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marv
Mountain climber
Bay Area
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 15, 2009 - 01:00am PT
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I just read an old Rock & Ice issue and was completely blown away. Beside my interest in the face itself -- something like 6,500 feet of very technical alpine terrain -- I was struck by the list of climbers who have attempted it. Mike Bearzi stuck out and was familiar given the recent "first free climb of Cerro Torre" thread here. [Here are some other familiar names: Alex Lowe, Randy Rackliff, Bruce Miller, Jack Roberts.]
I can see why climbers would throw themselves at this face, would subject themselves to such severe objective hazard.
But I was mostly struck by the comment made by Roberts (I think), who said (paraphrase) that if NW Face were to fall, it would fall to someone at the very vanguard of light-and-fast alpinism, someone really committed to paring things down to the limit, then race full-bore to beat the clock. If you look at the evolution of alpine climbing, the next logical step might lie in the acceptance of risk heretofore considered unacceptable -- even unimaginable.
anyway. Just thought the story was really compelling. Wondering if anyone else has thought about it at all
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Nov 15, 2009 - 01:52am PT
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Supertopo's own Seneca spent three weeks in the area a lot of years ago. He told me the weather saved his life since he probably didn't have the chops to safely send.
Z
(Edited after reading about him in the AAJ article linked below.)
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TripL7
Trad climber
'dago
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Nov 15, 2009 - 03:15am PT
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marv!
Didn't David Stutzman and I believe Jack Tackle attempt NWF in 1975? Got to within 300-400 ft. of summit, and as Dave described it in his article in the AAJ were hit with a storm with 'Weather straight from hell"?
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Keeper of Australia Mt
Trad climber
Whitehorse, Yukon , Canada
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Nov 15, 2009 - 04:55am PT
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The next step in the evolution of alpine climbing might be in acceptance of unacceptable or unimagineable risk? Let us hope not for the sake of climbing and some families of climbers. That strikes me as the height of absurdity or rather stupidity! The only awards generated there will be Darwin Awards. A rather bizarre mutation into misplaced male machoism - really not much to do with climbing.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 15, 2009 - 06:03am PT
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"Extreme Dave" Stutzman and Bob Plumb climbed the North Pillar in 1977 (VI 5.9, 57 pitches, 4 days). Bob is still around - he's a fire marshall in Alaska. He or Dave wrote an article in Climbing January/February 1978. It is the rib on the left edge of the sunlit face in Scurlock's photo.
Dieter Klose made a good case in the 2003 AAJ that the NW face will never come into climbable condition. It has something to do with a conflict in conditions between the lower and upper part of the face - they are extremely unlikely to be in shape to climb at the same time.
Read all about it right here:
http://www.americanalpineclub.org/documents/pdf/aaj/2003/30_43_klose_aaj2003.pdf
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kinnikinik
Trad climber
B.C.
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Nov 15, 2009 - 11:16am PT
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Guy Edwards /John Millar RIP
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 15, 2009 - 11:19am PT
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Didn't Charlie Porter have a go at it some years back? Perhaps it should remain a 'virgin' face to remind us all of... something.
When I worked on fishing boats out of Petersburg in the summer of 1977, I use to look at the Thumb a lot, dreaming that I could do the face, but in the back of my mind knowing that I was not good enough. Toughest objective in North America? Perhaps the world. It certainly is up there on the list.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
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Nov 15, 2009 - 01:49pm PT
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I haven't been there, but it appears that the only time it might be a bit more stable is during a midwinter Arctic high. Cold, clear, stable weather. There would still be high risk of serac fall, and of rock fall and avalanche, but perhaps a bit less than usual. Whether getting to it and climbing on it at that time of year would be possible is another question, and it would undoubtedly be very cold and windy, and damn miserable.
Having lost two friends on it, and knowing others who've backed off it, it's clearly a place with extremely high and unavoidable objective dangers.
