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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 10, 2009 - 12:05am PT
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Thanks to SteveW for posting this classic shot, taken by Royal Robbins, showing Pat Ament
and Don Whillans on the 6th pitch of Ruper (from High Over Boulder):
Tarbuster, on about the same footholds:
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 10, 2009 - 12:09am PT
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But turning over another facet of the "old" theme ...
The day after Ruper I took my Dad, who introduced me to the mountains long ago, for a
hike to celebrate his 84th birthday.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 10, 2009 - 11:42am PT
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Happy 84th Pop!
Super TR Roy! That is fun and you're havin' it. Thanks for sharing the good time.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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May 10, 2009 - 04:27pm PT
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Thanks for taking us along, Callie and Coots!
Never done Alice, but by the looks of it, it must be done and soon.
Rick
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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May 10, 2009 - 04:46pm PT
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Alice was indeed really fun! Happy to have every bit of wing span I did on an early lower move. We did some right variation and it was one fun move after another. Sign me up if you are looking for a partner!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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May 10, 2009 - 05:09pm PT
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I still remember Ruper as one of the funnest routes I've done in Eldo. Did it on a blind date with a guy (Eric Boltz) off of wreck.climbing and we had a really great time on it.
We started out on some 5.9 finger crack variation?
Everybody must shoot from that angle... :-)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - May 10, 2009 - 06:14pm PT
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Exactly as you said, except we just kept going:
Larry didn't belay at the apex (original belay before the traverse) on the crap peg, instead continuing to the vert crack after the traverse.
The last time I was at that anchor, sometime in the 90s with Rob (guy that died on K2), things weren't quite so blown out at that stance...
We had just climbed The Serpent, another highly recommended quite excellent route.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 10, 2009 - 06:27pm PT
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Yeah, my belay selection on the upper wall was all improvised, I couldn't recall any beta. I set
the first belay (end of P4) on a flake stance, not comfy but it had a great anchor. On P5 I climbed
up to the rotten band just before the traverse, didn't like anything I saw there so I continued on
through the traverse and set a stance belay immediately afterwards. If you compare my traverse
pic at the top of this page with Steelmonkey's last pic, you can see that I belayed about 10 feet
sooner than he did (I didn't have much gear left, but managed to get in enough there).
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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May 10, 2009 - 08:22pm PT
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Great post! But Tarbuster, you are not an old coot until you're on Medicare.
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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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May 10, 2009 - 08:48pm PT
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nice
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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May 10, 2009 - 10:32pm PT
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Man I forgot how pretty and interesting the rock is there.
I hope to get out that way in the fall to climb, it's been at least 12 years.
Thanks for the share, the photos were great and the pigeon shot was lovely.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
the end of the world as we know it, & I feel fine.
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May 11, 2009 - 01:24am PT
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This kind of quality stuff keeps me coming back. I like the new style of slowly meting out the story... puts a bit of suspense and anticipation into it.
Thanks!
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 11, 2009 - 07:45am PT
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Thanks for the share, the photos were great and the pigeon shot was lovely.
Credit to our birdloving Callie for the pigeons. I liked those photos too, and realized
that in all my years climbing Eldo, I never thought to photograph a pigeon.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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May 11, 2009 - 10:29am PT
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The pigeon (aka Rock Dove) was adorable! He kept landing as close to me as the photo indicates. Looked me up and down. Checked out the canyon. Took a night circular flight. Returned next to me. Repeat.
So beautiful!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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May 11, 2009 - 12:14pm PT
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A most excellent TR. Nice buildup, Tar. You're raising the bar on the TR standards. If I didn't already live here, I would want to move here.
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Pewf
climber
nederland
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May 11, 2009 - 12:55pm PT
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I commented to Roy on the pigeon shot too; he mentioned you took it, Crimpie. It's really lovely! Usually when I think of them, it's a memory of getting the bejesus scared out of me when a pair exploded out of the crack I'd just stuck my hand in while soloing (back when I was young and a bit too brave). They sounded more like a pair of very angry rhinos than a couple of innocent little birds.
Looking forward to seeing them in a different light when I'm able to get back out climbing!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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May 11, 2009 - 08:02pm PT
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Great TR...Ruper takes me back...did it about 45 years ago. Found the Ruper Crack to be utterly desperate. After we got down, we found out that a week earlier, a climber had gotten their knee jammed in the crack and couldn't extract it. Out came the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group to save the day. By the time they got there, the climber's knee was swelling and no amount of hauling up or down could get him out, so they did what anyone would do under the circumstances---poured a few cans of motor oil down the crack to aid in the removal process, a very slick solution which worked like a charm.
We get there a week later and the motor oil coating is no longer obvious, at least not to us, but damn that crack was slippery.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 11, 2009 - 08:05pm PT
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it is a nice tr-- one of the routes i read about as a n00b (over and over) while listening to the rain drip off the tent in yet another whiteout in the cascades.
i've never so much as touched the thing, but it's one of the lines that got me to get the hell out of the pnw and into warmer territory. the period scans are a nice touch.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 11, 2009 - 08:31pm PT
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rgold, I was in Eldo at the time of that stuck-knee rescue on the Ruper crack. My recollection
is fuzzy but I think it was Billy Westbay who told the story of pouring motor oil on the victim's
knee, after other measures like cutting off his pants leg had failed. It made a humorous story
afterwards, though of course it must have been miserable for the poor climber involved.
RMRG often relied on local climbers in those days to help out with technical rescues, particularly
when they required climbing up instead of coming down from above. I'm sure that Mike Munger,
another character in our Ruper TR, well recalls a certain rainy night when he and I got called up
to the Rincon Wall.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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May 11, 2009 - 08:47pm PT
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A couple more visuals, Alice seen from Ruper:
and Ruper seen from Alice:
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