon deposits on the Queen Charlotte Islands digging prehistoric curios from the bowels of the earth -totally oblivous to the mayhem and heinous activity to the far southeast. Pretty much oblivious to climbing totally - no intersection at all in my youth other than a a wildly inept affair of a small unit of Boy Scouts practicing "rapping" down a steep gravel bank of the Klondike River (using some wild Euro body wrap technique - against all odds we survived). But climbin was in the air and I recall my Charolotte's boss mentioning Baldwin because there is a prehistoric time period in the Fraser Canyon named after him. He was a student of the germanic father of B.C. archaeology - Charles Borden out at UBC. In any case, after falling into this late life passion in 2001, and having absorbed some intro stuff here, in Canmore and in Jtree (under the tutelage of Clark Jacobs - I finally foraged north from Van to Sqauamish - linking up with Bourdon and Morehead. That would have been 2002 and somewhere in there Anders showed up - don't recall precisely whether it was at the crag, Climb On , or the Starbucks early am launch pad. Maybe all three! Or maybe as celestial vision late one night at the Brew Pub! Obviously, still waters run deep - the Mighty Hiker has a mighty history! He is also psychic - here I am wrapping plans for another foray into Squamish in a couple of weeks time and he comes out with this little enticing thread! To hell with Harper and his gang's election - why don't we just install Anders as Governor of Squamish, Howe Sound and related ancillary aspects of the Coast Range and save a few gazillion dollars. And this will reserve him for the land of the Maple Leaf as he has been wandering way too far south to the valley and might just end up with the remainder of our donations to lower 48 culture - Gretz, Celine Dion, Paul Anka, Steve Nash, Captain Kirk, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen,John Candy etc. :) Don't even think about it! Like Tami, bolster yourself against the lure of Hollywood and the big bucks. Great renderings of the early guides but they only tell half the tale - I happen to have clipped onto a couple of Squamish heirlooms - one being the spicey little rendering " Vicious Lies an' Heinous Slander Vol.2 - from a Supremely demented little corner of the Coast Range!!!)! Circa 1989 - when I finally dug that little gem out of the dusty antique store I was overcome by a feeling not unlike the chaps who found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Chapter "How to Climb Offwidths" provided, no doubt, sublimbinal motivation to getting up Agamemnon at Araps . Forget Indian Jones and his quest for freaking holy grails,crystal cups, saucers, whatever - he needs to focus on the important stuff we are all interested in: Vol. 1 of Vicious Lies an' Heinous Slander - from a supremely demented Little Corner of the Coast Range". The younger generations and even some ancient ones are seriously deprived/depraved if our garage sale scouring can not come up with this little beauty. It should be reprinted, with appropriate attribution as an appendix in the next " The Climbers Guide to Squamish" - that way the cake has some icing.
Keep it going MH - and work some magic with the early October weather at Squamish - it would not be that great to see a repeat of Oct 2003 and the tsunami's careening off the apron and having to bail for Skaha. Not that that was a bad deal but time is of the essence on this one.
You should visit your sister here and do it in the summer when we can go do a few routes out at White Mountain or Golden Canyon! And I can point the way to the Bugaboo's like granitic spires lying to the south of us but beyond the reach of the BC border.
Cheers,
|
|
eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
|
|
Great thread, Anders. These are well told stories. I visited Squamish three times in the late '70s. It became part of my climbing circle's yearly circuit. The circuit was basically the Valley in the Spring, Tuolumne in the early summer, work a bit in the summer in San Diego, and then go to Squamish (and/or the Bugaboos) in the Fall. The others is the group were Tom Gibson, George Manson, Rob Rohn, and Mike Tschipper.
On almost every trip it rained at least a bit, but we always managed to get in some exceptionally good climbs. I feel honored to have got to hang out with the likes of Perry Beckham, Dave Lane, Ward ?, Daryl Hatten, and even Tami on one or two occasions. Pretty sure I met Gordon Smail on one trip, and got to climb with Peter Croft on another.
Our group ended up doing a few first ascents, the best one being Freeway on the Tantalus Wall by Tom Gibson and Rob Rohn, in 1979. We did these with the best wishes of some of the locals, who happened to be some of our best friends. It was a casual, friendly atmosphere in that regard. I can't think of a Squamish climber I've met that I didn't like.
|
|
eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
|
|
Yep, that's the guy, Tami. Thanks. I actually knew him more from the Valley, where we hung out a little. He made a real impression on me.
|
|
Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
I wanted to talk to Yerian before I posted up and viola, he called me this morning. He's in total agreement with what I have to say.
