Best Supertopo Post in A Long Time...Thank you Kingtut

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micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 29, 2016 - 01:35pm PT

FOR SOME CONTEXT REGARDING THIS ELOQUENT RESPONSE JUST KNOW THAT SOME YOUNG FOOL BLEW OFF ROYAL ARCHES AS A LESS THAN MEMORABLE ROUTE. KINGTUT'S RESPONSE BELOW MADE MY DAY AND REMINDED ME JUST WHY I VISIT THIS SITE. JUST HAD TO SHARE IT. If you have others in the running for the "Best Post on Supertopo in a Long Time" go ahead and post 'em up here!

Did it yesterday. Didn't see what was all the hype about. IMO Snake dike is a lot better as the best 5.7 in the valley. No pitch on it was that memorable. A lot of dirty scrambling/walking, only a few kind of cool parts. Took longer to rapel than to climb it.

Ok, this has got my old fossil dander up RAwR! :)

F@$$RatF$%$ whipper snapper big deal popsicle soloist! Insulting my boyhood adventures!

DUDE.

BITD if you wanted to go rock climbing 25 years before gyms were invented you sacked up and learned to climb chimney, laybacks, fingers, hands and slab literally while on the Royal Arches. If you were lucky some fat guy named Harry Crags (IRL troof) took you up as your first climbing experience EVER.

The sum total of my climbing experience beforehand was books (heard of those???) The Royal Arches was Annapurna, Eiger: Wall of Death and Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills all rolled into one! Those were books I checked out of a "library". You begged, borrowed or stole a few stoppers and hexes and took the rope your parents bought you for xmas, snagged some used Robbins boots and got on that rig. It was 15' of 1" tubular for a harness, leg loops (?)...learned how to tie a water knot and a one handed bowline that day.

Lionel Terray, Ricardo Cassin, Ax Nelson, Gaston Rubberfat and John Muir et al climbed this directissima! Rumor had it there was an Italian party still encased in ice somewhere, lost in a storm sweeping in from antarctica....a sailor drilled the penji bolt standing on one naked toe and it was mank too! Unplanned bivies, cold, heat, thirst, waterfalls, pine needle death slabs, firewood...this climb had it all and a death march walk off too!

Opening chimney with ice water trickling down, previously numb hands aching thawing out in the sun above....Harry Crags taking a fall on the 5.7 above the ledge at the edge of the drop off, caught him on a fixed pin probably placed by Tenzing Norgay or some other legend...with a hip belay and had the rope burns to prove it...might need a rope gun to send that bad boy, had to work it....the pendulums awash in ankle deep water...no pro as the water was too deep, oh the humanity! Brrr cold!

Then THE LOG...woodpecker eaten, huge black ant living, piton drilled and slick, burnished by famous sweaty hands and piss soaked woolen knickers...this toothpick of a vibrating twig was like climbing Satan's rotten pecker spanning a void straight above hell...you can't imagine humping that swaying f*#ker with death between your legs...kids today...it wasn't sport bolted fun!

Once across, no going back. Could you retreat and reverse the penjis? No one knew. If you did you might find the remains of the Italians stuck forever on rappel...mmmkay...committed, summit or plummet! Onward and upward...some sketchy route finding...Up here? No...hurry, getting dark...then the no-pro pine needle death slab 1500' off the deck as the sun sets. I am telling you the verglass covered exit chimneys on the reggae North Face of the Eiger probably had nothing on this pitch done in full steel shank shoes...I think I blacked out...ma mere....ma mere...ma mere...

A race across the rim to get to NDG before dark, some wading in snow drifts in shadowed gullies, dusk deepening...contemplating many premature voids trying to sucker the unwary...Not today grim reaper! Keep moving...Got across the last bit of 3rd class and into the gulley right before pitch black, flashlight failed, headlamps weren't a thing...butt sliding in the dark down the sandy bits...crab walking the boulder field not being able to see your feet in the blackness...back to the car...alive! So alive!

Thanks, Harry Crags. I will never forget that day, something like March of 1976, as I probably imagined it as a boy of 15 at the time.

--------------------------------------

Floundering on the Royal Arches like a gumby, a single day spent...getting back to the car thinking you finally were a Yosemite climber having ascended one of those "un-climbable" walls where no tourist would ever tread...priceless.

A classic trial and route of passage.

Shitting on the Royal Arches is like saying the smores after the panty raid of the girl's camp weren't that great.

clinker

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, California

Sep 29, 2016 - 01:53pm PT

Sport Climbing is...

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Sep 29, 2016 - 02:01pm PT

What a great post! Thanks!

Bargainhunter

climber

Sep 29, 2016 - 02:09pm PT

That come back was precious. TFPU!

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Sep 29, 2016 - 02:10pm PT

Too funny!

To pile on, in 1975, Tim Schiller and I took my brother-in-law, who has never been climbing before or since, up it using one 50 meter rope, a rack of 4 Stoppers and 4 Hexcentrics (which was excessive), 1" webbing swami belts, and, for my brother-in-law, hiking boots. (In fairness, I'd been up it thrice before, at least).

