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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 4, 2011 - 05:05pm PT
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Or at least the early days of highballing.
We're reissuing my first book, Gorilla Monsoon, and I came across these old photos from when I was still in High School and Bachar, Graham and I were first starting to get off the deck a ways out at Josh, and here at Black Mountain. Crappy shots off a proof sheet, but great memories.
I must have been a senior because during my soph. and junior years in High School I was in RRs and PAs respectively, and here I have the EBs.
The OK Corall problem was downright dangerous - maybe 40 feet high (5.12b) and you had to climb down a super thin tree (horrific) to get off it.
JL
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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So it never occurred to you to top rope those?? Yikes!
I'd like to score a sweet autographed copy of the new issue. Got a web site?
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 4, 2011 - 05:33pm PT
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Joe Brown indeed. I downloaded the wrong shot. Still the 5.11 route up the middle of JB was stout BITD sans cord.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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My shoe progression was the same: RRs, PAs (slick as snot after you used 'em for a while), and EBs. My climbing progression, on the other hand, not the slightest resemblance to Largo's... 5.12?? only in my dreams.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Gnarly....
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micronut
Trad climber
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Awesome. Thanks for sharing a piece of americana. Looking forward to the book.
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John Butler
Social climber
SLC, Utah
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Use a rope? They cost too much back then (when earning little more than minimum wage). They were reserved for special occasions...
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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John Gill, of course, was far ahead of his time
and doing some genuine highballs both in the Tetons
but of course in the Needles, such as his Thimble route.
In Boulder in the early-mid '60s we did some pretty
high boulders, the kind you wouldn't want to fall off of.
We certainly did some buildering that was ferociously high
off the ground and difficult. Larry Dalke and I
tandem soloed several things that weren't technically
so hard but were vertical, with broken rock, some loose
holds, and on one occasion at night, as an example
one evening in our dress clothes,
on a break in a gig our jazz band was doing... Probably one
could view something like Pete Cleveland's Superpin as
a "highball," but as well routes by individuals such as Oliver Perry-
Smith who regularly did routes entirely unprotected....
In the late '60s and also early '70s we
did some 5.11-type highballs at Split Rocks, for sure,
where if you fell it was probably over. No pads.
We didn't call them highballs. That was a term that came
much later.
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scuffy b
climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
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Largo, I saw you climbing in red/black PAs at Suicide, Autumn 72 and at
Joshua Tree, Jan 73, if that helps your calibration.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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What is the definition of a highball? Or are we meant to "know one when we see one"?
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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From Urban Dictionary.
1. (adjective) - highballer:
someone who sets their standards very high for what they or others can accomplish.
2. (verb) - highballing:
the act of setting high expectations or thinking beyond the bounds of a situation.
1. Railroad slang for a green light or permission to proceed. Go = highball
Ken
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Well, in freight train language, a highball is
the fast train the others pull over for. It's best
to get the highball, as it goes on through fast.
Here we're talking about routes rather high above the
ground, the kind not so easy to jump off...
We saw lots of climbers do scary highballs who had
first wired the moves.... Or at least done the route
more than once and knew they could do it. In the
early '70s several climbers did 5.12 routes that were
really highball, such as N.E.D. in Eldorado, but in
each case they had done the route at least once before.
I'm sure if I think about it for awhile
I will think of some people who did onsight highballs...
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tom Carter
Social climber
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Love those B&W's John - thanks
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Friend
climber
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Wow, very inspiring stuff, JL. More photos please!
I'll bump this with some recent shots of a couple classics from the original "Pumping Granite"...
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Largo Scoop. Didn't really feel all that Highball, but if you jumped off it was wierd. Had to set up to do an intermediate bounce off that ledge at the bottom of the problem...
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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1900
ca 1893
Just to offer historical perspective . . .
Long before J. Gill, or ,later, J. Long or J. Bachar there were the fearless Brits
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The Anasazi were certainly high balling when they put in some of their petroglyphs.
