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Leroy
climber
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Apr 28, 2006 - 06:54am PT
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I liked the bit about the little girl climbing with her dad.But I try to avoid families at the crags.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 07:13am PT
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Jeez. Here I am at 5:00AM TRYING to make up a little work and having to defend my favorite climbing area from some ex-patriot top roper.
First of all, about the women (so, I read this into your first post about the Black Sea). Uh..., guess you're right, in the Black Canyon there are none or you bring your own. So touche on that point. How ARE those Black Sea women?
Secondly - ah, the hell with it. Leroy, you and I have always had about as different a perspective on what makes for a good climbing day as can be. I'm ALL about the lead and the boldness factor (and my crappy bouldering skills attest to it). You're all about the individual, technical moves. I guess I'm glad there's room in the climbing world for both.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 09:23am PT
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Kevin and Tarbuster. See you at the Black, 2nd weekend in May. Look for some folks who like like this.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 12:03pm PT
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uh...I'm the one on the left.
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Leroy
climber
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Apr 28, 2006 - 12:13pm PT
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What are you talking about Greg? we´ve had some of our most satisfying climbing days TOGETHER.I just like to bump your thread back to the top.Where are all the clean Dan photos?
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 12:41pm PT
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Leroy. Gibson has all of Dan's slides, except for one small batch I already digitized. I haven't even looked at the Black Canyon slides yet (at least, not in years). There are a bunch -including those from our Air Voyage and the Stoned Oven ascents.
The problem is with getting together with Gibson. You know Leroy, we really should do Stratosfear together.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Apr 28, 2006 - 12:53pm PT
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When we did Astro Dog we thought we might be the oldest pair (47 & 52) to climb the route. Richard is a cancer survivor. I lead the first crux (11+) pitch...break off a hold and pitch 25 feet and then jump back on and continue up to the two-boulder-bivy were we had some water stashed. We are making good time, so we linger at this beautiful spot in this beautiful, wild canyon. Richard leads the next pitch and then I take the sandbag 5.10+ flare crack pitch. Richard wants to lead the crux pitch so we change rotation.
Getting to the crux pitch the ropes get tangled together and we spend a half-hour un-doing the mess. Richard grab the rack and then proceeds to fire the crux pitch on sight. Little-f*#ker. Must be the chemo/drugs. I try and follow in the same style but no luck...I peel off after the crux and get let down to the ledge. All the gear on the crux section is out so I start to feel some pressure...nothing grab if needed. My next attempt go better and we are now past the beef of the route and we go in cruise control. I give Richard a big smile and he returns the gesture.
My mind wanders back to when Richard told me he had cancer, what he had to go through, his depression, my depression and my own self-interest.. if we ever climb together like we used too.
Amazing what some people (like Richard) can do when they put their mind to it.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 01:42pm PT
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Bob. How does Astrodog stack up with some of the other classics in the Black. I went on a trip with George Lowe and Henry Lester (again, back in the early '90s). They did the thing and both said (essentially) that they hated it. I gotta say, the adjacent Flakes route was stellar.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Apr 28, 2006 - 02:07pm PT
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I think Astro-Dog is a classic. I also think the crux pitch is way hard (12a). The Flakes is another great route...expect for that god awful chimmey pitch.
Some photo's:
Vector Traverse
High on the Scenic Cruise
Journey Home
North Rim Campground...Richard, Jim Donni, one of Donni's many old flames and Greg.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Apr 28, 2006 - 04:31pm PT
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Does anyone know about the ridge zardoz refers to here? It looks really cool, except for the deproach.
"Holy sh*t that photo of the knife ridge to the right of the white helmeted climber is wonderful."
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Phantom Fugitive
Trad climber
Misery
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Apr 28, 2006 - 04:40pm PT
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Here's a story from this last weekend, almost a Stratosfear story...
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On the pot holed dirt roads leading into the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, many horses dot the grid-maze of ranches overlooking the west elk mountain range. Entering the shadowed depths of the Black is like stepping onto one of these untamed stallions. Looking into the feral eyes of both, one discovers whether or not they are a “real cowboy”.
