In Days of Yore; the 'Tobin' Effect

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Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 4, 2015 - 01:52am PT
In Days of Yore; the Tobin Effect


I reflect on memories of that bro of mine so often, it's only natural I should think about him more than most. But I would guess, many of his friends still think about him just as much. My best 'Tobin' climbing memory is from back in '75. He was leading the first pitch proper of the Cobra, a near vertical flared and shallow groove to the left of the main corner, on the first free ascent of the route, some forty years ago. By today's safety standards it was a sketchily protected lead off a sketchily protected belay on 10+ or 11a nut protected climbing. I was only subliminally frightened at the time, concentrating on catching what might have been a long, and slab slapping fall.

To the left of the main Cobra dihedral is an adjacent shallow left facing corner that parallels the main corner for about half way up. Avoiding the main dirt filled corner, we took that shallow corner for two pitches to where it ended at a good ledge, we then joined the main corner for two or more pitches to the summit.

On the little ledge at the base of the corner we made small talk and swapped gear, some 1000 up at the top of the slab. Not far to the right of our belay, the polished granite fell away off a giant arch. At 18 years old I had only been climbing primarily in JT or Idyllwild and this was my first big climbing trip in the Valley, so I had never experienced that kind of exposure. But at 20 years of age, Tobin had already written his legacy in stone on scores of first ascents and hard free climbs. He was fervently self disciplined, tempered by his passion and sacrifices, unusually soft-spoken and always humble at heart. Of course, I trusted him implicitly.

As Tobin stood gripping himself to the base of the flared, shallow crack he studied it saying, "I'm only going to be able to get in one good piece for most of the way so keep the rope running fast so I don't have any drag until I reach the ledge." He worked at some slippery wide jams for ten or fifteen feet, placed our largest hex at the highest point before the crack became too shallow, and then launched into a shuffling lie-back.

He moved quickly then, hanging his body off the right side of the shallow crack, making quick reaches with arms and pedaling his feet in a nearly barn dooring fashion, and swiftly covering at least thirty feet before getting some good fingers jams where the crack deepened and jagged horizontal. He paused briefly there and worked, finally getting in a couple smaller hexes while he admonished me to watch him. Of course I was rapt, eyes fixated to the distant welterweight frame as he moved faster then, near frantic almost hopping up the rock for the last twenty five feet or so, to a good stance and belay.

Grateful for the Jumars it was one of the pitches that, unlike Tobin, I was as yet unable or ill prepared to free that day. The next lead was mine at his coaxing; it looked for me a doable and protectable crack and then onto face climbing up a slightly less angled aręte within the corner. It would prove one my hardest leads to date and I dug my deepest not to peel after the crux before collapsing on the ledge. There's more to tell of this story, but it will have to wait for now.


The years up to and for a few years after he left us were by far my most active years of climbing. I was an average climber, doing mostly short and well protected 5.8 to 5.10 routes. But Tobin's influence, though I rarely climbed with him, spurred me on to doing many harder and longer routes than I ever thought I was capable of. And though I didn't achieve much of note compared to his accomplishments, Tobin always treated my efforts as worthy. When I saw him he always told me as much, and it made me feel important in his eyes. For that I'll always be grateful to the brother and the man he was. In my adolescence and young adulthood I felt as if I had little or no moral compass. Tobin's influence had a profound influence on me that I never fully appreciated until much later in life.

Throughout his short life I saw him speak in his encouraging way to other climbers he came across who were struggling at a crux or in some way needed some kind of spiritual uplifting. Though I never saw him preach he extolled the positive, for it was his way. He acted like every day was a teaching or a learning moment. And though he was a young man, he was mature beyond his years, but forever childlike in a playful way, a practical joker by nature, with deep spiritual convictions. He was quiet at times, but at other times was joyfully animated. He had a certain way with me as he did with so many others. It was the 'Tobin' effect.

