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Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Jan 12, 2009 - 07:36pm PT

Slight correction to Tami's math:

50-meter contour lines can hide 99-meter holes. I discovered this a long time ago. I was using a map with 500-foot countour intervals, and found that something I'd assumed to be relatively flat was actually almost 1,000 ft and way too steep for me to ski.

Of course, "way to steep for me to ski" could be just about anything, but this particular bump was pretty steep.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 12, 2009 - 10:42pm PT

Here is another photo of Phyllis’ Engine, from above. Lots of interesting geology around there. The spire was named in the 1930s for Phyllis Beltz, who was on one of the BCMC camps near the Black Tusk. She observed that it looked like an engine, and so it was given its name. And it does look quite like an engine – although it won’t be running on the tracks at the Malamute any time soon! It wasn’t climbed until 1969.

SuperTopo may never have had a train thread, although we’ve had ones about riding the rails. And both t*r and jstan are train fans. There is a cheery kiddy song from 1968 about trains, which is very vaguely on topic, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YP7GCXqdqU&feature=related Nothing substantial, but quite pleasant – sung by one of the 1960s great female vocalists, Judith Durham.

Snow and ice conditions when crossing Garibaldi Lake in spring were always of concern. It was rarely safe before late December, or after early May, especially near the inlets and outlets. The latest it was ever crossed was early June. Usually it gets interesting later in April. In the autumn, as it starts to snow and get colder, the surface eventually freezes, and snow accumulates on top of it. As the area often gets 3 – 4 m of snow, soon there’s enough that the surface fractures, and floods. Then another snow/ice layer forms, separated from the one beneath by a lens of water. The lower layer tends to consolidate into a quite solid ice layer. As you cross in the spring, sometimes your leg sinks through whatever’s on the surface, and into water. But just as you’re having a heart attack, you hit the solid layer below.

Skiing across Garibaldi Lake in the spring might be likened to a sort of slack walking - with several hundred m of ice water instead of air beneath.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 13, 2009 - 01:47pm PT

Once or twice I've encountered a fully frozen Garibaldi Lake, and ski-skated across it. Bit of an effort with an overnight pack, but possible. I've always dreamed of being there when it was not only icy, or at least hard snow, but also with a tailwind. A tent fly makes a fine sail in such circumstances.

Still, a scary place to be in late spring.

mastadon

Trad climber

quaking has-been

Jan 13, 2009 - 01:56pm PT

Squam turnoff web cam this morning at 10:45. Kinda' makes me wish I were there.....NOT!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 14, 2009 - 09:40pm PT

The town of Squamish (which advertises itself as "The Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada", and has even trademarked it), has a website at http://www.squamish.ca/

There are several webcams, which for much of the year allow you to view the inside of a cloud. Mastadon's is #4 - the view over Highway 99 & Cleveland Avenue, from the adventure centre.

There is also Mad Magazine's "43-Man Squamish", a new amateur sport from 1965:
http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/index-quiz_olympics.html
(Origins very unclear, but quite funny.)

The webcam at the end of the Squamish River dyke is at http://www.skypilotkiteboarding.com/webcam/squamish.html - it generally pans around, and you can sometimes see things like the Chief, the Malamute, and the Little Smoke Bluffs.

There may be others - google Squamish webcams.

Edit: Bump-posted, because it's about climbing. Plus who'd a thunk that Squamish would be in Mad Magazine?

The players in the 43-Man Squamish include: left and right Inside Grouches, left and right Outside Grouches, four Deep Brooders, four Shallow Brooders, five Wicket Men, three Offensive Niblings, four Quarter-Frummerts, two Half-Frummerts, one Full Frummert, two Overblats, two Underblats, nine Back-up Finks, two Leapers, and a Dummy. Maybe we should give it a try at the next FaceLift?

MH2

climber

Jan 14, 2009 - 10:15pm PT

Somewhat further afield, 43-man Squamish sounds similar to a mansfield match, found at the bottom of:

http://www.hootingyard.org/archive/aug06.htm

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 15, 2009 - 03:05am PT

So here's the game, in all its obscure glory.
Dating to 1965, which is a bit before the official thread frame. Variations of this game were popular on rainy days in the 1970s, and there are rumours of occasional revivals.

There may never have been a 43-Man Yosemite. Or a 43-Man Shawangunks. Or a 43-Prancer Eldo. Or...

Thorgon

Big Wall climber

Sedro Woolley, WA

Jan 30, 2009 - 11:27pm PT

Excellent thread Mighty Hiker!

Thanks,
Thor

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Jan 31, 2009 - 12:14am PT

Slabby D: The Phyllis' Engine group saw some serious climbing in the late 80s/early 90s. Can't remember the exact date, but I was editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal at the time, and someone submitted a story about going in there and doing some pretty hard (5.11+) rock climbing. I think it was Michael Spagnut, and I think Kobus Barnard was involved. Not sure about Kobus, but when it came to hauling serious loads into the back end of beyond and then doing serious climbing, he was pretty much the man. So he probably was involved.

Maybe I can find the issue with that piece in it and scan it. Although it does fall outside this thread's 1970s frame of reference.

MisterE

Trad climber

One Place or Another

Jan 31, 2009 - 12:34am PT

Anders, that was hilarious - I SO remember that Mad Mag bit!

Do you have to back-clip the pieces on that 43-man Squamish to prevent the pendulum that could lose the game?

How many belays are involved?

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 31, 2009 - 10:54pm PT

I notice that one of the penalties in the 43-Man Squamish is "Walling the Pritz". Russ?

