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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:26pm PT
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should midnight lightning be blown up ?????? Why is it leaking air? I didn't know it was inflatable.
Huh, leaking and inflatable, interesting analogue for the egos of the grunting, swearing pad people hanging around on it all day
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WBraun
climber
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:36pm PT
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Why is it leaking air? I didn't know it was inflatable.
Good one
+1111
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:39pm PT
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http://youtu.be/Z7rXPjWfjvE
Speaking of leaking air, this should clear out the riff raff.
Thanks to the Hankster for the vid.
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:47pm PT
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I think I get it. It's silly for these people to flock to Yosemite to test themselves on an iconic climb, especially with modern advantages that ease the difficulty and commitment. They should aspire to Astroman or The Nose instead.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:51pm PT
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This is kind of an amusing thread, silly as it is. Columbia Boulder
sits there so large, like an overly large adam's apple,
stuck in a climber's throat, there to nemesis the consciousness
or unconscious of climbers. Understandable that some would hate that
beautiful accomplishment Midnight Lightning,but
it is an affront to mediocrity. Many of my friends have climbed
it in good style, Chris Jones, John Sherman, Hans, Lynn Hill..., I
don't know why it never drew me to it to at least try. I've never
even felt the first holds, but I think some part of me likes to
think the route is just there now as a monument to Ron and John and
their years of life in the Valley. When I pass by that rock actually
I think of Barry Bates and his route on the north side. I think of
routes Royal, Steck, Chouinard, and others did on the west side,
without incredible shoes and without chalk.
I think of Pratt who climbed the big highball lichen slab on the
upper-right west side in army boots one night drunk. I even did a
new route on the rock in my heyday, '67, on that left-hand overhang of
the west face. John Long did the route with a more difficult start,
when a boulder at the bottom got removed. What an iconic piece of
granite and probably the biggest thing to come sailing down from
the upper reaches. Maybe the Wine Boulder is bigger...? All one has
to do is stroll by Columbia Boulder and sense some of the precious
history. Don't try to equal it, don't try to surpass it. You can't.
Those were different days. To climb 5.9 in the '50s was comparable
to doing 5.14 today. Everything's relative to the age. Hold onto
the history, keep it alive, appreciate your predecessors.... Take
your own measure of light and bask in its warm gift.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:56pm PT
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splitter
Trad climber
Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Sep 20, 2012 - 12:59pm PT
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Who is this radical?
He is still here and still whining ... he's just shifted his focus! lol
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:01pm PT
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Well said Pat, nice perspective. Something for the "Me" generation to contemplate. :)
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:03pm PT
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10b4me
Ice climber
dingy room at the Happy boulders hotel
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:08pm PT
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Just make it self inflating
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Ropeboy
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:15pm PT
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That is a really big chunk of granite to stay in one piece after falling and rolling onto the valley floor. I would guess there a few tree trunks and perhaps a very flat squirrel underneath it.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:25pm PT
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I know how to shape C4......off for a few day climbing trip but I'll be available soon.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:44pm PT
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I loved the opportunity to watch someone send the ML in the dark with a headlamp two nites back. I loathe bouldering and it's the most silly thing to see wee pads now. It is like I am the hippo fart, long-winded and really spraying, I know. I never had much use for the crowded and ego-centric groups, and honestly, it is because I lacked the requisite strength to compete. Raise your hands, those who feel the same. My envy and spite knew no bounds and no boulderer, from Gill and Kampsand Bates and Kauk on down gained my respect by performing many feet off the ground.
I love Buttermilk more than I can express and it pains me to see the named given to boulders, essentially. No hands variants of certain problems, doing problems upside down or backwards, it's all showing off, don't frigging dress it up. It's human potential being driven to its mmad modern max. It's a game in which we devise not only boulder problems but incomprehensible (Rick, I did it!) and elaborate systems to compare problems' severity. "Not so hard. Hard. Yer gonna die." Simple.
The so-called lightning bolt is a miserably drawn daub that could be carefully removed by a competent art restorer.
There is a ready-made base for a boulder in the area twixt the SAR sites and the Camp 4 Proper (the Camp 4 Proper--use it on the climbs at the top of the talus, like Camp 4 Tree, Terror, etc.). Or we could use it as the base for an outdooorsy little four-sided gym wall, better yet.
A ringing "Amen," Pat.
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:50pm PT
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Ever was the time when youth would pine,
Standing in clan to take the measure of the man.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 20, 2012 - 01:55pm PT
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Every boulder is inevitably nothing more than billions of grains of sand mixed in with a few molecules of chalk.
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Gilwad
climber
Frozen In Somewhere
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Sep 20, 2012 - 03:14pm PT
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Blowing up Midnight Lightnight doesn't go remotely far enough. Why, every time I open a climbing rag there are pictures of some over-heated, over-populated, over-shot, over-exposed, over-done, over-remininsced about, etc., ditch in the dirt.
Blowing up Midnight lightning would only free those obsessed with a small boulder. A much better solution would be to dam the whole valley and free a much larger group obsessing over a few square miles of rock. And the lake would be awesome; great swimming, deep water soloing the top of El Cap, no more annoying base jumpers opening, I wouldn't have to read about some punter soloing some ancient POS aid route like it's a big deal, etc. If blowing up midnight lightning would save the boulderers from their small world view then surely damming Yosemite valley would save far more present and past souls who orbit around it like braying cows on some over-licked block of mineral salts? Outside of the United States Yosemite rates somewhere between a, "Where?" and a, "Oh, the Huber Brothers Place." Not many would truly miss it, and yet so many would be free!
And someone will probably take the above as seriously as the post that started this topic, grin... Looking forward to another valley trip next year, what the hell. Still haven't sent Midnight LIghtning.
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Michelle
Trad climber
the f*#king peninsula.
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Sep 20, 2012 - 03:15pm PT
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I thought you might like this Riley!
I prefer the Warren Harding bust idea best.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Sep 20, 2012 - 03:22pm PT
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Gilwad, I disagree.
While waterskiing alongside the Captain sounds fun the lake would preclude new off road vehicle trails which, everybody knows, is what all tourists love most.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Sep 20, 2012 - 03:35pm PT
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My hard-won expertise at removing graffiti should come in handy when removing the lightning bolt. (I'll bring the needed supplies to the FaceLift.) Carving the rock into busts of (say) Muir, Brower, Robbbins and a fourth person, might provide an attraction for tourists - a real money maker. Probably the naming rights would be quite valuable, too.
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splitter
Trad climber
Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Sep 20, 2012 - 05:42pm PT
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MH - Muir, Brower, Robbins and a fourth person. Muir, Brower, Robbins & Yabo!
edit: ML is Yabo's legacy (in a nutshell) to C4. ML & its chalked lightning bolt symbol will continue to abide FoEvah, just like JFK's eternal flame at Arlington!
btw, JY was the epitomy of the "dirtbag" climber lifestyle, imo! And whatever connotation you apply to the dirtbag moniker, Yabo had a heart of gold and would have given YOU his last dime if you were in need of it.
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