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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 18, 2008 - 06:38pm PT
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Maybe a closeup
Mark atop Lembert Dome
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 18, 2008 - 10:40pm PT
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Nice shots Joe and Don! Dashing fella to be sure.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2008 - 12:40am PT
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An Ed Cooper shot of Spider Rock from Off Belay August 1975.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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A climber named Mark, when boozed,
could climb with protection not used.
And this on those climbs
with edges like dimes:
"No problem---my ankle is fused!"
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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How 'bout them vintage Powell shots!!!
Such a treat.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2008 - 04:36pm PT
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Rich helped me out by researching Mark's accomplishments in the Needles of South Dakota. Here is part of our correspondence:
Entries from Touch the Sky, Paul Piana.
If only a grade is given with no route description, the route is the first ascent route of the spire and still the only route on the spire. If there is now more than one route, I tried to add a minimal description, and in such cases if the route was the first-ascent route for the spire, I've indicated that as well.
I only had time for a single pass through the guidebook, so it is possible that I missed an entry or two and/or made some mistakes transcribing what is here.
SYLVAN LAKE AREA
Duet, cracks right of SE Corner, 5.9, with Bob Kamps 8/18/66.
Robnobs Spire, left-leaning flared crack, 5.8, with Beverly Powell, 8/7/65 (FA of spire).
NEEDLE'S EYE AREA
Gnomon, steep crack on S. Corner to SE face, 5.7 with Beverly and Kamps, August '66.
SWITCHBACKS AND TENPINS AREA
Dave's Dinghy, SE Corner, 5.9, with Beverly and Don Lauria (no date) (FA of spire)
Phallus, 5.8, with Kamps, Rearick, Lauria, August '65.
Twin Pins "These pinnacles may have been climbed as early as 1965 by Mark and Beverly Powell" ---Piana
Split Pin 5.7, with Beverly, 8/14/66.
Podunk Pinnacle, W. Chimney, 5.5, August '65, with Beverly (FA of spire?).
CATHEDRAL SPIRES
Javelin, reg route variation, 5.9, with Beverly and Kamps, August '65.
Laureate Tower, South Chimney, 5.7, with Beverly and Kamps, August '65.
Station 13 variation, 5.7, with Beverly, August '64.
Khayyam Spire, S. Face, 5.6, with Kamps, August '62.
Rubaiyat Spire, N. Face, 5.7, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/11/66.
Aku Aku, 5.9 (FFA) with Rearick and Kamps, 1965.
Frug 5.3, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/15/66.
Freak's Foot, NE Face, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/15/66.
Eye Tooth, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, August '62.
Unapproachable, 5.7, with Beverly and Kamps, August '64.
Empire State Building, Wavy Crack, 5.9, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/7/64 (FA of spire).
Spindle, uphill side, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/5/64.
Spool, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/6/65.
Bayonet, 5.9, with Kamps, August '64.
Caboose, SW Face, 5.6, with Beverly, August 1970.
PICKET FENCE
Stile, 5.3, with Beverly 8/17/70.
Wicked Picket, W. Face Variation, 5.2, with Beverly, 1963.
Connspire, 5.7, with Beverly and Kamps, August '63.
Pud, two routes, 5.4 and 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/8/64.
El Mokana, E Face, 5.6, with Beverly, August '69.
Auntie, 5.7, with Beverly and Kamps, August '66.
NELSON CREEK AREA
Bosun, 5.2, with Kamps, 8/12/70.
Beacon, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/10/70.
Prow, W Face, 5.2, with Kamps, 8/12/70 (FA of spire).
NE Face, 5.8, with Kamps, Dave and Judy Rearick, Chuck and Ellen Wilts, Tom Higgins, 8/9/71.
Helm, 4th class, with Kamps, 8/12/70.
Next to Nothing, 5.6, with Beverly, Higgins, Dennis Horning, 8/11/71.
Five Freaks and a Friend, 5.4, with Beverly, D&J Rearick, Higgins, and Horning.
Argument, 5.6, with Beverly, Kamps, and Horning, 8/14/72.
LOST FORMATIONS NEAR THE CHESSMEN
Geek, with Richard Goldstone, 8/5/69.
GRIZZLY BEAR CREEK AREA
Alley Oop, 5.8, with Beverly and Kamps, 8/11/70.
Patriarch, 5.6, with Beverly, Kamps, D&J Rearick, 8/14/70.
He also had this tale to tell about doing a route with Mark and Bob Kamps.