Edit: The Devil's Thumb is on the border between Canada (B.C.) and the U.S.A. (Alaska). It's northwest face is on the Alaska side. The location of the border is of considerable historical interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_boundary_dispute
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 15, 2009 - 01:53pm PT
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I believe that Perry Beckham (the chief not The Chief!) climbed a ridge route on the left margin of that side of the mountain.
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d-know
Trad climber
electric lady land
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Nov 15, 2009 - 02:45pm PT
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thanks for the
link clint!!!
Eventually,Steve and Damo felt comfortable enough to admit that they had found and cooked-up our potato peels and tea which we’d dumped in front ofour tents on the approach.We,on the other hand,didn’t feel comfortable telling them what we’d done to those dregs at night.
por brits, haha.
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Climbing dropout
Trad climber
Vancouver, BC
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Nov 15, 2009 - 04:19pm PT
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Guy Edwards was another friend of mine whom pushed himself too hard. Rest in peace Guy ...
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Keeper of Australia Mt
Trad climber
Whitehorse, Yukon , Canada
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Nov 16, 2009 - 07:36am PT
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Stich - The Devils Thumb is not the Eiger by any stretch of the imagination. In any case , if you are motivated to do it, go for it - we will reserve some space in Accidents in North American Climbing for your entry - whether the Darwin Awards will pick it up or not is up to that particular publisher. Depends what nuggets are buried in the accident report are I guess. I recommend that you solo it so some other poor dude doesn't join you in your fate.
Unfortunately, as the Miker Hiker notes two extremely talented and capable
Canadian climbers demonstrated the out of the ordinary nastiness of this little chunk of rock. A third fortunately exercised better judgement and avoided the same fate. There is no YOSAR or Denali Park Rescue team in this area to bail you out. Those guys are the real heroes in this game not dudes out looking to get a bit of climbing glory and a name in print.
All climbing involves risks - but being irresponsible and ignoring real and objective risks is pretty absurd. Fortunately we have lots of excellent and responsible mountaineers in North America as well as good mountaineering schools who are countering this nonsense.
But I will end on a positive note: it will be climbed one day - when climate change reduces the objective avalanche hazard, gravity takes care of thc choss, and tectonic uplift changes the inherent weather pattern affecting the locale - just might turn out to be Tahquitz Rock du Nord.
In the meantime we don't need any more fatherless/motherless families and unnecessary obituaries in climbing magazines.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 16, 2009 - 08:21am PT
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Keeper, you are wrong, I am leaving tomorrow to do that little face.
Actually, Jennie and I are going to do a 10-day Caribbean cruise (Explorer of the Seas, Royal Caribbean) from Dec 10-21 (Dublin-Heathrow-Newark-San Juan (where my father's father rode up San Juan Hill with Teddy) - St Thomas - Dominican Republic - Haiti - Newark - Heathrow- Dublin).
But after that, then that shitty little NW Face of the Thumb is going to fall (probably on me).
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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Nov 16, 2009 - 08:39am PT
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Wow I hadn't heard Dave Stutzman's name in a long time. I was in the Army with him when we were both stationed in Garmisch in the German Alps. He was on his way out and I was just getting settled. The man had an aura about him, similar to many of the best climbers I have known. Lots of fuzzy memories from good Bavarian beer and GI craziness. He died in an avalance at Bridger Bowl, skiing the cold smoke. RIP
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Keeper of Australia Mt
Trad climber
Whitehorse, Yukon , Canada
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Nov 17, 2009 - 12:38am PT
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Patrick Sawyer- you know how to hurt a guy (sitting buried in a few feet of snow and teetering on going into the -20s C ! - otherwise known as winter) Actually (and you probably know it) - one of those cruises is probably five levels of objective and gnarly risk above the Devil's Thumb! Make sure your shots are up to snuff, that they don't stray into any ice bergs, avoid the Red Sea offshore, ensure the ship doesn't have a captain from the same school as the skipper of the Exon Valdez, and
wear running shoes to avoid the foraging mobs of cougars! The list of risks is long but these few will suffice! But if you do get into trouble additional support mechanisms such as Canadian embassies are available. Any port in a storm so to speak.
