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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 3, 2017 - 11:38pm PT
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I ran into Kris at Planet Granite Sunnyvale tonight unexpectedly, he was giving his slide show...
Wonderful to meet him in person finally!
And he's going to be at Iron Works in Berkeley tomorrow too...
http://www.facebook.com/events/1298749116868360/
wonderfully intimate presentation about The Needles and climbing in very remote places in the Sierra...
if you have a chance to see him do so!
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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May the Fourth Be With You!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2017 - 05:34pm PT
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bump this
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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Alerted my friends. It would be so nice to have a TR on pics and what he shares. Thanks, lynnie.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Moose, great to see you there. That was a great group in a very cool place.
As you saw, the second half of my show covered three trips I made into the Gorge of Despair during the 1990's. Over the years a story/rumor has been circulating that someone, at some time, descended the entire gorge down to Tehipite Valley. If done this would be a remarkable canyoneering feat indeed, and I simply thought of the story as one of those bits of mountain lore which gets passed about at campfires but never becomes truth.
Last night at Ironworks while I was setting up an elderly gentleman approached me and asked if I was really going to show pictures from the Gorge of Despair. I said that I had pictures from three trips there. Then he blew my mind.
"I've only been there once, but I went all the way down to the bottom, down to Tehipite Valley."
I didn't know what to say. He went on.
"What do you think we did then?"
"I was just about to ask."
"We floated down the King's River to Yucca Point, picked up the bikes we had left there, and rode back to the car."
So the rumors, the great mystery, is solved. Of course it never was a mystery for those guys, they just did it. I suppose you have to have seen the terrain to understand the audacity of what they did. The lower section of their descent took them down a great slot through solid granite, a nearly vertical drop of 3,500-4,000 feet.
And his casual reference to floating down to Yucca Point is the understatement of the year, the Middle Fork of the King's is a mighty mountain river crashing down through the deepest canyon in these mountains.
So in your third picture that's Les Wilson on the left, and Gus Benner talking. Les' son Chris was also on this adventure. They did this about ten years before Guy, Chelsea, and I made our trips. We entered the gorge from the top, did our climbs and left the way we came in.
When I was in the gorge, looking down at the summit of Tehipite Dome, I wondered what it would be like to make the descent. But the thought was too crazy to seriously entertain.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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I can imagine getting down to the river, but floating it in a raft one could carry (along with everything
else you would need) down that river really boggles my mind.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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There's still plenty of adventure in the Sierra.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Cool ..... so it has been done. I hope you kissed his hand.
I am glad you could share this stuff with the Northern members of the Tribe.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 5, 2017 - 04:05pm PT
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Les Wilson is an ultra-bad-ass flying under the radar...
great story Kris!
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Reilly, There weren't any boats involved. He said they put their sleeping bags in waterproof sacks and jumped in. Bad to the bone...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, ksolem... wonderful...
awww, if i lived around there, would have loved to gone, too!
great job...
thanks for sharing... :)
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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I have made an inquiry. I think wet-suits may have been involved, will report back...
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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There was supposed to be a slideshow at Fresno gym but got canceled or is it moved to a different day?
Kris if you are in Fresno/Visalia area, let me know, would be great to hang out. I moved to Visalia recently.
I ran into one of the guys who descended the big canyon from GOD a few years ago. Turns out he is a friend's dad. Pretty rad descent, want to do that one day.
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