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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Mar 10, 2010 - 03:47pm PT
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I think this GPA tale is the most revealing of all Sacherer lore!
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 10, 2010 - 04:57pm PT
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Yes, in the late 70's and early 80's I was spending my free time at Tahquitz and started ticking off solo's, starting with the easiest routes in the guidebook and working up. I didn't know anyone noticed me, but when I started in on 5.8s and 5.9s the local group of young hotshots started paying attention. They corralled me in the parking lot one day and took me over to Suicide Rock. Dave Katz started leading us all up a series of the local test pieces and I had a grand time following along. We ended up with Flakes of Wrath where Dave and I were the only ones able to do it. We both had a list of climbs where we'd never had a partner available. So we went on together to do The Vampire, The Flakes, and The Blank. Dave was a wonderfully capable climber. He persuaded me to work with him on establishing preparations to manufacture and market my secret solo belay device. But then my life wandered elsewhere and I lost touch with him. He was such a great climber that I expected to be reading about him in the climbing journals. I've often wondered what happened to him.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2010 - 05:53pm PT
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not too worried about this, and definitely not to stifle the conversation, but maybe a lot of Tom's recollections deserve their own thread that won't get lost in the Frank Sacherer material...
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 10, 2010 - 06:23pm PT
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I did do a couple of climbs with Jim Baldwin, but I never got to know him very well. We climbed the Harding Route on GPA. He managed to drop both our hammers, initiating a very adventurous descent rappelling from little shrubs and chockstones. Then we climbed the second ascent of the left side of Goodrich Pinnacle together. Again we had an adventurous descent when our ropes got hung up. Jim was certainly a strong and skilled free climber, for all his time spent hanging in slings on the Dihedral Wall. Jim suggested we do the East Face of the Washington Column together, but I figured we had already shared four near misses.
I was already an experienced search and rescue team member and a founding member of both the MRA and YOSAR. So I had been through it before and was a bit more prepared mentally for dealing with Jim's death. However we had all been leading charmed lives up to that point, and his death was very hard on all of us. I certainly saw that in Frank. We have a better understanding now of the effects of post traumatic stress. I have always wished that I could have been the one to go up for Jim's body rather than having to watch how it affected Frank.
My parents seriously didn't expect to see me reach the age of 20. When I got to be 25 I was taking stock and realized that I had at least 25 incidents where I have a hard time explaining to myself how I survived. I made a decision at that point to work hard at staying a bit farther back from the brink. I feel very lucky that my son can enjoy climbing the mountains with me and yet not feel obsessed and driven the way I was.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 10, 2010 - 06:28pm PT
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Ed, it's the endless challenge of taxonomies. Our lives are so intertwined, how do you organize dividing out the pieces without abandoning the big picture? Incidentally that's more or less a description of what I do for a living
I have been wanting to say how much I appreciate the understanding and encouragement this community has given to drawing out my stories. As has been pointed out, this is not particularly easy for me. Only a few of my closest friends have heard any of these stories before. And most of them have lacked the context of shared experiences from which to understand. I feel like moving out from under a cloud into sunshine
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Mar 10, 2010 - 07:05pm PT
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Wow. Some stories, Tom. You should write a book. You have an amazing recall.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 10, 2010 - 08:40pm PT
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Thank you for the encouragement. I've had a lot of friends pushing me to write a book, and a couple of authors have even started the project with me. Perhaps I've been too busy living it to stop and write about it. You folks have been doing a great job of drawing stories out of me at a time when there has been a breathing space in my work. I think this thread is sort of becoming a book. I come from a family of writers and spend much of my professional life writing; just that usually my writing is about technical systems designs.
The events that I remember so clearly are the ones that are burned into my consciousness by their intensity. One thing I'm realizing here that I hadn't thought much about is how greatly Frank Sacherer influenced my life and personality and thinking. Perhaps when you go through experiences like that together there is some sort of mixing of personalities. My uncle has bonds like that with his shipmates in the war with Japan in the South Pacific. They still get together for a reunion each year, although fewer of them each year as they move into their 90s. One of them wrote their book for them all.