We were touched by the welcome and hospitality we received from all you folks in Squamish. I didn't realize it at the time but it was the who's who of Squamish climbing in the seventies. Never in Yosemite had I experienced the comradeship and sense of community that you folks showed, and I think it shows on this forum. With some rare exceptions my experiences in Yosemite reek too much of elitism, aloofness and plain old back stabbing. I would say some of that has changed, but not much. From all the good words I've read here from yanks about Daryl, I kinda expected more of us to show up. I realize there are travel constraints and some people don't do well at memorials but how often in life do you get to know a guy like Daryl. Dave and I want thank all of you for making such a sad day one of the most memorable experiences we've had. Dave is coming up here in a month or two and we really want to come up to Squamish and say thanx.
|
|
Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
|
|
Greg F. during a Santa Cruz visit in maybe 1989. I think Island Alpine closed doors just before then.
|
|
mastadon
Trad climber
Tahoe
|
|
I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos.
Here are a few pictures of the Grand Wall in December, 1971. Don’t ask me what possessed us to go up there in December. We got what we deserved. It rained the whole time. The truly amazing thing was that there were two people in front of us. Another Seattleite, John Stebbins and I met a young Canadian from Vancouver Island who wanted, in the worst way, to climb the Grand Wall. We allowed him to tag along. He was a great guy and a great addition to our group. A few months later I got a letter from his father saying he had taken his life but had raved about his adventure with us.
Pat Timson and I had done the Grand Wall the previous June in flawless weather. We started out at noon and flopped on to Bellygood ledge after dark. We didn’t take a single nut and nailed every inch of the climb. We woke up the next morning after a miserable, sleepless night and saw the beautiful cabin with 4” foam sleeping pads that had just been built that neither of us knew about. We were the first people to visit. That whole weekend was stellar-beautiful dry rock, warm temps. There wasn’t a single other person climbing in the whole Squamish area. We finished by climbing the Roman Chimneys.
Back to December, 1971…
More December, 1971
June, 1972 Doug McCarty and I set off to climb Tantalus Wall. Of course it rained the whole time and being of semi-quick wit, I backed off the dreaded offwith since I had nothing that would fit it and my nut-sack was too small.
We rapped off in a downpour
and ended up partying in the cave…
A couple weekends later Bruce Albert and I went back to Squam. Here’s a shot of Steve Sutton and Richie Doorish on Ten Years After
Here’s a picture of Bruce on the road in front of the caves (when you used to be able to drive there) watching Steve and Richie
Around this time there was a weird local guy that used to hang out in town in full climbing uniform. We used to see him in The Chieftan wearing climbing shoes, harness, hammer, and racks of hardware over his shoulder. Never could quite get a handle on this person. About the same time there was a rash of vehicle break-ins with climbing stuff being stolen. It was my understanding that Sinclair and a few others caught this guy stealing stuff and dumping it into Shannon Falls. He was dealt with in a Canadian manner.
Sinclair was another story altogether. After the first serious sandbagging we (yanks) got from him, we took everything he said with a grain of salt.
August 1972 Tom Nephew and Ed Gibson and I did University Wall. I made the mistake of bringing my under-age girlfriend along on the trip and we were met on our descent by the RCMP’s where I was hustled off to the Squamish jail. That was where I learned what the Mann Act was.
Ed Gibson jugging somewhere low on the route
The obligatory cool shot in the dihedral
Tom Nephew jugging up high
Don Brooks on the Grand Wall 1973
Doug McCarty on the Grand Wall 1973
An interesting piece of hardware we found set on the ledge at the top of the Split Pillar
The cabin
My last trip up the Grand in the 70’s was with a group of Seattle hoodlums in 1977…
Lenny Peoples
Kit Lewis
The group in front of the caves
From right to left: Kit Lewis, Rob Harris, Lenny Peoples, and Dickhead
I tried to edit my post and resize all the pictures but it didn't work. What you see is what you get.
|
|
Cracko
Trad climber
Quartz Hill, California
|
|
Another opportunity to repost this.....
It was 1978, and I was living in the state of Washington with my college buddy and his girlfriend. Chehalis, Washington. We escaped there after finishing college in California.
Typical college grads with no direction, no jobs in our fields, and no real interest in our fields even if jobs existed. So, we fled to the state of Washington where my friend knew some people who owned a small farm. We lived in the barn and did odd jobs in the community for money, until I landed a job working with delinquent youth in a group home. In our spare time we climbed Raineer and St. Helens (before it blew). We did some routes in the North Cascades, Index Town Wall, and the great climbing areas around Leavenworth. My college buddy was the one who introduced me to climbing in the late 60’s, and who also introduced me to steelhead fishing. Washington had plenty of both, and if it wasn’t for the damn rain I might still be living there today. I stayed in Washington for another year, and then decided to head back to So Cal via a long climbing trip through Canada and the Western United States. I loaded up my VW Van with all my possessions and headed north for Squamish.
