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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 20, 2010 - 06:29pm PT
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In the 50s and 60s it was "mandatory" to sign-out for climbs in the Valley.
Supposedly the Park Service had a list from various climbing organizations in the country of qualified leaders and they would use this as a check list. Technically one of these so called qualified leaders had to be on every climb. Well, the rules were pretty lax and rarely was there a problem if an official QL was not on the sign-out. Then again there were the occasional jerk Rangers and that was a hassle.
Then again climbers, by nature, hate rules and regulations so there were problems here. I'm sure just about everyone from that era has a tale or two to share. In reality, if the climb was a difficult one the climbers on the route may be the only ones with the expertise to perform the rescue! SAR was years in the future and the Park Service had zero capability to perform any level of rescue. Camp 4 was their only resource for assistance and this is where the Park Service inevitably headed for help.
Of course we all had fun with the system and one of the favorite was the use of phony names. I think it was Calderwood that use to sign out as Dee Pravity. When did the regulations begin and when was their demise? I don't know but again perhaps someone can enlighten us. How rigid was the enforcement? I do remember being scolded on occasion for not signing out or signing back in several days later. The letter from BBA, Bitchen Bill Amborn, provides an insight into some to the hassles and the mood of the times.
This is probably the 3rd ascent of the route as I believe Roper and Hempel had climbed it in early January. Funny we didn't put a year date on this.
Sentinel was in full winter mode and after 300 ft of solid ice we bailed.
Shame on you Beck and BBA, no wonder climbers had such a bad name
cheers
Guido
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jan 20, 2010 - 06:43pm PT
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Jeezus, Guido, I had forgotten that we had to do that, but then I forget a lot lately - like where Derryberry left his car.
Come to think of it, I'm sorta glad I did forget where the car was - it led me to my dear firends in Upper Pines.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jan 20, 2010 - 06:49pm PT
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Brother Guido,
Do you seriously have this stuff stored on that sailboat?
It's amazing that some of you guys still have these awesome old letters.
I have some great letters from my folks over the years, but have generally gotten rid of all climber letters. Wish I had some of them now.....
There he is again, THE MAN, trying to keep those nasty climbers in check.
Never seems to work out for them, then or now!!
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Jan 20, 2010 - 06:52pm PT
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I remember the incident on the Swedlund route. When I got down Wayne Merry explained that the main purpose of signing out was to be able to do a quick check when they got a report of "people stranded on a ledge".
Besides Don Pravity, another popular pseudonym was Vic Tishous.
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Jan 20, 2010 - 06:58pm PT
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I remember bailing on a winter ascent of the Column for various reasons one of which being the daytime high of 18F. We rapped and rapped and got our rope stuck and rapped some more. We were so disgusted at having failed and also having to walk out in the dark with the haul bag that we forgot to sign out and just drove home.
Luckily, because we bailed we weren't yet overdue and just called up the rangers the next morning and told them we were off the route.
Bruce
ps- great stuff Guido!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jan 20, 2010 - 07:04pm PT
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Oh yeah, I forgot to note:
Roper, 21
Guido, a tender 18
Kor, 24
Guido, a tender 18!!
Man that is too awesome.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Jan 20, 2010 - 07:10pm PT
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very nice
pitons, check!
rope, check!
love the letter: 'I do not recommend janitorial work. It's the shits'
LOL!!!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 20, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
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Actually I was 15 on the Ahwahnee and 17 on Sentinel. I always lied about my age because at one time they wanted a letter from my mom before they would let me check out. FR, aka Fuc#ing Rangers!
Then again, you can see Kor was "Not Qualified" so I probably added a year to beef up the team!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jan 20, 2010 - 07:40pm PT
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Guido,
What did your folks think of this nonsense?
Or did they basically have no clue?
I was 15 when I started, but it didn't take my folks long to figure out that we were doing some seriously crazy sh*t!
Kor, not qualified.
Guido "beefing" up the team by lying about his age.
Priceless.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2010 - 01:50am PT
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Survival
My parents were pretty cool about this-there only reservation was about this "Roper" guy and what kind of influence he may have on my upbringing. Well their concern was justified.
If I hadn't met Roper and Steck and all those characters, I would probably be sitting in total comfort in some semi-retirement home in the East Bay, playing checkers and bingo with the rest of the sane lot and not hanging out on some crazy sailboat in the outback of New Zealand. They use to say hindsight was free but alas it is not. There are lots of scars associated with it. LOL dude.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jan 21, 2010 - 09:33am PT
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I like how on the Roper sign out, ropes and pitons are checked, but proper clothes and shoes is not!
