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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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Dec 14, 2008 - 11:22pm PT
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Well I think I'll jump in.
Back in the fall of 1972 (or 73, my brother Al and Chris Robinson headed out to Idyllwild for our first multi-pitch route. We were swing leads on.
We got to Humber Park after dark and immediately hiked up to Stoner's Ridge, where the campfire was already raging. Around the fire sat John Long, Richard Harrison, Tobin Sorenson, Tobin's younger brother Tim (Dibbs) Mike Graham and a few others.
The Big Boys were bullshitting, smoking weed and roasting weenies. It was awesome and memorable.
Seeing an opportunity to ditch his brother for the day and actually just go climbing, Tobin lobbied us heavily to take Dibbs with us and the White Maiden's Walkway. Being clueless teenagers, we capitulated. I clearly recall Richard Harrison's gear recommendation for White Maidens, "just take a few runners, you'll be fine."
Feeling psyched, me, Al and Chris jammed upward like clockwork. Dibbs was nervous.
With four climber and two ropes, we had to throw a rope down te blocky face. The various entanglements began to cost us minutes..Meanwhile a few flakes of snow drifted down.
Three pitches up, Dibbs told us he was really scared and now refused to lead or belay. This meant that Dibbs was nothing more than dead weight and I urged that he descend. Unfortunately, my overly optimistic friends were deluded and voted to keep him with us. I bitched, but climbed on.
The day wore on, ropes got snagged and Dibbs got more freaked out. At one point about half way Dibbs was so nervous that he demanded that we smoke our two victory joints, just to calm his nerves. We rolled our eyes and climbed on.
A couple pitches below the summit the sun descended below the ridge and though I was out on the lead, I had a sinking feeling in my belly. I knew we were f*#ked.
Still climbing on and into the darkness, my brother All took off on the lead. In near darkness and encountering some route finding challenges and rope entanglement, Al took "our" first leader fall.
By the time Al lowered back to our stance, I realized that we were in trouble. After what could have hours, shivering on the ledge I/we decided to start calling for help, "White Maidon's Walkway, one pitch from the top."
Amazingly, it didn't take long before the older brothers, the Stone Masters and some hanger-oners started hiking up the trail to save us. We the team, sat, shivered and entwined ourselves to keep from freezing to death. It was metaphysical.
Again, after what could have been several hours we heard voices from above and then a light. Richard Harrison was rappelling down to us on the stance. When he arrived Al inquired how we were gonna get back up and Richard calmly replied," our gonna climb, John will belay you."
What Richard should have said was that John was going to haul us like a sack. He dragged us across the low angles slabs, in the freezing cold and stressed filled fall night. The Stonemasters had a campfire at summit, sleeping bags and food. I am forever indebted to them for keeping us from suffering more than we di and helping to teach us a relatively non-lethal lesson.
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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Dec 14, 2008 - 11:26pm PT
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wtfu, you were 9! (oh that worked great, hehe.) Sounds like a grand adventure and a starting point for you on the climbing path.
Well told, thanks.
If anyone has an itsy bitty teeny weeny wussy story to tell, it's ME!
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wtfd
climber
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Dec 15, 2008 - 12:18am PT
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survival, I was just screwin with ya, guess i dont take compliments well, the second one was well on its way to becoming a jewel, when i navagated away from the edit page, and guess what, when you do that and you dont save your work, it gets erased. im blaming it on my climbing partner for emailing me when i was busy.
great stories everyone keep em coming, ive got so many that are beyond public forums, so ill mentaly sort and come back with something you might enjoy over getting sick.
take it easy
btw, i wanted to thank everyone that mentioned they enjoyed that story, i appriciate it, really, it actualy might be a good thing the edit got erased, it was a little harsh....
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rich sims
Trad climber
co
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Dec 15, 2008 - 12:26am PT
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WTFD
Some of us (me for sure) were to dumb to know what peril we had gotten into and maybe so scared we forgot.
I have gone back to looked at some of the really soft sand stone cliffs I climbed. I have gone back to see the oak tree that still grows below 52 @ 805. That is where a Great Horned owl knocked me out off a branch from 25 feet.. I was climbing up to look in the nest full of babies. My poor mom had to take me to get stitches on my forehead where a talon cut me. Only to have to go back a week later with one of the worse cases of poison oak I ever had .My pet Tarantula bit my brother that week with another trip to Dr Murray’s. So you can figure out where I landed.
