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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 27, 2009 - 01:47am PT
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Everybody remembers their first time at something … whether is was the first time you had sex, first time you went to kindergarten, etc.
I don’t remember doing my first climb … but I was told it went something like this:
Staring at the obstacle in front of me, it was only 10 feet high. I gingerly put my hands on the first holds, feet followed and before I knew it … I had summited the problem. I was so pleased and excited with myself that I couldn’t say any words. With the joy of self-achievement I looked down to a surprised audience.
It was my mum in the backyard of our house. She had a look of concern on her face because I was fourteen months old and I had just scampered my way up a stepladder leaning up against the house to the roof. To my mom’s startled discovery I toddled out unnoticed and bagged that first ascent. I guess climbing starts when you are young and for me that was April 1964.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 27, 2009 - 01:51am PT
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Cliff drive, kansas city Mo
"The open book 5.7"
Located in the ghetto, with full on bullets whizzin by your head on the petrified mud wall.
Man it was cool seeing the cops chase down a gunman whilst rappelling!
Mucci
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 01:53am PT
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A toperope somewhere near Hedley BC. I was terrified
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:05am PT
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Chinchen, are you a Flagstaffonian?
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:07am PT
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Oh, I should change that....I wish I was. Right now Im living in Anacortes, Wa. Will be back down that way this winter.
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:11am PT
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Chinchen, I was just quering your place label. I am a transplated Flagstaffonian ... Why am I living in WA? Just curious on my part ... peace on!
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:12am PT
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Where there are boats, there is money....
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:15am PT
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Chinchen may be a former Outward Bounder.
My first climb - with rope - was at Lighthouse Park, near Vancouver. Which is where most everyone around here started climbing.
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:15am PT
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That's cool ... I understand the Orcas Island thing ... for sure. My dad had a Cataline 41 which I sailed a few times on and had a great time as a tweenager. I am sure you are living the life. Nice to meet you. RB
PS - Do you know any Flag climbers?
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Rudder
Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:59am PT
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Angel's Fright at Tahquitz...
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martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:04am PT
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sunnyside bench jamcrack, first pitch. Led with pins, put a quarter inch bolt at the belay to rap......believe there was a pin, but no bolts. 72.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:15am PT
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^^^^ Nice!
Man that must have been a sharp crack back in the day huh?
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Iron Mtn.
Trad climber
Corona, Ca.
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:27am PT
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The Trough-Big Rock
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hooblie
climber
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:42am PT
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in '64, some jr. hi buddies were being treated to some caving trips by a fellow a couple of years older. i missed out on those but they shared the knowledge, breaker bars, swami and leg loops etc. on trips to castle rock where one mom would drop us off and another would pick us up, we were left to our own to crawl all over that thing. rarely saw anyone else. the most vivid memories of rope work involved the rap off the overhang at goat rock. shakey knees at the lip, then rushing back up for repeats.
got the RCS checkout at 16 and tuned up a couple of things but we weren't too misguided as kids
edit: RCS is rock climbing section of the sierra club. that's a duh, right?
now that i'm thinking about it these weren't my first climbing partners. i can't think of a bus stop that didn't have a crow's nest atop a tree that one could give first alert from starting with first grade. also the 50' oak trees were still polished from our preteen arborial life last time i checked.
a cool way to avoid being "tagged" was to leap to another branch and hog the landing zone, foiling the guy who was "it."
does this give a clue about the role casual parenting played in the formative years of a climber?
the only fear mongering i recall was the questionable effectiveness of nuclear duck and cover
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:59am PT
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1970, and I was with my brother Dave, and we equipped ourselves with 70 feet of army surplus webbing and proceeded to top rope a route at Mission Gorge in San Diego, by running the web around a tree at the top...Lucky we survived...(Natural selection and all...)
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:41am PT
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19th nervous breakdown - vedauwu 5.9+...
oddly enough, i was across the way and staring at this very route all day sunday, while manny dragged me up another 5.9...ten years later and i still can't climb ;-)
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rick d
climber
tucson, az
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:46am PT
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RB-
not "the RB" by any chance?
does the phrase "I pulled a Donnelly" along with Queen Creek ring any bells?
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noshoesnoshirt
climber
Arkansas, I suppose
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:51am PT
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Climbed a bunch of stuff solo before I knew what I was doing, then graduated to a clothes-line hand-held toprope belay on some local bluffs.
First real lead (with gear and a rope, natch) Moonlight Stroll, 5.7 at Mt. Magazine, Arkansas.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:04am PT
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The Trough @ Tahquitz, November 1965. Returning to Humber Park cold and wet Charlie Raymonds wife (gf?) graciously stuffed us into their VW bus with fluffy down bags while we waited in the dark for the rest of the boy scouts of Post 4 Mountaineering to return! Charlie soon came down off of the Vampire, can't remember where I went next other than a life of climbing. Amazing no one died that day, most of the boys never climbed again.
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Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:07am PT
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Toproped some dogsh1t gulley at boy scout camp in the 'daks in the mid-70's.
