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Messages 1 - 39 of total 39 in this topic
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 9, 2009 - 06:39pm PT
another blast from the past! me and johnny barbella on the big stone...











































































pyro

Big Wall climber
Calabasas
Feb 9, 2009 - 06:46pm PT
Bitch'n
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
Feb 9, 2009 - 06:56pm PT
Wow! cool stuff, John. That roof sequence was wild.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Feb 9, 2009 - 06:57pm PT
Wow, best quality photos of all so far! Did you use a different camera?

(The climbing looked really cool, too).
Rhodo-Router

Gym climber
Otto, NC
Feb 9, 2009 - 07:08pm PT
This may be the best one yet!

The new ground, the roof, the trundle, arriving at the belay to eye the next pitch. Bag toss, the free gun in the Fires. I love it! Thanks Deuce.

(So how much of that thing is still up there?)
yo

climber
I drink your milkshake!
Feb 9, 2009 - 07:24pm PT
Sickness.

(Too bad Skully missed this one. Right, Skully?)

Edit: What's the story on this Barbella cat? Seems like homeboy ticked every other sick route on EC.
Bruce Perschbacher

climber
Carbonale,Ill. 62901.
Feb 9, 2009 - 08:47pm PT
Superb photos of way cool stuff. Thanks again John for sharing with the rest of us.
Cheers,
Bruce.
drljefe

climber
Toostoned, AZ
Feb 9, 2009 - 08:47pm PT
Exploring a sea of stone, rad.
TKingsbury

Trad climber
MT
Feb 9, 2009 - 08:53pm PT
Somehow missed this one too....really nice! Glad it resurfaced!

EDIT: now that I look at the photos again, and look at the timestamps on the posts, I'm confused on how I didn't see this earlier today...crazy how stuff slips by you...
Lynne Leichtfuss

Social climber
valley center, ca
Feb 9, 2009 - 08:54pm PT
Dude, totally GRATE stuff and totally serious Jazz ! Yo pics brought me BITD when my dudes were doing this. Grate memories. Blessings to yo ..... special !!! lrl

Edit: Some of those flakes looked a little unhinged....glad they didn't decide to "dance" when you were there. Peace.
Mr_T

Trad climber
Somewhere, CA
Feb 9, 2009 - 09:42pm PT
The Bag Toss is teh awesome! I have ALWAYS wanted to do that, but figured I'd kill someone on the ground...
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 9, 2009 - 09:44pm PT
PRICELESS!!!!

This is just awesome Deuce.

I have not seen Barbella in such a looong time. What a cool mellow guy he is.

He did a lot with Avery Tichner when he was alive. I remember when they got the hell stormed out of them on the Mushroom and managed to finish.

I wish I had some audio tape of Avery on one of his rants. He was one of a kind for sure!!

If you ever talk to Barbella, please say hi for me.
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Feb 10, 2009 - 12:21am PT
This ain't no goddamn winnie roast!

Love the pic where you're standin' on that #2 friend ...
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Feb 10, 2009 - 11:47am PT
Definitely the best yet, probably because the photos are actually in order!

I like the cleaning photo with the three poinked-out heads on the rope.


Do you have any photos from the first three pitches that have since fallen off? I would really like to see what used to be there, and what you guys actually climbed to reach El Cap Tree. I walk over those first few pitches from time to time.

And what were you thinking climbing up there without helmets??? Sheesh.

P.S. concur with poster below - would love to hear the stories!
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 10, 2009 - 11:50am PT
John,

You need to get in here and participate in your threads a little more brother.

How about some stories? We need some meat to go with all this pudding, and then you can be counted amongst us Shameless Self Thread Bumpers!

PS. All should go read Reillys "Thread of Life" thread.
What a story!
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Feb 10, 2009 - 01:07pm PT
Gee Survival, Deucie has posted a zillion photos in the last several weeks and you want MORE! (tongue in cheek).

Fun aside, Deucie, you should at least also post your account here about enduring the 100-year storm while on the back of Half Dome. Truly one of the strongest accounts ever of The Ultra-Hideous.

Been so loving your photos. Thanks tons for all that scanning too!!

best ph.
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 10, 2009 - 03:29pm PT
Bump disguised as a story, or story disguised as a bump? No matter.

Hmm, AO story. Yep, that was a wild fall Barbella took with those poinked heads. He was up, maybe 20-25 feet, knowing it was going bad. I think he was trying to outrun them. Then, whoosh, back to the belay, I pulled a yard of rope in and he stopped about 2" above the small ankle twisting ledge we had the belay on.

Now that I see all the photos, I wonder what Alpinist has done with my missing photo on the roof. Somewhere out in magazine land, I suppose. There's a shot in Alpinist 25 shows me wildly hanging--that was posed, as I just got my first good piece. Another thing I remember about the roof is that I had to nail at the base of a huge cantilevered block. I called it the Tombstone. I am gobsmacked that thing is still there. The only connection of the 10 foot long block was about a foot or so of its base, right where you had to nail, otherwise the thing was fully suspended.

Pete--the first pic--that's the only pic I have of the start-- where you can see one of us jugging a rope to our belay over the roof (if you look closely). There was one belay which was all knifeblades in a thin crack (we weren't hauling at that point, so it was ok for body weight), and the wall was popping and cracking and making sounds I've not eard before or since--ominous sounds.
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 11, 2009 - 07:10pm PT
Wow. Your story bump worked Deuce!!!

I just missed it the first time around, or I would have posted then. Did you ever know Avery T.? I was trying to poke a comment out of you. I thought you knew him.

