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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 4, 2009 - 03:41pm PT
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This is my recollection of the events. They are admittedly a little foggy. But hey, humor me they are from almost 30 years ago. I would love to hear other accounts from anyone that may have been present. As my story unfolds you will see that S.Burke and C.Cantwell were principal characters in my recollection, however I would love to learn /(be reminded) as to who else was involved and what they remember of the fiasco ?
I write/post it for a few reasons:
1. just to tell an entertaining story
(I have a couple more for later)
2. I would like to hear other's stories re:
the interactions of climbers and jumpers over the years
~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere around 1980
Opening scene:
The squalor of Camp-4 at the height of the fall season.
At this time B.A.S.E jumping from the Captain is legal with Park Service issued permits.
~~~~~~~~~
Word is out, the buzz is proliferating...
There are a dozen or so BASE jumpers, they have Park Service permits and are more than happy to dialog with Camp-4 rats regarding sherpa services of gear to and from the top of ElCap. Not one to miss out on potential income and a serious bout of inebriation at the expense of some rich jumpers, I joined the mayhem.
It all started innocently enough. It all seemed pretty legitimate. A dozen jumpers looking for sherpa and promising extra coin and party materials for such services as rapping off the top and blazing off a roll of celluloid with a jumper's motor driven camera (remember this is early 80's)...
Negotiations and deliberations complete the plans were laid. The Jumpers had a large flat bed truck and upon hearing that there was a back road from Crane Flat going out almost to the top of the Captain they decided that was the ticket to alleviating some of the suffering involved in a heavily burdened hike up from the Valley floor.
~~~~~~~~
Scene(2) of the crime:
Arriving at the road head we discovered that the Park Service had put a road block of large ballast rock/boulders across the road just a few hundred yards in from the Tioga road. There was a fair amount of discussion between the climbers and jumpers at this point.
The jumpers wanted to get around the road block and reduce the hiking to a minimum. The climbers on the other hand argued that the hike was easy, mostly level or even down hill at times and only about 6 or so miles to the top of the Captain. The deliberations were grinding to a impasse between the two interest groups.
All of a sudden out of the clear blue, the driver of the flat bed truck goes all spastic shouting stuff like "Screw this, I can get around that road block" He could not!
The driver frantically jumps behind the wheel and like a madman with his arse on fire attempts to race at the road block from 50 yards or so away. Apparently he felt if he had enough speed he could do a sort of 'off the lip' off the dirt burm on the right/south side of the road block. He could not!
He was so wild in his execution that he almost ran a couple people over. He did not even come close to his objective. Instead he winds up getting half way and high centers the dual rear end of the truck on one of the boulders. In so doing completely shreds one of the rear tires.
He continues to gun the motor, dump the clutch and make repeated, frantic efforts to (unsuccessfully) free the vehicle. He could not!
He did manage to scare the shiite out of most everybody present. His nature was down right maniacal. It took the yelling of half the jumpers and a couple climbers to get him to see the folly of his attempt and turn off the vehicle and settle down a little.
~~~~~~~~~
Scene(3) enter the Law Man !
Within minutes, in an almost mystical manner, a Park Ranger (non LEO) appears out of nowhere and with one look at the scene jumps on his radio. Within a few more minutes there is LEO swarming like mozzies in the meadows on a cool spring evening.
The LEO officers are totally miffed and mystified as to what is going on and while trying to unravel relevant facts from half a dozen amp'd out, highly verbal jumpers and a couple of (much calmer) climber/sherpa... completely loose their patience! Before yah know it, LEO has the driver and another jumper in cuffs and are carting them off too the magistrate.
~~~~~~~~
Scene(3) fake names and fictitious facts:
Once the spastic driver and his jumper cohort had been shuffled off and away from the scene the whole drama began to take on a more relaxed and civilized tone.
A couple of the LEO's now have out note pads are taking names, rank and serial numbers. One started making the rounds through the remaining jumpers and one handled the scurvy sherpa crew. It was a tense moment to say the least.
As I recall one of the first to give his information across was Mr. Cantwell, who did so willingly and almost voluntarily. As the next few minutes unfolded I realized why. Chris was taking control of the situation. Before it swayed towards reality he guided it towards the absurd.
Chris initiated a conspiracy ;) When asked his name and address he responded with something too the effect of "Name: Eric Clapton, Address: 461 Ocean Blvd, blah blah township". Unbelievably the ranger wrote this down and moved onto the next climber and on down the line. I may have been about the 5th or 6th person who's name he took, I was probably someone like... Miles Davis.
