Bob Locke Memorial Buttress, Mt. Watkins. Story?

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Largo

Sport climber

The Big Wide Open Face

Mar 20, 2012 - 01:45pm PT

I'm swamped with work. But I can scribble stuff down here in installments and maybe flesh out a story over the next few weeks. The saga surrounding the BLMB was a big one involving various attempts owing to fantastic circumstances and ending with us (Jim Bridwell, Ron Kauk, Kim Schmitz, and I) getting fried alive on the bone-white face in withering August heat.

Bridwell first spotted the line from a helicopter just after a rescue on Half Dome. According to Rick Accomazzo, the Bird instructed the pilot to do not just fly by on the 2,500 foot upper wall of Watkins, but to actually hove to close enough for the Bird to check out various cracks and features and to comprehensively piece together the line. Supposedly took an hour of hoovering up and down the wall during which they got close enough for Jim to nearly reach out and hammer a peg or two into the "All Time Knifeblade Crack," one of the greatest aid fissures in Yosemite.

Anyhow, a year or so later, Jim, Kim and I went up there to make the first push. And you wouldn't believe what happened . . .

TBC . . .

JL

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 20, 2012 - 10:45pm PT

Weeza putty, buddy!

You really need to tell this tale...when you get a chance.

Cheers!

splitter

Trad climber

Hodad surfing the galactic plane

Mar 20, 2012 - 11:44pm PT

WB- What my speculation was ... is that when he hit the corner, his yo hammer being on that side of him on his hip, hit the rope and severed it

I recall similar speculation at the time which included the possibility that one of the bongs could have done likewise damage as he slammed into the corner.

Bobo was a great guy. I recall him mentioning that he was going to concentrate primarily on classic routes for awhile, just a week or two before the accident. He had been doing a fair amount of cutting edge FA's with Dale and a few others for a couple of seasons.

Thanks for naming the route in memory of Bobo!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 25, 2012 - 05:04pm PT

That one and a written description of climbing the outside of the Harding Slot when those guys did Astroman are two gems still in the rough.

Rick A

climber

Boulder, Colorado

Mar 25, 2012 - 05:29pm PT

Link to the thread on the subject of the rescue attempt:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/446216/No-Rescue-the-Bob-Locke-Accident-on-Mt-Watkins

the goat

climber

north central WA

Mar 25, 2012 - 05:59pm PT

Rick, following this and reading your rescue thread brings back memories. I had just finished the reg. route with a brit, Mike Kosterlitz, who was part of the British invasion that Fall. It couldn't have been more than a few days later that I heard of BL's accident and where it happened, the sketchy 5.8-9 step, right?

KabalaArch

Trad climber

Starlite, California

Mar 25, 2012 - 07:03pm PT

Uh...I look up and admire Mt. Locke everyday from my home. While I've had some awareness of the backstory, I'm glad to learn some hard facts.

Mt. Locke bookends a spur ridge which stems to the SE from The Checkered Demon, about midway between Mt. Humphries and Mt. Emerson. Its N Face describes a symmetrical and graceful pyramid, of unusually white granite, capped by some of the Sierra roof pendant which forms the composition of the adjacent crest peaks, or their contact zones.

The N Face is raked by some finger like couloirs - the "Wahoo Gulleys," so named because they are actually easier to ski than they look dead on. Serious chutes, in other words, of which I've skied but one.

Other descents exist, however.

My 1st "backcounty" ski was the S Face of Mt. Locke. I was dropped off at the S Fork of the McGee Ck roadhead, and booted it from there, ending with a hike out to Aspendell, 13 hours. My greatest and most lasting impression from the summit of Mt. Locke was: "now I remember why I moved out here..."

My 2nd trip, again on alpine gear w/o skins, was "Kindergarten Couloir," the 65* double fall line chute which separates Mt. Locke from the Checkered Demon. This I skied a week following the suggestion of my next door neighbor, the late Alan Bard, in 1985.

To range a bit further OT for a moment, Mt. Locke has become such a popular ski destination that last spring I drove up to the snowline (just to read a book), to find more than a few SUV's worth of skiers returning back to the Beach across some beautiful corn, leaving enough tracks as to describe a ski area!

