Coonyard Pinnacle- 50 Years Later

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Messages 21 - 40 of total 61 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
drljefe

climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
May 13, 2011 - 10:28am PT
Great post!
Thanks guido!
Mike Bolte

Trad climber
Planet Earth
May 13, 2011 - 10:41am PT
Guido - great post, really wonderful outing.

This is your daughter on the handcrack, left of center! Great kid.

frog-e

Trad climber
Imperial Beach California
May 13, 2011 - 10:59am PT
Guido...

Your writing is such a joy to read and all your threads
are so wonderful - thanks so much for all your pictures
and prose. Your story about the winter attempt on
Sentinal with Kor was really special too!

Many thanks!
Bad Climber

climber
May 13, 2011 - 11:18am PT
Fantastic, really. It's funny, but I was thinking about my own climbing career and how this year, when I go to Lover's Leap, I plan on doing a 34th anniversary ascent of Bear's Reach, and then I figured on a goal of eventually doing a 50th. I'll only be 65, so as long as I stay healthy, it should be quite reasonable. I love stories like this that give us history and point the way.

BAd
FRUMY

Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
May 13, 2011 - 11:24am PT
Great post - thanks.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
May 13, 2011 - 12:23pm PT
Just can't get enough of that Guido stuff!!!

What, no original footwear?!? Just kidding...you could actually unpucker a bit this go round.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
May 13, 2011 - 12:34pm PT
Guido, many thanks! One question, if Mr Coonyard wasn't on the first ascent
how come it is called Coonyard?
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
May 13, 2011 - 12:42pm PT


Feckin' aaaay dudes, how awesome is this? Thanks man, so glad you got up there!!
philo

Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
May 13, 2011 - 12:45pm PT
Awesome Guido just what this place needs more of you and less of most of us.
LMAO.

Guido this was really a joyful delight to share. Thank you.
Seeing the Wunch & Hunter entry was very cool. I was wondering if the Steve Williams who appears to have climbed it twice might just be our SteveW?
Having the younger set share with the elders is way up on the "coolness" factor.
I have had the uniquely poignant experience of returning to climbs with partners who weren't even born when I did the FAs. But I don't really want to imagine what I will be up to in 2061 at the ripe ol age of 104.
Cheers for a wonderful experience!
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
May 13, 2011 - 01:08pm PT
Thanks very much for that post. There's a lot of personal history wrapped up there. Calderwood taught me aid climbing in a Sierra Club course in the 1960's. I loved seeing Mike Caldwell's and Fred Miles' entry in 1971. Mike took me on my first hard (BITD) slab climb -- Patio -- in 1970. Their "On to the Oasis" attempt, unfortunately, ended at the top of the next pitch. At that time, someone had already chiseled "F*CK" into the rock. Mike and Fred added an exclamation point.

John
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
May 13, 2011 - 04:08pm PT
And Tim Auger and Bob Woodsworth (brother to Tricouni) are in the register too - Canucklehead content.
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
May 13, 2011 - 04:14pm PT
Great post! Loved looking at the registers...what a treasure trove of wonderful people. Susan

Guido: we are hauling Mouton on Wednesday, will be at Svens...knowing us ... probably close to a month... not sure where you are in the world but if around stop by. Susan
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
May 13, 2011 - 04:34pm PT
Nice TR, Joe. I too like to read the old registers. Is this the entire register or did you copy selected pages. Nice pictures.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2011 - 09:37pm PT
MIghty-climbed it 4-5 times over the years, two were ascents to the Oasis. Soon after the first ascent, Chouninard, Hempel, Moi and I think Amborn went up and climbed two pitches above Coonyard, Oasis bound. Later Amborn and Foott got within a pitch or two of the Oasis and as you know Kor and Chouinard finished it off. Nice thing about Yvon is he included Foott and Amborn as being on the first ascent when he wrote it up. Bad thing about Yvon is he placed a bolt on the Coonyard route and Amborn later chopped it.