It has been thirty five years tomorrow since Tobin left us. To celebrate how the 'Tobin' effect accelerated my own climbing experience, I put together a kind of poetic collage of some of my big wall experiences from 'Days of Yore.'

Tim Sorenson
10/04/2015


To Monoliths of Impermanent Inspiration


By two a.m. I finally sleep,

To starlight crisp the waking dream holds run-outs long on crack-less seams,
Opening my eyes to see,
That climbing's sharp reality has only traipsed the fringe of boyhood dreams,


The beep, beep, beep awakens me,

Puffing now I launch the pendulum again provoking ire,
Smears grind as the nut goes in,
Shred fingertips and bicep cramps less worrisome than the dreaded gyre,


Now pulling shoes on angry feet,

Making time we pause to bask as warmth resounds off looming parapets,
Another exposed bivouac,
Hastens our commitment to gain the sunlit ribbon of a silvery aręte,


The crisp cold wind announces,

A preface to our stuttered chills as dawn reveals a streaked and golden headwall,
So stately in its splendor,
Our exposure all the better as the bag hanging free becomes an easy haul,


With my thoughts on the descent,

I rarely remember those things so serendipitous at all,
As if the law of gravity,
Were somehow suspended when standing at the summit of a wall,


Somewhere later down below,

Awaits the histrionic telling 'round the fireside with friends a bold adventure,
But for now I'm focused,
As the crashing of the waters remind my every footfall to stay true and sure.

-bushman
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
Oct 4, 2015 - 02:48am PT
Tim, very cool text and pics. The Tobin effect is ringing out through all spaces and all times. Thank you for posting this.
Avery

climber
Oct 4, 2015 - 04:08am PT
Simply wonderful, Bushman.
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Oct 4, 2015 - 05:25am PT
I am always in awe - Tobins' brother?
Real for reals I tell my dead father,
Hey pops is this great and insane forty years on and I still know that kid in magazines name!
And his little brother and I share more than a love of fading glory -
we talk, cryptically but with so much hart!
Hey pops do you get it! Climbing and all that it had to offer was my MIT

Thank you for a early morning share, my wife is lonely, but this, is so more appealing
Than morning breath Sunday cuddles that end with kids dog, and little gnome with a hat,
all in bed together - a Sunday thing I'm lucky to get.

As the only one around who could manage to climb the 5.10 back in 73 I knew what I wanted,
and grabbed any one I could show how to belay (around the waist or a tree)
and would lap the 30 foot, Triple Over Hangs.
A few years latter Lynn Hill's1st husband told me he climbed it first .I went home from the Gunks and led it. - First.?

Tobin has always been an enigma, his conflicted race to the edge of oblivion left so many boys struggling to except the reality of the on coming man-hood we have now all embraced.
For me he has remained the highest example of pulling purity. His gaze has never left me. His image on Insomnia is what I see when I close my eyes and think
I am a climber I am a stone master I am a good person in gods eyes and I do what I should do
I climb because that's what Tobin would want me to do.. . . . The Tobin Effect.
MisterE

Gym climber
Being In Sierra Happy Of Place
Oct 4, 2015 - 06:53am PT
Beautiful writing, Bushman - thanks.
skcreidc

Social climber
SD, CA
Oct 4, 2015 - 06:59am PT
^^^^^Truly. A great read and thanks for posting it up!
Bldrjac

Ice climber
Boulder
Oct 4, 2015 - 09:31am PT
Tim,
Great memories! Amazing how time is when it involves someone you love. I'm sure it's hard to believe so many years have passed..........and yet, and yet, he's still with you...........
Glad you posted up.
Pam
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 4, 2015 - 10:54am PT
After Tobin' accident, mom kept in touch with Elizabeth through channels for several more years. 'Biza' was the nickname Tobin and his college friends had for her. We knew that she fell in love again and was married a few years after Tobin died, and that they had children.