The Rotten Log's demise robs the route of some of its charm, but it remains, for me, a better training ground for beginning trad climbers than Snake Dike, simply because it presents such a variety of problems. Yes, Snake Dike is cleaner (by a lot), and marvelous in its own right, but a beginner will learn much more about trad climbing spending a day on the Arches -- and the approach and descent are both easier than Snake Dike.

So there!

John

zBrown

Ice climber

Sep 29, 2016 - 02:14pm PT

Personal, personable and nary a 'tard' word to be found.

*

micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 29, 2016 - 02:42pm PT

Oh man the fact that it was Vitaliy (what a punk) makes it even better!

PAUL SOUZA

Trad climber

Central Valley, CA

Sep 29, 2016 - 03:01pm PT

I took a 10 year old boy up the Arches for his 3rd climb in Yosemite. That is, AFTER he climbed Sherry's Crack, 5.10b. His handle is "climbingkidcory." We had a blast that day and did it 2 years later. Those were the 2 of the most memorable days in my 7 years of climbing. Watching a 10 year old cruise the P1 chimney while figuring out how to climb chimneys. He puked halfway up P8 because he wanted to finish all 15 pitches so bad!

10 years old..

12 years old...

In other news...

Cory is a freshman in high school, buried in books, and a drummer in the jazz band. He's so busy in school now that I never see him anymore. :( He has another mentor who bought him a brand spankin new Cannondale road bike with all the bells and whistles. So he pedals everywhere now. PROUD!

Ed H

Trad climber

Santa Rosa, CA

Sep 29, 2016 - 03:18pm PT

Unplanned bivies, cold, heat, thirst, waterfalls, pine needle death slabs, firewood...this climb had it all and a death march walk off too!

That's the way it was and we liked it!

thedogfather

Trad climber

Somewhere near Red Rocks

Sep 29, 2016 - 06:06pm PT

Hey, that's me on the rotten log in 1976. It was my second multi-pitch after Snake Dike.

Daphne

Trad climber

Northern California

Sep 29, 2016 - 09:44pm PT

Man, that was one of my first multi-pitch climbs. I remember struggling and my partner saying, "It's only 5.7, you can climb 5.7." (The pitch was steep and wide for me, at the time. I wonder what I would think now.)

Vitaliy is a very different person now than back in 2012.

NutAgain!

Trad climber

South Pasadena, CA

Sep 30, 2016 - 11:04am PT

First post is great and nostalgic, and DMTs post is pretty hilarious too!

How many of us have a story about asking to pass someone and then bumbling it like a gumby? I gota pretty bad one.

micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 30, 2016 - 11:20am PT

DMT that made my day. What a couple of idiots. Proud send.

Fossil climber

Trad climber

Atlin, B. C.

Sep 30, 2016 - 01:25pm PT

When mentioning luminaries who have been on Arches, I had Tenzing Norway and Bill Anders (Apollo 8) on it on the same rope. We only did a few pitches as they didn't have time to do the whole route, but they loved it. Anders sent me his poster of the earth showing over the moon's edge with inscription saying that "...the adventure was almost as good as this one!" A bit of hyperbole, for sure, but one's perception of the Arches depends on the time and the circumstances. And don't forget rattlesnakes in the lieback as hazards!

ron gomez

Trad climber

fallbrook,ca

Sep 30, 2016 - 01:55pm PT

1977 no sticky rubber, no pendulum, no H2O proof stretchy parka. EB's, painters pants and "oh I didn't know thats where the pedulum was" so we free climbed it. Started raining right after this pitch...scarey schit back then, but it was all part of the fun and adventure. Still love this route and all the cool pitches on it.
Peace

Larry Nelson

Social climber

Sep 30, 2016 - 02:34pm PT

Great initial post plus Dingus's. Funny stuff...TFPU
Painter's pants, Rugby shirts, tennis shoes, hip belays, Munter hitches, biner brakes.
Climbing hard and getting strong in the gymn isn't the same.

zBrown

Ice climber

Sep 30, 2016 - 03:15pm PT

I must be missing something

Bingo, bango, bongo

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Sep 30, 2016 - 04:26pm PT

Good post but I,for one, agree that the Royal Arches is not a great route but deserves to be sampled once.

TomKimbrough

Social climber

Salt Lake City

Sep 30, 2016 - 07:23pm PT

Warbler - You shuda done it... Schmitzt and I done it back in '65. We didn't use the rope, maybe on the pendis, until the last pitch. It was covered with pine needles, covered! we put on the rope. Kim led.... He was sweeping the needles off with his jacket, It all worked, I followed.... So long ago.

couchmaster

climber

Sep 30, 2016 - 08:40pm PT

Did it last trip down with my son. Great climbing (still). Miss not introducing the lad to the horror show of the log, but that's the way the rotten log bounces:-)

Charlie D.

Trad climber

Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra

Oct 1, 2016 - 05:24am PT

Good post but I,for one, agree that the Royal Arches is not a great route but deserves to be sampled once.

As a pimple faced teen with a piton hammer stuffed in the back pocket climbing it with your long gone buddies, it was the greatest route in the world.

