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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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I have a suspicion that he's working on his cottage at Joshua Tree. Don't think he has internet there. Or perhaps other travels, or the vicissitudes of life.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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MH: Rich, is that the west face of Sentinel, the famous expanding flake pitch?
Yes. Originally rated A5, each pin driven loosened all the ones just placed. I think it had been down-graded to A3 by the time we did it, because pitons placed and left at the start and end of the flake kept it relatively expanded. Stannard had a unique approach to the expansion issue. He placed a hero loop against the rock, knot up, and (very gently) drove the pin over it so that the knot rested on the top of the pin. So rather than driving the pins straight up, he drove them at perhaps a 45 to 60 degree angle from the vertical. The wedging action of the knot on the pin and the friction of the hero loop against the rock provided body-weight placements with much less need to expand the flake.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Bump for a great gentleman who's done so much
for climbing.
It's a pleasure to know you, and have you on the taco, John!!!!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Fatty, now I like Johno even more.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Lots of good comments about John. Thanks Roger for starting this.
John was one of my inspirations way back when, and it was a joyous
day when we finally met and climbed together in Eldorado.
In your list, Roger, of the front four, I wonder if we couldn't
include Rich Goldstone, though Rich was more known for his bouldering.
He nevertheless was a phenomenal climber from that era. I guess
more accurately he started in Chicago and wound up in the Gunks, so
maybe he came a little after. He would have to give the timeline,
but I've always attached him in my mind to that phenomenal group of
climbers... In the East, Stannard was a stonemaster long before the
word was warped from master of rock....
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Guck
Trad climber
Santa Barbara, CA
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John has made exceptional contributions to the climbing world on two levels. His ability to lead committing routes, and his ethics on clean climbing. The second one is often overlooked, but in my view is as important as the first one. He taught us that one can be a super climber and at the same time be willing to pick up junk left by others. He has a profound respect for nature and has instigated or taken part in countless missions to clean trails. His commitment to clean climbing -on the rock and on the trail- is the kind of ethics that deserves the utmost admiration, and hopefully will be adopted by all climbers.
PS -Sorry John that I did not know who you were at dinner. See you at Facelift?
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2011 - 01:48pm PT
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At the Sacherer remembrance last May, John told the story of his early climbing to several of us at dinner over a glass of wine. John had a goal of making his first, first ascent a 5.10. He accomplished that in his second year, I think (but, on the other hand, myths don’t need no fact checking), and climbed Foops in his third season. He told us that the picture of him hanging on Foops shows his long underwear: It was late in the season and cold. John persisted in working the route to meet his goal of getting Foops done in his third season. I think Henry Barber made the second ascent of Foops in 1973. John really was a leading light for free and clean climbing and had an enormous, if silent, influence on us all.
Pat, in my opening post, I am qouting something published in Rock and Ice 1994 that included the reference to John, Steve, John, and Henry as the Front Four. I have never climbed in the Gunks, so I only use direct sources.
The picture Rich posted of John standing in slings at the far end of the expanding flake on the West Face of Sentinal is a great photo. I haven't done the route, but I recall Eric Beck, who did the first one day ascent with Sacherer in 1965, looped a sling around a knob on the outside of the flake halfway across thereby greatly reducing the risk of pulling a pin.
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MH2
climber
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This thread recapitulates a common occurrence: finding that John has been somewhere and done something earlier than some of us laggards suspected.
I remember John and the Eastern Trade from my time in the Gunks ('67 to '73). A small example of his influence would be the note in the Eastern Trade about how much surface area of aluminum it took to withstand a 2,000 lb shear force, illustrated for those of us who are visual learners, and comforting to those of us who used the gear but endeavored never to fall on it.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Yes and Stannard did some interesting tests of R.P.s... a whole
story there.
I'm not sure I've seen the photo of Stannard on the West Face. I did
that route in 1967, and yes there is a nubbin above the expanding flake,
about half way across the flake, and a sling around it makes for being
able to hang there and place a good next point (in our case a
piton, as nuts and Friends
and Aliens and such weren't there yet). The far left (north) end of
the flake is a big hook-like horn easy to lasso from about 3/4 the way
across the expanding flake. We had heard the talk about the A5
pitch, and it certainly wasn't A5 for us, but we were pretty well
practiced at aid in Eldorado and other Colorado haunts. When I did
the West Face we hauled a heavy bag, started up the night before, doing
two pitches, then bivouacked. We made it to the top with plenty of
time to have done those initial two pitches and realized we could have
done the route in a comfortable day had we not hauled that big lug
of a bag.... I was in good crack shape and didn't have trouble with
the Dog-legs. But not to digress too much. It didn't know John had
gone up on that route with Rich. Are we talking Rich Goldstone?