You probably can get Trailer Park Boys on ship satellite TV - new episode potentially where Leahy gets seconded to Yosemite park warden service to assist recovery and apprehension of park riff raff who have stumbled across a crashed aircraft filled with weed. Ricky, Julian and Bubbles feel
that a repatriated Leahy bound in park resource managment glory might spell the death nell of their park and economic framework so they gear up, and head off in Ricky's
doorless sweet machine on a mission to Yosemite. Their plan is to sabotage Leahy's plans, by getting to Yosemite first and building a partnersip with Camp 4 operatives to export and launder the weed to needy boulderers in the Land of Confusion south of Halifax and to confuse Yosemite park police by setting up a Nova Scotia weed franchise in Camp 4 and
on top of Lost Arrow Spire.
The boys also want to get enough money for a cruise of their own and to help JRoc get out of the slammer. Their plan gets screwed up when Ricky's lack of Gr. 11 geography gets them hopelessly lost en route and they end up in Canmore, Alberta. They meet a couple of reprogrammed ice climbing babes who have discovered the holy book and who are moving to set up a new Baptist church in the Trailer Park Boys very own trailer park - taking missionary work and the missionary postion to a new level. After successive adventures in Eastend, Saskatchewan, Wawa, and Charlottetown they arrive back in Nova Scotia, older and not the wiser - only to find out that Leahy had set them up on a wild goose(weed) chase in order to buy time to try and orchestrate some trailer park re-zoning - attempting to neutralize the boys once and for all. The Trailer Park Boys prevail in a close run race. With a new appreciation of the economic benefits of the climbing sector they hatch a new plot to build a trailer park climbing gym as a facade for weed distribution in the greater Halifax area. The plots thicken episode by episode.
Enjoy your holiday.
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TripL7
Trad climber
'dago
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Nov 17, 2009 - 01:30am PT
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Clint!
Thanks for that info on Dave Stutzman. I came very close to joining Dave on his trip to the Devils Thumb during the summer of '75. I recall getting postcards daily from Dave postmarked Independence, Ca. With instructions of where to meet him(campground west of town). Most, were of old Washburn pics. of the NW face.
I had little knowledge of what I would have gotten myself into at the time. But if I could go back in time I would not hesitate one second. The postcards were hard to ignore. Eventually the cards stopped coming. Dave made the journey and I recall him telling me that he and his partner made it to within 400 ft(possibly meters) of the summit(NWF). And then were hit by a "storm straight out of hell"(AAJ). He later climbed Isis on Denali(FA).
I would have loved to have been there to experience it. Even after all I have read here. But then, I have no fear of death now(although I have more desire to live and experiance life then ever). I wish it were so then. I would not have done so if I had children, that would have been the only thing that would stop me.
can't say! Dave spoke of many of his adventures in the Bavarian Alps and Swiss Alps. Did you know Carl Van Horn?
Trip~
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 17, 2009 - 01:47am PT
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Cool, Trip. I didn't know Dave, but I knew Bob Plumb from a few Leavenworth climbing trips in high school (1975). I ran into Bob and Dave in the Bugaboos in 1981. They also did Slesse and some other things together - Bob posted some brief stuff on cascadeclimbers.com .
It would be cool to see that article from Climbing 1978 again; my stack of mags doesn't go back that far.
I also once met Timothy (Nichols) Rouner, who died on a 1977 attempt on Devil's Thumb NW Face (R side) with his older brother Rainsford and Peter Cole. I knew Rainsford from college, and that was of course very tragic for their family. Klose's article says he was hit by rockfall, but Rainsford said he was following behind in their kicked steps, when a step broke out and he went over a big cliff.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 17, 2009 - 03:43am PT
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Hey Keeper, they even have a climbing wall on this ship, so I will be pulling plastic on the high seas.
But seriously, my two main objectives next year are Ben Nevis this winter and Mt Blanc next summer.
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