For Posterity: Your First Ascents

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Todd Gordon

Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
Apr 26, 2009 - 08:18am PT
Kevin;.....you are close;.....It's an angelic wife, I live as though I have no bills, and us teachers ;....we gets too much time off..........(My First FA was with Mike Paul in Feb. 1978)......in 31 years, you can bang out alot of FA's.......It' sort of like Blue Diamond Almonds;...a can a week is all we ask......
Nate D

climber
San Francisco
Apr 29, 2009 - 01:50pm PT
bump for hooblie to post any pictures of the Wildcat Point route, or anything near Glen Aulin. Any climbs on pt. 8,886 (or does it have a name)?
MisterE

Trad climber
One Step Beyond!
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2009 - 01:52pm PT
Those look stellar Chief! Way to get after it!

Edit: haha! Jason Chinchen - as I live and breathe!

The Hollywood schlepper himself! PM sent
Bob D'A

Trad climber
Boulder, CO
Apr 29, 2009 - 01:53pm PT
Maybe 1,500...maybe more. At this point it really doesn't matter that much.
coiler

Trad climber
The Rock Monkey Ranch
Apr 29, 2009 - 02:11pm PT
Many: in Cali. Colo. Az. Ut. Grade 1 to 6. Mostly Yosemite, Lovers leap, JT, North Coast etc.

List of Wall FAs:
T-Bag's Hangin' V 5.9 A3+
Spire it Up V 5.9 A3+
Operaton Bravo V 5.9 A3+
The Golden Road (to eternal obscurity) V 5.8 A3+
Monkeys Under Foot V 5.9 A3+
The Wild Apes Route V 5.9 A3+
The North Sea V 5.9 A3+
The New Age V 5.9 A3+
The Age Of Exploration V 5.9 A3+
Early Times aka Silent Skies V 5.9 A3+
Tora Bora V 5.9 A3+
The High Life V 5.9 A4
The Crucible VI 5.9 A4+
The Bagel Race (Var to Grape race (4 pitches) VI 5.9 A4+
hooblie

climber
Apr 29, 2009 - 02:44pm PT
nate d, sorry not familiar with pt. 8,886. spose it's right there on the topo, but we didn't study one. of all the junk i had hauled down there by the end of summer a camera wasn't on the list. i had gotten disgusted with the shots made on belay and had so much regard for eppie's photo's that i resolved to return and do serious photo work from proper vantage points. i'll be going there this summer with dave chung's ashes, my partner for that summer. will share all i know by email request.

i'm seeing an overview type picture posted by offwhite, the 2nd of 3 pics, on the 24th post on tuolmne appreciation thread. glen aulen is highlighted by evening sun, wildcat pt has the shadowed arete cut off by the toe of the intervening ridgeline. it's not at all what your asking for but the foreground is the shortcut over the hogsback and right on out there.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=454299&tn=20
cragnshag

Social climber
san joser
Apr 29, 2009 - 04:20pm PT
Hey evel, I was gonna say Manufractured, but you beat me to it in your 2nd post (I need to work less and goof off online more to catch the new topics early on). I've never done it, but a old friend of mine, the late Cale Shaffer, used to rave about doing laps on it. Cale grew up in PA and that quarry was his local crag, I believe. The 8th man-made wonder of the world.....

FA's- I've done a couple dozen in my life.... mostly Yosemite and the Sierras with a few in Jtree, Arizona, and New Mexico. I can somewhat relate to the Warbler's predominantly climbing FAs or FA repeats. There's just nothing like getting on new rock. I find myself climbing FAs in waves or climbing existing routes in waves. I'm not sure why.... Sometimes it comes down to having motivated partners to share the particular experience.






Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Apr 29, 2009 - 04:52pm PT
coiler,

I have most of your FAs included in my online list (http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/update.htm).
Got more details on these?
> Monkeys Under Foot V 5.9 A3+
> The Crucible VI 5.9 A4+

> The Bagel Race
I'll add this. Got more names and a date for it? Where does it exit/rejoin Grape Race? (Although I heard the Grape Race topo was not too good).
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Apr 29, 2009 - 05:46pm PT
> WHAT drives a person to do hundreds of FA's and claim them? Its NOT exploration, not after the first hundred or so on a given wall, all I can see is its the ego of having one upped the masses.

