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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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So, if I understand your unhappiness, it's that there aren't enough posts about climbing, and too many posts about other sh#t. That about sum it up?
Well, yeah, sometimes seems that way. But there are a few things that makes me want to say...
Don't like the politard sh#t? Then don't click on it.
Don't like it that climbing posts are pushed out of sight by the other sh#t? Yeah, I... Hey, wait a minute... I don't read everything on ST, but if what I do read is any indication, the poster known as PTPP (yeah, that would be you) posts mostly about what wine he drank last Friday. Well, that and selfies of himself and Anita.
Is there a teachable moment somewhere in this?
(And, for the record, I have no problem with you posting about your Friday night beveridge or your sweetie. Fine with me -- I enjoy that along with the climbing stuff.)
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Shouldn't you be getting drunk?
Oh wait-that was last night, my bad.
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Ben Harland
Gym climber
Kenora, ON
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RE climbing content: Hey Pete, any chance you feel like telling us the story of the Monument up at Lions Head?
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Clinging content.
Wasn't it Mother Superior who jumped the gun?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2017 - 08:11pm PT
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No whack, but plenty of dangle!
John Kaandorp, Steve DeMaio and I were - so far as I am aware - the first climbers to ever walk along the base of White Bluff on Georgian Bay, opposite the Lion's Head crag where we also put up the first routes [all trad lines, no bolts]
Walking along the base of White Bluff, our eyes just about popped out of our heads when we saw this amazing roof crack!
We threw paper-rock-scissors to see who got to lead the roof. I guess we aided up the corner, took a belay on the inside, and I think we split it into three pitches. I seem to recall I got the roof crack - pretty rad. We of course knew little about aid climbing, but managed to get across it.
Not my photos, just my route..... stolen off Mr. Google
I remember an epic rappel in the dark from a bunch of bushes at the top of the crag, stuck ropes, and all that.
Later on the phone I told Dave Smart that we had discovered a 30-foot roof crack "somewhere on the escarpment". Steve DeMaio was so incensed that I revealed the very existence of the crack, he wanted to call the route Breach of Faith, for my breach of our secrecy pact. He had just read The Breach, that silly novel based on [the author's idea of] real life written by some pussy who wouldn't name Henry Barber, who allegedly abandoned him on Mt. Kenya, when Mt. Kenya still had snow and ice.
I've forgotten what we actually named the roof crack, The Monument was a far better name chosen by someone later.
It was too hard for me to free climb, way out of my league, but John and Steve took a whack at it. Eventually the brothers Smart got round to it, but they too never free climbed it. Amazingly, Peter Croft came [probably brought by Reg and Dave] and flashed the thing on sight - damned impressive, possibly one of the great on sight ascents in climbig history!
Kaandorp took forever to get laid, poor bastard, even longer than me! He finally hooked up with his buddy Joe Oliver's cousin Kit. Her dad was a pharmacist and she provided free condoms!
So John named a route at White Bluff "Tik in the Toc" as in "Kit in the Cot". For years the route appeared misspelled as "Tick in the Tock".
Similarly, he put up another route named Sir Od, named after Dr. Doris Ullman, a girl we used to see at the Bon Echo hut, and with whom John was somewhat infatuated. Of course, that route was misspelled Sir Odd. Over on Metcalfe Rock, I think that one was.
Speaking of Metcalfe Rock, on the first ascent of the immodestly named Dynamic Duo, John and I ran up to the crag in the dark the night before, to see if there was any chalk in the crack. There wasn't, and we were worried that Pete Reilly might scoop us on the FA.
The next morning, John suggested we warm up on something easy. There was a nice looking hand crack a little way right, so I thought I'd have a go at it. Turned out to have a pretty hard start with no pro. The kids from a nearby camp said they called it Superman, but no one had ever led it. I nearly blew it, but somehow managed to wobble up. Some warmup.
When Dave Smart wrote it up in the guidebook, he said "Superman - you'd better not goof the crux on this one unless you can fly!"
Bolts?! We don't need no STEENKEENG bolts!
[Thanks for asking, Ben. Hey - do you have a "Kenora Dinner Jacket"??]
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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John Kaandorp, Steve DeMaio and I were - so far as I am aware - the first climbers to ever walk along the base of White Bluff
Steve got involved in some great rock climbing in Alberta. Any idea where he is now? Or what he's been doing for the last twenty years?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2017 - 08:20pm PT
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Steve's out west someplace, an engineer in the oil and gas industry last I heard in the Calgary area.
He had quite an epic on Mt. Peter What's His Name the politician where his partner died on the mountain after a lead fall.
