Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
|
|
Ah, yes. Shoelessness. Back then, the Dresden climbing scene was made public in the climbing rags, and those Germans were cranking heinous holes with their toes! So there were a few lads who thought it foppish to try the barefoot ascents, too. Only a few.
So Pete Steers and I--on a rest day up at Humber--decide to hike up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto via the Devils Slide Trail. Me, in TSes, and "Indian" Pete in bare feet! And, if I'm not mistaken, we came down via the trail that headed over to Suicide via Strawberry Cienega... (He didn't even bring shoes as a backup!)
I'm pretty confident that his feet were a bloody pulp by the end of that stroll in the Park. (But I don't have any pictures, JL.)
Don't think he ever did that again. But the name "Indian Pete" still lives...
|
|
Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
|
|
rmuir--
You are sending me back to my library to look at things I haven't looked at in ages. Ascent, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1974. I don't have many, but this is a great issue . . .
The article "Dresden," by Steve Roper, pictures of the East Germans wearing bizarre leather gauntlets exposing the full fore foot, toes and heal. Serious stuff . . .
And then the photo essay by Jim Stuart, "Bouldering" with opening shot of a woman? bouldering barefoot. Seems to me there was someone really into climbing barefoot here in the states, Skip Gurin (name, sp correct?). Can't remember where I saw those images. Can't remember doggy dung.
Then in the same issue the all-time classic article that will never go out of date, "The Guidebook Problem" by Lito Tejada-Flores & friends. But we better not talk about that article on this forum.
By the way CM, here on ST you do an awesome job. Just wanted that on record before anything is said about guidebooks. (Talking to myself) I will not go there . . . Repeat . . . I will not go there. OK, ok I won't go there.
|
|
healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
|
|
Yep, Dresden and thongs...
We climb on almost identical stuff in [url="http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/6299Naked_Edge.jpg" target="_blank"]So. Ill.[/url] and I was back there climbing barefoot last Oct. One of the early hard routes there went with the left foot bare for toe hooks and the right shoe on for edges. I tried making a pair of those thongs after I saw that issue but we didn't have enough vertical to be bothered with them - you don't need them on hangs and roofs. A couple of us even tried to go to Dresden in '78 and the effort made for some epic trips into E. German embassies in Iceland and Norway before abandoning the idea as grossly premature for a couple of dirtbags. Would still like to go at some point, though...
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
|
|
Bolton wrote: "The other story Kojak tells is of Ivan giving a tour of his county park boulder problems. I don't know who all was in tow but I do know Largo was. I guess Ivan was getting a little frustrated by the fact that these young imps were pulling down all his best stuff. The frustration reached a crescendo at the end of the session when Largo inquires "so...Where you keep the hard stuff around here?"
That's amazing someone remembers that. Fact is, we'd set up old Bud but good. Jim Doninni was staying with Couch and unknown to Couch, Jim had given us a tour of County Park bouldering pointing out all of Bud's favorite and most prized problems--some of them very sequency and hard. Over the next few weeks we got them all ruthlessly wired, so when Bud took us on on his sandbag tour, intending to shame up punks into submission, we were, in fact, performing on problems we'd done dozens of times already, though acting as though we were climbing them on-sight. The guy kept getting more and more pissed off because he was so competetive and because he so loathed all of us--and had from day one.
I actually looked up to Bud as one of the great ones, but he had that coming, and man, did I rub it in.
We finished the day by showing Bud a few of the new things we'd worked up, including a sky high razor job that Mike G. had first done and a few big dynos for good measure. Bud would have been most welcome into the Stonemaser fraternity and would have been party to a stack of new climbs, but his personality just couldn't get jiggy with the movement. Too bad, really, because he was a talented guy and deserved more than he let himself in on.
JL
|
|
Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
|
|
Here's a token Largo paparazzi shot, something on Tahquitz up at the top. The Hangover maybe? We were nearby on some conglomeration that included El Camino and maybe Traitor Horn, and there was no mistaking that voice, so I snapped this recently unearthed picture. 1977 or 1978.
Who wears short shorts?
|
|
bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
|
|
yeah yeah, this pic has cleared up a bit more of the thirty year fog...!
i referenced the day you took this pic day way back in chapter one or two of this thread. we briefly shared the belay ledge atop el camino real with JL as he was headed up with either bear2 or bullwinkle to give the hangover a go. i remembered john mcmanus was there, because he was agahst about some comment i made, but i'm now recalling we had a whole 'dago contingent with us.
|
|
Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
|
|
Here's two more from that day, both of El Camino
|
|
bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
|
|
yep, that was the day. that's me belaying and mcmanus in the first pic. wow. time does fly when you're having fun. where the fukk are you getting these pics???
|
|
rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
|
|
That's not the first free ascent of the Hangover... Had it been, you guys probably would have been sharing the stance with half the Stonemasters on the planet! You couldn't have missed it.