The dust settled and the rangers allowed us to repack the flatbed and drive it back down to the Valley. It was a spooky ride. A flat bed with a shiite tonne of gear and bodies. With the thought of only one remaining passenger side, rear/dual tire under us, the left hand turns near the tunnel and Reed's were quite engaging.
~~~~~~~~
Scene(4) Back in the Valley for final negotiations:
Once were all back in the Lodge parking lot there began a final negotiation. The jumpers felt that they should not need to pay the sherpa. The climbers of course were irate. Mr. Cantwell once again took to the fore and presented a very valuable argument. He contended that
1. we still lost a precious day of climbing and should be compensated at least half of the agreed fee for what was to be a two day excursion.
2. More importantly he (Mr. Cantwell) argued that we as dedicated, pirate camping, climbers looking to get the most road time out of the fall season had been highly jeopardized by the jumper's silly, immature, antics and attitudes. Not only had this ridiculous behavior landed two of their group in the pokey but left all us climbers with the veritable curse of death, a fresh entry of our (albeit fictitious) names in the Park Service LEO data base.
About this time a young Mr. Burke makes a whispered comment to me regarding our compensation. Turned out Scott had one of the jump rigs in his pack and was firmly of the belief that if these idiots didn't pay up then he would either use it as a further bargaining chip or just plain sell it and split the money amongst the climbers. When he gave me a brief glimpse of the rig I got quite nervous, We all know how extreme sport people can be about their personal gear.
The negotiations worked out fairly well. We did not realize the full expectation, yet we did get a lump sum of cash, a couple bottles of liquor and large block of blond Lebanese out of the deal.
Feeling satisfied the climbers began to shuffle off towards Camp-4 and Mr. Burke relinquished the clandestine cargo of his rucksack and that's when...
~~~~~~~~
Scene(5) Ignite the shiite storm:
Negotiations complete, Mr. Burke pronounced "OK well I guess since it is all resolved you guys should have this back..." and proceeds to produce the rig from his pack.
Upon seeing the jump rig one of and perhaps the largest jumper dudes goes instantaneously ballistic, blurting out "OMG that's Joe's rig the kid has" and bum rushes Burke. In seconds a couple of the larger and older climbers jump to Scott's aid. The big Jumper dude had Burke by the neck but quickly let go when this dude (A huge blonde Britt) says he is going to kill the jumper if he does not unhand the young climber lad. The details of the ensuing rumble are foggy this many years later, however I can say it was a very tense and volatile moment. The older climbers settled the Jumpers anger with comments like "He is just a kid and half your weight, yah want a piece of a climber then leave the kid alone and let's you and me slam dance... but there is no reason for any violence... it's all a done deal... let's all just go home and be glad we are not the ones in the jail house tonight"
(bear in mind, at this time S.Burke was about 16 or 17 yrs old and probably weighed in at around 145 lbs wet).
Was I scared? No not really. I was behind the front lines and fully prepared to expedite my exit plan through the trees if need be. Was I anxious? Ohhhh feck yeah I was, I thought Scotty was going to get decapitated, judging by the anger of the jumper that had him, if even momentarily in his grip. I thought there was most likely going to be a very bloody and violent stand off between the two factions. Gladly it never happened!
~~~~~~~~
Closing Scene(6) the splitting of the take:
The compensation was all in lump sums/quantities and hard to divide. So it was decided that everyone would go back to Camp-4 and have something to eat, relax and meet back in the C-4 parking lot at a given hour later that evening.
The money when split came to about 1/2 of what we had expected and when divy'd up was something like $86.27 a piece, or some such random kind of number. It was decided that the booze and hash was to hard to divide equitably so on unanimous vote the dozen or so of us opted to just consume it all right there in our tribal circle in the middle of the parking lot.
The bottles and pipes found there way round until there was nothing left. By now it was well past midnight we were all half trashed and relaxed. With chuckles and verbal jabs at the non present B.A.S.E jumpers we all shuffled off to our pads and bags.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Got an early El Cap B.A.S.E jump/er - climber sherpa story?
I'd love to hear it ;)
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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I remember this stuff.... or the next one..... where the tools were tipped off (allegedly) by climbers helping ferry loads or somesuch.... then the rousting in the 4 Seasons and a dine and dash and all the rest of the foggy entrails.