No, I think it is still about exploration.
Todd Gordon

Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
Apr 29, 2009 - 09:41pm PT
Roxjox;.....I read your post, and I see how someone might think or feel that way;..you brought up some good points and expressed them well......sort of makes sense on paper;......but I personally don't feel that way at all. Clint Cummings is correct;...it's about the exploring...(for me, anyways...) I love climbing on unclimbed rock;....it facinates me, and it is so much more exciting than "know" climbs.....I just love the unknown......Where does the climbing go?....how difficult?....what about protection, rating, moves, rock quality,.....there is alot to it...and all of it I find very, very interesting........as far as the ego, granite masterbating, 200 years from now;........I'm way over that.....it's all about the climbing, the mystery, the discovery, the exploration, the unknown, and being out in nature with the homies....I just love to climb unclimbed rock....anywhere, anytime, in any weather, for any reason.....I don't need an audience, a magazine, a photo, or a line in a guidebook.......just the rock....As I get older (and weaker, and fatter, and I suck...)...the ego melts away, and I am just happy as a dog with two dicks just to be out craggin'.........I'm not saying that what you posted might be true for some in some context....but it's not what I do at all.........I appreciate what you say, and appreciate your thoughts and insite. Respectfully;...Todd Gordon ....a hopelessly addicted first ascentionist.......

Jingy

Social climber
Flatland, Ca
Apr 29, 2009 - 10:44pm PT
First Ascent:
High Anxiety V2 (X), Happy Boulders

Todd Gordon

Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
Apr 30, 2009 - 02:25am PT
Roxjox;......thanks for further details into what you are trying to get at......yeah;.....the FA and the bolting and the guidebook issue can get stinky, can't it. I appreciate what you have to say, and agree with you that the whole first ascent scene can get out of hand, and it is fueled often by guidebooks , ego, and some not-so - proud misguided intrepretations .........too bad, for doing first ascents for Kevin and I and many of my friends is mostly an experiece of adventure and exciting exploration and personal discovery and wonderment.........usually far, far from the public eye in wonderful places. Appreciate you taking to the time to elaborate, and climbing's "dirty" side can be irritating and frustrating to all of us. You make some excellent points, and ....I don't really know what or if there are any answers;.......growing pains with our awesome sport, probably. Thanks again, and thank you for your articulate and respectful response to subjects which can easily get heated and "nasty."
Guidebooks and doing FAs are here to stay........and with the good comes the bad too;.......the bad is real;.....that is a given;......but the good side of guidebooks and doing FAs is a happy world too...........I love it , anyways. I have tasted the sour side of doing FAs.....I've pissed more than one person off and lost some valuable friendships over "climbing" related issues.......it's too bad, too......for I find it 99.9% of the time to be a very positive, exciting, and wonderful thing in my life...As for leaving FAs for future generations....in my travels, I keep on finding more and more and more unclimbed rock.....there is alot of it out there still...many generations worth actually;.. our wilderness world, though seemingly shrinking, is still quite wild and wooley....you just have to walk further to get to it.....a treat to those who have the desire, time, and patience to do so... ...thanks again for sharing your thoughts and insight.......I appreciate what you have to say.....(You don't sound strident and pissy......more frustrated and concerned.......)

Evel

Trad climber
the cliffs of insanity
Apr 30, 2009 - 02:33am PT
Cragnshag, at the risk of revealing my identity, I must admit that I did not climb the FA of Manufractured. I'm the sawyer.
hooblie

climber
Apr 30, 2009 - 11:36am PT
rokjox, it's great that you turned the light onto this aspect of the game. many of your thoughts have been my creedo for the best part of my days and you stated them better than i could.

most of my really proud stuff was done in montana and the locals there had established a policy of not publishing since long before i arrived. this i embraced because i wanted to honor established tradition, it fit with my inclination anyway, their recognition was sufficient,it served my purpose to not have the place swamped, and the cozy feeling of a neighborhood gang was very rewarding. as a californian especially i was gratefull to be let into the circle.

