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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jan 21, 2008 - 09:01am PT
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Back in 1971, early spring or maybe more like winter still, Royal and I took a week off from Mountain Paraphernalia to try to find a secret granite climbing area in the desert near Needles. There was not enough information so that we could just arrive there, but instead began searching. This also included climbing at JT for a day or two, wandering around the backside of Palm Springs to look at that canyon, and trying to get some climbing hours at Tahquitz in 50 ft visibility with 2 feet of snow at its base, ice rattling down The Open Book. And just generally, and nonspecifically driving. Weather changing constantly.
I remember having lunch in Kelso at a hotel/dinner, immaculately preserved in time, no patrons other than us; it was frozen in time along railroad tracks, big shade trees lining the street. A freakish warm wind blowing steadily.
He had heard that Chouinard had been climbing somewhere down there. And Bates too. We knew about Needles, but not Granite Mountain.
We never found it, but kept driving, just traveling really for the sake of traveling, which was interesting though I had the damned flu. Eventually we passed through Lake Isabel and the Needles there, up behind Bakersfield. It was raining and not really climbing weather but we were completely amazed. I never went back, although obviously we should have, since it was practically unclimbed. I think Fred Beckey had already been doing some basic routes there.
Mostly it was about RR on kind of a nearly solo quest for peace and understanding; Liz was just now pregnant with their first child, and it frankly was not a decision they had made together among other things.... To make matters much stranger, RR was really afraid of the birth act; he was having nightmares about blood and goo and death; he had seen a sex ed movie when he was a teenager that apparently was way too graphic and somehow he was stuck with this fear and image. And I guess he was quietly angry to be out of control.
I remember waking up with a start in the middle of the night at JT, probably from a dream, and RR was wide awake next to me, head propped up in his hand, staring at me from three feet away. Perhaps I was talking in my sleep, or perhaps he was still silently agonizing about his situation as we lay on the desert floor. Later that night it snowed an inch or so and in an hour after sunrise, it all vanished.
So we drove most of the time and talked and surveyed the desert and Royal kept churning away inside. We put a Matileja Poppy cut from the desert floor, on the dash of the VW bus.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 21, 2008 - 11:06am PT
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Scott Baxter wrote an article about the "Syndicato Stronghold" in climbing way back. I recall a photo of a stylee Scott on Wilkinson Sword and a couple of others. Rumor had it that the rock was pretty grainy ala JT and the Flagstaff boys never really focused their efforts there again for the abundance of primo stone elsewhere in AZ. Always looked inviting rolling by though!
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Loomis
climber
Praha 6, Ceska Republika
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Jan 21, 2008 - 11:24am PT
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Put up several routes there 1979-82 era. I believe U C Bezerkely managed the environmental study at that time.
It was difficult to work with them. Being young and not caring about the consequences, we would hop the fence and climb there anyway.
Told Mari and Mike about it, don't know what happened, if they went there or not.
Also did routes at the "Hole in the wall" and Mid Hills campground areas.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2008 - 12:03pm PT
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Hey, Phill G.,
Didn't Phill Haney put up a few really hard face routes up on the White Fang? I seem to remember one called the Wandering Jew.
I know he and your bro. Paul (who I went to GM with the first time) did some hard stuff out there.
JL
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 21, 2008 - 12:16pm PT
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Wasn't there an old paper back guide book ?
It had a picture of the white fang on the cover.
I asked (can't find the thread now)...
Any body ever been in that cave on the north side of thr range ?
(equipped with lounge chairs, kitchen and giant, brass, ship's ventilator.
As I recall this cave (as big as my living room) was pretty close to the top of the pass.
One of the coolest (forgive the pun) I have ever been in.
I was taken there by a UCSC Nat. history student.
The little bit of hiking and climbing I did (early 80's) in the Granites, left an indelible memory.
To bad it's closed but then again....
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Jan 21, 2008 - 05:58pm PT
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Too funny Dr. F!!
"To the right of the main face is a cool canyon with like this 3 pitch overhanging wall with all kinds of bigwall like routes "
Yeah, that's where the aid routes are that I was referring to. Neat wall.
Phil, did you guys put up those routes? Lots of thin nailing?
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PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
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Jan 21, 2008 - 10:20pm PT
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Largo and Minerals:
Excuse the late reply to your posts but the internet has been down in our area most of the day (must be th cold tempts: 5 F).
Minerals, I'm not sure what climbs you are referring to, but we did the obvious lines on the south face of The White Fang Tower, and we did that great huge roof which we called "Purple Haze."
Largo: Phil Haney did some amazing climbs out there (as elsewhere). That guy was sure pulling down on some hard stuff before many other people were.
One story about Phil Haney and I (non-climbing). We went out to GM one weekend in my old beater pick-up truck. Along the way we pick up some hitch hikers, who I noticed retrieved something from the road embankment when we stopped. They road in the back and we gave them a ride to Amboy where we turned off for the crags. When we got to the camping site and unloaded our gear we discovered a milk carton that had a plastic bag full of an assortment of different colored pills. Phil recognized the purple ones.
Needless to say we didn't do much climbing that weekend.