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handsome B
Gym climber
SL,UT
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great story, thanks for sharing!
this was a huge turning point in the BASE world and it is super-cool to hear the other side of the story
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Thanks for sharing the story!
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Redwreck
Social climber
Echo Parque, Los Angeles, CA
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This is way more fun than those history classes I had to take in school.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Good story.
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Slabby D
Trad climber
B'ham WA
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"this was a huge turning point in the BASE world and it is super-cool to hear the other side of the story "
Whats the story from the other side?
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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seems weird that BASE and Climbers wouldn't get along infamously.
They're pretty jacked up fun meter types.
NTTIATWI BASE or winged pursuits...
Some of my friends are BASE or have Wings of some sort.
Doesn't mean I don't bash their characters on the boards for playing with nylon bed sheets in the wind. Ya gotta have a hobby ya know.
;)
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Shouldah
climber
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i'm also interested in hearing the story from the jumper's perspective
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Cpt0bvi0u5
Trad climber
Merced CA
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this was a fantastic story! thanks for the post mate
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Very Nice REad!
Thanks for breaking up the story as you did, captivating!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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I read this while having my morning coffee. What a fun way to wake up and start the day!
Reading the linked page on the history of base jumping in the Valley was a sobering experience however. It's good to know there's another sport out there that makes climbing and climberslook responsible in comparison.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there trundle bum... say, thanks for the very great share here and the nicely done way you handled it...
sure would be interesting to see all the "players" stand up and take a bow, here, as to the show displayed, after all these years...
i could near see it's encore as i read it...
well done share, once, again...
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Speaking of BASE jumping, whatever happened to Bret Mauer, I climbed with him and Chuck Blackwell BITD. Bret's first BASE/parachute jump ever was off El Cap with Randy I believe.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2009 - 05:21pm PT
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Cool, glad I posted.
I never realized that I was witness to such a historical/hysterical early BASE event.
"The Flat Bed 10" whoa, I knew I oft ran with a shady crowd, but man that sounds like something right out of a gangstah movie.
That 'terragalleria' link is great thankz ;)
I must say though, what's up with:
R.G.B #C0C0C0 font and a #404040 background color WTF?
I copied it off to a text edit app to read it comfortably.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Bret's first BASE/parachute jump ever was off El Cap with Randy I believe. "
Man I would love to hear more about this one!
"Randy..." Who Randy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recall hearing a story about a team that BITD climbed a route (Perhaps west side, Salathe?)...
and one guy managed to keep a rig concealed in the bottom of the haul bag (don't ask me how) and upon topping out, much to the freakdom of the partner, just grabbed the rig and bailed.
I'd be pissed having to hump all the gear LOL ;)
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Great stuff! I look forward to more...
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Randy as in Randy Leavitt, spelling? I was working at Sport Chalet in LaCanada in the mid 80's and one of the other employees was good friends with Bret Mauer, we used to boulder out at Stoney and climb at Joshua Tree together. I remember Bret telling me he jumped off El Cap after climbing one of the routes. I dont know much more than that other than he had never BASEed or parachuted before. Dont know what Bret is up to know but he was a pretty go for it kind of climber BITD.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2009 - 06:27pm PT
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Batrock:
I remember Bret telling me he jumped off El Cap after climbing one of the routes. I dont know much more than that other than he had never BASEed or parachuted before. Dont know what Bret is up to know but he was a pretty go for it kind of climber BITD.
Doubt anybody would have a dispute. Yoahzah^that :0
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2009 - 06:28pm PT
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So here is yet another story.
Again many of you have 'been there/done that' but I would love to incite/hear other people's accounts. As has been said here by many a climber, I wish we could get some jumper's accounts of the 'Flat Bed 10' and other similar events.
Calling all BASE heads from BITD ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok so set the stage:
Early 80's, 'Ring tailed cat' and I decide to have a go at the Nose.
After the usual rap back to the deck from Sickle and try again tomorrow due to traffic scenario we manage a launch with no traffic up ahead. The plan as to do the Nose in a day but realizing that was not entirely realistic we take sweaters and beanies along.
By afternoon we are at the top of Boot and I get the swing shift. Once Mark followed the swing he says that everything considered why don't I just blast the next couple leads. It was getting late and we wanted to make Camp-4 by dark. So off I went, lay backing up some shallow corners when I got to a little roof and the climbing above looked significantly harder. So I bust out the slings.
