Tacos at City of Rocks; TR..well kinda'!

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Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 14, 2013 - 11:36pm PT

The Hossjulia initiated City of Rocks climbing get-together came off starting this past Monday, June 10th. Participants included the following: donini and his 2 German friends Max and Stephi, Fritz, Heidi, Ezra Ellis, and several non-Taco participants: Ralph T, plus several others.

I just arrived home and haven't transferred any pictures to my computer, but there will be many!

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 15, 2013 - 02:39am PT

Tuesday, day 2 of the get-together: Fritz, donini, and I went to the Decadent Wall for starters, and "Twilight" was first on the bill of fare:

next stop was a route listed in the Bingham guidebook with the name sanitized to "Jay Goodwin Route." I won't list the name by which it is more commonly known to avoid pissing off the management of this site.

Rick A

climber

Boulder, Colorado

Jun 15, 2013 - 09:30am PT

Damn, looks like fun.
Still never been to that place.
Rick

Spider Savage

Mountain climber

The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles

Jun 15, 2013 - 11:11am PT

Nice looking rock!

Is Donini running it out or is Fritz a questionable belayer? Lot of slack in the rope. ;-)

Looking forward to my visit next Thursday.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 15, 2013 - 11:54am PT

After being chased off the Decadent Wall by a thunderstorm and lightning, we adjourned to Bath Rock and "Rollercoaster."

Day 3 turned out with a similar weather pattern...dodging showers and lightning. Two German climbers were sharing Fritz's campsite: Max and Stephi were from the Munich area, and knew donini from an earlier meeting in Patagonia.

Stephi made a valiant attempt on "Carol's Crack."

Meanwhile, donini and Fritz were on "Adolescent Homo," a climb right next door...

The showers persisted, but we went through the "Bloody Fingers Corridor," and Max wanted to lead "Bloody Fingers."

There was more climbing in the Bloody Fingers area, but we baile out FAST due to some nearby lightning strikes. Ralph managed to get down very fast and we all shagged a$$ outta' there, muy pronto.

Day 4:

Ezra Ellis arrived that morning, and we dawdled around camp a bit because it was pretty chilly for mid June. Jim and Ezra set off to Bath Rock, West Side where Jim led "Private Idaho" in his usual fine form. The rest of us all bailed into the Sun, where Ralph led the wonderful "Cowboy/Cowgirl Route," 5.5, ***. Since there were 4 of us he split it into 2 pitches.

All 4 of us climbed the first pitch, but I bailed at that point due to a continuing queasy stomach.

After this we took a lunch break, and we all decided to go down to the "Inner City," in order to escape from the wind and chilly conditions.

To be continued...

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 15, 2013 - 11:57am PT

Spider--

The belay was purely hypothetical on "Twilight," since Jim didn't place any pro on the entire 100' pitch.

Batrock

Trad climber

Burbank

Jun 15, 2013 - 01:08pm PT

Spider,
Donini never places gear, I did a few climbs with him last year in JT and he never placed a single piece. He figures if he can fit his hand in a crack there is no way he is coming out of it. Sounds good to me, I just made sure I plenty of room to run if he cratered.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 15, 2013 - 02:21pm PT

The saga continues...

I took 116 photos this trip, and all are climbing-related; no campsite shots, but when Fritz chimes in we should have some fun stuff.

4th day afternoon; we all trudged down into the Inner City for wind avoidance and some sunny warmth. Donini and Ezra took off to find some "better routes," (that means waaay harder ones than us mere mortals can climb...)

Ralph, Fritz, Heidi and I contented ourselves with "Raindance," an very nice "full value 5.7" that has achieved "trade route status" at the City.

I then followed the pitch, but didn't really have any good photo options; Fritz and Ezra will both post a few shots of my efforts later.

Here's Fritz getting ready to climb..

Ezra returned from around the rock and informed Ralph that he and donini had left a rope on another climb for him to retrieve; "only an easy 5.10," he said.

There are lots more photos that I could post, but I'd rather let Fritz and Ezra have some fun with their pictures first!

weezy

climber

Jun 15, 2013 - 02:57pm PT

aww man, the cowboy route. one of my all time faves. whenever i'd pull into COR the first thing i'd do is go run up that thing a few times. i miss the city.

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Jun 15, 2013 - 04:22pm PT

I understand that Crimpie and BN are headed that way. . .

Rick--I haven't been either, we should head up there some day. . .

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Jun 15, 2013 - 06:36pm PT

"__ on parade"?
They don't name 'em like that,any more!

moacman

Trad climber

Montuckyian Via Canada Eh!

Jun 15, 2013 - 07:12pm PT

The City is just way too much fun..........Thanx for sharing.....

Stevo

wilbeer

Mountain climber

honeoye falls,ny.greeneck alleghenys

Jun 15, 2013 - 07:41pm PT

Very inspirational,TFPU. Cheers.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Jun 15, 2013 - 08:32pm PT

Just back from "The City,"---but it's only a two-hour drive for me.

Kudos to Brokedown for posting story and photos and congrats to him for getting up the first pitch of Raindance. Hope I'm still able to follow 5.7 at age 75.

Unfortunately as he traversed right to left above me, I was shooting right at the sun.

It was an inspirational trip for me. I had met Ralph Tingey last fall at Indian Creek, but had not climbed with him. The man is a very young & happy 70, and considering his brand new hip, is an amazing climber and an incredibly fun person to just be around.

Donini is always both fun and amazing to be around.

It was also fun to climb with "the kids." Max & Stephi from Bavaria and Ezra from ST & Idaho. Ezra had the time of his life for two days of Donini abuse.

I know Heidi has more photos as do I. I'll try to get some photos and story posted.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Jun 15, 2013 - 08:57pm PT

Spider! As mentioned above, Donini doesn't "over protect" easy routes, and the belayers main job is to smoothly feed him rope. He put in one piece on Adolescent Homo, one on Private Idaho, and usually clips some, if not all bolts on Sport Routes above a 5.10 level.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 16, 2013 - 12:07am PT

When Ralph arrived and didn't know where we were, he asked some younger climbers: "Where's all the gray hair?" They sent him unerringly to us over at the base of Bloody Fingers.

phylp

Trad climber

Millbrae, CA

Jun 16, 2013 - 08:52am PT

Looks like fun, Tacos!

Ezra Ellis

Trad climber

WA, & NC & Idaho

Jun 16, 2013 - 09:48am PT

Ezra returned from around the rock and informed Ralph that he and donini had left a rope on another climb for him to retrieve; "only an easy 5.10," he said.

It was way over rated, maybe 5.10b at best, I can't climb 5.10d that easily.....:)

It's ok to sand bag on toprope :)

It was a true pleasure to meet Ralph T, Brokendownclimber (Rodger), Fritz, Heidi and see Doninni again, maybe when Donini hits 80 I'll be able to keep up with him :)

Renny Jackson and his partner (wife?) were also great people @ the camp fire!!!!

I'll post pics later :)