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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 02:10pm PT
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That's a great painting by Steve D upthread. I like Philo's first scenic, in particular, too.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 02:35pm PT
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So there we were in the summer of '69, three kids home from college. We got nothing summer jobs
in Denver -- I delivered antiques, I think Steve worked at a gas station, Bob might even have worked
at McDonalds. Five days a week, but we lived for the weekends.
Our doorway to adventure was the blue guidebook. Largely self-taught as climbers, with no contacts
in Boulder, we started working our way up from the easy end of the book's recommended-routes list.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Chiloe
I loved Friday's Folly--a stellar, easy route.
A drift from the Edge, but still fun route put in by
one of my hero's, Tom Hornbein
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 02:41pm PT
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Every single route was brand new to us, as we felt out the grades.
Steve Weaver leads Cozyhang (rated 5.5/5.6 at the time):
Bob Lakin carries our goldline past the Matron (en route to the Maiden, an early must-do):
Another day, Bob on the Matron itself:
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 02:43pm PT
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Did you ever do Friday's Folly on the Third Flatiron
Did 'em all, that was the game. And yeah, a fun route.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Larry, great stuff! What a wonderful time for you kids. I was living in Morrison Co. and scrabbling around the Flatirons at that time too. Climbed a lot of stuff in cowboy boots. How funny if we had run across each other then. Hey wait a minute you aren't the East Coasters who beat me up for wearing cowboy boots then stole my lunch money are you?
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 03:02pm PT
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Hey wait a minute you aren't the East Coasters who beat me up
Hah, no, we were California boys. I don't recall beating anyone up.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 04:59pm PT
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So anyway ... by August, we'd gone through most of the blue guide's "recommended ascents,"
not always in good style. And we were growing aware of many routes in the guidebook that were
not on the recommended list. The Naked Edge in particular stood out.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 05:07pm PT
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That guidebook description was everything we knew about the route. We'd never met
anyone who had climbed it, so our imaginations worked from the text.
"Rising overhead like a skyscraper."
"A difficult nailup that tripped up climbers on the first ascent .... nail left, with upside-
down pitons, to the exposed and sharp edge."
"The next lead is rotten and somewhat unprotected.... pass an overhang by a difficult
move to the right."
"Here, the climbing becomes exposed and spectacular, as it moves up the outward-
leaning edge."
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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I'll need to look through my Mountain Magazines.
My first acquaintance with the notion of this route appears in an entry there;
Something about standards rising in Colorado and among them,
Per example, a barefoot ascent of The Naked Edge.
Maybe a solo too; the barefoot climber has got to be Wilford?
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 05:29pm PT
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Fortunately, as you'll see, we had state-of-the-art Robbins shoes.
As we worked up the difficulty grades that summer, from 5.4 to 5.8 and A3, we also paid
much attention to the "overall" grades, I to VI. Started with routes like Cozyhang, a
grade I, and the Maiden, grade II. By midsummer we'd done a number of grade IIIs, but not
yet a IV. Our understanding of this system derived from Roper's red guidebook, which
put things mainly in terms of time. Grade I, a few hours; Grade IV, a full day or a day
and a half. We knew we were turkeys, so figured The Naked Edge would prolly take us
a day and a half.
But we were Royal Robbins-reading turkeys, and knew that fixed ropes were ruled out.
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Shots of the Edge from my first trip to Eldo... amazing line. Old photos, quality somewhat suspect.
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Quality stories and pics Chiloe! From back in the day when you only needed ONE guidebook for an area :-)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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From Mountain Magazine number 68 July/August 1979,
In the Colorado section; news of The Edge being soloed in 1978 by Jim Collins.
In 1979 Mark Wilford does it barefoot!
Also below, the picture of Collins on Genesis,
May be one of the earlier examples of an inverted photo to accentuate steepness:
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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Joyce Bracht on Genesis.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 08:24pm PT
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No barefootin' for us. We took this thing serious.
After work on Friday, Steve and I drove up to the canyon. We climbed the first two leads of
Redguard Route (the now-infamous "Birdwalk," which back then seemed casual) and settled
down for our first Big Wall Bivouac, on a warm summer night in Redgarden Wall's Lower
Meadow.
At first light, we looked up and sure enough saw the route rising like a skyscraper above our
heads. Steve laybacked up to the start of the route proper.
I led the next pitch, carrying a rucksack and trailing the full-weight goldline we had brought
as a haul line. The hauling itself would be hand over hand.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Wow that is a cooooool picture.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2009 - 08:46pm PT
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The next pitch brought the "difficult nailup" we believed must be the route's crux. The old aid
line moved right from the belay, up to the big roof, then nailed back to the left along the base
of the roof.
My lead again, Steve was saving up mental energy to lead the "rotten and somewhat
unprotected" pitch above. That one had us worried too, because we knew nothing else
about it.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Sweet colors coming through in those slides!
And then?
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