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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Hey deuce4, FYI, Jim Scott and I freed (Jim led) the first pitch of aid on the Mushroom and looked for a way to avoid the last aid pitch (a corner out left- no go.) DDC and I did a route on the other side, but it also has some aid. Free the Mushroom!
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R.B.
Trad climber
AZ-WA
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Nov 12, 2009 - 01:13am PT
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For those who want a pdf copy of RB's Granite Mountain Topo
just email: elcapmap@hotmail.com
I will arrange to get it scanned into a pdf format to transmit.
Deucy ... you know how much you helped me with it all ... thanks .. I really enjoyed the ride!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 12, 2009 - 11:49am PT
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So ,did any of you folks ever throw a toprope on A Shot in the Dark after all my badgering?!?
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 16, 2009 - 12:09am PT
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hey there all, say, just stepping in and enjoying this arizona climbing appreciation thread....
i always loved arizon, we traveled through it as kids, when we all moved from ohio, to california (hee hee, so chappy coule be a rock climber in yosmite--well--he was about 3? then???)....
well, then last, after i was married, we took whatever regular souther highway and always (during the ex's national guard trek to san diego, from texas) SAW the neatest ROCKS! AND wished i could scamper all over them!...
most likely some of you all have seen them... ?
huge accumilations of bolders, along one stretch of the highway... wonderful to see...
i have a small pic of my kids posing by some---will scan it later, just can't remember which highway it was...
ROCKS ! everwhere for that long stretch... :)
*reckon they could have been full of snakes, though, so good i never took the kids too close...
very nice climbing shares, here... thanks so much... :)
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 16, 2009 - 06:49pm PT
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hey there say, could not find any info on what highway we were on, and the picture did not scan (it was sealed in the frame)...
but:
i DID find this odd-neat-find:
OLD VINTAGE postcards from arizona... :O
*i suspect, that we had traveld the old route 66 or highway, 66 though, now that i think about it...
here is the post card links (they take awhile for all to download)
http://www.thepostcard.com/walt/state/az/az.htm
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 28, 2009 - 01:18am PT
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Another classic shot of Bob Kamps from Summit July/August 1963.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I have posted this early Grand Canyon article elsewhere but it certainly fits here. Pat Littlejohn and John Mothersele did a sweep through the desert in 1979 and put up a couple of routes in the Stronghold and wrote this account in Mountain. I had the pleasure of watching Pat float up Butterballs the same season.
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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"While the Grand Canyon's social scene is not fantastic, it is many times better than Yosemite's"
Classic!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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It all depends on the company you keep.
More of the asses in the canyon have four legs.
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hooblie
climber
sounding out stuff , in the manner of crickets
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i blew a coupon on the kaibab...
alpine start from phanton ranch, trudging solo up the trail with a tall frame pack, christmas break '69. a wrangler led a train of mules downhill,
each with a pair of railroad ties much longer than the animal, and no other riders.
i mindlessly stepped to the right and continued walking on top of a retaining wall/curb thing as the train passed. the drop below would not have been survivable.
the last two mules were less constrained than the others, "fishtailing" one might say. sure enough i got smacked in the chest with the extended rail
behind the caboose and bladed out over the abyss for an instant, momentarily clinging to my creosoted assailant,
finally thrusting my center of gravity back onto the trail as it passed.
at this point my stupor had cleared, abject indignation prevailed, and to top it off i was being berated in a very western way
from the front of the string by a seriously rude cowboy
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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MACE STORIES
For years driving through Sedona I would stare at the Mace as we were off to climb at the Overlook. How could you not! The formation is every climbers inspiration. every artists inspiration, besides a vortex. My friend Rich and I decided to take a vacation spending 4 days at Paradise Forks. Rich didn't lead much so I cranked out everything I could. We were new climbers at the time just barely cranking through the 5.9 routes. Wow were my muscles spent! Paradise Forks totally rocks! I ended the trip with sending an onsite lead of Davidson Dihedral. I was dumb, not knowing what I was doing and nobody told me it was .11+. Wow was I jazzed. Then we went over to Standard Forks 5.9, which totally wigged me out. People were screaming jumping 50' off of the cliff into the pond below Waterslip Down, the cracks turned into flakes and I pulled out every Royal Robbins trick to pro the route, and Jimmy Symans kept yelling at me from across the cliff "Good Job Marty Good Job." I went from being a hero to totally mentally defeated. Jimmy was climbing (leading) Aqualung with Deidre Burton with a broken ankle fresh from doing the jump across on the Mace the week before. I mean big wrapped ankle in a brace doing the jams. Jimmy suggested to Rich and I to do the Mace on our way home and Rich agreed lead the crux pitches since I was spent. Sounded like a great adventure to us. Before we left Jimmy warned us not to pro the limestone band at the top of pitch one. A bird otherwise will hit you in the face.
We arrived early at the Mace and I got first lead. At the pitch one limestone band there is a nice crack so I stuck a nut in it and got hit in the forehead by a swift. Damn near knocked me off of the ledge! Rich died laughing as I regained my senses. Unbelievable!!! The crux pitch 4 is awesome. Pillars all around which slowly disappear leaving you with an angled crack leading to a distant piton bolt. Of course the bolt is loose and can be pushed in and out 3/4" or so. Scarry but you gotta clip it! The jump across was totally awesome, what a great route!!!