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Jan 21, 2008 - 11:10pm PT
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I have solo camped there a couple of times in the past year. I saw no signs next to the White Fang regarding keep out. The keep out signs were further down the road. The camp sites are very cool.
I did a scramble up the mountain in front of the white fang. The rock was very granular. By the time I returned to the car my hands were bleeding.
What is the climb up the central crack system?
The New York mountains are a fun visit as well.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jan 21, 2008 - 11:24pm PT
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Tobin talked me into going out there in 70-71 (somewhere in there). He'd been out there with who ever first took him climbing. I think it was a guide hired by his dad. I'd taken him up a couple of routes at Tahquitz and he was hot to show me this place, sort of as repayment as he termed it describing what he called a Disneyland Matterhorn.
I was a little reluctant. I did remember seeing it from the highway on some family vacation and rockhounding trips. Still, gas was $0.65 a gallon and it was a long way out there.
It's all a long age blured memory but I remember,
a huge firewood stash near a cave that we made liberal use of,
a route that involved a long diagonaling crack with grass hummocs and a wide chiminey that spit the summit,
an oasis of sorts on the back side, (A pristine version of the Bighorn Mating Grotto).
And a stroll down a cool perfectly flat sandy bottomed slot with towering walls and bolted lines that stretched up out of sight.
I went back a couple of years later and it was all fenced off and posted.
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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I was surprised to find this thread while mining the depths of ST. Phil G has just sent some 45 year old photos from a climb we did here with his brother Paul around 1967. I thought some of you may be interested. As Phil mentioned above, we did several routes on this (approximately 600') face. The place did seem magical, and I often had re-occurring dreams of wandering around the canyons after the area was closed. Phil took most, if not all these photos.
This particular route was one of the first we did here, and we called it the Dihedral Route. It ascended the right/center of the face along the right leaning shadowed dihedral, and exited the right fork of the "Y" shaped chimneys at the summit. We figured it was about 5.9 A4.
There is an easy 5th class route on the left skyline, and the 5.4 "White Fangs Revenge" route on the right skyline.
Paul lead the first pitch-a moderate undercling on sometimes friable rock. One of the main obstacles was entering a bombay slot-seen in the upper right corner.
Another view of Paul on P1.
I was able to get past the slot first by face climbing on thin edges, then wrestling with the off-width above.
Phil lead P2 above the slot, and we found a nice ledge about 300' up the wall.
Paul lead P3, a traverse to a shallow seam disguised as a crack. Some of his pin placements on this pitch were very "creative"!
As I recall, there was some A4 on this desert varnish.
P4 required some downclimbing to easier pitches above.
The rappel route on the East face is also Lee Harrell's first route (5.4) up the Fang.
Lots of memories here. I think paulj (as mentioned above) may have come across the pitons left by Lee Harrell when he, John Gosling and I did the excellent 3 pitch (5.9, 5.7, 5.9) hand crack on the north side of the "Fang". I remember wondering why Lee didn't remove the pins-one was a 3/4 angle I think. Funny how we remember such details from something so long ago.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Keith; thanks for posting those!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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cool, thx Keith
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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Thanks guys, on one of our last visits there, we came upon a man waving a rifle. He began explaining about how all the formations there were built by the "Indians". Questioning his sanity, we politely listened while he proceeded to indicate precises examples of his theoretical nonsense by pointing the weapon at various rock formations and shooting at them. "No, not that one", he would say, continuing to blast away until finally hitting the intended target. What a character.
The place is beautiful though. Cheers all.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Great post!
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Great thread. Keith's post made it.
I've climbed out there a couple of times. Almost exclusively in the legal area. One time I was out there by myself and hiked all around the illegal area, the whole place is very beautiful and the rock back in those corridors looks excellant. I think I saw the hidden (Big Horn Mating Grotto like)oasis.
In the late '80s we camped out there during Thanksgiving and Todd's brother Scott brought out their family motor home. We cooked up a full on Thanksgiving feast and did a bunch of good climbing.
While wandering around Marge found a fox caught in a trap. The trap was one of those gnarly spring loaded steel jaws. She ran back to camp and got me and we returned to free the fox. We put a jacket over the fox's head and she held it while I pried the trap off it's (probably broken) leg. We released him and he ran off. I kept the trap for many years and then destroyed it.
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slayton
Trad climber
Here and There
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And this, folks, is why I love the Taco. Thanks for the history all!! Driving through the area I've often looked at those formations and wondered. Now I know. Kind of.
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R.B.
Trad climber
47N 122W
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I remember making a few trips from Flagstaff to Yosemite via I-40 and seeing this big desert granite area north of the Interstate about 30 miles (or so)west of Needles, CA.
After driving north along the dirt road from the Interstate, we found the fence marking the boundary and the posted No Trespassing. Since it was on the way home after doing the Captian, we just blew it off and bailed.
My question though is under what authority is the area closed under?? In other words, who closed it, why, under what law or act? Was there a specific law enacted by the legislature and signed by the Governor? Was it a federal decision. Who is the land agency responsible?
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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USC or UCLA can't remember which.
It's an academic's private playground.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Climbed there in 1970 with Phil and Paul Gleason- awesome place.
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