Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 17, 2013 - 07:28am PT
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Em sent me an email yesterday, asking after some details of the first ascent of Wagon Train. That email exchange prompted me to go looking for the pictures. Found them in the 2003 folder! Holy sh#t, a decade has gone by! (feels good to still be climbing, gotta admit)
Anyway, having the pics in hand I thought I'd share something of the wonder and wyldness that is Brutus Of Wyde. Check it.
DMT
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Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 07:29am PT
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The First Ascent of Wagon Train
June 21, 2003, Sonora Pass, Deadman's Creek, 4th Recess.... the Forefathers Wall. Stu showed me this place when I helped him open up Stupendous. Angus and I added Tag Team a few years later. You see it here in this image.
Its a good line and one day, Brutus met the two of us up there. He arrived a bit later and wasn't there when I led ie earlier in the morning. He was a bit wide-eyed looking at me as he cranked the final moves... Dayum Dingus, didn't know you had that in you! Lol :-). The crack splitting that face is Tag Team Direct (10a R), Tag Team itself traverses into that crack at about mid-height, from the corner to the right.
Anyway, Brutus being Brutus he wanted to add a line or three of his own. And Brutus being Brutus his eye quickly settled on this (gulp!):
Oh he had the requisite gear for an over-hanging squeeze chimney.... for sure. And bing bang boom, up he goes, to 'check it out.'
You can see one of the challenges of this route... getting into the constriction is sorts Steck Salathe-like... (sorta)
A nice sequence of moves. Hard to see it here but this thing overhangs pretty good, if you fall? You fall OUT, not down. Scary stuff.
Brutus was my Master, and I learned a lot of the Game of Wyde in places just like this
Here you can really see the 'fall out' nature of the climb.
There goes Angus, seconding the FA.
Can you say STEEP? This isn't exactly along the fall line of Wagon Train but you get the idea.
Brutus!
My bonafides
Hah! The Wagon Train!
Beautiful area
The Forefathers Wall.... its in the new guidebook. Go for it!
DMT
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Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 07:29am PT
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Atlantis Wall, First Reconoiter
So the day after Wagon Train ole Brutus and I drove to Road's End for the start of a multi-year adventure.
Damnit Brutus no sitting down on this job!
Dude's got a boat on his back!
Classic Brutus pose
Off we go
Began to fester about those rocks up there. This was the year I found the bummer trail to get in there.
Headed up here for the first time, with bad intent
Broad Dome in the morning
Lump in the throat, excitement too
I've been back many times, this was the only time I saw all the spillways closed like this
A glimpse of the future could make you weep
Here we go!
I've lost count of the times I've been back since, now
The lake was FULL
Its a Loch Ness for sure
I wasn't too sure about this whole inflatable boat thing, in what is essentially a bottomless lake
He bought that boat for this purpose, specifically
It was never easier, subsequently, to get in the water
And then... there we were, with a couple of thousand dollars of metal, in a sinkable boat. It was unnerving to have all our gear, plus us, in that dinky thing.
But as we approached the wall... oh my! Potter, Norteinger, Leversee, and others... had been there, done that. Looking at their lines? The worm was turning HARD
Roofs
Norteinger's splitter (FA interrupted by a falcon's nesting site)
The first gleam in our eyes of Sirens of the Stanislaus
And Bear Island
We studied her for a long time. The Sirens were indeed calling but we did not set foot on stone that day. The Loch Ness nature, the inflatable boat with all that gear in it, the wind driven waves, the remoteness... ? We Fled!
But the line was established in our minds at least. We had our goal
Not too much weeping that day :-)
Back at the dam, I was happy we didn't lose any gear and sink the boat
We stopped on the way out and did a repeat of a route Munge established back when he was a Turkey Tech youngster.
DMT
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jan 17, 2013 - 07:33am PT
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Nice pics. Wish I had met Brutus.....must have been a fabulous partner!
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T Hocking
Trad climber
Redding, Ca
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Jan 17, 2013 - 07:38am PT
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Cool crags!
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Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 07:38am PT
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He was, Donini. Always ready to laugh in the face of death and an insatiable appetite for new routing. Plus he had a taste for the esoteric and the weird, a bit of a freak if you must know. Its why we got on so well. He also looked after his partners big time.
:-)
DMT
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Jan 17, 2013 - 08:39am PT
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Thanks, Dingus.
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mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
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Jan 17, 2013 - 08:43am PT
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Thanks!
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Jan 17, 2013 - 08:44am PT
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Wow, I love this!
Who's the young buck with the goatee? tee heee!
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Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 08:51am PT
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Scuffy weren't that the day we met face to face for the first time? You came walking out of the woods like a ghost or something, Brutus was all suspicious... 'who's THAT?' I was all, aw, that's just Scuffy. He's not here to rob us, he's here to wish us well. :-)
DMT
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:06am PT
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thanks DMT...
this picture was taken 3.5 yrs ago, seems like last month...
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Dingus Milktoast
Gym climber
And every fool knows, a dog needs a home, and...
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 09:08am PT
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Thanks Ed!
That is so cool....
I sent Em a link to the thread, hope she posts up.
Cuss words come out of that chimney!
DMT
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J. Werlin
Social climber
Cedaredge, CO
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:25am PT
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Cheers guys--super post. Many thanks.
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em kn0t
Trad climber
isle of wyde
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:52am PT
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Anyway, having the pics in hand I thought I'd share something of the wonder and wyldness that is Brutus Of Wyde.
Wonderful to see those FA pics, Dingus; don't think I had seen any of them previously. TFPU!
Brutus.....must have been a fabulous partner! You got that right, Jim, he was...irreplaceable.
Others posting on this thread are also fabulous partners...Dingus, Scuffy, Ed H., The Chief...the fellowship of the rope lives on.
As Brutus would say, "Let's go climbing!"
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krahmes
Social climber
Stumptown
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:53am PT
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I liked this alot; glad you took a break from trolling over there on the I Love America thread, to post it up.
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moosedrool
Trad climber
lost, far away from Poland
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Jan 17, 2013 - 10:02am PT
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Great pics DMT.
Very patriotic ;)
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 17, 2013 - 10:04am PT
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I hear the call of the Siren....
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Jan 17, 2013 - 10:20am PT
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The Siren is deafening.
You want to do "WHAT?" Man, if only I hadn't been working so hard at that time. T'would have been awesome. I need to get in there.
Or on other targets...
"Don't you get lost in there?" I said, or some such.
The reply from Brutus "... come to think of it..."
LOL!!!
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Jan 17, 2013 - 10:36am PT
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Ho, Dingus,
the sequence goes like this:
I met you, Brutus and Em for the first time a few months after Wagon Wheel,
when you first did Midas, Sept or Oct 2003. Mungeclimber was there.
The next time I met Brutus and Em was in June or July 2005, when we did
Big Gulp (at Quickie Mart) and some things at Double Dome. Mungeclimber and
Amyjo were involved. Brutus and Em climbed Mungebagged, while Amyjo and
Mungeclimber and I climbed Food Nouveau.
Next time was when I appeared unexpectedly at the end of the road. This was
to see you off for the FA of Sirens. This would be my 2nd encounter with you,
Summer of 2005.
Feels like a long time, sometime, and like almost nothing, other times.
Cheers
Ed and Em, I wasn't even aware that Wagon Wheel had been climbed more than
once!
Em, how's the ankle?
sm
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