I had yarded off a couple fixed wireds and was fiddling one in the race with dusk towards Camp-4. 'Free as Can Be' not now this was full on 'Fast as Can Be' now. Even though there was a certain time urgency in securing a ledge to bivy for the night there was this beautiful serenity. It was quiet, cars passing in the meadow were beginning to have head lights on. You couldn't help but take the occasional glance around/up/down and just go "Holy shiizah, I am on the Cap and things are going well" ;)
Enter the mad men/women:
You know that scene where Nicholson, with a fire axe, blows through the door, and says "Here's Johnny"? Well when I hear the initial flutter of rock fall making it's way towards terra firma... Ok you get the picture! Here I am standing in slings covering my head with my arms but looking out like a child in a'peek a boo' game. The noise came fast and furious. It was a very large object by the sound of it. I remember thinking "WTF? big rock fall off the top of the Nose, Must be a booted bag... what moron would boot a bag off the top of the Nose?". When this thing sails past me, about 20 yards to my left...
It was a body!
Oh the horror:
My stomach wrenched and I thought I was going to instantly hurl projectile. But as fast as my horror engulfed it ebbed into a completely dumbfounded realization this was a guy in a jump suit. This guy must have started to open over me with just the right distance that he had a fully enveloped canopy just below me and about level with my partner on belay. The thing happened so fast, I was literally in shock for a moment. The jumper settled into the second leg of his journey down the Nose and began a gentle left turn off towards the N.A.
In just seconds things went from 'Yard, yard, get to Camp-4, cool I am on the Cap..." to a completely pragmatic posturing for incoming rock fall, to the horror of a body passing at terminal, better than a thou' off the deck, to "OMG this guy...WTF? Alive?, Jumper whew...." to a total silence broken only by the jumpers rigging as it sailed on it's way.
Seconds later the silence was broken again. "You God damn, Fricken, son of a bitch... Feck you man..." My partner who was almost level with the guy started to totally rag him out saying how damn shocking that was. The jumper was a character, as soon as Mark 'took a breath' from his cutting monologue, the jumper said something back like "Feck you climbers, get a real sport!". To this Mark retorted: "Feck you, if you were really hard you'd climb the thing then jump off!" They both started to laugh and as the distance between them grew I managed to blurt out an almost stuttered "Fu-uh-uh ahhhk you man, you just scared the shiite out of me" followed by an anxiety easing bellow of laughter that had a tone of "you morons are nutz... that was so frigg'n cool!".
With no attention to our own progress upward, we watched his full descent into the meadow and saw him run off into the trees.
Time to regroup:
Ok Back to work! I had turned my attention back to the climb and was beginning to frenchy up onto yet another half mank, fixed wired when all of a sudden my partner starts yelling, really 'screaming bloody murder' he was. "OH shiite, Oh Feck, OOooooh Ho' Man, OOooooh Ho' Man, Ho' man, Fu-uck those A-holes..."
This is not the sort of thing you want to hear from your belayer when you just sustained an 'I'm gunna die/live/die, I'm alive' adrenaline rush.
Out of the fry pan:
"What? WTF?, Am I OK? You got me on? Stop Yelling man, Am I on?"
Mark answered back "Ho man, your on, no worries I got you M8". "Then What-a-ell you going on about?" I ask and he starts again. "Oh crap, those bastards, I see them up there..." This sh#t was like right out of Predator where the black dude sees the Predator for the first time in the trees. "Who? What are you talking about? Up where?" I ask. "Up top, look up top, you can see some of those bastards looking over the edge, there's more, I swear more are going to jump... Oooooh that shiite is soooo jingus, I can watch from the meadow but to have them fly past you..... arrrgh, pricks" and lets out a huge bellow of laughter.
I daisy my piece and start looking at the rim of the Cap. Ohhhh shiite, he's right. These little ant size things keep popping their heads over the edge into view. They are like cockroaches or watching porpoises swim by in a pod, you can't get a proper count but you know there are more numbers than meets the eye.
Surealistic pilage:
Like watching some awesome, high def', futuristic, animation, two ant people bail and in seconds go from almost microscopic to discernable human bodies in free fall. As they are racing towards us a couple more bail and then a few more. There were perhaps seven or so subsequent jumpers. They began opening up all around us. Some above but most at or lower. One dude really pushed it. He did not deploy and have an envelope untill just below ElCap Tower.