Notice it says flashlight...pre-headlamp days (PHD)
I also like the auto part being "none".
How was the weather on 20 Jan?? You topped out at 2:40 and were back down N. Dome Gully at 4:20? Nice work...before dark.
On the Sentinel one it just says N. Wall. Was that the Steck Salathe? It looks like you bivied?
Comments, it says ice! where was that?
Kor must have been pretty intense at 24.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jan 21, 2010 - 01:12pm PT
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It's true, signing in was kind of a quasi-requirement. You would go to the Ranger headquarters there in that old stone building still standing off the giant parking lot (now replanted) not far from the current tourist center and museum. There usually was one ranger in there and hardly anyone else. It was near the historic, beautiful Ranger's Club (c. 1924, and a gift from S.T. Mather, the first NPS director), the first structure established in this north-Valley area as part of the visitors and government center. Other buildings in this National Park Service "Rustic Style" were subsequently erected, forming the center that has continued to grow since. By the fifties, this area was all about cars, pavement, and tourists while by the mid-seventies, a return to native plants and far less asphalt began. The Rustic Style lasted as a NPS "standard" through WWII. I tried to find elevations of the Center but can only find the Rangers club. Here is a great link also: www.nps.gov/.../ harrison/harrison12.htm
Tourists were so unfamiliar with climbing that there actually were erroneous rescue alarms as Wayne Merry commented. Tourists had some really strange conceptions, you see. And the NPS had no rescue personnel, equipment, training nor equipment.....so I guess they were kind of in a really odd spot: they were the authorities in charge of the greatest concentration of rock climbing in the world (perhaps) but had no ability or knowledge how to accommodate climbing in any way. Imagine if signing in was a clear requirement today what chaos would develop every morning and later on in the day.
Here is another building in that area, same motif:
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2010 - 04:03pm PT
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Survival
The Jan weather on the Ahwahnee was a classic example of a good winter day in the sun. Warm, but not hot. Roper was a fast climber in those days and I tended to climb faster than normal to keep up with his pace.
Sentinel was another story. It was very cold and lots of ice in the cracks and on the approach which was difficult in itself. That would have been the Steck-Salathe. No bivy, we bailed after 300 ft. Kor was intense in a Kor type of way. More restless than anything else. As long as he kept the Oli and Lena jokes flowing you knew things were ok. Why the next day on the sign- in, I have no idea?
I have a number of slides from that excursion that Haan has reworked to make legible. Here is a shot of Kor on the approach.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Jan 21, 2010 - 04:27pm PT
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Joe,
Very cool stuff. Was that Corky that signed you out or was that after she had left? I met her last year and she had some interesting stories.
Ken
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2010 - 05:05pm PT
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Ken
Sorry, really don't know who it was?
Later on, when Wally Reed was a Ranger it was good old Wally that would sign us out on rare occasions. Wally was forever working on his Phd. in Botany and I think he was hired as a seasonal Naturalist. There were a lot of crossovers in jobs with the Park Service in that era.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jan 21, 2010 - 05:08pm PT
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Thanks Guido for the filler.
January = sunny
April = ice
Got it! Ha. Actually I've had lots of similar events myself, but now that I think of it, I don't know if I've ever climbed in Yo in January....
Ken, stories??? Guido stories?
Let's have 'em!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jan 21, 2010 - 05:33pm PT
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Thanks, Guido. I didn't start climbing in the Valley until 1969, and by then the sign-out system was different, but still in place. I actually found it useful. They had cards, each of which was supposed to be approved by a Ranger (Gary Hemming's was approved by "Roger Ranger." I remember reading it.)
Anyway, they'd put your card on a board containing a map of the Valley, so you could see before you left the Ranger station whether anyone else was in the area. We tried to pick cliffs where no one was around, leading to such obscure routes as the Glacier Point East Face, Penny-Nickel Arete and Panorama Cliff.
John
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Jan 21, 2010 - 05:36pm PT
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Fantastic stuff. Thanks for posting.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jan 21, 2010 - 05:39pm PT
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Guido--IN F'ing CREDIBLE!!!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!!!!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jan 21, 2010 - 05:48pm PT
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Re-reading this reminded me of the concept of a "qualified leader." When I was at Berkeley, two of the great gems in the U.C. Hiking Club office in the basement of Eschelman Hall were Chuck Pratt's and Mike Loughman's applications to become qualified leaders. Pratt's was a bit short on experience, but I rather suspect that the powers that be had no problem certifying him anyway.
One of the requirements of being a Q. L. was leading a new, multi-pitch route with a rappel descent. Mike's was the Southern Buttress of Liberty Cap, a route that has probably been done only a handful of times since.
