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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:14am PT
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The Wedge: Can you post a link to that article? Was it merely a description of its existence?
Brian and Guido: We are forever caught between the opposing goals of preserving our heritage for posterity and removing the mystery and adventure from climbing. For those who want that preservation (DR?-After all, it’s probably up to him!), I merely offered a relatively simple and accurate way to achieve that goal. For those who want the mystery and adventure, leave the route-map behind and go and have fun!
Doug: Good writing! I'm with you!
My biggest fear is that eventually there will be a trail of chalk laid down upon The Course by those who can’t climb without it, psychologically, who think it’s “too hot and my hands are sweating,” so they need to rely on chalk, rather than their own inner resources, to make them feel more comfortable with the climbing. That’s reason enough NOT to make a map of the course because that would destroy the mystery and adventure. The chalk trails are bad enough in most of the popular bouldering areas in the U.S., including the Buttermilk. I guess I’ve talked myself out of this project. I think it’s best if people learn The Course the way DR, and John Fischer learned it, by being guided there by someone who knows it. Or the way Smoke learned it, by exploration and adventure. Thanks Guido!!
Want more photos? OK!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:36am PT
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Chinchen
climber
Way out there....
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:57am PT
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I for one would LOVE to go on Smokes course and would be proud to carry it on the way it should be, by passing it on by the action of doing.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:14pm PT
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I as well would love to take a run through the Grade IV Buttermilk Scramble.
111 SUSHI FEST !!!
Of course, Doug Robinson will lead, (if he does not get WAY-laid en route to the event) while the rest of us will engage the approach blindfolded, so as to preserve the arcane and devoutly sequestered course plot ...
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:24pm PT
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:26pm PT
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BooDawg, I will see if I can dig it up. It may be on the eastside mag web site or you may be able to contact those guy there and they can get it too ya.
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426
climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:26pm PT
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Cool stuff, one can always "make it up as you go along" out in those hills...we often did, looking for actual "routes" out of the old blue east side guide.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:35pm PT
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I've got a course I do through Castle Rock State Park. Hell of a workout, just runninig around and 3rd classing easy stuff. The Buttermilks look perfect for it.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:50pm PT
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Great thread. I've always been curious about the course too. It almost saddens me to say this, but given the crowds, trash, posing, pads you now see at the Milks on many weekends, I'd be against putting it out there. Sadly, too many in the sport now seem to have a playground attitude toward the crags and don't feel a need to preserve or protect. A pity really.
Anyways, great to see photos of guys you'd always read about like Mort Hempel, etc. More please.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:54pm PT
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A lot you guys know about my checkered past. Jeez! That was my SECOND wedding...
But who's counting?
Nice photos Boo! Rare to see Hempel. That's a treat. I remember an intense evening of talking with him around then, in the bar at Whiskey Creek. (Not the current bar. For those of you new to Bishop since the 70s, the old Whiskey Creek bar was kinda like the old Mountain Room Bar in the Valley, an airless room with Naugahyde booths.)
Your shots bring that day roaring back. It was an honor to have Pratt marry us. Also kind of a necessity. Heidi kept going back and forth between us until I didn't trust her instinct to marry me. So I asked Chuck to be the officiant. But then because Chuck was there she wouldn't sleep with me on our wedding night. Not an auspicious start for #2. And I can imagine my 17-year-old saying, "TMI, Dad."
I like your shot of Smoke leading up the Big Slab pinnacle. Jaybro will remember that just last month we were debating which of the three chimneys Smoke took. Photographic evidence, just in time.
While I certainly agree we should toss out the GPS, a lot of folks seem to appreciate seeing exactly where Smoke's ingenuity wound his course through those rocks. After all, it took him years to develop. Years! Years when he was kind of lonely, being the only climber in Bishop.
I'm impressed by the groundswell of new interest in Smoke's Rock Course. I go through it with a bunch of climbers each time now, and everyone seems to want to hear the tales of what Smoke called each segment, and the stories he would tell about incidents along the road toward building his Rock Course.
