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rockgeir
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Bump for a great event!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Ho mahn... the stage is set...
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rockgeir
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Wow!! Nice Greg! I am stoked!!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Feb 12, 2015 - 08:23am PT
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Lets bump this back up. Coming up in TWO days!!!
See you Saturday!
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apozzi
Trad climber
Florida Gainesville
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Feb 13, 2015 - 03:53pm PT
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Steve
I may be too late but would love to tell you about my great trip with Jim Boyer and Kipp Metzger to put up Spaghetti Western, left of the Spring Route. It was my first time on the Baboquivari and have fond memories of it. Also my first of many visits to AZ.
I remember getting introduced to Tequila and mexican food at the ledge, by Jim and Kipp. I remember soft and crumbly rock and, while climbing the first pitch, looking down at the bushes for soft landing. We did not make holes other than the belays, if I remember well.
Just remember it as a magic place, getting to the top at sunset and coming down in the dark. I'll send picts if I find them.
Wish I'd be at the event.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 13, 2015 - 04:15pm PT
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HO MAN, THIS JUST FILLS THE IMAGINATION!!
THNX FOR SHARING!
HAVE FUN IN THE SUN!!
wish I could be there!
(been lurking for some time)
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Feb 13, 2015 - 08:46pm PT
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Party tomorrow! One more bump for the road!
Some classic AZ climbing history!!
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 13, 2015 - 09:08pm PT
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Have fun y'all.
And Geir, thanks for inviting Mari along today. She said she really enjoyed it.
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Scott McNamara
climber
Tucson, Arizona
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Feb 16, 2015 - 06:17am PT
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Thanks Steve, Mimi & Geir,
That was really fun!
Scott Mc
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Feb 16, 2015 - 09:16am PT
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Totally agree. Another winner by Steve and Mimi.
Was great to meet George Hurley.
As Royal Robbins would say, a great climbing spirit.
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takeme
Trad climber
tucson, az
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Feb 17, 2015 - 08:43am PT
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A great show, just like last year. Thanks to Steve, Mimi, and all the presenters. And Greg Opland for the great topos.
Fig's presentations really stood out for me. I have vivid pictures in my head of him ropeless, a thousand feet above Lion's Ledge.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2015 - 11:33am PT
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Granitica Festival III was another fantastic gathering and I want to thank everyone involved for their solid preparation and commitment to the quality of the program.
Two folks really stand out and they are:
Michael Enis- a renowned Tohono O'odham story teller who really set the stage for the Festival spiritually by allowing us to see Baboquvari and this part of the world through his eyes. He sang a wonderful song of welcome and introduction to the living world around us and told of his own ascent of Baboquivari when he was a teenager with his adventurous mother.
Greg Opland- his love of history and route details lead to both the route overlays which allowed the speakers and everyone else to visualize the climbs being discussed and the superb event poster which showed as many of the lines on the east face as we had solid information to locate. Greg has produced several fine guidebooks and has the solid graphic art skills that I hope to possess one day and deeply appreciate having access to now.
The speakers all did a fantastic job of putting the audience on the routes and in the adventures as they recalled them looking back and also deserve a very big THANK YOU for delivering a quality experience for those lucky folks in attendance! As I am fond of saying about these Festivals, I simply set the table and the speakers lay out the historical repast that nourishes and delights us all.
I am already working on a Grand Canyon climbing history event for next year so stay tuned!
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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Feb 17, 2015 - 01:12pm PT
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Thanks Steve for the wonderful show. I thought the introduction by the Native American speaker was great, it allowed us to understand the spiritual connection certain people have to the landscape, something which sadly seems to be lost these days.
Sorry I couldn't stay for Sunday's presentation.
Look forward to the Grand Canyon presentation.
Thanks again,
Albert
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2015 - 09:00pm PT
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Albert- It was great to see you and I was really inspired to see how many folks have been to all three Granitica Festivals!
It let's me know that we are moving the AZ community in a deeply entertaining way with these gatherings. So good to get everyone together and spend some quality time with my friends.
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rick d
climber
ol pueblo, az
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Apr 10, 2015 - 04:42pm PT
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metates from last weekend at the Riggs Ranch.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2015 - 02:03pm PT
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Thanks for the memory Rick!
I hadn't thought about those doorways in a very long time. As harsh as Thomas Canyon seems passing through those metates tell a very different and older story.
