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homemade salsa
Trad climber
west tetons
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Hmmm.... must be Scritchfield, if I think about it. Haven't seen your smiling face around here in many moons. Hope you are well!
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Apr 22, 2010 - 11:39pm PT
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I would love to hear greater detail on that solo. Great story. Has it been soloed since?
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 7, 2011 - 09:59pm PT
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bump it up
It's summertime and we're going racing in the streets
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Headed that direction tomorrow.
Cool bump of a historic thread!
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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One of my favorite routes at the Tower, more up my alley: lower angle and face climbing. First heard about it in the late 70s in the Valley from a young guy from Wyoming who was obsessed with doing the Zodiac. Once he did that, he was going to go do H&V. A fine route but I can't imagine soloing it. It would be great to hear that story.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Well, it would be best if 'Hot Henry' would come on here to tell us directly ( anyone in contact with him? Saw him @ OR) but I'll give it a shot. He told us this story in September '77 one night after his slideshow in Laramie, over Tuna Noodle casserole, a Bottle of Mouten Cadet, and some kind of Beer higher brow than than the PBR to which we were, then, accustomed.
They had just recently dropped some of the requirements for first time Tower climbers. At one time you had to be eighteen, wear a helmet, climb Durrance first, etc. It was as I say just past that time, but those regulations still resonated, especially with the personnel with whom one would sign out.
I don't recall if it was his very first day climbing there, but he was definitely new to the tower, and dude at the desk didn't know him.
So Barber signs outs for H & V and gets a lecture about how it's one of the then hardest routes at the tower and suggests that maybe he would like to warm up with something more modest, like maybe Tad,5.7 or if he was feeling Frisky, then maybe Soler,, 5.9?
This got HB's dander up and he looked dude in the eye and added "Solo" to the sign in. Nothing the worker bee could do!
So he gets up there, scrambles up to the crux and realizes he was in it big time. There is a thin move up there that while only 5.10, is completely un forgiving; Miss that one and you're going to slide down the column, bounce on the ledge, get catapulted into space and possibly cartwheel through a step section of boulders, only to be terminally splatted on the paved tourist trail 200' below.
I gotta believe that that, was going through his mind as backed on and off the move, in the slippery, summer heat. Thing gets full sun! I also imagine that he drew a crowd in the drop zone. Either cheering him on or hanging in a stunned golf silence. Either way. it had to fuk with his mojo.
So finally he popped.... the move, and continued on to the top.
At that point in the narrative, Pete Dorsa, asked how that solo compared to His onsight of Gorilla's Delight, in Boulder Canyon, a white knuckle tale recounted by him at great length in the book climb, an account so scary you have to chalk up just to read it!
"Oh man, it was way, way worse....."
Again maybe he'll come on here and comment.
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Frank Sanders
Trad climber
Devils Tower. Wyoming
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Scott Woodruff & Jeff Overton were the FFA's. May 26, 1974. Two days earlier they got FFA of Walt Bailey Memorial. BRILLIANCE !!!!
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 9, 2011 - 05:33pm PT
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Wow! I doubt that there are two better days EVER, than to knock off Walt Bailey and then Hollywood and Vine.
Thanks for the Hot Henry story
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 20, 2016 - 07:17pm PT
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the Dredge report
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Topic Author's Reply - May 22, 2019 - 06:09am PT
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more spring cleaning
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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May 22, 2019 - 10:13am PT
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Hollywood and Vine ... ah, yes. I lived one house off Vine Street back in 1939, just south of Sunset Blvd. Royal and I attended Vine Street Elementary School there. Me in 1939 in the second grade ... Royal was in kindergarten.
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john bald
climber
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May 22, 2019 - 12:10pm PT
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Nice to see Jeff Overton's name. Thanks Frank. Jeff was one of my partners back about then...and yes...H&V is a very nice climb
Gonna miss this ST group!
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wbw
Trad climber
'cross the great divide
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May 22, 2019 - 12:35pm PT
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In either '83 or '84, I helped Frank Sanders and partner hump loads up to Lurking Fear. To just walk to the base of an El Cap route with real wall climbers was quite the thrill. When Frank told the story of Hot Henry pausing at the crux of H and V for 45 minutes before pulling through, it somehow made the idea of becoming a real climber that much more appealing.
Lynn W. and Larry S. are also names from the past for me. . old friends from the Jackson days.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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May 22, 2019 - 06:10pm PT
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A great route that is so not what Devil's Tower climbing is all about. Another climb in the same vein is Casper College. Outstanding!
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