Self indulgence aside, Mt. Locke is a work of an alpine landmark, most worthy of a name, other than point 12,684.

Of local color, the LADWP owns some inholdings within the Inyo National Forest lands of the Peak's eastern flank. These consist of well watered aspen groves and meadows. One summer I headed up to the headwaters of Birch Ck, in order to ascend the Checkered Demon from its easy S Slope, and recon its namesake couloir, 1st ascended by Doug Robinson and partner(s) - the late Walter Rosenthal was responsible for its 1st ski descent.

Near the E base of Mt. Locke, I happened across the largest artesian spring I've ever seen. At the base of the highly permeable granitic white screes of the "Bishop Bowl" above sprang a veritable torrent of a fully flooded creek, issuing forth from the slope's sidewall at a GPS roughly equal to about 1/2 the flow of McGee Ck, as it passes the 'Milks!

If you'd traversed 100 feet above its source, you'd have been quite unawares; 100 feet downstream, and you would have accepted a simple, if aggressive, creek crossing.

Such is Mt. Locke. I've always wondered about a man who would merit such a prominent placename.

marty(r)

climber

beneath the valley of ultravegans

Mar 25, 2012 - 07:23pm PT

Damn, this just turned into one of the best, most heartfelt threads in a long, long time. It's a refreshing departure from the chest beating and callous disregard for suffering that passes through the tribe.

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Feb 22, 2013 - 08:25pm PT

So, Largo......any recollections on this one?

Jerry Dodrill

climber

Sebastopol

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2013 - 08:35pm PT

Largo! Whats the scoop? Still wondering... six years now.

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Feb 23, 2013 - 09:22am PT

Someone wake him up.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 23, 2013 - 10:13am PT

We are probably asking a bit much of Largo to cough up such a great story here in these pages.
Just a guess, but I'd say look for it in something published at some point.
And yes, I've been wanting to hear this for quite some time much the same as the rest of us!

Rick A

climber

Boulder, Colorado

Feb 23, 2013 - 11:44am PT

Roy-great to have you back in the St neighborhood! You were missed.

I visited John last week and he is looking great. Just an ace bandage on the leg, still getting around on crutches, but he is well on his way to getting use of his leg back. He is engulfed in his current writing project, a non-climbing effort, but to make up for that, it involves supermodels!

Still, six years is a long time for this story. The hardest part of writing anything is just getting started, so maybe Johnny can post just the first paragraph, or even the first sentence, to get the ball rolling.

Funny that we’ve never heard from anyone other than John who has done the route, perhaps it’s never been repeated? Hudon, or another big wall expert, needs to jump on it and report back.

Goat-He fell where the route traverses right out of dihedral below Sheraton Watkins. I don’t recall the moves exactly but I think it is a face climbing section.

Kabala-Thanks for your thoughts on Mt. Locke. Sounds like a nice peak. I have been dreaming about a trip to the Sierra in the spring for some time. Would love to do take my splitboard up it.

can't say

Social climber

Pasadena CA

Feb 23, 2013 - 12:12pm PT

I'm not sure if he's done the BLMB but Urmas probably has as much time in that area as anyone.

You out there Urmas?

Jerry Dodrill

climber

Sebastopol

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 25, 2013 - 02:15am PT

I don't mean to pressure Largo to give away a good story for free here. I'm happy to read it in Alpinist, California Climber, or where ever. But if its that good, it would be good to get it written.

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

bouldering

Feb 25, 2013 - 02:56am PT

I pasted Largo's responses to date below. Good stuff in itself.

In 1978, I think about three years after Bob's accident, I did a new route on Watkins with Bridwell, Kauk and Schmitz, which Bridwell named the Bob Locke Memorial Butress. I never knew Bob so the name never made much sense to me. After reading Rick's really excellent story, I'm happy the route - one of the best new walls I ever did - bears Bob's name.
The BLMB is IMHO one of the best and most novel walls in Yosemite. If it was on El Cap it would be as popular as the Salathea. It has features (like a gigantic angling dike) I've never seen before and spectacular positioning and exposure - that Watkins is ginormous.
The first ascent was sort of epic because it was in August (hot!)
More later.

One of the other threads - http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=446216&tn=0