My good friend Gail McDonald was instrumental in getting Michael Enis to join us and she got inspired to go out and commune with Baboquivari Peak after the Festival. She wrote this to share her day and let me share it here.
Circumambulating Baboquivari- Fire and Ice
Day after Full Moon, March 7, 2015
In the East it is considered a great blessing if you can circumambulate a holy mountain in your lifetime. When I first heard of the possibility of circumambulating Baboquivari I longed to do it. At the recent Granitica Festival dedicated to the first ascents of the East Face of Baboquivari, the climbers spoke with such gratitude and respect of their times on Baboquivari that I determined to climb it on the next full moon-which was this past week.
My always willing adventurous friend Kim Clifton and I left town early afternoon, but the road into Riggs Ranch is now so bad we didn't arrive until 5 p.m. We set off through cattle climax thornbush and prickly pear. The new trail to the north saddle, scouted out since the drainage burned, has loose rock and dirt on the steeply eroding hillsides. We reached the saddle at dusk. A burned oak had conveniently crashed right next to the fire ring, so we had only to reach out for firewood to cook our veggee dogs. Strong winds surrounded us as the full moon rose. Somewhere around mid night a pygmy owl stopped on the branches overhead and sounded its single note call over and over.
We rose at dawn and then were confused by the new start to the Lion's Ledge trail: the saddle burned, there was downfall and the trail seemed more east than I recalled. We finally settled on the new cairned trail, again going over rocky eroded burned slopes. Lion's Ledge was spectacular, the East Face so impressive. The Spring Route looked difficult and the famous step off the tree looked like a thing of the past. Could climbers really step off the tree that is still there? There was plenty of water at the spring and in the cave. We saw only one dry mountain lion scat. As we crawled through some of the brush to avoid the steep rock at the edge of the trail I told Kim we should return with clippers to make the ledge easier. "Keep it wild, keep it difficult," he replied, echoing John Steiger's words at Granitica.
The South Arete was beautiful, with its vast view out of grasslands stretching to Mexico. Southeast Arete's first pitch looked inviting. And beyond the SE Arete, the furthest we'd ever been, was cairned! We found a lovely trail first through trees, and then through burned oaks. It was fine walking in the cool early morning shade, but I thought of how hot this route would be most of the year.
At the West Buttress we hit black locust, a great soil stabilizer after a burn, but a mass of thorns. We tore through that to reach the West Trail, also burned. Again we thought how hot all the approaches to Baboquivari have become. We hiked up the Great Ramp, still with some iron and lumber from the old ladders and cable-and came to our first patches of snow. We turned the corner to the Ladder Pitch, and walked through more burn. Ice chips shattered about us as we looked up at water runnning down the pitch. We could see ice above and in the middle of the pitch. I checked the first handholds and tricam placements: full of water. It took awhile to persuade myself to lead it. It's easy, but exposed at the base. "A fall would be catastrophic," I remembered Mike McEwen saying about exposed pitches. But finally I'toi led me through and I did the pitch. There was more ice in the gully leading up to the burned summit. At least you can't get lost coming off the summit, now that it's burned: you can see the route clearly.
>> 15 sky dancing ravens greeted us as we rounded the turn to the summit. Kim found a smudge on the summit cairn, lit it and made an offering of thanks. Swifts circled and raced right by our ears. As Michael Enis had asked, "Don't you always see birds when you go to Baboquivari?"
>> Soon we headed down, through more burn, past the 2 rappels on the Forbes Route, again through more burn, down to the North Saddle. The valleys west and east of the Saddle have burned. Fresh oak leaves now surround most of the burned oaks, and it will only be 10 years before they are head high. Golden smoke flowers were scattered here and there in the otherwise bare soil.
It was a sobering trip: the entire "lasso around Baboquivari" of which Michael Enis spoke, has burned-except for Lion's Ledge. It's definitely a hotter approach, with more steeply eroding slopes, laced with downed trees. Baboquivari's magic is unchanged however. It is always available, waiting to be experienced.
May we help others to experience the power and the magic of this world.
Thanks for all your help and inspiration, Gail
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Apr 19, 2015 - 05:56pm PT
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Babo is one of the greatest desert mountain summits in the USA!
Here is Margy, Gordo and I on the summit, sometime in the '80s.
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