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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 16, 2009 - 04:28am PT
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Here is a wee article Boche and I put together for one of the early issues of Climbing Magazine in 1971. Looks like there is a page missing, have to search it out one of these days. At least you can get glance at the early history before all the rocks started falling.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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May 16, 2009 - 04:58am PT
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Very cool Guido!
I still remember how bizarre and spooky my first time on the apron felt in 77, it was so completely different than the steep face we had done at home in Oregon.......
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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May 16, 2009 - 09:04am PT
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What a little treasure this is, Guido McKeown. Are you at sea yet or in harbor?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 16, 2009 - 11:00am PT
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Great find, Guido!
I have never seen that one and the Frost photos are no longer in his collection so those are fresh too! Not so many routes on the Apron in 1971.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
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May 16, 2009 - 11:45am PT
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way cool!
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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May 16, 2009 - 02:50pm PT
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Man, climbing those routes in lug-soled shoes must have been epic.
I first went to Yoz. in '71 and was climbing in smooth-soled, red PAs (pre-EBs) and even those didn't friction for sh#t. Stuff like Coonyard and Goodrich, etc., was serious and scary.
EBs changed everything - most routes were at least half a grade easier. Then came sticky rubber and you could almost walk up some of those routes.
I regret not doing more climbing over there. Routes like Punch Bowl and Tightrope always generated a buzz and unfortunately I never got on them . . .
JL
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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May 16, 2009 - 02:59pm PT
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Largo,
The lugs worked OK. Sometimes you could smear across a hold and stand on it because a lug would snag it. With the Kronhofers, we all worked to make them tight. Gerughty said put them on, get wet, and boulder till they dried.
Boche had not arrived in the Valley with my new pair from West Ridge. For a few climbs, I borrowed a pair of Kronies from Loyd Price (note the correct spelling) that were a size and a half too large or maybe even two sizes. I did the Mouth, Coonyard, the Right Side of Goodrich, and the traverse (FA) from Goodrich to Coonyard. The shoes worked just fine.
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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May 16, 2009 - 03:16pm PT
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I remember doing the Marginal in Kronhauffers (sp?) searching through the tiniest flakes for something to edge, slipping then moving forward a bit, then sliding back.
The moves seemed so hard the protection so far away. It was a revelation to repeat that climb in EBs.
The apron is a place where shoes really made a difference! The Krohauffers had a remarkable ability to lock on to an edge if you could find one, but with a stickier rubber you could friction over remarkably blank rock with relative ease.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
the greasewood ghetto
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May 16, 2009 - 03:23pm PT
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" the Frost photos are no longer in his collection "
I bet some individual scans of these (though only magazine print) would look nice . They seem a little over-exposed anyway , they could be enlarged and darkened etc in any photoshop type program .
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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May 16, 2009 - 05:23pm PT
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JL, didn't you do the first free ascent of the calf? i did that thing during the height of my slab climbing prowess and i thought it was pretty damn hard. i think you were more of an aproneer than you remember!
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graham
Social climber
Ventura, California
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May 16, 2009 - 09:10pm PT
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All those old boots worked great. you just had to use them differently.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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May 16, 2009 - 09:41pm PT
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BVB wrote: "JL, didn't you do the first free ascent of the calf? i did that thing during the height of my slab climbing prowess and i thought it was pretty damn hard. i think you were more of an aproneer than you remember!"
I climbed over there a fair amount and did a couple intersting things, including The Calf (seemed horrendous in PAs), and Mouth to Perhaps, with Rick Accomazzo, a route that had a truly king-sized runout (75 foot fall possibility) that Ricky absolutely nailed on the FA. But there were a ton of other routes over there that I never got on because at that time our focus was on the bigger and steper stuff on Middle C.
Nevertheless I regret not doing more over there. It's great to see these archive photos and to hear about the old history/FA stories. Doing that stuff in Kronehoffers (sp?) with quarter inch bolts is a totally unheard of fandango thing these days.
JL
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2009 - 01:38am PT
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Peter
Been working like mad to get the boat ready for a passage from NZ to Fiji-waiting for a good weather window but the Aussies keep sending these nasty, complex Lows across the Tasman to sweet little NZ. Soon as it looks good we are outta here, head north until the socks come off and the butter melts. Looking for some old shots of when Boche and I did the first ascent of Marginal-funny story behind that one.
cheers
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dogtown
climber
Cheyenne,Wyoming
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May 17, 2009 - 02:41am PT
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Man, I think, as I have said before it is the best! long slab route in the Valley (To the Oasis.) Where are the hardcore kids now.
Cheers,Bro!
Bruce
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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Feb 10, 2019 - 09:08pm PT
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Good on ya Joe!!!
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Feb 11, 2019 - 07:52am PT
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One afternoon Mark Powell returned to Camp 4 with a wide eyed look on his face saying that he just fell 75 feet on the apron. He was clipped to a nearby bolt but actually saw the rope unclip from the biner as he went by.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 11, 2019 - 08:04am PT
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Feb 11, 2019 - 11:23am PT
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Thanks Mouse for making the text readable.
I noticed in the description of Boche and Bircheff's "first ascent" of Lucifer's Ledge, it is recorded as having been done "in the Fall".
Back in the day, I kept a detailed log of all my climbs. I wrote in the log that on July 27, 1965, Ken Boche and I climbed the following: Monday Morning Slab, Point Beyond, AND the first ascent of the first two pitches of Lucifer's Ledge. This was in July, not the Fall.
Since the first ascent credit in Roper's guide also stated the first ascent was by Bircheff and Boche in September of '65, I mentioned to Boche that he and I had done the first two pitches two month's earlier. He was shocked, but then he remembered, "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Guess you shoulda got half credit."
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Touque
Trad climber
Santacruzcalif
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Feb 11, 2019 - 12:41pm PT
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Nice to here about GPA climbing back in the 70s . We climbed there a lot in75 ,76,77,78 it was one of our favorite spots. Does anyone remember anchors away the climb that the leader fell and pulled out the belay bolts
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Feb 11, 2019 - 09:17pm PT
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Does anyone remember anchors away the climb that the leader fell and pulled out the belay bolts
From Accidents in North American Mountaineering 1974 (and Clint's previous posting)
October 17 - David Bryan, Michael [Tim] Harrison. Harrison jumared to the end of p1 of Anchors Away (route named posthumously). Anchor was a single 1/4" x 1" bolt with homemade aluminum hanger. The rope ran over left 10' and down slightly through a carabiner on the last lead bolt on the pitch.
"As Bryan followed Harrison he reached the lower bolt and unclipped the rope from it. His weight, in addition to Harrison's, came onto the belay bolt. It failed and both men fell to their deaths."
The thing I remember most about that route was when I got to the traverse right from the last bolt to the anchors on the top of the 1st pitch the face looked totally blank. I just didn't see anyway across that section. Obviously, I worked it out, but on my first glance, it just looked like glass.
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