At least a few SuperTopians visited Squamish in the 1970s, or later, and many of you knew the "hard core" in the Valley in the late 1960s and early 1970s, not to mention the later infestations of Canadians. Any perspectives? Squamish wasn't a centre of world rock-climbing then, and relatively few advances in technique, knowledge or equipment originated in Squamish. But it also produced some very fine climbers, who made their mark in Yosemite and elsewhere. A conundrum.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 1, 2009 - 01:43am PT

Anders, get a can of air to blow off your slides before you scan them...

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Feb 1, 2009 - 11:56pm PT

Is there any particular product that is recommended for dust removal from slides?

Also, that photo may have been enhanced by more than just dust removal, unless my eyes are playing tricks on me.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 2, 2009 - 12:10am PT

I use "ReAir" by Read Right "Made In Canada"

comes with a little hand pump...

and, well, the work flow:

Auto Levels
Shadow & Highlights
Unsharpen filter
Auto Colors
Clone stamp out the dust
Rotate so the person is standing vertically
Crop

et voilà!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Feb 6, 2009 - 01:26am PT

Thanks, Ed. I'll get one of the gadgets, though I've scanned ahead, and have a bunch of photos on PB ready to go, once I've written up narrative. 1978. The Year of the Little Smoke Bluffs. Some smoke, some fire.

Thread currently taking 516 seconds to load on my machine...

What is this button? Was it:
A. Worn by Custer at Little Big Horn?
B. A relic of the 1958 Diefenbaker campaign?
C. Something that Todd G. got, while teaching?
D. A pin worn by climbers at Squamish, to ensure that the natives are friendly?
E. Something the pizza guy got for delivering to the McCain/Palin office in Walnut Creek?
F. Other?
Hint: It doesn't have much to do with climbing at Squamish in the 1970s. But it should be OK as a place-holder, while I finish making marmelade.

In 2005, the Petzl Roc Trip was in Squamish, more or less a joint effort by Arc'Teryx, Petzl, and our Access Society. The opening evening included a memorable drum dance by members of the Squamish Nation. They were reported in the (U.S.) magazines as being "Native Americans", although up here they're mostly known as the Squamish Nation, or the Squamish People.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Feb 12, 2009 - 02:30am PT

We now return to your irregular programming, hoping that you are regular in all other ways that are important to you. Prior to digressions into ascents of the less than inscrutable Sphinx, the 43-Man Squamish, the Malamute, Clean Crack, railways, and other whimsy, we were rounding out the cast of characters of those climbing a fair amount at Squamish in around 1977/1978. So we’ll do a bit of that, and then see some climbing at the Little Smoke Bluffs, which by then had congealed from molten magma and were climbable.

One of them was Randy A., here seen wearing his trademark sweater on top of Orchard Rock at Peshastin.
He was tall and lanky, and put a lot of effort into his adventures, of which he’s had many over the years. He’s also added some very fine routes at Squamish, particularly on Zodiac Wall, and including the first free ascents of routes like Cerberus and Freeway. Plus a whole bunch of routes at Skaha.

Randy did have what then seemed an odd interest in overhangs. Most of us had enough problem climbing anything that was vertical – if it’s vertical, and granitic, it’s probably pretty hard. But he thought overhangs were something to do, as you can see.
This is a since destroyed boulder by the old highway, part way down the hill from Eleven Bolt Rock to the Apron. Fond beliefs to the contrary, bouldering at Squamish did not start in 1995 – Jim Baldwin may have bouldered on what later became the Black Dyke boulder in about 1961. (And while I’m at it, the first boulderer of record, per se, was Oscar Eckenstein – in the 1880s, at Pen y Pass in Wales.)

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Feb 12, 2009 - 04:15pm PT

Another long-standing member of our community is of course Perry B., who is known to some readers. Perry got started in 1976, and his climbing career throve. He’s still at it, plus does bluegrass music, and is great company.
In this shot, we are somewhere low on the Prow on Washington Column, in 1977. We probably could have managed it, had one of us (me) not forgotten the tieoffs. To compound this egregious blunder, I suggested that we could just push the wires out of wired stoppers, and loop them over pins, as ersatz tie-offs. Eventually one of us had a little fall, or we got stymied by a full-on cluster or something. But we tried.

Here’s Randy again. We’re climbing at the Malemute, the first ascent of a one-pitch climb called Seaside Rendezvous – which seemed appropriate, inasmuch as we agreed to meet there, and it’s beside the ocean.
I think we had aided it or something previously, to clean it up a bit. There’s an easy bit at the bottom, which Randy is doing, then a vertical crack which gradually curves left. It is now invariably hand traversed, but for some reason I got this notion to walk it. The crack is offset, and provides a little lip on the perhaps 75 degree wall. So I tippytoed across it, trying very hard not to breathe deeply. Of course, I couldn’t get any protection in, and was totally committed. After 7 – 8 m, I could reach a tiny crack, and slipped in two #1 stoppers. That felt good, inasmuch as it was much better than nothing. It would have been a hell of a pendulum.

For some reason (knock knees?) I do OK at walking cracks. I did it on the second free ascent of Exasperator, too. They’re ungradeable climbs – all you have to do is keep your balance, place your feet carefully, and do smooth weight shifts. We called it 5.10a, for lack of any better idea.

That afternoon, we went over the the Little Smoke Bluffs and did the first ascent of Partners in Crime. My mother was rather keen on mysteries and such. I'll say more about that later.

I suppose I should add a reminder about the copyright thing - see the very first post.

MH2

climber

Feb 12, 2009 - 04:41pm PT

Thanks Anders.

Proud climbs.

Several times I have hand-traversed along slanting cracks only to see the next guy walk up with much less effort. They can't look in the crack to place gear, though.

I've moved a few times in my climbing career and find that the locals can seem stand-offish to the new arrival. Perry Beckham was anything but. I hear that his retirement savings plan has to do partly with music [edited for discretion]. I bet he will ride out the current economic difficulties as well as anyone.