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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Oct 19, 2013 - 12:26am PT
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For once i agree with donini.. .there weren't any diamond lanes when i did thunderbolt or Koreans driving blinded by dental floss...RJ
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stonefly
Social climber
Alameda, California
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Oct 19, 2013 - 01:51pm PT
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Seems to be some confusion as to how many of the first ascent party reached the summit. Glen Dawson identifies his 1931 photo as Bob Underhill descending summit block after initial forced retreat. Couldn't beat those Keds!
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Oct 20, 2013 - 04:12am PT
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"Eiger of the Sierras" is Mt Morrison
Maybe, but it's been climbed. No one has climbed the north face of Mt. Dana.
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mpmoody
Mountain climber
Alamo, CA
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Oct 24, 2013 - 12:54pm PT
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I agree with dee ee
it's
1.) Starlight
2.) Thunderbolt
3.) North Pal
mike m
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Baggins
Boulder climber
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Oct 24, 2013 - 01:08pm PT
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Grandpa Peabody
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 24, 2013 - 01:24pm PT
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When I did Clarence King in August 1962 is was rated 3rd class. You mean it's harder now? Sure is remote from the west.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 24, 2013 - 01:52pm PT
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Bruce, 3rd class? Did you climb the summit block and think it was 3rd class? Even the short cruxy gully before it, is not 3rd class.
. It's 5.4 summit block was the most difficult rock climb in nineteenth-century America (according to Secor). Bolton C. Brown used a knotted rope to pull himself up the summit crux in August of 1896.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 24, 2013 - 04:43pm PT
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Yes, Vitaly, we all summited on the summit block of Mt Clarence King - all 15 of us from a back packing group from Carlmont High School. Phil Arnot, a social science teacher at Carlmont, used to lead two two-week back packing mountaineering trips into the Sierra every summer. We were dragged up and lowered down thousands of feet of so-called 'Class 3' gulleys, often in hail, rain and snow. Mr Arnot's mountaineering trips were back in the day before liability insurance and law suits. Nobody ever got killed or really hurt, but Phil's trips were never simulated alpine experiences. Winter on the Whitney Glacier on Mt Shasta when it was 10 degrees F. Winter attempts on the North Pal with Boy Scout Packs and Sears Dacron sleeping bags. We were so young we didn't know any better and never complained. I think Phil had the world's record in the half-mile when he was a UC Berkeley after WWII. He beat our young asses into shape. Ron Kauk started climbing at Carlmont at the tail end of the Arnot era, but the hard core traditions were still intact when Ron was there. Scott Cosgrove also started at Carlmont Mountaineering after Phil had passed the baton to Coach Robert Landsberry, an old US Marine. The Great Tradition, alas, came to an end in 1975 when a student was killed in a rapping accident off the back of Puppy Dome. Then, Sequoia Union High School District discontinued all mountaineering programs throughout the whole district after the parents of the dead student were awarded a huge settlement.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 24, 2013 - 05:47pm PT
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we all summited on the summit block of Mt Clarence King
How many of you soloed it? If it was in fact 3rd class I do not think it would be aided by the FA party and almost always a rope is used to climb it. My point is that it never was 3rd class. If someone said it was, doesn't mean he was honest.
Otherwise sounds like you had a lot of fun in your youth. When I was a beginner I did a traverse of Sill to Starlight in winter and can't imagine a group of youth from high school doing North Pal in those conditions! People were more awesome back in the day. My first camping trip was Shasta when I was 23 :(
Anyway my vote is that one of the hardest peaks in Sierra would be some peak on Devil's Crag traverse. You got to climb over some peaks, 5.9 on loose shitty rock, 13K ft, and an approach that is about 20 miles. That would be a badass winter traverse!
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Oct 24, 2013 - 05:49pm PT
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Safer in winter.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 24, 2013 - 06:17pm PT
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My memory is dim from 1962, but I think someone threw a rope over the top of the summit pinnacle on Mt Clarence King after someone soloed up to the top. Possible? Somehow almost everyone in our party did summit the peak.
If Mr Arnot told us it was okay, we never questioned his judgment and just did it. I do remember one winter night on Whitney Glacier staying wide awake all night shivering in a Dacron Sears sleeping bag. There is something to that old adage about "young & dumb". Always caught the flu whenever we got back from one of those winter holidays. Wonder why?!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Oct 24, 2013 - 07:58pm PT
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Bruce, when were you at Carlmont? Two of my roommates at Berkeley were Carlmont grads.
John
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 28, 2013 - 11:11pm PT
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Carlmont H.S. was sort of an on again off again thing for me, hah! But I did belong to the Carlmont YMCA Alpine Club from 1961 to 1965. Johanna Lunn went to Berkeley and so did her little sister Barbara. I think Steve Higby went to UCB too. He was a Carlmont Alpine Club alumnus as was Sally Timby. Paul Baccus? I do recall that Johanna was in the very dorm at Berkeley where all the co-eds got to use the first batch of The Pill. Now that really initiated some social change! A lot more than Che Guevara ever did!
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Dave Wing
Social climber
Lummi Island Wa
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Feb 12, 2014 - 10:50pm PT
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Bruce, I ran across your posts re: Phil Arnot. I was also part of the Alpine Club from 1957-61 and usually did two trips a year with Phil. After H.S. I continued climbing/hiking with Phil for a couple more years. FYI, I've been in contact with Phil as recent as last week. He is alive and well in Lagunitas, Ca where he lives in his grandfathers cabin. He turns 90 in July of this year and still hikes in the Sierra's. Check out his website www.philarnot.com.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Feb 13, 2014 - 01:00am PT
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Dave- I knew Phil was still up in his cabin in Marin and figured he'd be turning 90 pretty soon. Good that he's still keeping on. I too used to do two 2-week Sierra backpacking trips with him each summer. Later, around 1973, Phil, myself and David Lunn did a 3-week car trip to the Cascades, peak bagging Mt Adams, Rainier, St. Helens, Thielson and others while driving around in Phil's post-divorce VW bug. Remember it was crowded, but we did have a magnificent time. Have seen Phil's web site before, but will have to check it out again right now.
Here's Phil's web site:
http://philarnot.com/
Quite a life of adventure in many wildernesses.
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Feb 13, 2014 - 01:14am PT
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I like this thread
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