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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Nov 15, 2011 - 11:51am PT
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Gotta love the old photos JGill. I'll bump this thread with an observation that the line between bouldering and free soloing is frequently blurred.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 15, 2011 - 02:14pm PT
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Yeah, but those old farts weren't as stupid as we were, as evidenced by this tennis shoe ascent of So High, where I almost pitched off the top slab moves twenty feet higher.
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matty
Trad climber
under the sea
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Nov 15, 2011 - 03:32pm PT
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^^^ BADASS!!!
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Nov 25, 2011 - 05:47pm PT
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I saw this bald dude getting pretty high at Josh last weekend.
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sandstone conglomerate
climber
sharon conglomerate central
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Nov 25, 2011 - 06:49pm PT
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Great shot! I chalked up just looking at it.
When is the book due?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Nov 25, 2011 - 06:58pm PT
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Slashface might be my favorite BP in Josh...right behind KP's "Once Upon A Dime". Or is it "In My Time Of Dimes"? Off the geology tour road, down by Knuckleball. Oh so many great gems down there...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Nov 25, 2011 - 07:11pm PT
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... the line between bouldering and free soloing is frequently blurred. In this video, Lisa Rands talks about reaching a hieght where no-matter how many pads below, jumping off or falling is not an option. I think, by definition that would be "Zone 1" soloing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsdFlotCrA
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altieboo
Boulder climber
Livermore, Ca/ Currently: Peoples Republic
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Nov 25, 2011 - 11:57pm PT
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gonamok
climber
dont make me come over there
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Nov 26, 2011 - 03:55am PT
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highball - you get hurt
free solo - you die
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Double D
climber
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Dec 15, 2011 - 12:00am PT
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and here I have the EBs.
Largo... It ain't the shoes bro.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 15, 2011 - 10:25am PT
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I'd like to hear more about those ancient photos Gill posted.
Who were those guys?
Why were they bouldering? I get it on the tower, but the other boulder looks like he's really bouldering for the sake of bouldering.
Shoes? No shoes?
Very neat, anyway you slice it.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Dec 15, 2011 - 08:46pm PT
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I'd like to hear more about those ancient photos Gill posted
Tom. go to my website for a history of bouldering, which began more or less in Great Britain during the later part of the 19th century. That's where the words "bouldering" and "problem" originated.
But it didn't become a recognized "sport" until the 1950s and 1960s.
John Gill's Website
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Jefe'
Boulder climber
Bishop
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Dec 15, 2011 - 09:43pm PT
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John, really appreciate your website.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 15, 2011 - 10:39pm PT
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That website is great. Thanks!
I'd write more, but I need to go read Gill's site.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Dec 15, 2011 - 10:51pm PT
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John Sherman pulled off some of our High Ball problems when he came to visit us.
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Dec 15, 2011 - 10:59pm PT
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How about bike shoes and no chalk?
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2 l l
Sport climber
Rancho Verga, CA
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highball - you get hurt
free solo - you die Logical enough, but I'd defer to Bachar (for one). Obviously he climbed full sized boulders, but he also spoke of a 'zone' rating on solos, where you could theoretically walk away from a fall (and he did, at times). For us mortals, anything above your own height is essentially a highball, taking into account twisting falls, bad landings and gravity herself.
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tarek
climber
berkeley
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there's tall stuff, low crux, good landing
tall, high crux, good landing
tall, high crux, horrendous shark's teeth below
not tall, super scary terrible landing anyway
had-it-wired, relaxed too much, cratered
"never came off that way before"
"my hand popped and I did a face-out"
not really high, but there's that big horn
not high, but slab crux at top
time-nearly-stopped-slo-mo mantel
conditions conditions conditions
etc.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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Highballing is a trendy term that IMHO the use accompanied, (and was coined by) the users of mats. BITD we just 'soloed'. I am often tickled by how 'low' some 'high'balling is....... I think the phrase 'Skyballing' better suits soloing with mats - say 25' and above.......
Steve
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Not necessary to do exclusively, but a continuing essential element of our paradigm.
