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ec
climber
ca
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Feb 11, 2010 - 02:13am PT
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DH you been lurkin'!
 ec
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Feb 11, 2010 - 02:13am PT
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D H
That's an amazing post...
Well done!
Where the hell did you get that much down to the hour information??
Have you been taking notes?
MH, "Little Joe McHemon"?
Joe McKeown, The one and only Guido Dog.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 02:31am PT
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That is pretty interesting-so ours was the 9th ascent and it was 1963 and the day before my birthday and only 6 hours. I even had a different name-in real life it has always been McKeown but not bad for almost 47 years I would say. Man that is a lot of stuff to copy in a short time-tooo bad you didn't have a digital camera-oh wait, we will have to wait a spell on that one. Thanks for the update-fascinating!
cheers
Guido
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Feb 11, 2010 - 02:37am PT
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Wow, Guido.
47 years....I hate to tell you bro, but that's a seriously long time ago.
My hat's off to you,.....again.
Happy Sailing!
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Feb 11, 2010 - 04:28pm PT
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Nice stuff! Hey Micronut......Don't forget to add the Rattlesnake to your drawing. Hope to have one of those shirts one day!
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Dolomite
climber
Anchorage
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Feb 11, 2010 - 05:47pm PT
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This has to be one of the best threads EVER. Thanks to all for keeping the history accurate and alive--
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micronut
Trad climber
fresno, ca
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Feb 11, 2010 - 06:20pm PT
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Oh yeah, the shirt needs a rattler for sure. Anything else? This shirt should have input from those who have been there!
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Feb 11, 2010 - 08:04pm PT
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Best post eva!
What happened to Emily Coomer's panties?
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Feb 11, 2010 - 08:07pm PT
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Micronut... Please remember... less is more!
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Feb 11, 2010 - 08:45pm PT
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Great stuff you guys. I agree, this is one of the best threads in a long while.
Peter, it does look a bit like Eichorn and a bit like Axe Nelson. They were both tall, Axe extremely so.
Ken
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D H
Trad climber
Exeter CA.
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Feb 13, 2010 - 01:01am PT
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ec
lurkin’? lurkin’? well just a little, but more like sneaking
DH
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Feb 13, 2010 - 01:45am PT
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If anyone else is going up, ping me, I don't want to have to race you to the base to get there ahead of you.
hahahaha
I better go ask my partner which route we're doing, cuz free climbing like Levy and Kris ain't gunna happen my friends. That was a spike in style that went WAY up for the day! nice job all you guys.
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ec
climber
ca
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Feb 13, 2010 - 02:07am PT
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Sh*t! I was half the man I am now...Nice, I hadn't seen that one.
ec
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Brandon
Trad climber
Santa Maria, CA
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Feb 14, 2010 - 12:13pm PT
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Bears are an issue up there too.
While exploring the base of the West face of the spire for a new line I ran into a bear. I had just climbed up the 4th class that got to the base of the west side gully. A medium to large bear was trying to make its way down the gully, either he was looking for an exit or heard me climbing up and wanted to see what was going on. Once I started up the gully I heard the bear moaning and noticed he was only 30' away. The bear was kinda cornered by me and starting to get spooked. He started making more noise and spooking me. I got out of the gully as fast as I could. I expected to see the bear in camp later that trip, but didn't.
Another story; in preparation for the final attempt on Cinco De Mayo, Bruce and Em hiked in a food cache to the campsite below the gully, the weekend before. On their hike out they noticed fresh bear poo and that the sunscreen they left by the stream had holes in it from bear teeth. They realized they didn't hang the well food enough to protect from bears. So the following weekend Bruce and I hiked up more food. When we got to the camp, the original food cache was untouched and we were left with 10 days of food to eat for a 5 day trip. This included 2x 1.75L of Tequila. I think we drank all but the last bit of the second bottle.
Regarding Coomer's panties, I saw them when I was last on the summit. They seemed like they were in good shape.
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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Feb 14, 2010 - 01:10pm PT
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This thread is what it is all about! Thanks for the great stories and pictures. I love it!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2010 - 04:50pm PT
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As I said earlier, I have always had a fascination with pinnacles and spires. Here is a photo of what I believe is Mechanics Delight at Pinnacles. This would be circa 1958 and where I found that telephone sign, I have no idea. In fact I don't recollect the location of the climb.
Notice the state-of-the-art attire. Army fatique pants, which not only had too many pockets to load up with junk, but were so hot and bulky.
This obsession, or habit of "collecting" signs was to get me in trouble on future occasions. But the "man" was more generous back then, and we usually just got our hands slapped and a little lecture.
Kudos to Haan for another excellent photo retouch!
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Feb 14, 2010 - 06:39pm PT
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Nice picture, Joe. Well done. That will likely end up in a climbing history book in a hundred years, with a thoughtful essay on the meaning of the sign. Thanks to Peter, also.
Were you 12 or 13 in '58? Did your Mom know what you were doing?
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D H
Trad climber
Exeter CA.
