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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 15, 2013 - 06:04pm PT
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Is there a History? Are there routes? Anybody got close-ups or adventures focused on it? It's the high isollated pinnacle in the center of the photo with a bit of sunlight on it. I have always wondered about it and I'm getting tired of wondering. It is absolutely beautiful from several locations. It seems like it would have some kind of significance like the Winneduma Pinnacle; hard to get to - has climbing route......and history. Somebody here has to have better pics than this. Maybe it's just the most wondered about pinnacle in the Sierra.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 06:09pm PT
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Why didn't I think of that!
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10b4me
Boulder climber
Somewhere on 395
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Feb 15, 2013 - 06:14pm PT
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I disagree. that's the yer gonna die pinnacle. Gr.VII, Cl 3X
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 06:17pm PT
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I'm gonna go there this year come hell or high water!
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Capt.
climber
some eastside hovel
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Feb 15, 2013 - 06:44pm PT
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I definitely know what yer talkin' about.Been lookin' at that fer a while.No knowledge about it though.Let me know what ya find.
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Banquo
climber
Amerricka
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Feb 15, 2013 - 06:52pm PT
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Had a crappy camera on that hike.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 07:05pm PT
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I like the looks of Whitney Portal Buttress in that last shot - it's the big fin in the background that almost mimicks the pinnacle except that it leans in the opposite direction - the left skyline of it tapers right - have never seen it from there.
Banquo; Was it a hike? You must be on east ridge. Thanks! Looks off-width to maybe full chimney?
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Banquo
climber
Amerricka
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Feb 15, 2013 - 07:30pm PT
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The NE ridge is no harder than five.fun. Some exposure in spots but nothing extreme. We had a rope and small rack. Since we had a rope, we eventually tied in. While roped we mostly simulclimbed on a doubled half rope setting a piece when it felt right to do so. We did rappel once but another way might be found. Car to car took us more than a day. We summited and descended the Meysan Lakes trail. Since there is no water up there in August, we started off loaded with two days water and food.
We left the car at 10 AM and the last shot above was taken at 3 PM. I am not particularly fast.
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crøtch
climber
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Feb 15, 2013 - 07:32pm PT
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Is that The Pulpit? If so, I've been told there's a 5.8 route up it. I tried to climb it once, but got bogged down in the approach.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 07:36pm PT
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Nice. Have always wondered what it would be like to just wander up the East Face of Lone Pine Pk. Here's a slab on the north side of the North Ridge - was doing some artful scanning today.
That is from this
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krahmes
Social climber
Stumptown
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Feb 15, 2013 - 08:30pm PT
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We called it the torch..
I followed Myles up it a couple of years ago now...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 15, 2013 - 08:53pm PT
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Didn't Shakespeare write a play about this pinnacle?
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 09:05pm PT
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Alrighty then! That's Awesome! So the bit wide shot looks like the back side. Reilly, it was the Much Ado about nothing play. Did you try to do a route up to it that has merit? Photos? I Vant more photos!
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Feb 15, 2013 - 09:18pm PT
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Hi Dan, I've done that NE Ridge, but there was a lot of snow and stuff so we took a pass on the pinnacle. AS I recall it's called the onlooker or overseer or some such thing.
I'd go back up there anytime.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 09:38pm PT
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From where I sit in my armchair, I've almost had enough of this one already. I mean as far as actually climbing it.......better get a smiley face in here so you know I'm kidding.... :>)
I remember the Onlooker name now that you mention it. Alright, so let's put it on the list.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Feb 15, 2013 - 10:13pm PT
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That NE Ridge is a great climb. A bit of a slog getting up to the good stuff but then it is nice exposed climbing all the way up.
Per the earlier post we did one rap as well and I cannot say if there is a reasonable way around that. We were in danger of electrocution at the moment and did the rap fast and ducked down the S side of the ridge.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 10:27pm PT
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Sorry Dingus - that won't do. What is it though?
This thread has worked out so well I'll ask if anyone has climbed the bowl of the East Face. There's such a huge amount of rock in there - like a Clouds Rest amount - seems like it would be an amazing ocean of rock experience. That's what I've always wanted to do - just be surrounded by all of that rock in there! Stone me!
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julton
climber
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Feb 15, 2013 - 10:42pm PT
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 10:55pm PT
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Nice. By the way, where is Goldfinger? I'm not saying that's it but much like it.....if it's not it! Beckey and Brown did the first ascent and I remember a very outstanding photo in Summit Magazine - way back late 60s.
A little research shows Goldfinger on the CLEAVER. Goldfinger is 125 feet high........better put it on the list. Goldfinger AAJ (Sawtooth Ridge, Sierra Nevada, CA) 1969: 393
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Feb 16, 2013 - 01:23am PT
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As referenced by Dan...
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crøtch
climber
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Feb 16, 2013 - 01:39am PT
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Hey Dingus. I've been up a couple of pitches on that one. Bailed when it got to a roof/chimney thing maybe on the third pitch. Killer line and a nice find. I'd like to go back now with a bit more chimney experience under my belt.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 16, 2013 - 01:58am PT
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Seamoan, we should all go climb Goldfinger en masse. Doesn't look like anyone could get hurt.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Feb 16, 2013 - 02:54am PT
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Agreed Dan!