I'm tryin' to keep this wall up front John, it deserves it!
Bruce
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 11, 2009 - 07:52pm PT
I'm wondering how the poli-trolls can out post one of our own with sixty photos of a first ascent of El Cap on a climbers web-site.

I see why guys like R_ _ _ and S_ _ _ _ _ bail out.
scuffy b

climber
just below the San Andreas
Feb 11, 2009 - 08:00pm PT
"Cleaning" photo with plinked heads...

I see there are 4 heads there, at least.
So, what's next? He just goes up again and hopes they
stick better on the 2nd try?

Thanks, John. Awesome set of shots.
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Feb 11, 2009 - 08:06pm PT
Barbella was mellow and stoic.
'Dude had massive lats too, just in case he wanted to free climb...

Nice rollout John.
I sort of like that there is not a single word to go with it along the way.
This way we just keep quiet, look & listen to the big space...
T2

climber
Cardiff by the sea
Feb 11, 2009 - 08:15pm PT
Great pictures John, Thanks so much for taking the time to post them up. Rick Lovelace and i did an early ascent of the AO and climbed the original pitches that are now at the base. We to were not hauling through that section. I remember having a very uneasy feeling climbing through all that loose rock.

Funny side note: Rick and I had done the route and were trolling the base afterwards in a altered state of mind picking up trash and sh#t bags (this was back when it was acceptable to chuck your sh#t.) Anyway you may recall that there was a big wide horizonal see through crack, maybe some 20 feet off the deck and traversing like 40 or 50 feet. There was a guy aiding across this huge expanding looking crack big cams and all. We asked what he was doing and he explained how he was practicing some aid climbing. We were trippin out on his choice of rock to climb on. That crack now rest's under all that rubble.



This may be up on the Turn pike section


Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Feb 11, 2009 - 08:31pm PT
'Could do a whole thread on Lovelace right?
One of those guys that had a single-minded feeling about El Capitan.
He hit it pretty good too.
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 11, 2009 - 11:26pm PT
Nice job T2.
Thanks for adding your pix and thoughts.
How many ascents has that thing had, and what is done for the bottom section now?
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2009 - 01:35am PT
wow, the thinly disguised bump worked. All the usual suspects posting up though, heh, heh...

SuperPundits Unite!

(I think I'll see 'bout posting sometin' on one of Survival's threads now...)
ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber
pads are for girls
Feb 12, 2009 - 02:39am PT
Oh !
Reilly

Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
Feb 12, 2009 - 02:49am PT
There are some great shots here! Thanks, but it seems somebody 'shopped' (brightened the shadows, etc) them from the first time I looked at 'em. They look much better, or maybe I'm getting more blood to my eyes than normal...
Russ Walling

Social climber
Upper Fupa, North Dakota
Feb 12, 2009 - 02:57am PT
T2: That probably is the Turnpike section. This looks like the same pitch from our Iron Hawk outing, where it hits the Turnpike too. The topo calls it pitch 14, A3+ heading to rivets.

survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 12, 2009 - 09:13am PT
Did I miss something?
What do people do on the bottom section now?
Scary stuff reading about you guys climbing through that BITD.
Delhi Dog

Trad climber
Good Question...
Feb 12, 2009 - 09:50am PT
Whoa thanks for sending this one back up!
Fine shots.

"I sort of like that there is not a single word to go with it along the way.
This way we just keep quiet, look & listen to the big space..."

I'd have to agree.
It work.
Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
DD
survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 12, 2009 - 04:15pm PT
WHAT DO PEOPLE DO ON THE BOTTOM SECTION NOW?
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2009 - 04:31pm PT
I reckon you can just climb El Cap Tree...
Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Feb 12, 2009 - 04:53pm PT
John, Remember running into Alex Lowe coming down off the AO in 1993? He'd been trying to guide it. Remember his client? "Yeah, he could do it, I couldn't." But Alex blamed hot weather or some such. What class.....
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Feb 12, 2009 - 05:05pm PT
Thanks, John. AO is still on my Hit List. I think these days I would prefer a rope gun for the finish - that scared the livin' bejeepers outa me when I soloed Iron Hawk.
deuce4

climber
Hobart, Australia
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2009 - 05:18pm PT
Cam, yep I remember that. What a guy that Alex.

Pete- yeah, but soloing that thin face is a lot different than having a partner down below... I've led that thin face twice, and it's most likely 5.10, 30 foot runout stuff, sort of like the 5.9 over on Middle.


jiff

Mountain climber
autin, texas
Feb 12, 2009 - 05:22pm PT
Wonderful pictures! thanks for sharing.
T2

climber
Cardiff by the sea
Feb 12, 2009 - 11:08pm PT
Russ: Yea my pic is taken probably right where you are at in yours. The shadow in you pic is really cool
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Feb 12, 2009 - 11:16pm PT
"but soloing that thin face is a lot different than having a partner down below"

No doubt! IH was my first solo, and I was using a Solo Aid. I didn't know how to pay out slack one-handed, so I just pulled out 30 feet and went for it. Holy Factor Two, Batman! [I have since switched to a Grigri]
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
Feb 12, 2009 - 11:26pm PT
Maybe Russ should post some more shots...I know he's got 'em!

Cool thread though. Aid climbing used to seem like cheating to me but some of the shots John and Mussy post obviously are likely to disprove that.

20 foot falls on the belay would make most free-climbers sh#t their pants...and then pray to God. Let alone 40, 60 foot falls!

I respect you weirdos.
Messages 1 - 39 of total 39 in this topic
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