The rappel off of the formation is from the lower pillar not the top of the Mace, that's why you have to jump back. There were two chains so we fed the chains with the rope and both rappelled into the notch. There still is one more 100' rappel to go. We tried to pull the rope but the rope was totally jammed. We tried the flick and pull tactics, both pulling on one line, and nothing was working. Besides it was getting dark and cold. I decided to jug the line via figure 8 belay and one arm lock offs. One end of the rope was tied down. I would pull up on my prusik which was looped around by wrist and then pull the slack out of my figure 8 device with the other arm and yell to Rich "lock off." He would pull the rope into a firemans belay. Repeat the process for 120' in overhanging chimney. Let's just say I was bleeding pretty good around the wrist by the time I reached the top. More survival and had no choice type of situation. The rope appeared to run freely through the chains but since the chains were small ovals, and the chains did not lay completely over the edge, it would trap the rope more and more as you pulled down onto it. That sucked! I added two 4' gold slings to the chain links then me and Rich were back at the car before you knew it.
A few days later another team of climbers (I can't remember their names but mom and dad) did the Mace and saw the two gold slings and laughingly removed them, fed their ropes in the chains and fell into the same trap as me and Rich. They tugged, and tried everything but nothing was working, their ropes were jammed. So they decided to chew through the rope tails on each end, tying the remaining rope segments together to get down the remaining rappel. It took them 1 1/2 hours to tear with their teeth through a 10.2 diameter rope, and they both finished at the same time.
A few days later my friend Doug climbed the route with a few Boy Scouts and came across the chewed ropes. He decided when seeing this that it was time to rebolt the route. A few years later I went to Jacks Canyon for a one night camp climb and dash home trip. I just started the campfire and suddenly my friend Doug appeared. He was up there to meet the Scouts for a next day climb. Soon afterwards a mom dad and two kids came to the fire and we decided to share the one fire. We got into the conversation about the Mace and without even knowing each other, we all shared the same adventure that single week on the Mace. They still had my gold slings, and Doug still had their chewed rope.
Doug eventually returned to the Mace and rebolted it but he never told me. I ran into him shortly after at a store or something and he told me he had just threw out those junk hangers that morning in the trash. I was like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Doug is more engineer than pro climber so a mangled bolt to him is trash. I rushed him to his house and the large city trash can was still sitting on the curb. I tipped it over and shuffled through the trash finding two hangers. I kept searching for the third then he mentioned he didn't get the last one (step across). On this day the trash never smelled so good my friends! I looked at him and said "This is history my friend, HISTORY!!! I tipped the trash can back and right then the garbage truck turned the corner and he is the first house on the street. One minute more and these bolts would have been lost forever. The pitch 4 crux piton bolt was even more exciting when I noticed it had TM stamped on the side. Amazingly the Star Dryvin nail bolt was only 1 1/2" long, and it moved to the point you could pull it out with your fingers, but it just would not come out. Doug said it came out with one small tug. Scary! The other hanger was homemade angled aluminum (airy crossover pitch two).
That just meant that there was one more original hanger on the route, the step across on pitch five. The following weekend I dragged my Bosch and friend up the mace to retrieve the major historical item. As I climbed I was totally filled with excitement to have the whole set of original bolts from the Mace. When I topped out on pitch four I was instantly put into shock. The step across hanger was replaced and the homemade aluminum hanger was gone! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I mean I was almost in tears! We did the step across and on the main summit I got to see Dougs new summit register. He said he spent a big coin to have it created but it should last forever. He inscribed all of his kids names onto it which are written at the base of the register. I noticed that the last people up on the Mace was Jeff Achey from Climbing Magazine. Climbing was filming for their next Mag #186 June 1999 Flagstaff issue and had just climbed the Mace. I called Jeff, who bumped me back to John Burcham, which led to Albert Newman, who had the Historical Relic in his tool box. The set was once again back together.
A year later I visited Tom Taber and looked at his great collection of climbing gear. I was able to borrow only a few pieces of his gear even though I gave him my best begging performance. Doug suddenly whipped out two pitons which were the original pitons used on the second rappel out of the notch on the Mace. This was an amazing find. Now all 5 original climbing anchors which were used to climb the Mace, and were left behind in 1958 are back together.
Arizona Rocks!
Marty
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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2009 - 01:07am PT
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Thanks so much for your contribution to this thread, Marty!
Heal soon, and Rock On! Erik
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Yeah, what MisterE said.
Just got a before the storm circuit in at Glorias.
Ever done "multi pitch bouldering"?
Amazing adhesion.
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kinnikinik
Trad climber
B.C.
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Montezuma's head, cool adventure
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Ripped from Salmon
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Big AZ history bump
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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That was one of the late states, right?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Har har! but you know, that was one of the things i really liked about living in Zonieland. no time change! I had family in Cal and in wyo, and I knew I was in sync with one or the other branch at all times. Not that helped my dyslexic mind waddle through it... Now living in Cali with the time shifts, what a colossal pain in the Ass! "spring forward, fall back" from a certain perspective aren't those phrases, interchangible? either could mean anything!
I like the idea that it's darker earlier etc some times of the year, it keeps you more connected with the planet you're part of. like watching the full moon. should we average that? like always have a quarter moon? Artificial time manipulation is so un-gaia!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Yeah man, AZ sux.
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Manny
Social climber
tempe
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The weather sux too. We just did Grandfather Hobgoblin this January. It has a reputation of sorts. It was great climbing and a great big spire. Mike K climbing while Andrew Burr shoots him coming up the final scary runout to the summit.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Hey Manny, I may be doing something photgenic in the SW in April. i'm interested in upgrading my photo rig. What model Nikon DLR are you running? which lenses? quanto megapixels? There are a couple of options at Costco I'm looking at...
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