I fell off a crack from 20' last year and broke my foot. I'd done the route, solo many times before. Two weeks later, I was climbing again on a limited basis, with two different sized climbing shoes. Later that summer I soloed a route on Devil's Tower, feeling all too mortal, which is a good way to feel when soloing. Haven't done any but the easiest solos since then. But sooner or later some crack will lure me up into the maim zone, I know it. That's how we're wired. But, as I grow in climbing, I take a more reasoned, more informed and less brazen approach.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Highballing is a trendy term that IMHO the use accompanied, (and was coined by) the users of mats.
Maybe in GB. But in SoCal the word goes back to at least the early 1980s.
As Pat notes, it's an old word in railroad circles.
I don't know the word's origins in climbing. But it could be a Largoism.
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spenchur
climber
Flagstaff/Thousand Oaks
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Highball bump
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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The baby boomers used to call mixed liquor drinks "highballs."
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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KLK said.....
'Maybe in GB. But in SoCal the word goes back to at least the early 1980s.'
So, it looks like it migrated, like; Big Macs, crap TV, teeth that are unfeasibly white, 'send', 'dude', 'stout', 'honed', 'rad' etc etc ;-)
I'm surprised no one has commented on the proximity of the term to another SoCal technique exported the world over, though Skyballing perhaps comes closer.
Regards,
Steve
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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that was really the generation before the boomers. like my parents
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Nice contributions!
Adge Last finishing the famous, and excellent, Stanage problem Not To Be Taken Away. Recent pic, from 2010.
When I learned climbing, in Northumberland, late 70s, some of the crags had no protection possibilities and no trees or boulders at the tops, just heather and grass and sheep--so, no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves.
Highballing is far more colorful.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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Crunch,
Do we know each other?
Steve
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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An example of what Crunch describes.
Steve
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Charlie B
Social climber
Santa Rosa, Ca
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Here's one of my favorite shots on one of the best highballs around.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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. . . no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves
Interestingly enough, Walter Perry Haskett Smith employed the same strategies when he more or less created the sport of rock climbing in England in the 1880s. No ropes at first, just scrambling up steeper and steeper terrain, high enough to be quite dangerous, but of course not of present day difficulty. What goes around comes around . . .
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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. . no rope used, mostly. Just bouldering, up to 15, 20 or even 30 feet high. We came up with "extended bouldering" to describe the problems that got high enough that you dare not jump off until you'd downclimbed a few moves'
Mind you, we were blessed with generally good landings...... and we became very adept at the dismounts.
Steve
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Not to be taken away is such a cool line. Awesome thread.
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Great bump Ryan D,
This thread has got some first rate historical photos from some of the OG's.
Especially like Largo's So High Tennis shoe shot. Holy F*#k! So high in tennies?....
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jun 26, 2016 - 10:03pm PT
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This is a thread that deserves a second wind. Just in the last few years, the phrase "highball" keeps getting stretched to the breaking point.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Jun 26, 2016 - 10:53pm PT
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What is the definition of a highball? Or are we meant to "know one when we see one"?
It is easily treatable.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 27, 2016 - 08:19am PT
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Great thread!
I think the word highball is much older than the baby boomers.
"There goes my eyeball into my highball" appears in an old jazz song Leprosy which can be found in the Unofficial Old College Songbook along with a host of other fine little ditties.
http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1950s/1950s_the_unofficial_college_song_book_(PB)/index.htm
I first heard the song as a kid when my dad used to break into it leaving me wondering just what this adulthood thing was really all about.
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dikhed
climber
State of fugue and disbelief
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Jun 27, 2016 - 09:19am PT
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With the shorts you guys were into wearing I would say that highball describes the spotter's view
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Jun 29, 2016 - 09:44pm PT
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Have there been any fatalities or serious injuries in recent years while engaged in highballing? As I rapidly approach eighty all this stuff looks very scary. Even as a young man I only did this sort of thing on rare occasions.
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| Messages 1 - 58 of total 58 in this topic |
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