Rixon's Pinnacle Register 1948-1963

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Messages 1 - 19 of total 19 in this topic
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 28, 2011 - 05:14pm PT
Rockfall or not Rixon's is a Classic.

Register courtesy of the Mountain Record Section, Bancroft Library, Berkeley.

Spent a great deal of time loading this and writing out all the names and dates and then ST ate up all the info and crashed-any questions I can probably clarify but someday I will have to scan and clean up each individual entry. Good job for master Haan.

HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Sep 28, 2011 - 06:36pm PT
Guido, you were one of the people I wanted to meet at FL but we just slipped past each other a couple of times. Next time I'll be sure to introduce myself.

Some real treasures in those pages.
When people talk about BITD women climbers, Ellen Wilts and Bev Powell are often missed.
Rixon's Pinnacle 1st ascent 1948 (which month?) Chuck & Ellen Wilts via South Face 60 pitons

Then untouched for 8 years and a new route:
2nd ascent Sept 9, 1956 Don Goodrich UCHC Dick McCracken via East Chimney

What's a "Dolt Channel"? Precursor to bongs?
Tom Frost
Dolt via West side Sept 11 59
Moonlight 6 Dolt Channels

TM Herbert
Yvon Chouinard
Took out 3 bolts
East side
?? 11, 1959

July 3, 1963
Mark Powell
Jim Baldwin
Beverly Powell
via West Face

First ascent of news route of w.face 3/65
Glen Denny Gary Colliver snowstorm
Now that's Bad Arse.
Gene

climber
Sep 28, 2011 - 06:58pm PT
Guido! Thanks so much.

First: Wilts & Wilts
Second: Goodrich & McCracken
Third: Sessions & Powell
Fourth: Sherrick & Kamps
Fifth: Reed and ???
Sixth: Harding & ???

Fantastic travel down memory lane.

g
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Sep 28, 2011 - 07:09pm PT
Guido. Send me these image files directly. I will see what I can do. I gather they are on disk so don't reformat; just keep as is. If giant, then I will give you a site to dump them rather than by email.
Gene

climber
Sep 28, 2011 - 07:18pm PT
Can anybody let me know who Rixon was/is?
I love these threads.
Thanks,
g
scuffy b

climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
Sep 28, 2011 - 08:18pm PT
Looking only briefly so far, I see Phil Scott climbing the East Chimney 5th class with Frank Sacherer. I'm sure I've heard of other Sacherer ascents, so I wonder if it was something he climbed habitually.
scuffy b

climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
Sep 28, 2011 - 08:18pm PT
Would West Face Direct be Far West or something obscure?
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Sep 29, 2011 - 03:50am PT
guido, that's a bummer your typing disappeared.
My rule is to always type into a .txt file if it takes me more than 5 minutes, then copy/paste to the web.
Here are the pages separated and 2x enlargement; no real tricks (except on the Sierra Club card).
not Mr. Powell's remarkable
time of 9 hrs. We took
all told 16 hrs. and
millions of pitons, sky hooks,
2 by fours, xxx of xxx
trees and Little Gem
Rubber Pitons.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Jan 7, 2012 - 09:13pm PT
Bump for all the image manipulation work. Good job folks!

A Dolt Channel is almost certainly a piton made from aluminum channel stock.
KabalaArch

Trad climber
Starlite, California
Jan 7, 2012 - 10:46pm PT
Can anybody let me know who Rixon was/is?

ref "Tom Rixon" as Henry Knoll's partner on the first attempt of The Arrowhead Chimney, from the August 1942 Sierra Club Bulletin.

FA Fritz Lippmann, Torcom Bedayan, Henry Knoll, Pearl Harbor Day 12/7/41.

Damn, I hate being the dread last poster!
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Jan 7, 2012 - 10:49pm PT
All better now...Nice historical background!
BBA

climber
OF
Jan 7, 2012 - 11:09pm PT
Thomas H. Rixon also wrote up the the first ascent of the Lost Arrow for Yosemite Nature Notes when he was a ranger in 1946.

Page 8, the NA.... was Tom Naylor.

I have to laugh at what time does to the memory. I sure as shlt don't recall signing in on a register, but there it is. Thanks Joe.

Bill Amborn
Eric Beck

Sport climber
Bishop, California
Jan 7, 2012 - 11:29pm PT
Wow, the memories. I think this was the first instance of a "Yosemite Pinnacle" with many more to follow, e.g. Coon~ard.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2018 - 01:57pm PT
Bump
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Feb 22, 2018 - 02:02pm PT
Those register scans remind me of petroglyphs. Did the people whose names are scrawled go the way of the Anasazi?
Roots

Mountain climber
Redmond, Oregon
Feb 22, 2018 - 03:04pm PT
Who's Who of the Golden Years.

Cheers for the work done in the name of preservation!
jstan

climber
Feb 22, 2018 - 04:20pm PT
How long I have been waiting this thread!

In the late 60's I went to do Rixon's with someone from C4. He took most of the day leading the rickety flake just off the ground leaving the rest of the climb to be done in the dark. Since it was growing dark I said, "What do you suggest we do? He replied. "Noot a prroblem. I hae a head llamp."

Not being expert in leading by the braille technique my companion led the second pitch too and went to sleep as soon as he reached a belay, Being met only by silence from above I had to take the resistance of the rope to my pulling to imply I might safely undertake the pendulum leading to the rest of the pitch. I took it as favorable that I could see nothing and hundreds of feet down there were no rocks on the ground below. It would be a long trip but at the end a soft landing. Since I could see nothing I unfortunately removed every last fixed piton.

I have to admit this climb was very much a learning experience for me.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Feb 22, 2018 - 07:30pm PT

http://www.sonomawest.com/obits/tom-rixon---loving-husband-father-grandfather/article_e392b99b-db1f-59cd-a37a-1e679b666043.html
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Feb 22, 2018 - 07:39pm PT
Little Joe- Private Eye...
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