Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 14, 2010 - 11:13pm PT
|
OK, I'm watching playoff hockey and drinking while posting so bear with me.
My reference wasn't to the Left Side itself but rather, getting to it from Merci Me. When Nic and Bill did it they accessed it by the BC bolt ladders because few people thought of climbing from Merci Me to the Pillar back then. The legendary Les McDonald apparently explored this area.
Both Nic and Bill were belayed from right under the Left Side roof.
Tom Gibson and George Manson climbed from Ten Tears After over to within a few bolts of the Pillar from Merci Me back in 80ish and told me with a couple pins and a bolt it might go free to the ladder. I placed a bolt to protect the shortcut halfway up pitch two of Merci Me and led the traverse from TYA to the big ledge well below the Left Side placing pins free on lead. Someone later pulled the pins and placed a couple bolts. Botch job. After placing a high protection bolt off the ledge, I climbed the twenty feet or so of poorly protected 11a face from the ledge to the roof.
The moves from the Left Side to the Right Side belay were beyond me (still are) till Peter "found" a secret foothold which later fell off. (12b now I think)
Linking Merci Me to the Left Side free meant that the Grand now went free to the top of the Sword via the Left Side and that meant a lot to me then and still does now.
Kevin McLane insists Dave Loeks and Bill Putnam did this previously.
I saw no evidence and they've never corroborated his story so till then I call bullsh#t.
Thanks, back to the playoffs.
Perry
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 12:44am PT
|
The moves from the Left Side to the Right Side belay were beyond me (still are) till Peter "found" a secret foothold which later fell off. (12b now I think)
I was watching Dean Hart thru binoculars as he stepped onto that foothold. A few moments later the foot hold blew, Dean popped off and I saw the former foot hold tumble to the ground. But this was them going for the Left Side from the tree belay, so maybe I am talking about some thing else. Should I post a picture ? I might have something somewhere ...
Nice work on the linkage Perry, I was not aware it was you who established the traverse.
|
|
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 12:48am PT
|
Thanks Bruce, my point exactly.
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 01:02am PT
|
"found" = chipped ?
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 01:24am PT
|
I'll eventually ask Dick and Tim how they got to the left side in 1972, also Peter how they did it in 1975. Daryl and Eric climbed the bolt ladders to get to the right side when they freed it, and Eric and I did Mercy Me in 1974 without any discussion as to going across from there - although as noted, Steve, Hugh and Dick somehow got partway over in 1970. Loeks and Putnam tried to scoop Eric and Daryl on the right side, and repeated it not long after. I don't recall anything unusual about how they got there, and the first mention of people going across from Mercy Me was maybe in the late 1970s (?).
|
|
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 09:51am PT
|
It was Peter Croft and he told me he just "tapped a loose flake with a carabiner" and voila, nice foothold. Later the rest of the little flake fell off
Ten Years After was accessed from the top of Merci Me via a downward right traverse involving some aid. I don't know of anyone continuing right to the ladders although from TYA a short lower and pendulum would get you to the last fifty feet of BC ladders.
While there's lots I don't know about anything much less Squamish history, I can say that nobody climbed over to the Pillar free via Merci Me and those pin protected ledges before I did it on Tom and George's recommendation.
If there's something more than hearsay that proves me wrong, I'll fess up, say I was wrong and buy someone a beer. Till then, I'm loudly calling BS on Kevin's guides and not just on this matter.
Regards,
Perry
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:03am PT
|
Perry, what is the history of the "Daily Planet" ? I remember Hamish had a fair bit to say about it.
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:12am PT
|
The moves from the Left Side to the Right Side belay were beyond me (still are) till Peter "found" a secret foothold which later fell off. (12b now I think)
Heh.
That was my favorite move on GW. There was a buttonhead w/o a hanger right at that move. That foothold was positive, but not really big enough to switch feet easily. Two sidepulls for the hands.