Then some older teenage falconers (as they thought of themselves) got hold of me because it seems as I was small, I could climb to nests they could not get to. That led to bat manning down ropes at SD and Baja’s cliffs. By the time I was Twelve I had found some books on falconry and knew what we were doing was wrong so I cut ties with them and my dad got a license so I could continue.
Next was dirt biking back when I could ride from Shadow Hills to Monte Vista or up San Miguel Mt. and round Otay Lakes. That ended not when sheriffs got dirt bikes as we could out bike them but when they got helicopters. Never figured I could out run one of them.
The dirt bikes led to girls, surfing and sailing. All the time I was back packing that led in a round about way to climbing?
At thirteen I also managed to fall off our barn roof and land my self in a coma.
How did we all survived with out helmets, knee , elbow pads using home made skate boards, skim boards and dirt bikes that would be outlawed now.
To be raised in this world that has to be over regulated, extra safe and homogenized makes me glad I was a kid when we could walk to the store, down a canyon, and not get shot in school. Heck I often took a 410 over and under to school for shooting on my way home.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2008 - 03:31am PT
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Rich, that's funny. I tell my kids tales like that about being raised in the Alaska bush. We survived raging rivers, charging moose, hypothermia on the tundra, exploding unvented cans of beans, 22 shells thrown into burn barrels, tongues stuck to frozen pipes, bush planes, snow machines, trundle parties and "rock" fights.... so we could grow up and be "safe".
The MAN tells us to stay in the lines, keep off the grass, no access, wear your helmet, rubberized playground equipment, backcountry permit, no out-of-bounds camping, two weeks paid vacation........
wtfd, yes my friend, the edit button is a powerful thing....
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Double D
climber
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Dec 15, 2008 - 11:33am PT
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Spencer... that's a great story and really brings texture to the times. I remember Tobins brother in Yosemite. He was unique for sure.
Why is it that the 5.6's and 5.8's of our youth are the most epic?
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2008 - 11:44am PT
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C'mon Dave give me a story! None of the big dawgs have weighed in.....like they were pooped out of the womb leading 5.11 or something!
Oh yeah, Hashbro, that is a wonderful story. Thanks a lot!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 9, 2010 - 09:58pm PT
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I was today reminded of the time that four of us went up to do the Christian Brothers Traverse at Smith Rocks....Across the pinnacles we went...
How'd we ever live through that with goldline rope and not enough gear??
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willie!!!!!
Ice climber
honolulu, hawaii
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Feb 10, 2010 - 12:49am PT
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Cool thread, Survival! First I've seen it.
My very first time on fifth class rock fits right in here.
I left home when I was 18 and headed for the hills. About two years prior, at 16, I hung out with a good crew that were really into being outside. One Friday night, we drove about an hour to a state park, the name escapes me.
There was a path/trail that followed along some sort of man-made waterway that had something to do with Lewis and Clark. A mile or two down, there was a large 40-50 foot tall rock/boulder outcropping sticking up out of nowhere right next to the trail. We quickly found the easy scramble way to the top and were pretty stoked with our spot to hang.
After a while we got bored and downclimbed, wandering around the base of the formation.
I wouldn't be introduced to roped climbing for another couple years, but I had always been a climber. I was monkeying around on top-plates, hips, and valleys from age 12.
I kept seeing spots that I really wanted to climb on. About three-quarters of the way into our circumnavigation, I could resist no longer, and started climbing. 85 - 90 degrees, about 45 feet tall.
At first it was really fun, but soon got to "O Shit". Looking back, it was probably about 5.8 movement, but rotten as hell. I remember one "clump of weeds" hold that was good as long as I pushed in HARD. Any outward force would have ripped it. It was right about at that hold, very close to the top, that fear, pump, and choss was really on the verge of putting me down.
Unbeknownst to me, soon after I had started up, my friend Steve had run around the easy way and gone to the top.
His head appeared above me.
So close!! But I was gonna lose it!!!
The last part is blurry, but I ended up more or less dynoing for his hand and he pulled me up. We didn't say anything at all while I caught my breath. Then we scrambled down.