Steve did some bad ass stuff on Yamnuska, and even scarier stuff on Chinaman's Peak above Canmore. I wonder if that have renamed it Asian Person's Hat?
I haven't stayed in touch with either of them, as neither appears to be interested in climbing forums or Facebook or any of that stuff.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Steve is around Calgary. Maybe semi retired? I haven't seen him in a while.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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He and Jeff Marshall climbed a big wall on Windtower. They called it "Iron Butterfly" Steve sent me a fairly haunted and haunting story about it for the CAJ way back in the late 80s.
I think some fairly badass climbers have tried to repeat it, but no one has succeeded.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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As Ghost posted:
Don't like it that climbing posts are pushed out of sight by the other sh#t? Yeah, I... Hey, wait a minute... I don't read everything on ST, but if what I do read is any indication, the poster known as PTPP (yeah, that would be you) posts mostly about what wine he drank last Friday. Well, that and selfies of himself and Anita.
Is there a teachable moment somewhere in this?
Yeah! It's never pretty, when an old ST poesteur suddenly decides to get reformed and berate his fellow sinners.
Luckily, I'm not------reformed. Sluuuurp!
Hey! I even posted a climbing trip report within the last 18 months.
A SLICK ROCK Adventure in Idaho with a single Blue Camalot Belay aug.2015
http://www.supertopo.com/tr/A-SLICK-ROCK-Adventure-in-Idaho-with-a-single-Blue-Camalot-Belay/t12821n.html
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WyoRockMan
climber
Grizzlyville, WY
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It's kinda like golf.
You play a round, let's say you shoot 105 because you're a wanna/never.
Of those strokes (minus the mulligans of course) maybe 2-3 are in that sweet spot. The oh yeah, I feel it, kind of stroke.
So you come back. In anticipation of that 2-3.
Posts are similar in ratio, the good ones are worth the waste of the others.
But it's all fun. Especially if you can laugh at the ones that are too damn serious.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2017 - 08:55pm PT
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Yes, Peter Lougheed.
True, dat - except whenever I played, there was only ONE shot that made me want to come back.
"You know, Pete - you could be a pretty good golfer, if you could learn to hit the ball straight..."
"You wanna break a hundred? Go around, not over, the water hazard...."
Maybe you guys are restoring my faith in McTopo.....
Hey - we get a new You Ess Ambassador. They recalled the last guy, gonna send in a new one. Hopefully one in favour of oil and stuff, so we can get the oil sands back up and running. You know, give Steve DeMaio some more work!
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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I feel so lucky to have befriended Fly'n Brian in his last decade. This is him climbing an A4 beak crack first ascent out in nowhere. If he had fallen in the first 70' of this pitch he would have slammed down onto us and the tiny ledge (he ended up having to drill a bolt and free climbing a lengthy section of "5.9" when the seam ended).
I only know of one of Brian's A4 first ascents that has seen a repeat (Sauron's Eye). Sure mss that man.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Roll back the clock by putting WOS on this years itinerary. Seriously though, what routes have you climbed on The Captain and is anything on your bucket list?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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topo pity party
i miss weej for the fortieth time
i just realized how much i miss whitemeat
something is rong but i don't know what it is
but still you won't throw away your eye phone
will you, mister jones?
--mfm
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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By your definition I think that I personally have jumped the shark. Lots of good company here though.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Jump the Shark? More like jump the Tuna. Or one of those Cialis commercials.
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
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So I dismiss Anita as "out of my league
'Nuff said. ;)
Susan
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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jumped the shark... like completely?
nah... just look at the front page... too much vitality to completely dismiss.
jumped the shark... like in decline?
sure. form [of the contributors] follows function [of the website]. this website with its inability to personally curate any content [by being able to subscribe or not subscribe to certain threads, posters, etc] or ability to have any feedback outside of commenting [no up or downvote, not even a view count] means that there are more productive places for most [and especially younger] people to "waste" their online time. and so what we see on supertopo is an in general decline due to its reinforcing positive feedback mostly for a. people who already have community with people on here in real life or b. people who've already spent so much time here that for better or for worse this is their online climbing home...
without changes to the board this place will continue to be an ever aging rest home for the online climbers who found this board during a certain epoch of internet social history. [as always imesho]
while i get they've got better things to focus on with more immediate returns... that said it's too bad cmac and co don't take a cue from the online social media that has been taking the place of these bare bones forums... they have the foundation [a pretty diverse and interesting cross section of older climbers] that if they made a few changes to the function of the board they might very well be able to bring some of the people who have left back and/or more importantly bring in some new blood that has mostly found this format to be irrelevant given other more responsive formats...
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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Do I need to "get a life"?
Yes.
Curt
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