DIck Jones, early free climbing master

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 21 - 25 of total 25 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

looking sketchy there...

Social climber

Latitute 33

Apr 29, 2009 - 12:52pm PT

As stated above, about 1935 the So Cal RCS started an intensive search for crags which might be good climbing prospects. They even had official Scouting Report forms to keep track of these efforts. According to the 1935 scouting report for Tahquitz Rock, Mary Jane Edwards was with Jim Smith when they "discovered" Tahquitz Rock. Poorly equiped with a short rope and little gear (and Mary Jane apparently didn't really know how to belay at the time), they made an aborted attempt on The Trough.

It wasn't until the next year (1936) that The Trough was climbed became Tahquitz's first route.

When you read about Dick Jones finding himself fully commited and then just getting into the flow of the climb and pulling off the lead, you recognize the experience as timeless. Dick Jones and other climbers of his generation are not just historical figures, but climbers who could have been great in any generation.

TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Apr 29, 2009 - 03:47pm PT

Every time I've done that route I've contemplated the sheared off bolt and hesitated awhile. It's only a 5.6 or less move, but being 80 feet or so out sure makes it hard to convince yourself of that, even if you've been there many times before.

Wilts says in his guide that the bolt was "broken in a fall and the descision was that it should not be replaced"

It's hard to believe that that would be a survivable fall. If someone did survive it, it should be a widely recounted legend for sure. I've never heard such a story.

Was the broken bolt story a fiction to preempt a first bolt war?