I didn't even know how bad that was for a couple years.
Steve Sutorious saved my life!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Feb 10, 2010 - 01:26am PT
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OK, I'd 'done' Devil's Lake with the Sierra Club, once.
Uh, then I learned to rap from the 5th floor fire escape at
Terry Hall, U of Wash. Then the perp of the latter took me to
Mt Erie and we melded metal. Then Stevie, who was from Ellensberg,
decided I was ready for the W Ridge of Mt Stuart; no coddling from the
farm boy. I don't remember for sure but I think he borrowed my gear
from Gene Prater, the doyen of Mt Stuart.
"OK, this ice axe is for leaning on at rest stops and to stop yourself with if you should fall. Got it?"
"Got it."
I remember we got to the base of the summit pyramid where we saw His
Doyen-ness wending his way to the top. We exchanged shouts and the next I
knew it was decided we should head down. Looking down this really long
gully Steve says,
"You know how to ski, right? Then just slide on your heels and lean back on the ice axe for braking. Got it"
"Got it." I was a really good skier so how hard could this be?
It went really well for a while. Then I sat back a bit too far and I'm
on my butt. Now I had done pretty well in physics but the rate of my
acceleration still surprised me. Still facing outwards but now blinded by
snow I realized that braking with the shaft end was only limiting the
acceleration. Then the gully made a turn and through the rooster tail I
could see the gully appeared to end, in space. I still had some directional control
with my heels so I steered for a rognon about 50' from the lip.
It was not a pretty landing but any landing is a good landing if
you walk away from it. That was not quite possible in this case at least
until my knees stopped shaking. Steve came sliding down to me.
"I thought you knew you were supposed to roll over on your chest and use
the pick to stop?"
It was a good 40' rappel over the lip and another 1000' of glissading after that, for those of us that wanted more glissading.
ps
I have another story that involves that gully a few years later,
after I learned to use an ice axe, but it belongs on the PTSD thread.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2010 - 09:49am PT
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willie, Reilly and Pate,
You n00bs are lucky to be alive...HA HA HA!!!!
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Feb 10, 2010 - 11:09am PT
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Heavy hitter weighing in here. Even though I was spit out of the womb climbing 5.12, I was not immune to epikking on 5.6.
It was my first trip to Red Rock to do Solar Slab with my roomie who wasn't much of a climber. I wasn't a full on beginner, but made all the beginner mistakes~ late start, burning at every belay, and generally spending WAY too much time admiring the views and tripping out on the beauty of the rock. Next thing ya know, the sun's low. We summitted with some daylight, enough to load more bowls. Back then the only descent was rapping down the big gullychasm. We got a rap or two down(2 11mm's) and that massive knot got stuck. I tried and tried to free it to no avail. Soloed up the chimney, maybe with a prussik, as high as I could and decided to cut the ropes. For some reason I had a knife, but no headlamp. We ended up with maybe 55m which would sometimes get us to the next station, sometimes not. Going off rappell and searching for the next tat by bic lighter was spooky. We were tripple checking everything and pretty much keeping it together, but I was more concerned, at this point, with my dog who, I hoped, was still waiting at the base. When we got back down to the large terrace and familiar ground maybe 400ft up, I started calling for my dog. The last rapps were ok after hearing her tail wagging against the rock. At the base I had what I still remember as the absolute BEST orange ever. The hike back to the old climbers camp at Oak Creek was fine, knowing that it was saturday night and we'd soon be partying and telling stories with dirty rats from around the world.
When we got back, not a critter was stirring, no fires, nada, which was weird~ it was saturday during the season. At the van we checked the clock.
1:30 am. That explains it!!!
Subsequent parties over the next year reported our rap lines were fixed, and BOMBER!
Anyone can make beginner mistakes.
BTW, me and that partner have talked about a 20yr reunion ascent. I've heard there's many bolts(?!) and a good descent now.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2010 - 11:24am PT
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Jefe, that IS classic!
I shot coffee out of my nose on this one!
Going off rappell and searching for the next tat by bic lighter was spooky.
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hooblie
climber
from where the anecdotes roam
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Feb 10, 2010 - 11:47am PT
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it could have been ugly, but turned out otherwise. i copied this one over from the first multi-pitch thread.