It would be nice to see Rich's
photo of John on Sentinel if it wouldn't be hard to post... Thanks,
Roger... Hope you are well.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2011 - 01:09pm PT
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Pat, rgold posted the picture on Sept 8, 2006, the 35th post, on this thread. I can see it fine one page back.
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Gene
climber
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Bruce Carson made the first clean ascent, solo, in 1973. His account of doing the A5 flake with sideways tensioned nuts was classic. First nut(s) placed for a pull left and perhaps down, all the rest tensioned against it for pull right/down. Must have been exciting, with only hexcentrics and stoppers, but IIRC, by then the Nose and NWFHD had been done clean, so the idea of a long, hammerless wall was established.
According to the AAJ article on this thread (http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=445546&msg=446880#msg446880 Bruce's solo of the WF Sentinal was before the first clean climbs on RNWFHD and the Nose. Very bold stuff.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Thanks Roger, I see it now. Really nice, one of the better shots
of that elegant position.
As for things being really exciting with nuts and clean climbing, actually
it was much easier once nuts, R.P.s, Friends, cams, and so forth
came into use. It was when we only had pitons that such a pitch
as the flake on Sentinel was tricky!!! The nice small clean stuff goes
up under the flake nicely, no expanding piton action at all!
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scuffy b
climber
dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene
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I had been told of that expanding flake being climbed clean prior to
Bruce Carson's ascent.* My respondent told me it seemed much better than
the notion of nailing it, said it was nothing like A5.
To be clear, he did not claim to have done the entire climb clean.
*I mean, I was told this before Bruce's clean ascent.
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
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I want to hear some Seneca Rocks stories, I believe John put up the first 5.11 there at seneca and Possibly on the East coast.
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jstan
climber
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Jun 29, 2011 - 10:54pm PT
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Anders is correct I spent the last two months working on the place in JT. Out of it I have come up with an entirely new approach to climbing protection.
None is needed.
Just drag a 100 foot long power cord behind you. You can count on it. They will snag on anything.
JO:
So far, I am finding old age is much like youth. Each day your first task is to find out how much your abilities have changed since the previous day.
Wedge:
One of my favorite climbing days at Seneca came when George Livingstone and Tom Evans decided to go try a big roof at the south end. We enjoyed the failure immensely. Each of us had just consumed an entire strawberry rhubarb pie baked in Mouth of Seneca.
I distinctly remember it was all I could do to bend over and put my RD's on.
Guck:
Am planning, as usual, on Facelift. Will be very interested to find out how that great house of yours has developed. Every time there is a fire I worry how you and Dave will fare. The last one nearly got to us even down here on the flats. This is one excitement we can do without.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 30, 2011 - 01:04am PT
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murcy: John had taken all his camping stuff on public transportation all the way from god knows where to the Valley.
His usual FaceLift routine, quite in the spirit of the event, is to take public transit. Originally bus from Santa Barbara to Bakersfield (?), then AmTrak to Merced, then YARTS bus to the Valley. Schlepping all his stuff, including (2010) his new mattock, and his plaque. Although he packs rather lightly compared with most. Year 1 (2006) he got stranded overnight in Merced. Since then, I've usually met him in Merced or Modesto, and given him a ride up from there. Works very well, and by then I need some company. It's a long solo drive from Vancouver.
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Jun 30, 2011 - 02:32am PT
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Roger, we've never met and I know this is more than a bit off the subject but, do you recognize or know of this route......
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2011 - 09:19am PT
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Morning KP Ariza,
I opened the thread since it is about John. So even if this is thread drift, we'll just have to figure out a way to include John.
My instant reaction is that the pitch is Smee's Come On at the base of El Cap, just under Wendy. Dave Bircheff and I climbed it in 1975 (I think) along with another route Lost Boys.
The curly, long brown hair of the leader also made me think it was of me, but I quickly realized that more than one person had long, curly brown hair. The more surprising bit, assuming that this is Smee's Come On, is that it is getting a second ascent, from someone one who is trying to impersonate me when I had brown hair. (So John, can you calculate the odds of that? Come on, it's your thread!)
Is this you climbing KP Ariza? The credit says Eric Kohl. What's the story?
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jstan
climber
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Jun 30, 2011 - 12:12pm PT
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The climber's attire was from an era preceding the stretchy stuff. The seam on the leg always tore after converting a pair of pants into shorts. Life was so intently straightforward.
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