Frank Sacherer deserves to have his legacy preserved for us all.
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dipper
climber
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Mar 10, 2010 - 08:56pm PT
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Tom,
Thanks so much for pushing this thread beyond excellent.
Your tales are the icing on the icing on the cake. And like chocolate cake, I'll devour all you serve up.
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Mar 11, 2010 - 01:18pm PT
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Question for Tom - After the Apron adventure did you climb with Frank again? How did you feel about him? I never saw him go over the edge like that, but we weren't pushing the envelope.
Your stories are way cool.
BBA
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 11, 2010 - 08:45pm PT
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BBA, those are very astute questions, not easy to answer, and no one has asked before. It's not simple to put my feelings into words, particularly without establishing the context; some of which is still mysterious to me. And I don’t want to just ramble on about it. The short answers are 1)yes, and 2)very tenuous.
I don’t want to convey the impression that all my climbs with Frank were grand dramas. I have many fond memories of happy days on a wonderful array of challenging climbs.
So as to whether we still climbed together; the answer is a qualified yes. I had been reading about Joe Brown’s impact on climbing in the Alps with newly developed skills in crack climbing. Up until that time Yosemite cracks were often considered nail-ups. Frank and I recognized that climbing jam cracks was the secret to freeing big walls. So a group of us were making regular trips to wrestle the cracks by Read’s Pinnacle and the Iota. At any one time there was some combination of Frank, me, Wally Read, Chris Fredericks, Gary Colliver, Jeff Foote, Mort Hemple, Steve Thompson, John Morton and probably others I’m not thinking of right now. We were all struggling to develop the techniques required to get up those cracks. I don’t recall that any one of us was clearly better at it, other than perhaps Wally Read. Frank was probably the most passionate about it. But I’m not the best one to tell that story; perhaps Gary or Chris. In any case we were getting better at it, and that was the period and place where Yosemite jamming techniques evolved.
The answer to your second question on how I felt about Frank after GPA is a bit more challenging. We were both going through serious soul searching during that period as well as changes in our lives. The last time I tried to do a climb with Frank was a plan to make the second ascent of the Inverted Staircase on Fairview dome. Four of us went up together in the car. Frank and I planned to do the Inverted Staircase. Bob Kamps and if I recall Chris Fredericks planned to do the regular route. I was at the base of the route flaking out the belay rope; willing to do the climb, but not feeling great about it. Frank got impatient and scrambled up the first pitch. He got overcommitted and scared himself, but made it to the belay ledge. Then he sat there expectantly, waiting for me to arrive with the rope and hardware. I was angry that he would make that commitment for me and wasn’t shy in letting him know it. He started calling me a wimp and a coward, and I was happy to agree with him. I had watched him get in trouble on it and wasn’t about to follow him with the pack, hardware and trailing rope. The other party offered to belay me to lead the pitch, but at that point I had lost all interest in climbing with Frank. So we switched partners and Kamps belayed the first pitch for Chris. Then I followed Kamps on a very subdued ascent of the regular route (We had both already done it a couple of times before.). I always respected Bob Kamps for being as capable as anyone while being safe and without getting drawn into the ego politics. That summer Frank started pushing FFAs on the G4 and G5 routes in the Valley. So you could say I walked away from a major opportunity. On the other hand I never got any credit for GPA...
I retreated to the Tetons and Wind Rivers for the summer. I did some nice free solos at my own comfort level in the mountains, including a couple of first ascents that nobody cares about. When Royal and Liz and I returned to Yosemite in the fall, we were running around doing repeats of Frank’s free ascents. I recall the day when Royal and I repeated free climbing the Sacherer Crackerer and Royal was amazed at how fast I got up it. I pointed out that I had already spent a lot of time on it with Frank working out the moves, although Frank and I didn’t manage it all free together. But I don't recall ever again climbing with Frank.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Mar 11, 2010 - 08:59pm PT
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Hi Tom
What year was your Apron adventure with Frank?
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 11, 2010 - 09:34pm PT
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Hi Eric, I've always wanted to meet you!
