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djsulli
Boulder climber
Truckee
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 3, 2010 - 10:24pm PT
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... Would anybody have the topo for Smoke Blanchards rock course at the B'milks?
thanks!
//DJS
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amfibius
Boulder climber
Reno
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Oct 16, 2010 - 11:42pm PT
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anybody?
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herm
Trad climber
Bishop
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Oct 16, 2010 - 11:45pm PT
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maybe easier to get Becky's little black book.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 16, 2010 - 11:58pm PT
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I believe it is exclusively a wetware item.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 17, 2010 - 11:26am PT
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Doug Robinson still knows it I hear. The late John Fischer knew it. Both of these guys have shown a lot of people, but I'm not aware of a topo that exists outside of people's minds.
It could be out there, and at this point, maybe someone ought to write it down.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 17, 2010 - 11:37am PT
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Oct 17, 2010 - 11:56am PT
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Yeah, DR totally knows it and even is maybe going to write something on it soon.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 17, 2010 - 02:55pm PT
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The day after DR's first wedding (1972), Smoke took a small group of us on a portion of his “Course.”
Following Smoke Blanchard through The Course was a very lovely combination of walking and easy climbing(up to about 5.5) which we could do unroped, so we got an excellent workout without having to bother with all the clatch of climbing. We wandered all over the maze of the Buttermilk, and it makes me wonder what the best way to create a guide to “The Course” would be, whether or how a traditional topo could actually work. Most topos are vertical “maps.” However, I think The Course will need to be mostly a horizontal map where various “pitches” are located along The Course which is so convoluted that the traditional way of making a map would take forever and not be accurate.
My thought on this is that DR (and friends) could do the entire course with a GPS unit that is laying down a “track” as they proceed along The Course. At each climbing section, a waypoint could be made and a description of each climbing section is recorded, perhaps most easily by using a digital audio recorder which would record the conversation among the participants at the top (or bottom, if it were a down-climbing section) of each “pitch.” The audio recordings could then be transcribed, either by hand or perhaps using voice-recognition software. After all the data is gathered, the track and waypoints could be downloaded into a GIS program, and a map could be made there.
I have both a GPS and a digital audio recorder, and I’d LOVE to spend the time necessary with DR to help create such a map-topo. But I probably won’t get back to the East Side until next year…
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Oct 17, 2010 - 02:57pm PT
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great pix
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
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Oct 17, 2010 - 03:15pm PT
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THere was a description of it in the Eastside Magazine about a year ago.
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Brian
climber
California
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Oct 17, 2010 - 06:40pm PT
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I've wondered this for most of the 28-29 years I've been climbing, or at least since I heard of it. Once upon a time my wife, then girlfriend, and I would camp at the Buttermilks pretty regularly and I'd climb around imagining where it might go. Later, when I spent a few seasons living out of the car and spent a bunch of time on the Eastside, I put together my own walkabout/climbabout route through the Buttermilks, but never did have anyone offer to show me Smoke's course.
That being said, even as someone who as never done the course and very dearly wants to, I'm not sure I'd be psyched on a GPS trail map for it, or even a topo. I definitely think it should be saved for posterity, but I'm not sure a GPS-Supertopo is the way to go about it. Kinda removes the mystery and all.
Just my two cents.
Brian
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 17, 2010 - 06:42pm PT
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Well done BooDawg!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Oct 17, 2010 - 07:08pm PT
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Right on Brian
Boo-I am going to take your GPS away from you. Bad bad boy.
"We don't need no stinkin GPS and no stinkin topo." Where's the mystique, adventure and agony?
I do love the photos of DR first wedding-great time by all and I remember the garbage cans were turned upside down and percussions ruled the night away. Then there was DR second wedding and then the third and............................... .....................................
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 12:06am PT
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'Shud be scribed on parchment, treasure map style.
Mebbe' kept in one of those puzzle box-rubic-cube-type hard to open thangs...
... & resting shotgun style at a dive bar in the seedy quarter of the forgotten city.
(Tom's place evun, or, better... a ramshackle garage, tucked intah 'old Studebaker glove box out in Benton)
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Doug Tomczik
climber
Bishop
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:08am PT
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Some people know sections of the course. The entire course takes all day and I don't know of anybody who remembers it entirely. That being said, the chimneys, slabs, and jumps are all still there...go out and link them. But please, no GPS or detailed topos. Buttermilking isn't an objective, there are no stopwatches or record books. Access the area without an agenda. Roam around under the last rays of the setting sun or go about the full moon scramble. Let the spirit of buttermilking guide you even if the course is locked away in the recesses of faded memories.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:14am PT
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The Wedge: Can you post a link to that article? Was it merely a description of its existence?
Brian and Guido: We are forever caught between the opposing goals of preserving our heritage for posterity and removing the mystery and adventure from climbing. For those who want that preservation (DR?-After all, it’s probably up to him!), I merely offered a relatively simple and accurate way to achieve that goal. For those who want the mystery and adventure, leave the route-map behind and go and have fun!
Doug: Good writing! I'm with you!
My biggest fear is that eventually there will be a trail of chalk laid down upon The Course by those who can’t climb without it, psychologically, who think it’s “too hot and my hands are sweating,” so they need to rely on chalk, rather than their own inner resources, to make them feel more comfortable with the climbing. That’s reason enough NOT to make a map of the course because that would destroy the mystery and adventure. The chalk trails are bad enough in most of the popular bouldering areas in the U.S., including the Buttermilk. I guess I’ve talked myself out of this project. I think it’s best if people learn The Course the way DR, and John Fischer learned it, by being guided there by someone who knows it. Or the way Smoke learned it, by exploration and adventure. Thanks Guido!!
Want more photos? OK!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:36am PT
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Chinchen
climber
Way out there....
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:57am PT
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I for one would LOVE to go on Smokes course and would be proud to carry it on the way it should be, by passing it on by the action of doing.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:14pm PT
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I as well would love to take a run through the Grade IV Buttermilk Scramble.
111 SUSHI FEST !!!
Of course, Doug Robinson will lead, (if he does not get WAY-laid en route to the event) while the rest of us will engage the approach blindfolded, so as to preserve the arcane and devoutly sequestered course plot ...
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:24pm PT
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!