For instance, how the Mercedes Boulder got its name is a popular story. Smoke didn't write that one down. And how the Atlas Boulder, which Smoke came close to calling "impossible" (actually he knew far better than to use the term), had a FA by Okies.
And then there are guys like Marty Hornick, who has wandered the many hectares of that bedrock maze so thoroughly he has his own little private spots and personal passages throughout. And he is basically against guidebooks. But then Marty had put up thinly protected 5.11s in the Alabama Hills, boldly leading off from small wires and not reported them, only to see modern climbers come along and bolt 'em up. So now Marty too is eager to find out just where Smoke took the Rock Course. And to see it published.
So I feel like it's worth resurrecting Smoke's line through those rocks. It's pretty ingenious. And the more I look for it these days, the more I discover that while the conscious memory is often erased, somehow my feet seem to know where to turn even when my head is lost.
Maybe it's one of those Lessons in Life. Anyway, I'm sure having fun searching for it, teasing out the old line. And enjoying the company of other pilgrims, eager for a taste of Smoke's style, his vision of Mild Mountaineering.
It leads to a string of climbers winding through the maze of rocks. Jaybro's shot from the back of the group tells part of the story. What you can't see in his photo of descending The Owl is that we had just loafed and told stories for half an hour on the summit, then broken out the rope -- a slightly updated version of the traditional "Smoke's String" -- where we each in turn tied in for a belay down a blind 5.9 move with a death fall if you blow it. Even the baddest first ascentionist of the first 5.13 OW was happy to accept a TR on that bit, just as the great Chuck Pratt, himself the cutting-edge OW wizard of his day, once humbly accepted a belay from Smoke, himself, simply because The Master had suggested it.
I know I'm loving this surge of interest in reviving the Rock Course. Enjoying as much as Smoke ever did the company, laughter and wide-ranging chat that flows so naturally out there. Also the technical standard. Smoke's so-called "mild mountaineering" turns out to be stout. Hard mantles. Relentless exposure. Technical chimneys. An exposed 5.8 OW variation that we roped up for, and are now wondering if it was an original part of the Rock Course. Or not. Smoke had his own variations, and he was hip enough as a guide to the abilities of his followers on any given day that I know he would vary the Course accordingly.
And, yes, I'm writing about this retro-revival, and wondering whether it means anything in the larger scheme of Climbing Itself (what happened to the bouldering craze, anyway? Or is this just a thing for old farts?). And, yeah, how do we record a thing like this? That article in Eastside Magazine certainly showcased the new interest -- and gave us a glimpse of John Fischer working to revive the Rock Course -- but it had no details about where it actually goes. Topos certainly won't work. They're better adapted to the vertical, and work for more of a single monolithic face.
Actually, it's not entirely old farts out there. Tai takes time out from putting up 5.12s in Pine Creek to focus on the Rock Course. And the last time through Miles and Amy showed up. Twenty-somethings, they are clearly the resident guns of the Whitney Massif right now (also pumping out the delicious fries at the Whitney Portal Store). For instance, they spoke of simul-climbing the 17-pitch East Ridge of Mallory (13,770'), which is a Grade V, 5.9, and running down in time for another shift of flipping burgers. It's hard to lure them away from Lone Pine, but mention Smoke's Rock Course and they show right up.
Cool!
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HighTraverse
Social climber
Bay Area
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Oct 18, 2010 - 02:11pm PT
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Well at first I was not in favor of GPS'ing it. I'm still not. Was even against documenting Smoke's course. By the way, I didn't get to do it when I was out at Buttermilk last year for Highball when Doug led a group.
Doug, you've convinced me it should be "documented" but I also hate to take away the adventure. What about a photo documentation? Photos from key points along the way. Rather like a photo in a magazine of any other long climbing route. Except a series of pics because you can't see it all in one photo. And leave out drawing the route on the photos.
It's not like a long rock route where if you get off route there may be consequences.
I presume anytime you get lost on Smoke's route you're not really lost. Would probably be a good idea to make a note of the 5.9 OW death fall as a good place to belay. But please don't put in ratings.
