Davidson Wall 

Just a question to Paul Davidson or anyone else that knows. Any truth to a tale I heard told that Paradise Lost was originally Davidsons Dihedral and what we call Davidsons now was actually called the "Kiney"(sp?)

Just noticed Dean's comment (only a couple of years later): You have it mostly right.

Scott found the Forks, thanks to Jim Whitfield, I believe in the summer of '78. Jim was an artist extraordinaire, roommate of Scott's out in Parks and occasional climber. His demons got the best of him sometime around the millenium. RIP Jim.

I believe it was Scott and Ross Hardwick who first went there to climb. They picked out what they thought looked like one of the easier climbs to be able to exit the canyon and called it Girl's Route. When they got on it, they discovered 5.10 climbing. Welcome to the Forks.

Originally the lads (Scott, Larry, Tim, Jim, Ross, Kim, Mike, John, Mark (who am I missing)) called both Paradise Lost and DD, Davidson's Diehedral. That first summer, I was out of town in Tucson and elsewhere being a visting student and climbing bum. They figured I was the only one who could lead the things. Not because I had small fingers but because I had superior footwork. LOL, I'm lying. I had small fingers and the climbs were steep.

After leading DD, I wanted to name it Pillowing but Tim and Larry would have none of that. I finally agreed as long as we named the real gem something else once we finally finished it.

Took me minute to figure out the reference to Kiney. That would have been Keenie, a family name for me after a middle name of Keiner from a grandfather. I don't recall having heard that name before but maybe... (There is a Keenie's Corner in upper oak creek that is quite cherry but probably still awaiting a second ascent. Look for a beautiful corner up high towards the ridge line and north of Dresdoom spire somewhere with one or two drilled baby angles.)

After we did Paradise Lost (I think I wrote some info on the FA over on supertaco), Tim wanted to call it DD. While my ego could probably handle having two corners and a wall named after me, my rational mind couldn't. So, I refused and insisted on PL. PL occurred to me for a few reasons. Chalk marks had just started showing up out here. More and more folks were coming to the Forks, the word was out. It was no longer the beautiful, quiet, private playground we'd had for 5+ years. Also, I was shortly moving to Tucson and finally, Tim had scooped the lead from me. He deserved it because I'd snaked many a lead from him. He was not happy with the name PL. He thought the line (probably the most striking at the Forks) deserved something better. I thought it was a great name considering everything.

When Toula went to publish his guide, '83 or '84 ?, he wanted to drop any mention of Davidson. He preferred to adhere to the USGS naming guidelines that only allow such a thing once a person is dead. Tim Coats apparently was insistent, telling Toula something like, "We've called these things that from the start. You can't change it now." I may have this all wrong. Perhaps one of the Tims will chime in some day.

History 101, as I can recall it.