Do any contemporary Cal students know if these are still around?
John
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Jan 21, 2010 - 06:00pm PT
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I'm definitely not a contemporary at the Cal Hiking Club, but I did meet one a few years ago on Mt. Clarence King. He said the Cal hiking club had been renamed. It is now the California Hiking and Outdoor Society, or CHAOS.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 21, 2010 - 06:04pm PT
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Very cool!
Even if the rangers no longer have an offical sign-out system, still a good idea to let reliable friends know what you're up to, especially when an adventure seems more likely due to season, length or difficulty of the route. Or just post an ongoing TR while you're up there, using your IPhone, or perhaps observant friends a la Steve S' recent El Cap ascent.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Jan 21, 2010 - 07:47pm PT
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Royal Robbins, Don Wilson, Jerry Gallwas and Warren Harding simulating a climber sign out with a ranger. This photo was taken for a newspaper article in 1955 after their first attempt on the Northwest Face of Half Dome.
Corky worked at the Ahwahnee in the 1950's and knew most of the climbers. When the sign up program was conceived, NPS asked Corky to be the main climbing sign out ranger. I believe she did this from 1951 - 1956.
Corky doing the Tyrolean Traverse on Kat Pinnacle.
Corky hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Ken
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Jan 21, 2010 - 08:12pm PT
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nice pics Chicken Skinner!
is that a chicken poster?
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Dusty Rose
climber
Santa Cruz, Ca
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Jan 22, 2010 - 09:00pm PT
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WOW!
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Apr 22, 2010 - 10:31pm PT
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Was Corky named Matthews? I ran into Corky Matthews in the Starr Kign register. Amborn
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Swifter
Social climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Jan 29, 2011 - 02:29pm PT
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From L-R: Ike (he puts a date stamp on this photo), Ranger Murray, Corky,?, Irvin. The photo was taken in anticipation of a magazine article. In the late 1940s the likes of Dave Brower, Dick Leonard, Jules Eichhorn, etc. kept a watchful eye on the "new men" at Cragmont, Pinnacle, Indian, etc. Since they considered the QL list and sign-out to be a good idea (along with anchors for the belayer, belays on rappels, etc. my cohorts had no objection to the system.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 29, 2011 - 03:18pm PT
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Great thread! I am so happy it has new life, since I was off to Outdoor Retailer Show when it happened last year: and missed it.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 29, 2011 - 04:21pm PT
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Swifter-Bob can you identify the four people with the chicken poster and vast gallons of wine?
Harding on the left? etc
You must have a wealth of photos to share.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 29, 2011 - 04:47pm PT
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Welcome aboard Bob!
Some recollections from the Yosemite Point Buttress FA would be marvelous if you would indulge us!
What a great thread!
Kind of hard to get into that older RCS/NPS club mentality with its thoroughly regimented approach.
It didn't take long before RCS switched to BRC (Bachelor Rock Climbers) down south at Tahquitz at the start of the 60's.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Jan 29, 2011 - 05:17pm PT
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Beyond a freakin' doubt this thread is a kick butt piece of history!
TFPU!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 29, 2011 - 06:16pm PT
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The YPB route description from BBA's red Roper guide.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 29, 2011 - 09:29pm PT
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I can't remember which climb we were doing,
but I recall Pratt had me up and ready to go pretty early, and
without saying a thing, as he was often very quiet, we wandered
(I followed along like a puppy dog), and we went
in and signed out to climb. I had never done this and did not
know we were supposed to, and never did I do it even once again.
But Pratt must have been trying to do what was right, avoid
trouble, etc. It all seemed so formal, and it seemed out
of character for Chuck, but it legitimized the day,
so much so I completely forgot what we climbed at that moment
in time...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 29, 2011 - 09:36pm PT
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Man, I can't believe you wouldn't remember the YPB - the approach through
manzanita hell and the chossiest climb in the Valley.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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who are you talking to? Or just being facetious? I never
did YPB
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Mar 10, 2018 - 06:17am PT
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Bump for some vintage Guido.
I signed out one time for Washington Column in Easter week of '70 with Mathis and some guy named Mandatory.
We never got on the route because we got bombed by rockfall as we got to the base and never came back. I think we adjourned back to camp to get clean shorts.
But we never bothered to sign back in and never heard a word from Smokey, even though we were there a few days more.
Never saw that Mandatory guy ever since. No one knows him, either, that I've talked with. But I've seen his name in Roper's Green.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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Mar 10, 2018 - 09:01am PT
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A truly awesome thread, Guido!
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