My first real, in the guidebook, climb was 'Betty' [5.2+++] in the Gunks, circa 1978. Wore Jox sneakers because they looked like EB's. Used a 120' length of Goldline, 5 or 6 steel biners from the Army surplus store, three Chouinard chocks with 7mm perlon, had 2 pins and a hammer, and no slings. Tied in with a bowline, not on a coil. Wore construction helmets with jury-rigged sling as a chin strap. Even though the hip belay was still common practice, we used the more advanced 'hold-the-rope-in-your-hands' belay. A belay didn't really matter. After finding fixed pins [!!] on what we thought was a first ascent and clipping the first three without slings, rope drag would have saved me. We actually did both pitches.
We knew nothing about a walk-off, so we rappeled with figure 8's. Now 60' of doubled Goldline does not make it back to the ledge at the top of the first pitch of Betty. I ended up 8 feet above the ledge on a relatively blank wall. I didn't even know about ascending a rope. So I jumped. Fortunately I stuck the landing. I told my partner to stop at the bomber 2" tree and rig another rap to the ledge to avoid the jump and probable lost rope and subsequent rescue.
I lowered my partner to the ground using my figure 8 and only sitting on the ledge. Tie-ins were for sissies and smart climbers. After doubling the rope for rappel, my partner said the rope ended up on a ledge 20 feet off the deck. So I rappeled to the ledge, tied off to one end and downclimbed the crux of Betty to the ground.
Could have died a dozen times that day.
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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:12am PT
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3rd Flatiron Spring of 1989 with Steve, can't remember his last name, a new Outward Bound guide from Breckenridge.
He had to teach me how to rapel at the top just prior to him rapeling away saying "You sure you remember how to hook into the figure 8"
Hooked ever since.
Prod.
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cowpoke
climber
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:18am PT
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I started by scrambling in the rockies...substance-enhanced scrambling on south gateway rock in Garden of the Gods led to my first official climbing route: a down-solo of the practice slab. It is only like 5.2 or something, but the experience terrified me into buying a harness, shoes, and a rope. Then, I made a point of becoming friends with "real climbers."
My first route with a rope was some top-rope chimney problem in Castlewood Canyon.
My first multi-pitch route (and my first lead) was something in Eleven Mile Canyon for which I don't remember the name, but I consider it my first "real" route. Here is a pic of me on the first pitch of that climb...does anybody recognize it?
(when driving into the canyon, it was on a dome, maybe, on the left-hand side...it had a handjam move right off the deck that might have been 5.6ish and then was 5.4ish or easier the rest of the way to the top)
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:34am PT
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Lincoln Shrimpeye-Glen Park
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Larry
Trad climber
Bisbee
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:37am PT
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I had no specific first "route." Hiking led to scrambling led to soloing in places I had no business being. Even falling off and spraining an ankle.
One of my greatest thrills came when, at age 14, I spotted a fixed piton. I had read about these "piton" things. I stuffed a stone into my pocket, soloed up and bashed it out with the stone. That was my first climbing gear. It was a Cassin vertical pin. I used it as a cleaning tool for years, after getting religion from Frost, Robinson and Robbins.
The first 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8s I did were leads of first ascents on poor-quality rock in the Green River, Wyo. area. It took a long time to get good like that. If I ever was good.
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Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:45am PT
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Gibraltar Rocks, Santa Barbara 1983
One of my friends had been in a climbing class so the three of us bought 3 carabiners and a rope. Our harnesses were tied out of 1" webbing. I think a swami woulda been more comfortable.
My hiking boots really edged well, but didn't have much in the way of feel for the rock.
Caught a couple of toprope falls with a hip belay in those days. Not recommended for use without a shirt on!
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luggi
Trad climber
from the backseat of Jake& Elwood Blues car
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Aug 27, 2009 - 10:59am PT
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I think Swan Slab...I do remember using every body part possible to top rope a little thing there.Hell if that part would support or grab something it was put into use..Like in a job description...that little part at the end "other duties as assigned".
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 27, 2009 - 11:34am PT
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RB, the term is Flaggot...
Do people actually remember this stuff?
Actually,
I do,
a boulder in the old Jenny Lake campground august 63, I can see it right now. Also scrambling on the rocks at Happy Isles shortly before or after my fourth birthday, if that counts; I was confused when Mom and dad were talking about the (Stellers) Jays.
My first roped climb was at Devil's Lake. I can see that one too. My folks were there and so was someone whose name I can't remember. It wasn't Bill Widule though he was around that day ...it will come to me, starts with an H, I think... What I remember was how much confidence the rope gave me. I pulled up on half inch edges that seemed both too tiny and at the same time, more than adequate to my 7 yr old fingers. I had an epiphany, the rope opened a world of possibilities that I didn't know existed until then...
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Aug 27, 2009 - 11:41am PT
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First route, Three Pines in the Gunks.
First lead, Horseman - later the same day.
Spring 1973.
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Porkchop_express
Trad climber
the base of the Shawangunk Ridge
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Aug 27, 2009 - 11:44am PT
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First route: Birdie Party (gunks)
First lead: Frogs Head (gunks)
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MisterE
Trad climber
Canoga Bark! CA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 11:59am PT
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Crap! Larry just reminded me!