I picked up a hitch hiker North of Vancouver who had done some climbing, and knew how to get to Squamish Chief. After dropping him off in a small town South of Squamish I quickly made my way up the old road at the base of the Chief and pulled into what could only be described as a “squatters” campground. I saw people bivied under the big rock cave, and out onto the old road. I pulled off to the side of the old road, got out and was greeted by a dozen climbers who noticed my California plates. They welcomed me to the circle where everyone was cooking or drinking beer and talking about routes in the area. A sandy haired blonde kid was talking about how classic the Grand Wall was, and then invited me to join him on a short crack climb called The Exasperator. He fired up the thing in the time it took me to get a harness on, and then watched me labor up it encouraging me the whole way. That evening, he shared with the group, his fascination with the DNB in Yosemite Valley, and how much he wanted to travel to Yosemite and do all the classic routes. He finally introduced himself as Peter Croft. Next to him was a very friendly Canadian by the name of Perry Beckman, and there was also an older guy by the name of Walt Dembisky who was with the U.S. Navy stationed in Alaska and on leave. He claimed to have climbed with Chouinard back in the day, and we made plans to climb some routes on the Slab just North of The Chief. Hearing this, Croft immediately recommended a climb called Diedre, and went on for twenty minutes about how classic the route was and how much we would enjoy it. Meanwhile, Perry Beckman invited me to join him on the Grand Wall the next morning after hearing how fascinated I was with this route. I reluctantly agreed to join him the next morning after unsuccessfully arguing that I wasn’t up to the grade. The next morning, I followed Perry up to the base, and listened to him describe, in great detail, all the features of the Grand Wall. We ended up doing four or five pitches that resulted in my balls ending up lodged in my throat, and then hung out at a belay checking out the upper pitches of Grand Wall which were really spectacular. We then rapped off, and I found Walt and headed for Diedre.
I spent a week at Squamish Chief and it is one of my best climbing memories. Since then, I have climbed in many areas throughout the Western United States, Great Britian and Europe, and have never come across a friendlier, more supportive group of climbers.
|
|
Cloudraker
Big Wall climber
BC
|
|
Hey Anders, this looks like the seam and overlap between Dream On and Unfinished Symphony. The Dream Symphony traverse pitch (10b) gains the overlap (to the right of the photo) and then moves left on slab to the first of the 10d Unfinished Symphony corners.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
Thanks, everyone - we seem to be gathering some momentum. Thanks especially to Don for those amazing photos.
Hopefully eeyonkee will tell us about the first free ascent of Pipeline, in 1979. I have a story about the first ascent, but that was in 1966, so maybe a bit early for the thread. (The photo of the Foodeater was a bit late - he may not have appeared at Squamish until the 1980s.) Maybe Grug even has a bit of aluminum pipe? My father would be pleased to have it back. The first recorded use of tube chocks.
We were honoured to have Wayne, Dave Y, and another come all the way to Squamish from California for Daryl's memorial. We're a bit lucky in that those who were active in our climbing community up until about 1985 are not a large group, and most are still around. We had (and have) our squabbles, which the Morals & Ethics Committee™®© used to sort out on Wednesday evenings at the Ivanhoe. But we mostly get along, and share the important things.
Don's pictures are amazing. Probably more true-to-Squamish than mine - I don't have many in which it's raining! Attempting the Grand Wall in December 1971 - you must have been nuts! A cold snowy month, too. How did you get across Bellygood? Many get a cheap thrill on it at the best of times - it's a horizontal ledge/almost chimney, that traverses the wall. Class 3/4, but exposed! (Even more fun with a haulbag.) There are two sections where you just shuffle along in a sort of undercling. The timid can belly crawl (hence the name), at least one person has done it facing outward, and Dick Culbert did it while carrying a segment of the Pardoe Hut. Which, coincidentally, was designed by a distant cousin, Byron Olson. Perry and friends removed the hut in the early 1990s (?), as it was severely damaged by falling ice.
Thieves were an occasional problem then, and a more common one now. Before my time, but the story was that the hard core (Sutton, Burton, Smaill, Bennett et al) caught the guy, tied him to a tree, and either threatened to stone him, or actually did.
Yes, the aid climb is the first part of what is now called Anxiety State. Terry R. and I did it in 1975, and nailed it. We called it Trivia, and it was even written up somewhere. It's surprising how many climbs we did during the 1970s, some of which had even been done previously, that were later climbed by others and renamed, or given a name. Black Bug's Blood is one, the climbs on the so-called "Bog Wall" at Murrin Park another. A sociologist friend once explained that much climber behaviour can be explained in terms of adolescent males. Territory being one of the traits, and renaming a manifestation of it. Kind of lame, and luckily it's never really caught on - although some guidebook writers could work on their historicity.
