RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Nov 18, 2012 - 07:04pm PT
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I'm probably wrong but North Gulley?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 07:33pm PT
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Two pieces of string walk into a bar and the bartender looks at them suspiciously. He says "Sorry, boys, we don't serve your kind here." So the pieces of string walk out again.
They're sitting in the gutter outside and feeling really thirsty when one piece of string says "Hey! I've got an idea to get me into the bar."
So he starts twisting and turning, wriggling this way and that, pulling out a few threads here and there. His mate's looking at him and thinks he's gone completely nuts.
Then the piece of string walks back into the bar. The bartender looks at him a little suspiciously again and says "Here, you're not a bit of string, are you?"
The piece of string replies "No, I'm a frayed knot."
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harryhotdog
Social climber
north vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 07:58pm PT
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Fantastic thread Anders,I love the historical perspective and it's great to find out a little about the people I read about in the guide books. Great work!
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Tami
Social climber
Canada
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Nov 18, 2012 - 08:14pm PT
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Anders that was a ghastly pun but entirely appropriate. Mostly because it's YOU who wrote it.
I'm leanin' towards Howie Rode on I-Have-No-Clue-Whut-Climb but that's only c'os I know he's as old as dirt, climbed since the time of the dinosaurs, is still quite lucid. The Squamish Hotel part doesn't fit, however..........
Tell me I'm wrong. 'S okay.
Howie is still a fabulous Coast Range climbing pioneer :-)
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Nov 18, 2012 - 08:41pm PT
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No, the answer isn't Howie Rode. But Howie is indeed a fantastic Coast Mtns pioneer and he's still super-lucid. And a super-pleasant, friendly guy, as well. He still gets out a fair bit in Lynn Headwaters park.
His 1950 ascent of Ratney (with John Dudra) has been called the hardest technical lead in the mountains of SW BC up to that time.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:23pm PT
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Not my pun - Simon's. And no, the person we met today wasn't Howie Rode, although he's on the list of people to talk with about background things about the start of technical climbing around here in the 1950s.
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:40pm PT
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according to Kevin Mclanes Squamish The Shining Valley it must be either Hank Mather or Jim Archer , South Gully 1957.
Can I have my FOSC buttons now?
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:42pm PT
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I know who but it would be cheating, right Anders?
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 09:59pm PT
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huh. Here's a good one:
Intriguingly, it is believed two squamish loggers, brothers in the Rae family climbed something on the North Walls around the late 1940s....
So.... Perry and Joe didn't get the FA on Astro Logger after all?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:15pm PT
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The first recorded climb at Squamish was South Gully, which it appears was done in spring 1958, not 1957. We met Hank Mather today.
There is a reliable report of climbing at Squamish by a named person (a 'real' climber) in 1955 or 1956. I've talked with him, and have some idea as to what he might have done.
There are at least three stories of "climbing" at Squamish in the late 1940s to mid 1950s, possibly none of which can now be verified. Two, including that of the Rae brothers, seem more of a "local boys gone scrambling on those cliffs" nature than true climbing. The third story involves the discovery of fixed pitons of unsure origin in the late 1950s or early 1960s. If anyone did any true climbing at Squamish pre-1956, though, it created little if any legacy.
There is the fascinating question as to when climbers - and there were some climbers in Vancouver in the 1930s with ropes and pitons - started to think of Squamish as a possible area for rockclimbing per se. They were doing some things with ropes even on Grouse, and had had contact with the Sierra Club climbers. And certainly passed through Squamish.
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:28pm PT
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In Kevins book he mentions that man Howie Rode again, spotting a double eyed fixed "piton" beside Genesis at Murin.
Kevin did quite a nice little historical job in his book. You must have talked with Kevin a bunch eh? I bet he has a pretty good data bank. Who's this unnamed yet confirmed 1950's real climber you're talking about?
Now about those buttons you owe me.....
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Tami
Social climber
Canada
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:40pm PT
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Dammit Bruce, what do you recall of your own father's stories? Never mind the damn buttons........cough up what yer folks shared with you of Squamish pre-history.
:-)
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:48pm PT
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There may have been any number of young men in Squamish in the 1950s who, inspired by "The Ascent of Everest", local traditions and setting, a bit more money and time, and the usual adolescent male motives, tried 'climbing'. With their mother's clotheslines, or a rope borrowed from work, caulk boots, and so on. Just the way so many climbers started out, including many of us. (Ask me sometime about a "rappel" with 1/4" yellow polypropylene, at Levette Lake.) Plus they had a somewhat outdoor-oriented culture, where people not only cut trees, hunted, and fished, but also had things like Garibaldi Park and its history, and the Brandvold's Diamond Head Lodge. It would surprising if a few people hadn't experimented in climbing, but whatever they did seems not to have led to any consequences.
For example, Sir Edmund Hillary gave a talk on the climb in Vancouver in March 1954, and some students from the high school did a trip by boat to see it. What might that have inspired?
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:51pm PT
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I am loving the revival! Nice work Anders! Tami has an excellent question Bruce! I would love to hear the answer!
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:51pm PT
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In that case where do you draw a distinction between a "real" and "not quite so real" climber?
I'd say if the Rae brothers fired off Astro Logger they were climbers, corks and clothes lines or not.
I don't remember any squamish tales of my dad, other than the one where I was there along with my three idiot brothers, equiped with construction hardhats, steel toed boots and dads old viking laid rope, climbing up some primeval gully, but then that might not qualify.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:56pm PT
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Anders sent me an email asking about Don Gordon after meeting Hank Mather. After I told Don about my recent trip to Squamish he said he did some of the first "real climbs" at Squamish back in the fifties. I'm not sure exactly what he meant by that but I bet Anders could sleuth out the details if I can hook him up with "Claunch". It would make some interesting history.
And instead of saying yur gunna die I will just say Yer Light.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 18, 2012 - 10:57pm PT
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If the Rae brothers did Astrologger, I'll agree to their building a gondola there.
Let's not forget that people from what is now the Squamish Nation were all over the Chief for food gathering, ceremonial, recreational and other purposes long before any of us showed up. They had a substantial, settled population. It may not now be possible to do more than observe that they did some respectable climbing, not just on the Chief but in the mountains.
Bruce's tale of climbing with his brothers doesn't seem much different from whatever it is that the later white settlers of Squamish did in the early 1950s. The only real difference being that there is primary evidence and it is remembered.
And I put 'real' climber in quotes for the good reason that there are different ways of defining what you mean by climbing, mostly subjective. Not for me to decide.
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Tami
Social climber
Canada
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Nov 18, 2012 - 11:04pm PT
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My parents both skied in the Garibaldi area in the forties - am pretty sure BK's mum Jean was along for at least one of those - there are pictures of her in my mother's old photo album. But Bruce knows that :-)
I don't think my parents generation considered climbing on the Chief. It was low elevation and they were more concerned with getting into the alpine - either for mountaineering or skiing.
Ditto for guys like Tom Fyles.
But Fred Beckey might be an interesting resource for answers.............
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Nov 18, 2012 - 11:12pm PT
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If the Rae brothers did Astrologger, I'll agree to their building a gondola there.
Its true. Its getting hard to spot but you can still find the odd rusty tower and cable and old stubby empties up at the top lift shack.
Hey I've got a question for you. I remember hearing that at one time Olson creek was equiped with a sluiceway for logs going all the way to tide water. any truth to that?
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Nov 18, 2012 - 11:29pm PT
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This is cool. The south gulley is the earliest classic eh? Have to put that one on the list. Anyone done it?
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