Tragically, her husband died only a few years later. I'm sorry to say I don't know anything more about her life after that. Mom passed away in 2005, but my younger brother and sister did mentioned recently that Elizabeth still lives in the Southern California area.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Oct 4, 2015 - 02:12pm PT
your brother was enamored by that line, The Cobra, from his very first trip to the ditch.

I remember walking out to where we could see it, old green guidebook in hand.
murcy

Gym climber
sanfrancisco
Oct 4, 2015 - 05:38pm PT
Wow. Thank you.
Scylax

Trad climber
Idaho
Oct 4, 2015 - 06:59pm PT
As a relative noob to climbing I never heard of him until that recent? article in Alpinist. He sounds like he was a fine human being in addition to being a great climber.
The Chief

climber
Down the hill & across the Valley from......
Oct 4, 2015 - 08:53pm PT
Tim...

Your Brother is STILL an awesome influence to many of us "Old Timers" here. Climbing as with many other entities in life. His incredible mannerisms and spirit will never be forgotten. I feel so privi to have conversed a handful of different times with him. He was always willing to share insights and beta. I would have never gotten on and done Valhalla had it not been for Tobin's powerful inspiration and motivation.

Thank you for this tough yet powerful share.

Rick Poedtke
jstan

climber
Oct 4, 2015 - 09:46pm PT
Tobin's words via Wiki's footnote 5:

...it was climb, climb, climb, don't stop and don't look back. Climbing was my god,
and I looked to it for my meaning, my social life, my every need. I finally got to this point of
fame I had always wanted, but when I stood on this little mountain of mine, this summit of
fame and ability, I began to see the emptiness of it all..."
He went on to say:
“... to me climbing is one of the ultimate challenges in life, but by itself climbing can be very
meaningless..."


What is it that causes that feeling of emptiness deep inside a person's
consciousness even after attaining a goal they have dreamed of for years?




Achievement of a goal is either an end or the commitment to a new goal.

Both come from within.

Unnecessary losses are always painful.
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Oct 4, 2015 - 10:05pm PT
Thank you. After all these years of hearing about Tobin, this is the finest homage.

His legend lives strong in Arapiles, where I am heading tomorrow, and his routes are still test pieces.

Walt was obsessed with the Cobra for a while; it took some doing to recruit a partner for that feared Unknown, high up on the valley rim....
bhilden

Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
Oct 4, 2015 - 10:37pm PT
Thank you Tim for an insightful read.
BLUEBLOCR

Social climber
joshua tree
Oct 4, 2015 - 10:41pm PT
Wow Bushman that's some really great writing👏

The stories are good too, but they wouldn't be have as so without your remembrance 🙇

Thank You
Avery

climber
Oct 5, 2015 - 03:41am PT
Tobin Sorenson on the 1st ascent of "Ex Cathedra" (24/5.12a). Castle Rock, Christchurch, New Zealand. 1979.

overwatch

climber
Oct 5, 2015 - 07:24am PT
Thanks for the thread. Agreed with good writing
Jefe'

Boulder climber
Bishop
Oct 5, 2015 - 09:02am PT
Dibs, me and Richard Harrison used to pick Tobin up at, I think it was your Dad's cabin in Baldy, whenever Tobin was there to boulder at Baldy. The first time we went, I think 1973, it was hilarious to watch Tobin not able to get up anything off the deck. He was totally frustrated with bouldering, but could just blow through an 11 with sketchy pro. Anyway that day he found a small boulder down canyon on the left side of the bank, with a finger crack about 3' long, flashed that, and was so happy that he did something that day. He was so much fun to be around, always upbeat, laughing, grinning, just having fun.
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, California
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 5, 2015 - 12:53pm PT
Thank you to all for posting your warm memories of Tobin and for your thoughtful e-mails.

I am bumping an older Tobin Thread in the forum with a some more Tobin pics etc. and am posting the link here also.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1628602/Tobin-Sorenson
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