Almost getting acustomed:
For the fun of it we verbally harassed them as they established themselves in their slower descent mode. A few returned the verbal abuse with a volley of their own until one jumper yelled in an incredibly projecting voice "Every body QUIET DOWN!". No body, not us or any of the jumpers said another word and it went dead quiet as the jumpers made their final approach and touch down in the meadow. We kept an eye on them as they made a 'special ops' style exit. As the last couple hit the deck the earlier arrivals helped gather canopies. as soon as the group was just about 'road ready' a pick up roared along the south side of the meadow and screeched to a halt. It was not but seconds before the group, including the first jumper who had been hiding in the tree line, were in the back of the pick up and gone.
My partner and I made a gentleman's bet on how long before the LEO would be trolling the meadows looking for clues or better, a bust. It was not long, but long enough... because the jumpers were long gone.
Not many jokes to pass time:
So we reached a vacant Camp-4 and settled down for the eve. I don't know how but I managed to hosey the rucksack for a bivy bag. I don't think we told to many stupid jokes that night. Instead it was this intermittent, mumbling from two of us. Although we responded to each other it was more akin with two separate monologues. It sounded something like:
"Crazy fooks... I mean WTF?"
(a few minutes later)
"What wing nuts, why jump off a perfectly operating wall?"
(a few minutes later)
"Scared the piss out'a me they did... that looked so rad!"
(a few minutes later)
"Might be kind'a cool to try, ...but Ho Man I dunnoh..."
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Killer story...Thanks!!!
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ghostfromthepast
Social climber
oakhurst ca
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it happened just like that :)
This was just before the final push for hall of mirrors, financed in small part by the "flatbed 10".
I love the story, never knew it was so significant in the Base jumping world. I wouldn't want to spoil it with my more humble recollections who knows what exactly happened that long ago.
Thanks, Chris
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Excellent History account, Thanks. Jumpers that want to fight climbers....Knott real smart...Climbers are about the last people to get into a brawl with.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 9, 2009 - 04:53pm PT
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'Eh Chris:
Thank you for taking the time to pop in and comment.
It crossed my mind that I should send you a copy first and get your OK before posting. I was apprehensive about mentioning you and Scott directly and that perhaps my memory of the events may have distorted somewhat over the decades.
it happened just like that :)
Your comment:
This was just before the final push for hall of mirrors...
Brought an instantaneous memory flash. You sitting on the tail gate of your (Dodge?) pick up with the home grown, wooden camper shell in the Apron parking lot. I came out of the trees one day to the sight/smell of you and Burke, on the tail gate macking on a 'Rotisserie chicken' from the general store. I recall being so hungry walking to the Curry shuttle stop and thinking. "Wow, now there is a rich, established, California climber. He has a pick up with camper, loaded with gear, man did you see that dude even had his own 12 volt, bit sharpening jig, that rocks. I wouldn't mind being able to mack on greasy chicken, cold beer and spud salad, right there on my tail gate at the base of the crag I am putting up routes on!"
Ahh the Daze, penny poor but culturally wealthy ;)
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
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My friend Simon - from Vancouver, in around 1980 - rescued a base jumper who got hung up somewhere on Dolt or El Cap Tower. Jumped, and I guess got too close in and got hung up. Anyway, they went up - at night, maybe - and got the guy down.
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Robb
Social climber
The Greeley Triangle
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Nov 26, 2009 - 12:32pm PT
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We were on Zodiac in October of 1980. It was at night during a full moon when several base jumpers did their thing off of the nose.We start to hear what sounds like the biggest air-ripping rock fall imaginable and are sucking into the wall for all we're worth when suddenly POP, and there's a chute floating off the nose!Pretty trippy to say the least.Soon, if I remember right there's two more. One of them somehow drifts back into the wall and gets stuck on some ledge.Shortly thereafter, there's a ton of yelling and commotion going on as some climbers went up and rescued the guy.The things you see in the ditch......
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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As I heard it, the stranded jumper was on Lay Lady Ledge, which is on the New Dawn,
not far below the El Cap Tower bivvy on the Nose.
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j-tree
Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
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I'd hope the stranded jumper came at the ledge head on. I'd hate to think of hitting the wall above the back of the ledge and coming down on those boulders.
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Flip Flop
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Great story. I sure would like to see Scott again sometime.
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