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Feb 14, 2010 - 09:04pm PT
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Here”s a little more early history on The Spire. Years back I ran across this entry in a 1947 Sierra Club Bulletin (for those not familiar with this publication, it was a soft bound book published by the Sierra Club). The entry was written by Anton Nelson on a trip he and fellow climbers took to the Castle Rocks. Below is a copy of that entry:
A Reconnaissance of Castle Rock Spire
Bay area climbers, with accelerating zest, turned from the fall of The Arrow to new fields of challenge. For ten years tower scalers muttered in their beards about “The Spire,” but, owing to their intense hatred of hiking, even to a climb, were content to view it with awe from the comfort of the north rim of Kaweah canyon, perhaps from Moro Rock, in Sequoia National Park.
This year on two midsummer trips the multiple cliffs of the Castle Rocks Ridge submitted to the appraisal of Bay Area Bergsteigers, Ted Knowles, DeWitt Allen, and Ax Nelson. The summit of the highest of the upper group of three rocks (9,150—class 3-4) was properly christened with a soup-can register by Ax Nelson. Progressing down the weirdly sculptured ridge to the northwest, Ted and Ax unslung pitons and carabiners to test all qualities of Sierra granite, from rotten to bombproof, on a little class-5 stroll to the top of “The South Guard” which was a first ascent.
Just beyond, climbing vistas expand with a massive vertical block, one or two rope-lengths above its highest shoulder, of a finger dubbed “The Little Spire.” Down to the north again the ridge runs out onto a long giant fin from which one at last sights below him The Great Spire, a Munich man’s dream or nightmare, which can be approached by a rough downhill scramble of several hundred feet.
This latter rock, Castle Rock Spire, is a massive granite fin, narrow but flat on top, 900 to 1,200 feet high on the north side where it falls off into Kaweah canyon, and 400 to 500 feet sheer above its notch on the south. Its vertical sides fall into steep chutes. The north and east sides present few cracks and fewer ledges ending in blank walls and overhangs near the top. The 90-degree south “prow” becomes hopelessly massive, too, toward the upper reaches. The only apparent route (?) lies on the west face, average angle 87 degrees. A long crack or slight fissure runs down through several overhangs past smooth walls from the flat top, but ends, still 150 feet up, on a smooth face. However, a sort of horizontal crack runs over to the south some 50 to 60 feet, where its terminus might be approached by one class-5 pitch up a pinnacle lying against the prow and a sideward rappel. Six or eight long pitches of class-6 work, over at least two or three days, by two alternating teams of strong climbers, seem to be the only feasible technique for overcoming this problem. Four nylons, three of four rappels, 200-300 feet of sling rope, 50 or more pitons, 2 to 3 dozen carabiners, plus one-half-inch and three-quarter-inch drills and bolts—together with comparable amounts of “drive” and “elbow-grease,” would probably be needed.
After a 6-to-8-hour drive in a good car from the San Francisco of Los Angeles areas through Visalia one approach lies up the Mineral King road on the East Fork of the Kaweah. From Atwell Mill Ranger Station hike north via signed trails through lovely Sequoia and fir forest over the ridge to Castle Rock Meadow at 8,500 feet, where there is water most of the summer (2,500-foot gain in elevation, 6 miles). An alternative approach to the Big Spire proper starts from Hospital Rock on The General’s Highway and consists of a 7-mile, 5,000-foot marathon, three-quarters of the way by signed trail. Approaching close under the Castle Rocks ridge through the forest, the trail comes to two distinct flood channels. The first has water in it (last chance for the canteens) well into the summer. The route takes up the second (dry) channel toward the east side of the spire, where it becomes a somewhat tortuous declivity. “Severe class 3,” says DeWitt.
Possibilities for a glorious period of from four to seven days of free-for-all ascents by several ropes of climbers presented a great appeal to this year’s three explorers. The six months following June 1 offer many opportunities on “long week ends.” With a lovely base camp at Castle Rock Meadow, the climbs could be reached walking downhill with ringside seats available to kibitzers of climbers on the Great Spire and on the Little Spire on the ridge above. The high mountain scenery of the Great Western Divide to the east and the vast hazy depths of San Joaquin valley on the west offer an enjoyable backdrop to those climbers plagued by claustrophobia in Yosemite’s marrow quarters, and bored with the routine of its “standard” climbs. When shall it be, men?
Anton Nelson
I also have the Sierra Club Bulletin from 1950 with a article written by Phil Bettler on the first ascent of the Castle Rock Spire I’ll see about scanning it and posting it on this forum.
DH
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2010 - 09:15pm PT
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I would have been 13 and my mom had a pretty good pulse on things. Quite liberal for the era, letting me haul off to Yosemite for the summer. But if you screwed up, which I was opt to do on occasion, the disciplinarian part came out and I would be in deep sh#t for a spell. Although she had a heart of gold, you did not want to cross her. Pet peeve-no driving up and honking. You want to visit, pick up my son? Come around to the back door. At times, I do think she scared Roper. Hell, she even scared me sometimes.
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