We drove in under a sky that looked like bullet holes through a chalkboard, the stars as crisp as I had ever seen. Conversation rolled from our family life, to girls, music tastes and eventually, tomorrow’s agenda. My partner, Jonny Copp nonchalantly attempted to talk me into “Stratosfear”, a 29 pitch X-rated mystery on the Painted Wall, as if I hadn’t heard of it. I remember reading Derek Hersey’s account of it in an old Rock & Ice. In my mind, his harrowing tale renamed the issue “Choss & Spice”. Mental note one: Hersey thought Stratosfear was scary.
It would be only my second route in the canyon and our first time climbing together. “Sounds cool”, I lied through my chattering teeth. “Of course” Jonny continued, “We could always do a first ascent instead”. Acting like I was thinking it over, I stared out the window at the stars, and then replied “If I am going to climb something big and scary, might as well be a new line.” It was agreed, and we racked up in the morning after Jonny prepared a gladiators breakfast.
We approached down the winding SOB gulley, our objective the west face of Gothic Pillar, via a line he had spied a couple seasons ago. My excitement heightened on the approach as Jonny talked of “big roofs” and three large daggers of pegmatite striking through the line. After 300 feet of 5th class scrambling and traversing, we finally cliffed out and had to rappel in to the notch below the face, tying off small blocks and meager saplings. On the second rap, a titanic block cut loose and steamrolled down the gulley, hitting the lip, catching air for a brief moment, then continued out of sight, and barreled into the river. I imagine the crew of sleeping fishermen we had stealthily tiptoed past in the morning were certainly thankful to us for this exploding alarm clock. Once at the base we looked up and realized that the gulley leading directly to it’s base was shorter and probably as casual as the drive in. Mental note two: the quickest path between two points usually IS a straight line.
We gazed at the looming roofs above, as Jonny pointed out the highlights. I washed off my layer of “Ivy Block” lotion, and promptly rinsed with an ivy cleanser. I was not playing games with this gnarly, viscous vine, for if infected, I would shut down in hours, my eyes and ears swollen tight. We started up a low angle buttress that quickly kicked into a thin, precarious slab, and dropped us at the base of the first of what were to be many splitter dihedrals. I hid under a bulge as Jonny slid past a teetering tower of blocks as tall as he was.
The next lead was mine- the first and the most prominent roof. I entered the hollowed chamber beneath and looked out the roof, noticing the sky and ground had disappeared. I no longer could tell which way was up, only “out”. I was inside a granite box, as the gulley we were climbing above was so narrow– barely a few hundred feet to the wall on the west side. I reached out for the first jam and it was solid, deep hands. Perfect. Pulling the lip 12 feet later was a desperate huffing and puffing affair, as I trembled and fumbled with every piece of gear I wedged into the scaly, bone white pegmatite. My confidence grew as I continued on the flaring thin hands corner above, particles of rock granola-like crunching and releasing beneath my rubber soles.
As I reached a good stance for an anchor I glanced over my shoulder to the inner canyon. The sky had turned black as the horses I saw on the way in; the wind had reared an ugly head, and there was an ominous rumble growling on the horizon. Jonny arrived and we quickly escaped our line, traversing and simul-climbing a few hundred feet right, eventually climbing over Kor’s route and joining the line “Baroque Down Palace”. We escaped the rim via the gulley on the back side of the tower, narrowly missing the storm, sprinting to the car amidst thunder and laughing. We awoke the next morning to a “White Black”, a layer of snow blanketing the dark gash in the earth.
Jonny headed north to Alaska, and I headed home across Kansas, but we both promised to return at our next opportunity. Our next opportunity wasn’t until two years later, although the Gothic was often on my mind. I had still not climbed in the Black other than the few pitches of this new line and The Scenic Cruise, however the scrappy riverside limestone in my home state of Missouri was the perfect training ground for ground up ascents in the “Dark Ditch”.
The weather was reported to be perfect this time. We got a late start as we helped a friend get in position to photograph. Racing down the direct gully, we found it to be a casual, easy approach to the face- 45 minutes, although requiring a few matrix-style ninja moves by me to avoid the robust spring ivy (Jonny is not allergic). We made quick work of the lower section of the route, marveling at the sustained quality and beauty of the line. The roof went much more smoothly this time for me, my confidence in the pegmatite cracks confirmed as I entered a zen like trance in the granite box.
