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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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yeah ray, cameron did solo the LAC, in '77 or '78 i think. but he's too damn humble to spray about it here.
me, i have no such inhibitions, so if ya ever wanna here me spray about myself just give the word and i'll slather you with blather about my many trend-setting and historic exploits.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2007 - 09:54am PT
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Aw shucks bvb, thanks for saying so, but people who know me, know I'm not humble. You just need to give me a chance. In the end, the Lost Arrow Chimney is only 5.10. I was never all that great a climber, but I was pretty sure i would never fall on 5.10 wide back then. Jeez, Bachar would have to wear skates and a clown suit or something to even make it interesting.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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It was the stuff of legend back then and did indeed elevate you to the status of "Local Icon" a highly influential figure.
Tell the story Greg!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2007 - 10:30pm PT
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Ray - For you, I copied this from a post I made a year ago or so. I changed some of the dates because I got them wrong the first time.
Sitting here recovering from shoulder surgery and going through this site is bringing back a flood of memories. Only a few friends know this hopefully interesting free-solo story - so here it is.
The inspiration, really, was Henry Barber's free solo of the Steck Salathe - in 1975 I think. I was intrigued by this, and in 1977 I too, free-soloed the Steck-Salathe. I did it the same way Henry had done, I brought a long sling and a carabiner with me to protect the one scary piece of face climbing. The whole climb took about an hour and a half to complete.
The Steck-Salathe was a climb I had done several times before, and, frankly, free-soloing it did not seem to be such a big deal, in retrospect. It occurred to me that an on-site free-solo of a Yosemite classic would raise the stakes. I don't remember what made me think of the Lost Arrow Chimney - it wasn't a climb that was really on my radar or anything, but I was very confident in the wide crack arena and figured there was no way that I couldn't free-solo 5.10a.
So, sometime in the late Spring of 1978, I let some of my friends in on it and told my buddy Alan Chase that if I didn't show up for dinner the next night, to walk up the Falls trail the following morning and throw a rope down to the notch so I could prussik out.
I left in the morning, excited, of course. I brought a paperback book, "The Myth of Sysiphus", that I stuffed in my cotten warmup pants, just above the ankle. The climb went quickly and rather uneventfully. Because I figured that I might have to hang out at the notch all day anyhow, I took my time - hanging out at certain ledges - but still the whole climb took only about 3 hours. Like on the Steck-Salathe, I took a long runner and a carabiner. I used the runner on a fixed pin at the scary, flakey section discussed in this post, and then abandoned it.
When I topped out on the notch, there was a party setting up to do the tyrolean traverse of the spire. Two clearly inexperienced guys were at the notch, and one guy in particular, was really spooked and could not believe that I had soloed up to that point. I asked if I could use their ropes to get out. Both guys ended up jumaring up to the top of the wall. I was expecting that maybe they would send jumars down for me, but after the second guy went up, nothing happened for like 15 minutes, in spite of my yelling. So I got out two small cords and prussiked their rope to the top of the wall.
I hiked back to Camp 4 with little fanfare. I do remember John Long congratulating me the next morning.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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like i said, too humble.
has anyone soloed it since? greg, you are a true master of the most difficult size there is -- off width. that solo blew us away -- i was in the valley with watusi and off white that whole summer. a congrats from long in '78 would have seemed like a holy benediction to me.
i can't beleive how low-key you are about this sh#t. from what i gather, you soloed the crucible just recently. you gotta be at least 50, right? know how many peeps soloed the crucible, in their prime?? four that i know of, that's it. and here you are, doing it when most duffers our age are tr'ing 5.8's and talking sh#t about how things were back in the day.
you continue to inspire me, motherf*#ker.
i'm gonna go burn some pull-ups in my garage. right now.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Thanks a lot for the story Greg.
You're still the man.
What I'm wondering is, where the hell is Piggot and some
sick El Cap photos.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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That was a rather perfunctory report of quite a milestone there Greg.
You are way too humble, but I'll take it.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Cameron gave San Diego climbers and San Diego climbing status it never would have had otherwise
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I was around the Valley when you did the deed maestro Cameron and I too was blown way back. No surprise that the all time classic routes would become the all time classic free solos. The DNB, Steck-Salathe and Arrow Chimney were the icebreakers followed by Astroman and the Rostrum not long after. A very short and distinguished list to say the least! You really are too understated about your level of achievement on that day and in general but I am cut of similar cloth and can respect the humility in your presentation. San Diego's finest fa shure!
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Yep, the above comments are all true. When I saw the Crucible photo I thought, "whoa, unroped, that doesn't happen much" but then I realized eeyonkee=grug and thought, "oh, it's Greg Cameron, okay, makes sense then." You may not have been a magazine quality self promoting personality, but you're certainly an icon to us folks of San Diego extraction.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 8, 2007 - 12:10pm PT
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Aw shucks guys, every one of you who commented is probably a better climber than me (outside of offwidths, maybe). I've only done a handful of maybe 5.12s in my whole climbing career. I would feel lucky if I was considered the 4th best climber of the Poway Mountain Boys.