That FFA was another of one those mass ascents, and somewhere I've got it listed as done in July, 1978. Mike and Mari were there, so was Accomazzo, Evans(?), Largo (obviously), me and many, many others. The dodgy stances were riddled with the hordes all waiting their turn on the main course. Indeed, as others walked below the route, they too were cajoled into joining the party. Largo led the thing first, Ricky, Mo and I also did it cleanly; and those names got listed in the FFA. (At least, according to Vogel.) Was this one of the last, great mass-ascents? A great lead, JL, that was.
Who wears short shorts? We wore short shorts!
Now, Largo's got a top-rope in your photo, so this must be a later ascent. And, again according to Vogel, the FFA was in 1978. So this photo was somewhat thereafter...
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
|
|
Yeah, that's the Hangover alright. But I didn't get it that day--couldn't stick the grim sideways dyno over to the arete, so in the pic I must have tensioned over and taken it from there. And that was still pretty hard with a nasty wrencher fall.
I'd like a copy of that pic if I can get one. I hardly have any shots of myself climbing in those days, or any days. Never occured to me to get a camera or that someday I'd want a reminder of my squandered youth.
THose pics of El Camino bring back fond memories. CLimbing in Levis must have been tough.
JL
|
|
bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
|
|
no, the photo is definately '77 or VERY early in 78, 'cause off white moved shortly thereafter to the pnw. i'm pretty sure the the attempt on that day was just an early recon, it was just largo and a single partner, and they probably aided the thing to get the tr up.
JL, do you have any recollection?
|
|
bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
|
|
ah! the elusive simul-post....
|
|
Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
|
|
Could've been as late as early fall 78, it's somewhere in that lovely timeframe between April 76 and December 78 when I had a key to the photo lab at UCSD. It was just Largo and partner.
Sure John, I'll contact you via email and send you a print.
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
I climbed outside of Dresden in the Elbsandstein a few years back, post-unification. My research of the climbing history seemed to indicate that the reason they climbed bare-footed was because the only shoes they could get were manufactured in the Eastern Block countries... and they weren't at all good; better to climb barefooted. Berndt Arnold was the driving force at the time... I think Henry Barber managed to climb there... (even ST has had a discussion http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=19084);.
No chalk, no metal protection, just tieoffs and knots. But serious climbers pushing into 5.11's early on. Also free solos and the like, on their sandstone (which is good in places and rotten in others).
I had a good time when I was out there, both at the local gym in Dresden and out at the crag.
|
|
Wonder
climber
WA
|
|
Oh the '70s. this is for Klimmer. Yes we really thought we could climb the pillars, the big wall in the tram canyon. i was with Fred East & co. maybe an englishman or so. its really illegal to be in there. but we thought if we got up early and got on the wall before anyone noticed we might make it. up before dawn we snuck in and got to the wall at first light. as we were racking up the first tram lode was heading up the canyon. as they passed by the whole car lode was pressed to the windows starring at us. we packed up and high tailed it outta there. got away, no rangers or cops. to this day i dont know that anyone has climbed that. anyone?
|
|
Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
|
|
Not about the Tram Walls, which are rather compelling, but upthread Robs referenced Pete Steers. Last I saw Steers climbing at Tahquitz, 78/79, not barefoot, but he came soloing up out of the exit moves of Human Fright,(10A?) he was wearing Kroenhoffers, I was at a belay above, called him out on his footwear and he said "Ya, just came up Human Fright in these beauties, how do you like them apples!?"
A couple years ago Pete was leaving Boulder and said he'd maybe be heading back to Idyllwild; I wonder if he repatriated.
(I know upthread JL mentioned freeing one of the "Frights" with Lechlinski at 12a or something, "Frightfull Fright" maybe? 'hard too keep the frights squared around).
|
|
Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
|
|
OH and Robs:
Got yer Gauntlet picker upper, College Talkin' Email.
'Clobbered me pretty good!
Right Wrong, er otherwise, soon as I git my right vision back, Tar is Bustin' out; maybe we'll a 'knock heads out in Cali, April.
Guido and Luciano, they got my back, though them and their Cadd-E-Lac and Violin cases is stuck back a bit in some ruts below the trailhead...
|
|
G_Gnome
Gym climber
The Big City
|
|
Roy, Pete is still living in Colorado but meets us in The Meadows every August for a few weeks. We get a pretty good crowd most years with myself, Waugh, Nick Badyrka, Bolton, Ed Sampson, Jim Wilson, Chris Wegener, Pete, and god knows who else. It's great fun but you need to watch your back with Bolton around.
|
|
rbolton
Social climber
Glendora, CA
|
|
You gotta watch your front, too. Ask Powell.
|
|
G_Gnome
Gym climber
The Big City
|
|
I saw that time you kissed him when he was too drunk to resist! I watch all my sides around you Bob, but I figure if you really want me I am too small to resist (much).
Psst, I think Waugh really wants you though.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!