I grabbed the sidepulls, put my right foot on that foothold, hooked my left toe back under the corner/roof, then let go both hands and leaned over to grab the belay ledge. Asked for slack and then cut loose.
When Scott followed he worked the same beta, got into that sidescale position, with the exposure under him, and reached for the ledge-- but he was about a foot short. Heh.
I really liked that Merci Me to R. SP section. It had the first really exposed feeling moves on the climb.
Now exfoliated, along with the rest of my memories.
|
|
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:31am PT
|
The history of the Daily Planet is complex and colorful and at the time, it seemed like much was at stake. It's a subject that's deserving of it's own thread. Likewise for my beef with Kevin's guidebooks and his penchant for historical revisionism.
It's impossible for any guide book to be complete as it's outdated as soon as it's printed. It's hard to tell the whole story in a way that will satisfy everyone.
Guide books don't have to tell the whole story but they do have to tell the truth.
There's lots of good examples.
Back to Mighty's thread.
|
|
hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 12:06pm PT
|
A point of clarification. Upthread [Lonely Planet] bmacd is referring to Hamish F, and not to me. What a phenom. Wish I could have climbed like that. Dang!!!
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 01:16pm PT
|
Darnit, we just dragged out Peter Crofts dirty laundry on a historical thread and Chief bows out gracefully on more history lessons ...
Perhaps some grievances are best forgotten, lest they make us ill
Of course subject matter buried as thread drift, few would suspect to look here
|
|
Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 01:45pm PT
|
Hamie:
Bmacd is referring to Hamish F, and not to me. What a phenom. Wish I could have climbed like that. Dang!!!
You are being a bit modest here; your climbing was never too shabby, and your climbing record speaks for itself.
|
|
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 04:35pm PT
|
Tami and Jim,
Re the foothold, I got it straight from the great Pedro Croftini himself.
And nobody's calling it chipping, he just knocked off a loose flake with a wee tap of a biner.
The Planet was a defining time for our Squamish tribe and it's hard to see it clearly till you get a decade or two away from it. Everyone of us that toiled and scrapped over that route can be proud of a great climb and friendships that endure to this day.
In alphabetical order the FA credits go something like this;
Mike Beaubien
Perry Beckham
Peter Croft
Hamish Fraser
Blake Robinson
Brooke Sandahl
John Simpson
Respectfuly,
PB
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 08:50pm PT
|
I'm a shyte disturber ....
Chief, Congrats to you all. I got up an early version of the Planet with Hamish a couple times. Spectacular route
|
|
Chief
climber
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:05pm PT
|
Brooke and I didn't bring a camera when we did the first ascent of The Daily Planet so I can't figure out how there could be pictures of the FA.
|
|
Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:12pm PT
|
So I'm struggling in the sun, swimming with axes,crampons and whatever offers purchase on some dumb blob of snow on a glacier some where. Don is holding the liberally anchored rope.
Same song, different verse. Axes and crampons, and Don holding the rope, but mid winter and no swimming. Just a perfect day out on the Lions
|
|
Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:13pm PT
|
As I drove up to ski at Cypress (Hollyburn to some) today, I could swear I could hear the yelling about BC climbing history wafting in the warm spring air...
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:17pm PT
|
If you were cross-country skiing, it would have been on Hollyburn Ridge. If downhill, on Mount Strachan (pronounced, Scottish-style, as "Struan") or Black Mountain. No "Cypress Mountains" anywhere in the neighbourhood.
|
|
bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:18pm PT
|
Brooke and I didn't bring a camera when we did the first ascent of The Daily Planet so I can't figure out how there could be pictures of the FA.
No worries Chief the pad people pushed the route 20 feet higher and made a music video of the ascent, renamed the route and posted it all to Utube last summer
|
|
Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
|
|
|
Apr 15, 2010 - 11:31pm PT
|
I was in fact xc schlepping on the sides of Hollyburn in the quickly slowing glop. I could hear the ghosts of long-gone ACC members on the updrafts...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!