the oral reports got around unevenly and thirty years hence its becoming clear that we are a mysterious quantity to the currently active folks. it is indeed quaintly satisfying to have another generation "discover" routes that were done in the leave no trace style, and that should be to our credit if preservation of the wilderness means anything. but to tell the truth i didn't replace the debris to where i found it on the bivy ledges, or rappel solely off of bollards and chicken heads. never the less there's plenty of adventure left in those crags.

so to carry that ethic to an extreme is to engage in hubris and false modesty. this feels like sort of a trap and it can be seen as uncharitable to be furtive when asked to report. this is a dilema i find myself in now since a whole generation of energetic climbers in montana that i haven't even met would resent my posting my proudest achievements. those deeds now stand to be ignored or misconstrued, because what i've learned is that if you don't write history yourself you're acquiesing to have it made up by the guessers.

this is an interesting forum to find myself searching for the right balance between spraying and stifling oneself but from this old guys perspective, mum is not the whole enchilada. i should think that, as i sit here in a rocking chair, it would be ok to speak of deeds done in the glory days. within reason i suppose.

so to send my heart even further out on my sleeve, it's shakin out like this. if you pursue your passion and let the intrinsic rewards alone suffice for the day, there will come a time, when you are clearly a has been, that no one will know that you are not a never was. it's an ok human emotion, though perhaps not the noblest, to let it be known that i spied a vision, on god's rocky globe, that inspired me to scrap tooth and nail, to quiver and squeek with assertion that this passage was worth the nut to associate my being with that definitive statement in stone.

i'm surrounded by people who don't give a crap about that. to seek out a community that gets it seems like an antidote to this state of affairs i've wrought by pioneering in obscurity. i guess i'm copping to the fact that, while bubbling over with what feels like a blessing to be included in the golden age, its not enough, i can't keep a cork in it. so i'll make allowances for others who report fa's too.
Chiloe

Trad climber
Lee, NH
Apr 30, 2009 - 11:56am PT
if you don't write history yourself you're acquiesing to have it made up by the guessers.

I agree, having learned that the hard way myself.

Interestingly, it's my impression that there was a trend "away from history" in the guidebooks
of the 1980s and 90s, coincident with the rise of topo guides and then sport climbing. During
this period, more guidebooks seemed to appear without history sections, or just cursory ones.
The stories and people behind the routes weren't in view, as they often had been in the better
1960s and 70s guidebooks.

In the 2000s, for reasons I don't know, history has been rediscovered (or written down for
the first time) by some of the best guidebook writers.
hossjulia

Trad climber
Eastside
Apr 30, 2009 - 11:58am PT
with Karen Wilson leading, Chocolate Decadence, JT 5.7.

If Dona and Karen were at the JT reunion, my bad for not seeking them out. :(
Barbarian

Trad climber
stealth camping and hiding from the man
Apr 30, 2009 - 12:01pm PT
1980 - Yosemite Valley

5.9 + (Old School)

Six Thirty - Manure Pile Buttress w/Julie
Barbarian - Glacier Point Apron w/Barb Lafayette
adam d

climber
CA
May 2, 2009 - 01:55am PT
thought this one was virgin territory til I found a 1/2" angle 30' from the top
(the middle spire is the one in question...New Fork Valley, Wind Rivers)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamdale/229540747/in/set-72157594260636668/

got to the summit and found two horrendous 1/4 inch bolts, nothing to sling and not a single crack. Time to downclimb!

When I made it back to that seemingly bomber piton, I found it dangling loose on my rope (which had never been weighted).

kudos to those who find a balance between sharing knowledge of new climbs, separating the ego, and keeping adventure alive.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
May 2, 2009 - 12:06pm PT
A bunch of FA's at Williamson Rock in So Cal.

Some of my favorites were:

Dancing in the storm.
Wedding March
Our children's children
Second generation
World Beater

I would have to pull out the guide to tell what other routes I have done but probably 30-35 maybe more at Williamson.


A few FA's at Mt. Pacifico.


Keller Peak:
Impossible Concentration

A bunch up in the White Mountains East of Bishop that I never named and a few at Papoose Flats in the Inyo Mountains.
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
Aug 17, 2009 - 01:53am PT
regaining this thread. some quality insights in here. thx hooblie
Messages 41 - 60 of total 76 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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