~~~~~
very early in my career three of us assaulted royal arches with bivi gear and the next day north dome.
near the start i was sent up and told to stop short of the route crawling over a exfoliated corner onto the dome's face so i anchored maybe 50' up a low angle slab with these new fangled nuts placed waist high and snubbed up pretty short. hollered for the second to come on up and must have jostled around pretty good to watch or something.
before my guy could get anywhere i appeared at his feet in grove of manzanita, after a long drawn out toboggan ride on the pockets of my levi's. i was permitted to try again with an upward, a different stance, and some serious diligence to try to regain something i had lost.
~~~~~
what tickles me remembering this is the casual attitude my partners displayed, ok...try it again...and they continued their conversation
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charlie.elverson
Trad climber
St. Paul, MN
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Feb 10, 2010 - 12:28pm PT
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My scariest moment climbing was just last summer in Tuolumne. I was on Fairview dome regular route with my new friend, Peter. We'd decided to do the first 4 (5?) pitches and then use the rappels off to the right. We used my lead line and a rope peter brought and said was 60m. Peter didn't like to tie stopper knots in the ends of the rope, and I didn't feel like arguing the point. Then, I was dumb and didn't put my third hand on. So, I was rappelling and noticed I was about 20 feet from the end of the the lead line. It didn't occur to me that I couldn't see the rest of the other rope. I rappelled another two feet and felt a rope slip through my bottom hand. I closed my other hand just in time that I caught the last few inches. As it turned out, the line Peter brought was the one he had to chop several meters off of. After jugging a few feet up and frantically tying stopper knots, I saw the next rap anchors, 50 feet above me.
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Feb 10, 2010 - 01:27pm PT
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There are some classic stories in this thread!
I almost rapped off uneaqalized ropes while cleaning draws off of the route next to Big Moe... "Out To Lunch"(!!!) only 40ft!!! ...WTF?
Had to have a rope lowered to me after running it out into no mans land in grounder territory on moves I couldn't reverse with no pro around and an ice cream sandwich sized foothold that fell when I unweighted it. Crimped until a 3rd person could scramble round the backside and drop the line.
Tragedy narrowly averted...
luckily only a few times over the years. Either gumby sh#t or complacency.
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hoipolloi
climber
A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi
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Feb 11, 2010 - 03:57pm PT
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great storys bump
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 11, 2010 - 04:14pm PT
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I've got some other harrowing stories for later, but I'll start with my very first climb at Tahquitz.
I was following,but
I didn't quite understand the concept of a Fingertip Traverse and tried to walk it.
BIG Air
BIG swinging plunge
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 04:15pm PT
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Whoa, I hate it when that happens!
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willie!!!!!
Ice climber
honolulu, hawaii
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Feb 11, 2010 - 11:08pm PT
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I'll share another one. The helicopter stories upthread reminded me of a good near-death funkup.
I've heli'd dozens of times in my life to climb or snowboard. Usually, a climbing drop-off is really mellow. Not like jumping off onto a ridge when riding.
One climbing trip 5 or 6 years ago, we took off from town and headed up the glacier. First climbing trip of the season and a long window of good weather forecast made for excited spirits.
As we swooped past some amazing rock, the pilot said something like, "I'll put her down right here". As I felt him ease up for the landing, I whipped off my headset and popped my seatbelt.
My headset came off a fraction of a second before he said, "OK, everyone out on the left". I exited my door on the right. Immediately realizing that I was pretty close to a drop off. I got about 2 feet away from the skid and hunkered down while Kyle and Sean emptied the cargo hold on the other side.
Then the vietnam vet pilot popped that ranger straight up and took off.
I crawled over to my buddies and we had the "didn't you hear him!?!?" conversation.
I didn't realize how bad it had been until we got to the point where I took this picture:
maybe you can see it better on this one:
If you look closely, you can see the marks from the heli skids and my knee tracks at the edge of that cornice! It was May, so fairly solid, but not safe by any means! 800 feet to first bounce if it went!
I know the pilot. At first he was pissed, but we talked and both learned from it. Moral of the story is never get complacent in a heli and
NEVER BE THE FIRST TO SHED YOUR HEADSET!
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