At the next belay, I noticed a strange white dusting collecting in my lap, like small shooting stars, coming from the roofs above. I pretended not to notice the incoming snow, hoping that maybe we could slide by without the weather knowing we were there. Jonny struggled with a “cruxy roof magic trick” above, down climbing to an alcove as he figured out the moves. After a few attempts, I pondered “Umm, Jonny? Is the gear good?” I tried to sound relaxed. “Yeah” he replied, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. “Good” is a fairly relative term. “Go for it then. We gotta move, bro.” Jonny nodded, smiled his cheshire cat smile, and said “thanks”, then busted through the wild pegmatite roof with a small grunt.
I followed the pitch admiring various sections of offwidth, perfect hands, a clean slab, and eventually the broken roof, through rock that looked like it had been burning in a fire for the past hundred years, scalloped and fire red. If the Black is an untamed, wild horse, Jonny is surely one if it’s finest veteran wranglers. When I asked how many first ascents he had in the canyon, he lost count somewhere around a dozen.
We turned the engines on after the roofs, and sped up the remaining 700 feet of perfect, highly featured rock, connecting clean faces, deep cracks, and sharp dihedrals. The white stuff came and went, and we summited in a heavenly orange and violet sunset glow, down-climbed to the notch, up to the rim, and ran back to camp.
On our first attempt, I had just returned from Rome, seeing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting for the first time. Inspired by the ceilings on the route, we titled our own masterpiece “Sistine Reality” (IV 5.11+ [11 pitches, 5.8R, 5.10R, 5.11b, 5.11+, 5.11, 5.10R, 5.10+, 5.8, 5.10-, 5.6, 5.6 to rim, no bolts, no pins, no lasso’s, no big whoop]
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2006 - 07:08pm PT
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Damn! Great story PF! Sound's like a route to do. Is there a topo available?
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Phantom Fugitive
Trad climber
Misery
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Apr 28, 2006 - 09:00pm PT
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thanks grug.
check your email for the topo.
PF
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Apr 29, 2006 - 12:17am PT
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most excellent story jer
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lcoyne
Big Wall climber
Byron Bay, Australia
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Apr 29, 2006 - 11:34am PT
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Wait a minute Grug. Your girl friend stops me as I'm walking to a barbeque, asks if I would go look over the top of AV for you guys, as it was dusk/dark and she and the rest of your group were concernend w your welfare. I went to the various vantage points, determined that you were either above the offwidth (which wsa the case), or on the ground, tell her I reckon your probably 1 or 2 pitches from the top and not to worry, then calm down a somewhat more concerned kid in your group and invite you all to the barbie. If that constitutes "hitting" I'd better go back to dating school. :')
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2006 - 11:59am PT
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Ah Jeez. Nothin' like a pesky eye witness to mess up a good yarn. Sorry Leonard. I don't know you, but I've heard some things... I was hoping, in my small way, to add to the legend.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Apr 29, 2006 - 12:02pm PT
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Leonard... Bob D here. What are you up too? Long time no see. Hope all is well? Drop me a line when you get back in the area.
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flamer
Trad climber
denver
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Apr 29, 2006 - 10:59pm PT
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Mr. Coyne,
Since you stopped in I thought maybe I'd give you the opportunity to clear the air about a certain free "project" of "yours" on North Chasm view. Care to share?
josh
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BrentA
Gym climber
estes park
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Apr 29, 2006 - 11:17pm PT
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THIS IS THE BEST THREAD EVER!!!!!
Jonny is the m'F'n MAN!!!! Many times when I'm strung out I honestly laugh and say to myself..."what would JC do?"
I ain't talkin about Jesus either. I was tied to him the day/night I got frostbite, he is the finest, most solid and natural climber I have ever had the chance to rope too...and a hell of a great bro.
The answer is always the same..."GO UP!"
PF- what a tale brotha, thanks for sharing.
Here is a link to a story I wrote years ago, about an adventure that happened even longer ago. If you haven't read it, maybe it will kill a couple minutes...
http://www.bigwall.com/whitedvl.html
Keep it coming...when was the last time you got to talk to people sharing this much love about a place...you just don't find that, the Black is THAT special.
One love,
Brent
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Phantom Fugitive
Trad climber
Misery
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Apr 29, 2006 - 11:31pm PT
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Killer story Brent...
But I have to admit...I've read it before...
I've got the Black bug bad.
WWJCD?
GO UP!
-PF (another JC)
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