As the Taco turns....
The Edge of Taco...
More pictures and stories later.
|
|
Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
|
|
As has been mentioned, Daryl Hatton was a major influence on Squamish climbing. Here's my memory of our first meeting...
Sometime in the seventies, I don't remember exactly when, Daryl and I were sitting in the dirty drinking hole known as the Chieftain. I don't know who either of us had been climbing with that day, or how we came to be sharing a table that night. We didn't know each other, and I don't remember what we talked about. Climbs we planned to do, probably. I do remember being surprised to find that he wasn't what I had expected from the stories that I'd heard. Rough around the edges, sure. But mostly quiet and friendly -- hardly the wildman I'd been expecting.
Then, without warning, he jumped to his feet, and confronted two strangers who had just entered the bar. It was clear they were his friends, but his way of greeting one of them was pretty strange. He said something like, "Whhhoaa! Man." Then hit him. Hard -- really hard -- in the shoulder.
"Heeyyy! Man." The other guy responded, and pounded Daryl just as hard.
They must have taken three or four shots at each other, any of which would have collapsed me to the floor in pain. The other visitor sat down and introduced himself as Bill Price, and said Daryl's good friend was Big Wally. I think his real name was Mike, but even though I climbed with him the next day, I never did find out for sure.
Eventually Daryl and Wally stopped pounding each other and sat down, and we were joined by a few other climbers. But where Daryl had been relatively quiet earlier, he now switched into another mode. Loud and uncouth probably sums it up best. And where the conversation had earlier been mostly about climbs, for Daryl and Wally it quickly turned into a macho fest. Starting with, "I can outdrink you, easy."
Boat races followed. The two seemed evenly matched, both able to swallow a glass of beer faster than I¹d ever seen it done before. I don't remember what other tests they gave each other, but eventually it boiled down to something along the lines of "None of that sh#t matters. I'm just plain harder than you."
At which point Daryl pushed up a sleeve and slammed one of his forearms down on the table. I guess Wally didn't know Daryl as well as he thought, because he went for it. He pushed up his own sleeve and laid his bare forearm on the table, tight against Daryl's.
I didn't know what macho ritual I was about to witness, but what I saw was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Daryl picked up his cigarette, drew hard on it till the end was glowing bright red, then laid it down in the groove of their matched forearms.
Wally was tough, I guess. He had to be, not to jerk his arm away right away. He held on longer than I, and probably any of you could have. Hair burned, then flesh burned, then finally Wally gave up. And throughout it all, Daryl not only didn't flinch, he laughed.
Many of you knew Daryl better than I did. I was certainly never a close friend, but I ran into him regularly enough after that. Sometimes he was the quiet guy I'd been having a beer with at the beginning of that first evening, and sometimes he was the outrageous wildman he turned into toward its end. I often wondered which was the "real" Daryl, not realizing what most of his friends had probably figured out long ago, that he was both, and both were him.
That night, all I could think was how amazing it was that all the punches he took, and the burning flesh, didn't hurt. These decades later I know they did hurt. Daryl could just take it better than anyone else.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
Mike Boris. 1978.
Daryl did like to drink and go to bars, and indulge in male rituals like arm wrestling and fighting. We could easily turn this into another Daryl thread, though we might have to put "R" if not "X" with the title. His fall on the attempted second ascent of Zorro's Last Ride, in 1978 (?), was one of the longest ever at Squamish. Above the big roof, he did some hard nailing, then some rivets, then got to a bolt. Which he clipped, weighted, and broke. I believe he went over 25 metres, maybe more. Several of us were down on the old highway by Cacademon Rock, but given that aid climbing isn't exactly a spectator sport, weren't paying attention. Naturally we looked when we first heard Daryl squawk as the bolt broke, but that was several seconds after it happened, given the intervening distance. So we didn't actually see him fall, but it was a LONG way.
Daryl also had endearing habits intended to fortify his friends, including his epithets "lightweight" and "little baby...(insert name)".
Psyche Ledge, as it's sometimes called, was actually part of the original highway. Rerouted in 1969. We camped and partied there, and in the nearby boulders, through to the early 1990s. To the extent that we had a camp/social/bullshit scene, as in places like Camp 4, that was it. Probably the last climber event that will ever happen there was the memorial bonfire for Daryl.
Once Eric and Dave N. were on University Wall. Several of us were watching, and bored. They'd left Eric's little Fiat there - quite a crappy car, though we did go to the Bugaboos in it. Anyway, we decided to rock Eric's car, and by bouncing it up and down, and moving it sideways at the high point of the bounces, rotated it 180 degrees. Eric and Dave were hooting and hollering, thinking someone was vandalizing or stealing it, and totally unable to do anything about it.
When we were very young...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!