I had no idea that that free solo made such an impression.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 12, 2007 - 09:45pm PT
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Greg,
that free solo meant we were all flying propeller planes and you were hitting the ceiling in a jet.
What's the secret to wide crack mastery Greg?
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Mar 13, 2007 - 02:14am PT
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A long, long time ago, Leroy (also clean Dan) told me that camer-what's-his-name, guy, was a good wide climber ... I'm just glad I didn't have to armbar mother superior.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 13, 2007 - 02:20am PT
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Right, I never would have tried Mother Superior without stacks.
The influence for this as far as I know came of course from Leavitt.
We all wanted to try the "new way" to climb wide.
To me the aesthetics of climbing straight-in cracks always seemed much higher that anything in a corner - personally.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 13, 2007 - 10:00am PT
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Mother Superior is an interesting, hard climb. Piggot first showed it to me. The first time I tried it (with Piggot) I used arm-barring techniques, of course. Got right near the end of the offwidth but couldn't get my knee above the overhanging part.
Tried it a couple of more times...got the offwidth but fell on the upper part. Eventually I got the whole thing using arm bars on the offwidth. Whenever I screwed around on this climb I had shoulder and elbow road rash to beat the band.
Around this same time I had flashed Bad Ass Mama (armbarring) in the Valley. Tom Gibson and I did it as an afterthought after we failed to negotiate the slabs to Half Dome one evening. I came up with the name Mother Superior to reflect that it was harder than BAM. Ok, so maybe it was in part because I went to Catholic school when I was younger.
Seems like it wasn't until at least a year later, maybe more, I did it using hand stacks. Maybe I was proportioned just right at the time with respect to knee size, but I remember the offwidth part feeling like 5.10 with the stacks. I never have soloed it (doesn't surprize me that Adrian did, Ray). I still have to remind myself to use hand stacks on offwidths. When I do, invariably the climb seems much easier. I wonder how BAM would be with stacks? - I haven't been back to try in 30 years.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 13, 2007 - 11:08am PT
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I'm still spinning w/ the Robbins Crack first ascent account - really great story - finally I know.
There was even some doubt - a murmur of speculation that Robbins had actually been there and done it - that the name had derived from some other means - and been attached to the great Yosemite pioneer through association.
Any future definitive topo guide to Woodson - you'll need aerials -
would of course benefit greatly from as much accurate first ascent data as possible. We can pin all the unclaimed controversial first ascents on Piggot.
Who's got an airplane? Send me the digitals and I'll make them into perfect line drawings - no charge.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 13, 2007 - 11:15am PT
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The last time I was at Woodson -
1998 with Eric Beck, pretty out of shape for rock but in ok physical condition - managed a clean top rope of Drivin' South,
first try. Had to use my feet.
Did Bachar do the FA of this thing? This incredible little gem which has spanked so many "hard guys"?
The "truth" about "friendly" Mount Woodson is sickeningly clear standing there looking up into those brutal locks.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Mar 13, 2007 - 11:28am PT
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ray --
the way i jeard the story was that bachar on-sighted soloed both drivin' south and hear my train on the same day in 1974, and they were both f.a's.
even for folks like us who've climbed there for decades, the early history -- 60's through early 70's -- sure was murky. by '76 - '77 people like off white and watusi and i were climbing there three or four days a week so if anything went down we were there to see it.
yeah, somebody really should do a decent guide that will actually get people to the routes, and has a good, well-researched history in the introduction. i think a big, big reason people don't go there so much now has a lot to do with the fact that finding anything -- even roadside problems -- without a local showing you the way, is pretty hopeless. can you imagine trying to find widow bereft or the star wall or clockwork orange off a written description?? fuhgedabouddit.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 13, 2007 - 12:33pm PT
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Where's Bachar?
Dude, tell it like it is.
You're only one of the most influential climbers in the the history of the sport, please tell us the story of the first ascent of
Drivin' South
and
Hear my Train a Comin'
Who was there? What was it like? Who's ego got destroyed? How many went home with crippled self esteem?
C'mon John...
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder
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Mar 13, 2007 - 12:46pm PT
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Please see drawing sample below.
In my opinion this is about the right technique to produce an accurate guide to Woodson. It blends geological and topographic features in a clear yet realistic way.
Woodson - I think - has three main faces. All three need aerials.
In addition the various well defined clusters need detailed art, similar to what is above but from the air.
For the user to associate with the topos while they hike up the hill, use black and white photos, taken from the road, with a corresponding index to that found in the drawings.
The hill south of Woodson gets the same treatment.
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