Mt. Verstovia in Sitka Alaska on mushrooms in 1984?5?
Me and my buddy Ted were on a break from boatwork and were bored.
"Hiking led to scrambling led to soloing in places I had no business being."
We summited via a 5.4 or 5.5 face and found an easier way down.
Damn - blast from the past! ;)
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno
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Aug 27, 2009 - 12:08pm PT
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First route was none other than the Tollhouse Traverse. First lead was on Elephant Walk, at Tollhouse, the following weekend.
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JohnRoe
Trad climber
State College, PA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 12:20pm PT
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Some toproping at camp at Kincraig, Scotland, something like 1975.
Hiking boots.
Natural fiber ropes (hemp, maybe - that gear was old).
Tie-in with the rope.
Waist belay from the top of the climb, tied off to some clumps of heather.
Didn't climb again for years!
John
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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 12:34pm PT
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My first roped climb was up a crack/chimney on Old Rag Mountain in the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Pitons and goldline were all the rage!
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Loomis
climber
*_*
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Aug 27, 2009 - 01:20pm PT
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The down climb on boulder one at Stoney Point. 1975
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Boise....
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:27pm PT
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Well, since I wouldn't call anything at Indian Joe Rocks a "route", it would be the Nutcracker, in the Valley.
Led 2 pitches of it, too!
WooHoo!!!!!
I didn't die. Whew.
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MH2
climber
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Aug 27, 2009 - 05:44pm PT
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Friction Face, Quincy Quarry
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thedogfather
climber
Midwest
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Aug 31, 2009 - 09:44pm PT
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mucci, incredible, Cliff Drive in KC was the second place I ever went to climb and the first climb I did there was the Open Book. My first climb was some obscure park with about a 15 foot top rope setup. I was actually at Cliff Drive when the big roof was climbed for the first time (on top rope). You would not believe how shiny slick the rock is down there now. It now sports 4 or 5 bolted routes, mostly in the 5.12 range. When were you climbing in KC? I climbed there in the 70's and 80's then took a decade or so off.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 31, 2009 - 09:58pm PT
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Dogfather-
yep the open book, big fun!
Sean burns? does that ring a bell? The guy who taught me also taught Sean. I climbed there around 2000 so Maybe we "Hit the Deck" a few times from the shots! Ha!
I have done the refrigerator block route, the one with the huge boulder 1/2 way up just left of the big roof. 5.10 I think but waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy hard even on TR.
My teacher tore a huge piece of rock off the size of a mini fridge, It rolled to the road right as a cop was rollin by. He stopped and gave us some choice words which included "retarded, white a$$hole, yur gonna die!, got your bullet proof vests? ETC..."
Then pushed the big pieces into the ditch with the squad car!
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pip the dog
Mountain climber
planet dogboy
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i was 12. me and my dog Pip (imagine that) saw these cool like college age dudes climbing all over a rock in fairmount park, philadelphia. so this would have been, er, carry the 3, 1975. i used to put Pip in a liquor store box and get on the A bus up to Roxbury and from there walk the couple miles to the park. there we would fish and run alot, as kids and dogs do.
Lou Lutz (may his name be long remembered), then surely in his 70's and with significant Parkinson's, talked me up the easiest top rope on Livesy Rock. about 30 feet of 5.7 he climbed up and down it a bunch of times to show me how to do it. 'now if you do this, you'll fall' . 'Pah!' i thought -- then quick fell off just there, doing just that.
after that i used to show up 3 or 4 days a week, and Lou taught me all manner of tricks. even with that significant Parkinson's tremor, he was still climbing hard 10s. after almost a year Lou convinced some of the hip guys from Penn et al to take me to the gunks and north conway.
Lou was fantastic. i think he introduced me to Bob D'A of this venue, but i'm not sure - as in those days all those big kids kinda intimidated me. i suspect Donini also knew Lou.
Lou was much loved and respected by all who frequented Livesy. as such he was able to cajole a spot in a car for me on many, many rides to the east coast big leagues with big kids (who were kind enough to drag me up all manner of stuff). that turned me onto this gig. bless Lou forever.
^,,^
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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It was some short 5.4 piece of basalt choss back at Taylors Falls in MN. I was both terrified and hooked at the same time.
Curt
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Tom Fralich
Mountain climber
New York, NY
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Jackie (5.5)...Gunks.
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Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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Somewhere on Sunnyside Bench about 1969. We had no idea what we were doing, and nearly got killed on our rappel onto a big DG ledge with no anchor. Monday Morning Slab was next, and went much better.
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cyndiebransford
climber
joshua tree, ca
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Mental Physics in Joshua Tree. Climbed with Todd Gordon in 198? I would have to look in my notebook for the year and it is packed somewhere in the trailer in my front yard after moving recently from Joshua Tree to Soldotna, Alaska.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Some boulder problem at Castle Rock. I'm sure I fell on my ass.
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thedogfather
climber
Midwest
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mucci, Sean Burns climbed in my basement when he was still in High School. He is still around but now has a wife and little one so his climbing is on the back burner.
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microcam
Trad climber
San Juan Capistrano. California
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Puppy Dog-5.5/Big Rock
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