Reilly-See the first ascent Post to get the origin of Coonyard.

bvd-whoa, solo on Coonyard, that is pretty friggin awesome. I was far too much of a lightweight to try any solo games on hard friction. I know Simon soloed Marginal and even that is difficult for me to imagine. The thing about friction is once you start to slide it is difficult after the momentum has built up to stop.

Roger-That is most of the Register I believe. There were some loose pages if I remember and they were not included in the batch. I think the Register was lost for a while and someone put it back up.

Register- The largest collection of Registers of Cal climbs and peaks is part of the Mountain Record Section at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. Last summer Kali and I spent an afternoon going through some choice boxes. Almost got kicked out because we were oohing and ahing too loud and the serious head librarian was not impressed. Serious place with high security and slow response but on the whole very accommodating people. I had the library copy via stat the Coonyard Register plus Rixons's Pinnacle, Phantom Pinnacle, El Cap, Glacier Point Apron, Fairview Dome, Lost Arrow Tip and the Royal Arches. It took months to get this completed and they provided the stats on microfilm. Fortunately UC Santa Cruz has a brand new scanner that will scan direct from the microfilm to disk for free! IThe copying at the Bancroft was not cheap, something like $275 ............

I had to spend 3-4 hours on the Coonyard Register with Photoshop to make it presentable and readable. Somebody like maestro Haan could turn it into an art piece.

I am convinced the way to handle this reproduction would be to film a Register. You can set it up so you can do the photo work yourself at the Library. Film would maintain the mood of the paper and give a more realistic presentation of the actual writing. Filming would also be less damaging to the handling of the Registers. Some of these are very very delicate and they had go go to the Restoration Dept before they would copy them. Copying is more traumatic than filming.

Wouldn't it be fantastic to have all of the Bancroft Register Collection on film. This would be a massive job but certainly doable. Then everyone would have access to these historical gems. Ken could have all the data on DVD for the future Yosemite Collection and they could even be made available online.

The AAC also has a significant collection of Registers.

Perhaps we should put together a project to raise enough dinero to have this accomplished? Maybe Ed or someone else in the area wold be interested. Some of these Registers go back to the turn of the century! Not a small project but an immensely worthy one.

I'm in.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
May 13, 2011 - 09:44pm PT
love the old registers... there are some still out "in the wilderness" as it were...
we should have an email conversation on this project, though I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now...

on top of Andy's Inferno, relatively recently...

Pohono Pinnacle register...

John Morton

climber
May 13, 2011 - 10:41pm PT
Guido, this is one of your best yet, many names of forgotten partners. I don't even remember doing the route, but there it is in black and white.

What's up with the entries through 1966? After the first page they look to be all in the same hand.

John
BBA

climber
OF
May 13, 2011 - 10:41pm PT
For Reilly: The naming of Cooñard is described in this post:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=713916&msg=723747#msg723747

And from Ed's images, I was surprised to see the incredible Pohono Pinnacle route named for me and given a "worst in the valley rating". Makes a guy proud. Thanks Eric.

I opted out of the 50 year event after going to the base of the Apron in July and seeing hangers everywhere. Then I thought of how unsatisfying going to my 50th high school reunion was - hip replacements everywhere. In July I went up Vernal Falls with my daughter and grandson and came down the horse trail because the Mist Trail was so wet - couldn't see with glasses on. Grandson says, "This is a horse poop obstacle course." It was a beautiful day on the trail.

Bill Amborn


guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2011 - 10:57pm PT
John-Appears Lloyd Price is on 4 of those ascents in 66 so perhaps he's the culprit responsible for the similarity? Don't know, I am just the messenger.

Hi yah BBA!
scuffy b

climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
May 14, 2011 - 03:16am PT
Wonderful, Joe.
Are you back in the States now?
PhilG

Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
May 14, 2011 - 12:27pm PT
Guido
Thanks again for taking the the time to obtain and post copies of that old resister.
It means a lot to see J. Goslings writing and recall what an adventure doing the "Complete Apron" was for us in those days. We were not at all sure we were going to make it. John had failed with a different partner in 1967. I was a young climber, untested, and the only other "friction" routes I had done were short climbs at Big Rock (CA).
Your an interesting and positive voice on this web site.
Messages 21 - 40 of total 61 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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