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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2006 - 12:57pm PT
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klimmer. Was just catching up on the SM v5 thread. Not positive, but my guess would be Dave Goeddel and/or Denny Adams - both pranksters, were the sandbaggers on Robbins crack.
I consider Robbins crack to be THE classic at Woodson. My first climb ever was Sickle crack (an offwidth). Remember being pretty proud of my 15-year-old ass when I did Robbins.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2006 - 02:10pm PT
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By the way, I appreciate bvb's and Klimmer's nice words of appreciation for the PMB. However, I don't think that any of us considered ourselves boulderers. At least in the early years, we typically didn't even name "solutions" (as RMuir in the SM thread calls them), because we just didn't think much of being the first guy up a boulder "problem". It was all about practicing for real climbing.
To this day, I'm probably one of the worst boulderers I know in comparison with what I can lead. I think Woodson spoiled me (which I think of as a mini-climbing area). I've probably bouldered twice since 1988. I know that I'm in the minority here, but bouldering areas like Flagstaff in Boulder are just plain boring to me.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Mar 10, 2006 - 03:17pm PT
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If I have one true regret it's that the SD boys and us LA Stonemasters didn't join up early on. Piggot was a Stonemaster from the start--just a real soulful dude with a real stoke for climbing and massive sac out on the sharp end; Grug would have been very handy on some of our early Yosemite experiences (Twilight Zone, et al, before we had off width dialed)--I always respected Grug and always let him know I did, for whatever that's worth--and Adams (who I climbed with a bunch at the Cookie)was a great natural talent and a totally go for it dude (who, I believe, later climbed a lot with Tobin).
Anyhow, though we shared a mutual history, we didn't share it together, and we really should have. It would have been like two peas in a pod. Those early conga line first ascents at Suicide would have had 20 instead of 10. And it was always the more the merrier with us because back then thre was plenty to go around.
JL
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 11, 2006 - 04:28pm PT
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Largo. I know that Rick would really appreciate hearing this from you and the other Stonemasters. He thought the world of you guys.
Now Rick was three years older than me, and, to tell you the truth, I was scared of him half the time in our early years climbing together - kind of a little brother syndrome or something (and that Clint Eastwood glare!). I remember this story he told me around the time we did the New Dawn together. I may have not have the cast of characters exactly right, but as I remember, you, Kauk, maybe Dale, and Rick were doing Serenity Crack together around 1975. Everyone but Rick did it without a slip. At the top, you guys all did some ritual handshake thing or something, but, because he had taken a fall, he wasn't included (in the same way, or something - I can't remember the details). Well, this had a big effect on him, and I think made him determined more than ever to "be worthy" of the Stonemasters. (I'm glad I'm not scared of him anymore, because he'd probably not like the fact that I wrote this).
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Mar 11, 2006 - 04:55pm PT
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Hey, Grug--
You only got this half right. After we got to the top of Serenity Ron and I dropped down on a top rope and did the crux bare footed. Rick did the crux fine but slipped on the barefooted effort.
I always tried to climb with Rick whenever he was around but for whatever reason our paths rarely crossed. I should have been more proactive and sought him out because he was one of the really talented guys.
JL
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F10 Climber F11 Drinker
Trad climber
e350
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Mar 11, 2006 - 05:12pm PT
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Not sure of the year but quite a while back Tom Scott and I were headed to do Serenity crk. When we got there we found Mike Paul headed up the thing with no shoes, couldn't believe what I was seeing. Something about his toes fittin' the crack good, made my toes ache just watching
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illusiondweller
Boulder climber
San Diego, CA
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Apr 14, 2006 - 05:55pm PT
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Ahhhh, what a priviledge to be in the presents of such local history! Thank you all for sharing your pasts with us/me. I can not help but to think that if I had taken a different path in life that my climbing accomplishments might be looked back upon by fellow climbers/friends such as yourselves. Although, not regretting the "path" that life guided me down, I read your stories and relive the days I spent up on Woodson honing my skills in the shadows of R.Piggot, BVB, G. Epperson, Dan and Don, M. Paul, the Linder's and a host of many others.
