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KevinK
climber
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Surprised there hasn't been any love for the waterfall!
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MisterE
Social climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2012 - 10:05pm PT
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Great shot of Waterfall Wall!
JJ is THE MAN for his work re-inventing the place with his hard mixed lines.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Dec 16, 2012 - 01:07pm PT
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Backcountry Catalinas in December
Eric on Psycho Man
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Dec 16, 2012 - 10:30pm PT
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Look closely...
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Dec 30, 2012 - 02:51pm PT
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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deschamps
Trad climber
Out and about
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The waterfall is nothing short of world class.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 13, 2013 - 01:57pm PT
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Here's one from the vault!
Paul Davidson powering up New Wave (5.12) during an early repeat of this modern Tucson classic! Peter Noebels photo.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Sebastopol
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Jan 13, 2013 - 07:47pm PT
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Arizona is pretty incredible. I just got back from a fun trip checking out the sights. The Superstitions were incredible.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 19, 2013 - 02:11pm PT
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The supes are amazing.
When I was a freshman or sophomore in college at NAU in Flagstaff I was in this outdoor adventure class. The teacher knew I climbed and asked if I would help out the guy who was going to teach the rock climbing segment. I said sure and headed out to Elden on one fine Saturday. Turns out the rock climbing teacher was Stan Mish, an awesome guy and a bandito. Anyone ever clip a "No Gud" bolt in the south west?
I helped Stan with the class and he showed me some of the classic boulder problems. I fired "The Egg" first try in my converse high tops (rated B 1 lol!!-- and cut me some slack it was the 80s) and had climbed in the Tetons, a place that Stan had climbed extensively, and Stan took me under his wing a bit and invited me to a Thursday night at Alpine Pizza. Dunno if people still go there but at that time Thursday nights were a major beer drinking throw down for the climber / mountain biking crowd.
So I'm hanging out the table at Alpine, swilling beer (I had a fake Alaska driver's license made by some criminal in my dorm!) with the who's who of Northern AZ climbing. Stan started chiding the crew how the Mushroom had not seen a second ascent. He and John Middendorf had done the first ascent a year or two prior, and it was one of the last if not the last major unclimbed Sedona spires. I hadn't even done the Mace at that point, had never even been to Sedona, and was an unlikely suitor for the second ascent, but the thought of the spire stuck with me. Here is pic:
At that time there was no guidebook, but here is the topo from "A Cheap Way To Die:"
Apparently John and Stan finished and came down from the spire in a massive lightning storm!
to be continued....
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R.B.
Trad climber
47N 122W
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Jan 19, 2013 - 09:31pm PT
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Stan, John, even TnT, I love that Sedona Coconino & Redwall Sandstone ... sporty would be an understatement! -- Just as the Toula Guidebook says "a cheap (or cheaper) way to Die!"
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 19, 2013 - 10:30pm PT
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I settled in to college life, got a great college girl friend and continued to climb. I worked through the stuff at Elden, then the Overlook and finally the Forks. Flag was highly traditional at that time--the Pit would come later (or was being developed with me being oblivious)--I don't think I clipped a single bolt prior to being able to lead 5.10. People were still questioning the use of chalk!
Maybe my junior year or so we started to head down to Sedona, taking on the entry level stuff like the Mace, Oak Creek Spire, Dr. Rubo's and Streaker Spire.
Here are shots of Summit Block Rock, my partner from that time Chris and me somewhere in Sedona:
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:00pm PT
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By my senior year or so me and girlfriend were drifting apart (she is awesome and we still keep in touch) and I got an internship in Tucson, which led to a forest service job back up in northern AZ. I climbed a ton in Tucson--it was quite eye opening in terms of opportunity and standards--but don't have a single picture from that time.
I migrated back north for my forest service jobs and reconnected with Doug L. We climbed together some while I was in school but really got after it after college. We did Sedona stuff like Earth Angel, Dresdoom, Book of Friends, etc. Later, we also did Mescalito and went on an expedition to Pakistan. I climbed with Doug this summer in Yosemite and probably will do so again next season!
Here is picture from the 5th or 6th pitch of Dresdoom. By then, you could traverse off but if you stay on the arete the runout and scary climbing continues! Dresdoom was a somewhat feared route at that time and had seen some significant falls and some broken bones.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:37pm PT
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Around the same time I met Hollie V. We climbed a ton together, and she got me more on a grades pushing track. Hollie was (is??) an excellent and motivated climber. We climbed at the Pit, the Forks and also did stuff in Zion, Hueco, Tucson and Yosemite.
Here she is at the forks:
Also around that time, I figured I had the experience and ability to take a crack at the Mushroom.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:49pm PT
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I would be remiss not to mention meeting taco poster rick d one evening in the Forks parking lot. Either I or Hollie had dropped a cam one evening- it was about to get dark and I said I would come back for it (the forks is a rap in style place). So I go back a few days later to get the cam and hear these guys screaming at each other--total road trip / partner / have had enough of each other style meltdown. They of course work it out and we start b-sing and having a few swigs from a bottle by our rigs.
One thing leads to another and later that night we are headed for REDACTED to climb REDACTED. Full on epic desert spire climbing ensues. Let's just say I thought I might see a man die... any pictures rick d?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 20, 2013 - 04:17pm PT
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Too much choss. Flag limestone reprezent.
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Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
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Jan 21, 2013 - 07:56pm PT
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The only AZ climbing I have had so far is Sedona, and it scared the sh!t outta me. Still, cool photos and tales.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2013 - 08:47pm PT
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Dresdoom was a somewhat feared route at that time
Still is - thanks for the retrospective, OTEASTD.
Be cool to see this thread hit 1000!
BRB.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 22, 2013 - 12:26am PT
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 22, 2013 - 03:36pm PT
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D.L. and finally tried to give the Mushroom ago. We hiked in (later realizing we missed a major drainage, thereby inflicting on ourselves a horrific approach even by backcountry AZ standards) and started climbing.
We were doing fine until we got to the 5.8 A2 "scary" section. It was also getting late and so we retreated.
We came back later, got the approach right and made it to the top! We found the summit register--only Mish and Middendorf's names were in it--saying that lightening was blasting all around them- Yikes! We had no lightening but finished rapping the dark.
Doug on the ledge before the last aid pitches
Me at the roof leading to the last pitch and a half or so..
Doug cleaning the last or second to last pitch..
Summit....
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