Otherwise let us wander around. Keep the adventure alive. It might take someone a week to put it all together for themselves. So much the better. What's the hurry?
If you also wrote a "guide" with the pics I'll be you'd be able to sell it in the shops around town. Maybe SuperTopo would sell it online as an edocument so you it doesn't have to be physically published.
Or possibly to Alpinist. Or a submission to AAJ. Rather than a traditional guide, don't tell us where to turn left or look for the hidden hold. Tell us instead the stories. Keep the traditions alive.
Fred Glover
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Chinchen
climber
Way out there....
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Oct 18, 2010 - 02:20pm PT
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Doug, I'm even more inspired now! Please let me know when you plan to be in town again, I would be honored and so stoked to follow you!
Jason
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HighTraverse
Social climber
Bay Area
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Oct 18, 2010 - 03:24pm PT
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gf
I too like the idea of the oral tradition. However all tales get altered in the telling. The oral tradition will continue to evolve even if it get's written down at some point. I'd like to see a historical snapshot of Smoke's Course route and stories.
I think there's a whole lot of climbing been done on the East Side that could be better documented. SuperTopo of course is recording a great deal but in a disorganized manner. Almost like an oral tradition but with an audit trail.
I really hope ChrisMac has this site regularly and reliably backed up offsite and has made it possible for someone other than himself to get access to those archives. There are some wonderful historians contributing here. I can't begin to name them all.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 18, 2010 - 03:37pm PT
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That day was so much fun, Doug. It was great to scramble around and get to talk with you more.
Of course anyone could go out there and scarmble around and find fun/sppectacular feature link up. But it its fun to try to follow where someone who was into it has gone before, to think why you might go a certain way, back then in Pivettas, or kronehoffers, when back in this century Acopa Scramblers, want to find their own way.
i'd love to spend more time there exploring and aproxiamting the key.
Doesn't someone have a moderate to severe special ed job waiting for me, somewhere on the eastside?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 08:13pm PT
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We gotta get together and grovel, wallow, tiptoe, mumble, chatter and dance our way over this thing.
It would be an occasion well suited to a high order of merriment!
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 18, 2010 - 08:15pm PT
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^^^^^^^
word
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 08:40pm PT
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August 17th 2011?
Too hot?
May?
September???
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 08:47pm PT
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I think heat tends to create more intimate experiences in nature. Fewer heads punctuating the landscape, easier to blame the hallucinations on heat rippling off the desert floor, and more of a feeling of accomplishment to survive until the evening when the desert sunset looks all the sweeter casting its warm honey amber glow.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Oct 18, 2010 - 08:59pm PT
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I too like the idea of the oral tradition. However all tales get altered in the telling. The oral tradition will continue to evolve even if it get's written down at some point. I'd like to see a historical snapshot of Smoke's Course route and stories.
Yeah, oral tradition tends to change. Nice post and a nice summation of the issue. "Fixed texts" are rare in oral tradition. But then, I'd also be skeptical that Smoke's course was originally a fixed text. I'd wager it developed and changed over time.
Honestly, the photos with all the trains make me a bit queasy. On the one hand, I think it's wonderful that a larger world is discovering Smoke or even taking some interest in the sort of circuits that were popular back in the last century. On the other, it makes me a bit anxious to drive up to the Milks and see 3o to 4o cars and the hillside crawling with pad ants. With a bit of work, we can polish up the Smoke circuit the way we've polished up HIdden Valley classics.
I love DR's writing and would love to hear more from him on all sorts of things, including Smoke. But I'm not crazy about the idea of a Supertopo for this particular bit of history. It's not like it's an impenetrable mystery. Folks really want to work it out, it's not like they can't. It would take some work. But so what? Part of the nice deal about the original is the thought process that was involved in puzzling out the route.
I'd leave this one alone.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 18, 2010 - 09:03pm PT
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That's the spirit Nutjob!
Ha !!!
I won't in this case, however, be leaving blame for my hallucinations to something so haphazard as heat rippling off the desert floor ...
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Let us know!