Steve,
Although we always camped together in the Oreville Campground, I don't recall many times when I ended up climbing with Mark. In fact, the only climb I can remember was an ascent with Mark and Bob Kamps of Sandberg Peak, a preposterously named precarious-looking pinnacle perched right at the edge of a Cathedral Spires pullout.
Probably the most memorable feature of that climb was an interaction I had with some tourists, a story which now has been told and retold, having now been appropriated by others and recounted as if it had happened to them. But you twisted my arm so I'll tell it again...
Mark was leading, Bob was belaying, and I was on the ground watching. A tourist pulled up and watched Mark lead for a long time, long enough to see him place a piton or two and clip into them, and finally reach the tiny summit. After watching all this, the guy got out of his car, walked over to me, and asked, "How'd they get the cables up there?" (Mind you, he and his wife had just watched how they got the cables up there.) I was very polite, and in my best imitation of the professor I would become, I offered a careful and detailed explanation of exactly what Mark had been doing. At the end of this mini-seminar, his wife (whose size seemed to preclude an exit from the car) leaned out the window and shouted to her husband, "How'd they get the cables up there?" To which her husband replied, in tones rife with exasperation, "I don't know, I can't get a straight answer out of this guy!"
Experiences like this caused me to print up a bunch of tee shirts with the legend "Needles Repair Servce" on the back. Bob had one; I can't remember whether Mark got one or not. These shirts were, as I had hoped, self-explanatory to most of the tourists who stopped, the clanking of iron and occasional banging of pitons only reinforcing the repairing theme. Pinnacle repair was a notion they had probably already been exposed to by postcards sold locally showing Herb Conn rappelling down George Washington's nose while on one of the Park Service's periodic missions to patch cracks in the sculpture. The tee-shirts were more successful than I anticipated, leaving us to ponder the fact that many people are happier with a false explanation that conforms to their preconceptions than with a true explanation that does not. One cannot help but wonder, 30 odd years later, what role this phenomenon may have played in the civic and political life of our nation.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2008 - 12:59pm PT
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Jim Wilson recently contacted me to solve the mystery of Papa Woolsey. The upstart was none other than Chris Wegener!
Left to right: Jim Wilson, Bob Kamps, Chris Wegener and Craig Smith at the Red.
Chris is amazingly youthful as Mark noted.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 29, 2008 - 10:54pm PT
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Plenty of bumps in the Needles!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 30, 2008 - 02:03am PT
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"Mark couldn't recall who the fellow was but the coincidence was uncanny and I would love to know who tried to bark Mark Powell down from a good climb so long ago. "
Wegener?
Too funny.
Good sleuth.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 3, 2009 - 06:42pm PT
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Powell Bump!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Now, if we had a recording with what transpired between these senior gentlemen it would be worth gold indeed. Nose Reunion and "Oldies But Goodies."
I think Lauria is the "young lad " in this photo.
cheers
Guido
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Does anyone know what became of Ken Weeks, Chouinard's climbing partner during the late 50s and early 60s?
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TomKimbrough
Social climber
Salt Lake City
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I saw Weeks in the Tetons a few years ago. He was hanging out in the Jenny Lake campground, hiking and well, hanging around. He finally went into town and bought a pair of climbing shoes and we bouldered some on the Lake boulders.
I got his email address and let him know about JT gatherings but never heard from him again.
Now the address is long gone.
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MisterE
Trad climber
One Step Beyond!
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Sounds like you are going to get a load of information, Steve - pretty exciting for the GA project!
Erik
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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There once was a climber named Steve
Whose postings were our daily reprieve
Said Mimi in jest
You can BUMP with the best
Like Adam once said to his Eve?
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SGropp
Mountain climber
Eastsound, Wa
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Any news on the further climbing career of Frank Tarver ?
I did a bunch of climbing with his daughter Ann in the Valley in 76. She was about 15 at the time .
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 5, 2009 - 09:19pm PT
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Frank lives here in Seattle. I interviewed him for a couple of hours last year and still need to go back and wrap it up. He had a close call that turned him away from climbing, as I recall. I haven't had a chance to review the footage.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jun 17, 2010 - 01:32am PT
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How would have early california climbing evolved if the russians had dropped the big one on LA....? Would we be leading 5.8's or would the coloradons' still be posing...? RJ
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 17, 2010 - 12:43pm PT
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Hi Steve-
Glad to see you're still at it.
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FRUMY
Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
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Jun 17, 2010 - 04:40pm PT
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Mark Powell - good man always a pleasure to talk to. glad he's still going.
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