GPA - Spring of 1964
Would be interesting to see how my experience with Frank on GPA compares with yours on the Middle Rock DNB. I can imagine that he had matured.
I've been meaning to point out in this thread that many of the climbs that made Frank well known in Yosemite were done after I stopped climbing with him. Where's all the postings from his partners on those climbs?
Over to you...
Tom
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Mar 11, 2010 - 10:04pm PT
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Hi Tom,
Frank's partners on FA and FFA in the Valley who post on SuperTopo only include Jeff Dozier, Dick Erb, and Eric Beck. A various times, Eric and Dick have posted accounts of climbing with Frank. I don't recall that Jeff (DrDeeg) has talked about climbing with Frank. Bill Amborn (BAA) and Joe Mckeown (Guido) have posted several times about climbing with Frank.
Your recollections, as Ed has pointed out, add a lot to Frank's history in the Valley. Maybe some of the other climbers who were around in the early 60s will join in.
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Mar 12, 2010 - 12:26am PT
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Thanks, Tom. Some of the things you said about Frank were so spot on. I got a big kick out of engaging (baiting) Frank in discussion because when you got his attention you could just feel the intensity of his intellect and will kick in. And I agree with Roger about wanting to hear from others.
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John Morton
climber
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Mar 12, 2010 - 12:18pm PT
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Thanks for the stories, Tom. I was wishing for dates on everything. What year was your arrival (Rixon's, etc.), and can you date the "big four" alliance? That was the NA Wall party, and I remember it was thought of as basically unstable due to personality issues.
I was not along for any of Frank's major projects, but must have spoken with him for many hours about many things during 1963-67 when we were part of the same social circle on the Berkeley/Yosemite axis. As has been mentioned before, to many of us Frank stands out as the first to train seriously on the rock. Onsight was the style going into the sixties, but Frank saw that rehearsal and discipline were the keys to a breakthrough in standards.
Much of what is attributed to Sacherer - views on punishment/reward, self-mortification etc. - were current in our circle. I would say that most of us took it as part of our shared ironic humor, and it was fun to needle Frank for taking things seriously. But our opinions converged when it came to practical matters like whether it was a sin for x to step on a pin or whether you deserve a day off just because you did a IV yesterday.
I wish I could recall more. It does help to hear from others, many thanks to all. My account of a minor FFA with Frank is in this thread from 2004:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=40071&msg=40848#msg40848
John
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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Mar 12, 2010 - 02:38pm PT
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Hi John, It's been a long time!
I am working on a time track, trying to resolve various accountings for when things happened. I'm particularly interested in the relationships between certain key events.
Yes, intensive training is the ticket and Frank certainly did it. My opportunities with Royal and with Frank came from bringing the same intensive training to the rocks that I did to violin. I am sure this was also the case for Frank in his work with particle physics. The contrast between activities is also helpful in keeping motivated.
John Gill was the master. Frank and I trained hard, but Gill outclassed us all so far as to be essentially invisible. Gill appreciated my interest and coached me, but he was so much stronger and more skilled that it was hard to keep traction on the learning curve. To my knowledge Royal and I were the only ones attempting John's routes.
My judgment is that John Gill was 50 years ahead of anyone else. Frank and I discussed Gill and what would happen when climbers trained as seriously as Olympic athletes. I know Pat Ament also trained hard and learned from Gill. I have clear memories of Gill making moves in a fashion that still seem like magic in comparison to anyone else.
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L
climber
Yeah it's a furball...I TOLD you I was a cat!
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Mar 12, 2010 - 02:59pm PT
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Wow--what an amazing slice of history packed into one thread. Leave it to Dr. Ed to initiate the discourse.
I love your stories, Tom! Please keep 'em coming.
(And great photos, Clint!)
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Mar 12, 2010 - 05:13pm PT
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Hey Tom, just in case you missed the connection, your hero and ours, John Gill (jogill), commented on your posts and memory yesterday. As he likes to say, all us old guys have to stick together.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Mar 12, 2010 - 11:35pm PT
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Tom, you and Royal were the only ones trying Gill's
routes? Did I get that right? And Gill coached you?
When and where would that have been?
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