Thanks Rick for being patient with me on Firefly even though I never really got off the ground on the damn thing!
I can't forget running into Eppy, with camera in hand, at the '86 GWBC on Woodson with 5 minutes to go in the comp and one space on my card to fill. "Why don't you do 5.10b on the Outside? You ticked that thing the last time I saw you. It's even stumped some of the Elite today!", having also succeeded on Mother Superior and Driving South, I placed 5th in the Open division that day winning a set of HB nuts.
I'm presently residing in New Jersey with my new family after having returned from being called over to the deserts of Iraq and serving as a Corpsman with the 1/23 Marines.
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Leroy
climber
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Apr 15, 2006 - 09:17am PT
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Rick Piggot was the first guy I met when I went to the valley.I still remember him coming back one day saying that Largo had taken him over to Bachar crack.That blew my mind .Bachar crack seemed impossible.Over the years we climbed a fair bit together.How he,d fill the air with his silences.Then when he would say something....Well you never knew what he was going to say.Eastwood dead on.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 15, 2006 - 09:22am PT
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-- How he,d fill the air with his silences.
That's friggin' poetry, Leroy.
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Leroy
climber
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Apr 15, 2006 - 12:00pm PT
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But the slippery slidey road to perdition really started when I met Grug err Greg.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 15, 2006 - 12:20pm PT
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Leroy. As I recall, you were already barreling down that road before you ever met me. The line about Rick...I gotta say, it's perfect.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Jan 21, 2007 - 07:55pm PT
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Klimmer posted a link to this earlier thread, and I was pretty stoked to follow it. Very fun. I am looking at my hands as I type, and I still have visible scar tissue from fist jams on Boulder 13 (1975 and subsequent years). This stuff is so dang nostalgic.
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Watusi
Social climber
Joshua Tree, CA
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Jan 23, 2007 - 04:31pm PT
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Wow!! this is the first time I saw this thread as well!! Very nostalgic,(sniff, sniff)...I love all yooz guys!!!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jan 23, 2007 - 04:53pm PT
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Hey Watusi, seem to remember from another thread that you lost some large number of pounds and are pullin' down again. Hope that's all going well.
Greg
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Watusi
Social climber
Joshua Tree, CA
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Jan 23, 2007 - 07:22pm PT
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Givin' it my best!! Cheers! MP
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F10
Trad climber
e350
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Bump
Good climbing stuff
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Porkchop_express
Trad climber
Currently in San Diego
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I just went to Woodson for the first time yesterday. Got on a few interesting problems on the Sunday Aft boulder. I have much to learn...
Victim of Aids looks like it might make a fun project. I hear that one hasn't seen a lot of repeats.
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REIGN 1
Gym climber
Carlsbad, Ca
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I went down a belayed Rick Piggot on undertow when he lead it for the first time. Rick is an offwith master. We also went up to suicide and he lead pisano overhang about the same time.
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Josh Higgins
Trad climber
San Diego
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I hate to say it, but Victim of Aids (my friends and I call it Aids Victim, maybe we're wrong?) has been sent by TONS of people. It's actually one of the easier finger cracks out there of the grade 11+ and harder. It's actually pretty trivial relative to something like Driving South which get's an 11+ if I remember right. Unless it's offwidth, or some obscure random hard thing, it's probably safe to assume that it gets a lot of ascents if it's "only" 5.12 in today's climbing world.
Since this thread is about offwidth, I thought I would post up a link to some Woodson Offwidth videos my friends and I put together:
http://pullharder.org/2009/10/16/pullharder-vs-woodson/
Josh
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REIGN 1
Gym climber
Carlsbad, Ca
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Ya he's right. Aids victum has been done thousands of times. We used to run laps on that thin crack.
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