Great post kingtut, in the late sixties we took off up that thing late of course. It was hotter than all hell and like most folks back then hydration was something we knew little about other than no one wanted to carry much water. I think we had a quart between the 3 of us and it was well into the 90's.

Parched and unable to speak we reached the Valley late in the day with my tongue feeling like a sun dried tomato. Stumbling through the last remaining talus all three of us see sitting on top of a rock a freshly cut half a watermelon. We momentarily look at each other in utter disbelief. After the quick validating glances which confirmed its reality it was broke into rough thirds and devoured as quickly as a dropped hot dog witnessed by starving Labradors.

Every time I think of that watermelon I can't help but believe some picnickers must have seen us kids stumbling down through the boulders and oak leaves, quickly left it there and hid to see our reaction.

Great fun we have in these mountains eh? DMT you crack me up, great story.

Charlie D.

Flip Flop

climber

Earth Planet, Universe

Oct 1, 2016 - 08:51am PT

I never met a climb that I didn't like. Even that chossy guano coated OW was stupid fun. Royal Arches, in particular, has made for boatload of smiles for a boatload of people.

Lovable fun

rockermike

Trad climber

Berkeley

Oct 1, 2016 - 04:37pm PT

Nice post.

My first trip to the valley was spring of '77. I had maybe three years under my belt climbing at Smith. Had 5.7 down and was scratching at 5.8. But keep in mind the longest climbs at Smith are only three pitches long.
Arrived in the valley late and Joe and I took off for RA the first morning.
Cold morning had us wearing jackets but after one pitch we were sweating so we threw them back to the ground. Light and fast. 19 pitches later the sun is setting as we manage the pine needle traverse. Found our way to the rim with one flashlight but couldn't find NDG so collected wood and spent the sub freezing night in a cave stoking the fire. Still perhaps the biggest adventure I've had in the mountains. :)

PS. 30 years later I did the climb again with my 16 year old daughter. She wrote an essay about the climb which helped her in part to get into Princeton. Got to be a classic.

Ryan Evans

climber

Mammoth Lakes

Oct 1, 2016 - 06:54pm PT

Arches dude! Is it the quality of the climbing or the QUalITY of the route? I mean THE jams man!
Traditional climbing man freedom of the hill proving ground or a dirtbags romp up before cleaning the TOILets?

Seen a solo'er or two slip and slid up that start. A good check to see if you got your head on, or do you? getting to the top of that slick ol' chim chimney a little HIGHer of the ground then expected more than once. wel'p that over with time to hike for a while.

Some where early on arches above one of those MOVEs my friend called down for the rope. "you want me to throw you the rope? uhhhhhh and what belay you off a hand Jam???" So i throw the rope down. "OK ok wait a second now and let me climb higher" Just above was a tree in this crack, straddled that tooth pick and hip belayed. YIKES! Only had quick draws on the rack for Crest Jewel. Praise Jah for those tree's scattered up the route!.

speaking of trees how about the sandy ledge with the bush for shade! man whata place to catch some zzz's as the sh#t show climbs higher. Sat there with a buddy and darkly wondered if chimney sliding buddy was gonna make it, a hand appears"Woo glad to see your gripped face! The fun is up next!"

What a silly place for a rope swing right?! wonder when that other tree branch is gonna sNaP!
Nothing like 1000+ feet of air when you look down between your legs. All with a tasty refreshing gift from mother earth at the top before skidding and sliding your way down the eroding hell that is north dome gully. all in time to clock in late.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Oct 1, 2016 - 07:48pm PT

A partial post of mine from an older thread.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1816393&msg=1816393#msg1816393

The year was probably '71.

The time I had climbing the Arches with the boss's younger brother was a good nice everyday blue sky fast no problems up at six, back by twelve deal. I could not refuse, really, to take the squirt, all of fourteen and going on pure glee because he had gotten away from his brother, whom I will only call an as#@&%e one time and be done with it. Asshole doesn't deserve to be lambasted by me. He was in a Chevy ad once, though, that I remember noticing in the mid-seventies. There's the happy family guy and the happy family all over-joyed to be seeing the Yosemite in the USA in their Chevrolet.

The "boss" was Tom Williams, who bossed Len Singer in the Mtn. Shop, who bossed yours truly. His brother even thought he was an as#@&%e. His brother was cool. I told him that as a condition of the climb, he had to do the first chimney with no top-rope. This is a sure way to tell whole worlds about the ones who will do it because you say so. It always helps to explain that using the rope is a waste of time and they gotta coil it when they finish. Then they gotta carry it and the rack. Just flock them if they mess about. That sh#t don't cut it. This little Williams kid was fast and fearless. We did a fast ascent w/o pushing it. It was a bus-man's holiday for me. Tom, as#@&%e that he was, bought me a sixer of Schlitz.

I love the look on people's faces when they confront the slab at the end of the Arches. Lots of people are intimidated by exposure like that.

If it makes any difference, I heard Kim Schmitz relate, about his lovely GF Martie: "She does 5.7 that hairs me out, man."

So there it is, friends. It's probably had more misadventures on it than most climbs of its length and difficulty.