You did a bunch of stuff with Beckey and Joe Brown when you were a wee lad... any pics/stories?
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 16, 2013 - 03:26am PT
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I was lucky to meet Fred through Joe. This pic is from about 68 or 69 in Oak Creek Canyon. I don't know if the left tower was called Church Tower or if Fred named it that - it was even Easter I think - all part of Fred's plan - had to be! We did a route on the back side and put a nice bolt ladder up too! I got to do that after a bit of nailing, and got to use the bolt hangers I had made. I made bolt hangers for Fred back then even though I was only 16 or 17, having some intuitive engineering skills, plus some high school metal shop experience. The hangers were made of 2024-t4 angle stock I'm pretty sure, and I knew enough to drill the holes as close to the spine of the extruded angle as possible.
Anyway, at the end of the bolt ladder I set up a hanging belay and when Fred came up he was pretty impatient for having had to wait so long for the bolt ladder. I didn't have my rope skills down very well yet, and he started throwing me around like I was a haul bag so he could get to things and unf*#k them. That's all I really remember of that climb besides rapping off. It was all fun.
My best all time Beckey Climb was with him and Galen Rowell climbing the East Face of Mt. Powell in June of 69. I turned 17 just a few weeks earlier and I get hooked up with these guys to do a 1st ascent on a 13,000 foot peak! I think I came pretty close to getting killed for the first time! I had my left hand jammed in a 2" crack while pounding out a belay pin when a soccer ball size rock came out of the blue and ripped my hand out of the crack. It had to happen pretty fast of course and fortunately the rock caught my elbow in a way that it just ripped my hand out of the crack without breaking my arm. My elbow caught the rock just long enough for the hand to release allowing the arm to open and let the rock continue on! If it had hit my forearm things would have been very different. I'm pretty sure we were not wearing helmuts either - even though I had one at home. It was pretty freaky - and I already had premonitions of dying up there. I think the rockfall may have been triggered by having to haul a hammer back and forth because one of us dropped a hammer. I was well enough to jumar after the hit, and by the end of the climb was well enough to lead the final easy pich.
There are plenty of gems to talk about, like when I got to hear Galen let out a scream when he slipped on a short slab after going free above an overhang he nailed - I learned that even these guys get scared - Galen must have been about 23. Fred would have been only 43. On the way down - glissading down the snow gully from the summit plateau, Fred caught his leg behind a hidden boulder and almost broke it. On the way up the steep snow slope to start the climb, all I was thinking about was how the hell I could get out of there - not sure why - don't remember - just stark existential exposure in the High Sierra! We probably did the usual 3rd classing at the base - you don't rope up till you almost die - I distinctly remember more than anything else that day, that I could still leap off the climb from that point and go several hundred feet to the steep soft snow below and survive. Thinking about doing that jump was relieving for me compared to continuing on - I figured the outcome was still predictable but onward I went!
After the climb and back at camp, probably more like the base of the snow slope below the face, we stopped to regroup and I decided to wring the water out of my socks. I thinks that's when those guys took off - we all probably figured I could just follow the snow trail and catch up. That worked just fine until the snow ran out about the time it got dark, and I had no headlamp! There's a gully up there that drops straight down to Lake Sabrina and the trail faked me out by crossing the gully there without going down - that's were I went down and ended up boulder hopping all the way around the shore of Lake Sabrina in the dark. At some point Rowell positioned his Corvette to shine his carlights across the lake and that helped - not sure how he figured he would see me but it worked out - maybe that was Fred's idea.
But wait, it's not over till it's over and it wasn't over till we all survived the ride back over Tioga Pass and back down into Yosemite Valley in Galen's FAST Corvette. That was one wild ride. If my mother really knew who she was letting me hang out with.......! Galen was driving as fast as he could - I was sitting in the middle on the console with Fred on the right. It was all pretty fun and funny - many years later a scene from Clockwork Orange reminded me of it! We were probably all too happy to have survived the East Face of Mt Powell to worry about dying in a car!
Photo of Church Tower, Oak Creek Canyon, AZ, Dan McHale on left and Joe Brown, Fred Beckey photo. Joe Brown, in his late 60s is a long-distance road-bicycle racer.
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Michelle
Social climber
Toshi's Station, picking up power converters.
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Feb 16, 2013 - 04:44am PT
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Goldfinger has always caught my eye.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2013 - 11:35pm PT
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I think I catch your drift.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 20, 2013 - 12:48am PT
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From the Meysan Lakes trail...
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2013 - 12:57am PT
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I'd like to wander up through there. Anyone know the movie Picknick At Hanging Rock?
Did you see my NW Face pick on the Sierra Appreciation thread?
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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Feb 20, 2013 - 01:11am PT
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Wow McHale, that was one hell of a Fred and Galen recounting. The stuff that makes this forum great...thanks!
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 20, 2013 - 01:14am PT
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Glad you like. I never really wrote that up before - just been carrying it around in my head!
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