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New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #15
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I'm curious about the dog tag as well. Beautiful dog. Experienced. |
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Birder here, although it's been two decades since I was active with it. I still enjoy birds, and everything else that wanders through. It's largely just keeping your eyes and ears open, knowing anything can be gifted you, almost anywhere. My Boise list (in my head) includes a flight of swans....flying over downtown. A cow elk...running up the street past my house. A badger, waddling across the same street. A flight of snow geese overhead....in the moonlight. A moose, with an amusing number of LEO types recruited, to try and keep it herded off the busiest downtown streets. Peregrine falcons screeching overhead.... just about when the downtown farmers market starts, and the now totally wild birds come back to the downtown "cliffs" to nest. On and on. The peregrine's ancestry? Is Boise. The World Center for Birds of Prey, way back, raising birds in recovery programs for species from all over the world. These days? Some of the earliest releases for the big guys were birds from Idaho, and the program continues. A fair percent of the population of condors are the captive flock I can ride a bike to go see.  Talking with the staff a few years ago, it is quite probable the Nez Perce tribe will be collaborating on an IDAHO release, in the future. Hells Canyon, beautiful and remote, is under study, especially the northern end. This pic is down at the southern end where the climbing is. Limestone sport, and no guidebooks, by choice of the developers! Just go....  Maybe, just maybe, in my lifetime? Not just that end of the Snake river, but maybe maybe my stretch south of here? City of Rocks? Hmmmm... Best, Helen |
Parachute Adamswrote: Found the dog tag online somewhere and thought it was funny. She does great skiing. she walks in the skin tracks on the way up after she gets her wiggles out of course but after that she falls in line so she doesn't have to break trail. I have some great video of her running down in the deep snow and when the snow pack gets firm in the spring she slides down on her stomach or side. She is a great ski partner. |
Brandt Allenwrote: Do you remember Ms. Jane Hathaway? Birder extraordinaire.  I love watching birds but never so closely as our hummingbirds here. They are vicious monsters! They swoop by when I’m laying out in the backyard and attack! Like something out of Alfred Hitchcock! Who knew that those delicate little butterfly flower creatures could be so treacherous and hostile. Maybe you can show me some of your NICER birds! |
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Hi guys, I just started a new thread: The New Very Large Trout Lovers Thread, to resurrect the old Supertopo thread. Parachute, to get the ball rolling, how bout you post that photo of your beautiful brown! |
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Here's a hawk that likes to hang out in my backyard at Joshua Tree....   He likes to eat little birds... |
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Looks like a Cooper's hawk to me! |
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Drove a long ways today.. then jeeped 3 miles, skied two and then did some nasty post holing after the stream crossing. Climb was very wet and a bit sporty at the crux.  I felt the ice was too slushy for the gear to be any good... I almost down climbed off a screw but decided to do a few more moves and see how it went.. then I got a nest of screws in the slush and gunned it for the top.. the exit was tricky but fun.. Very Wet.  this shot dosen't do it justice.. I brought a light rock rack but nothing presented itself. the belay was good and P2 was fat and easy. the waster went down my arm, soaked my side and got into my boot... My new alpine draw stiffy :)  P2  Tim topping out.  the post holing was worse on the way out. Skiing was crappy as well with an unskiable crust.. I turtled a few times. pretty beat... :) |
Jan Mcwrote: Before this gem gets lost to posterity, I wanted to say that I've really been thinking about these words all weekend--will print them out and keep them close this season. It seems every route I climb now has big challenges for me... at least half the moves are 'iffy'. Does that mean take the leap and GO, regardless? Or does that mean that you all have climbed and practiced long enough that you KNOW the improbable will stick? A year ago Bob (kindly, gently) called me out on sloppy footwork, and asked me to take a break when I fall--to assess, to think about what just happened. (toprope falls) It really forced me to slow down, work on careful foot placement, and to not thrash about on routes that may be too hard. And yet... these days, lingering at hard moves just wipes out any muscle reserves... I can lose whatever I got by stalling. (or not know what to do next). Efficiency seems important now. Over time, I have found some certainty on 5.7-8 routes. On the 10a/b's, where there are unfamiliar finger cracks, slopers, wide stems, blank walls... I'm still timid. I'd love to just GO. Maybe it's a strength and assurance I just don't/won't have. Watching recent phone videos of my climbing, it's BORING and SLOW. No rebel yells for me, no Adam Ondra bat hangs (yet). I really appreciate all these thoughts from you great climbers. They all help more than I can say. THANK YOU! -------------- I guess it's time to ask... who is Herb Laeger? I see his name now on so many routes, this must have been one of the gang. Charles Cole also... if that day ever comes when I climb Billabong, that may have been the first time I saw his name (Shovelin-Cole). Seems all were drawn to that same kind of beautiful line. (And to think Billabong has John Long's name on it. I don't see that much here!)
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I'll let other people talk about Herb Laeger. His wife Eve was way underrated. Eve Laeger & Misa Giesey were two of the best climbers I was ever around. |
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We did a new route up at Courtright. Eve of Destruction. 5.10+ (It puts the + in +). Eve led the FA. I did a lot of climbing with Herb. More FA's than I can remember. Up at Courtright we did, among many others, Face of a Blue Eye'd Dog (.12+) and By Jupiter There are Rings Around Uranus. That one's the direct summit line on Voyager Rock. 5 Pitches, 5.11d. On Dome Rock we did Save the Wails, 5.12b. Like I said, more than I can remember. Herb lives in Tucson now. Got hooked on Pickle Ball. A great climber with an eye for a line. And he mostly stuck to FA's. He didn't particularly care for doing established routes (especially if it was one of mine). In Josh, along with Jan, we did Hang Em High on Future Games Rock, one of my favorite little cliffs there. 5.12b. And The Route of All Evil on an obscure crag we called Hell Rock. That thing is hard and not fun. Razor blades. It's 60 feet, and if you do it you're done for the day. Herb's very competitive. Climbing with him, you had to keep your head screwed on. On one occasion, at Dome Rock, Herb, Jan, and I were there to finish a Mike Waugh Route (with his blessings) called About Face. They suggested I lead an old Ron Carson route called Skid Row to "warm up." Ron's routes are some of the hardest steep slab climbs anywhere, but since this one was "only" 5.11b I went along with the plan. But those a-holes sat around and shot the breeze until it was in the sun. At the time I didn't know the area, so I didn't understand the implications of this. Bastards they are, the both of them. Then we went over to About Face. I started up, and after the three bolts that Waugh had placed, I wandered up the face and placed another. I yelled down to lower me, assuming one of them would take over. After all, I'd just led the crux and gone up and did the next bolt. No, they said, just keep going. This crap repeated itself until I was standing on a stupid thin round edge pulling the drill up to set the belay. I was gonna come off, and I was looking at a 30 footer. Bastards. I managed to do the task, but as Dave Mayville liked to say, you couldn't have got a greased needle up my (you know the rest). Herb was a master at drilling bolts from stances on lead. I liked doing the really thin stuff using hooks. He always made fun of me for that. He worked as a rocket scientist, but among other things he ran the program that designed the barrel and targeting system for the M1 Abrams tank. They sure as hell got that one right. Herb on Trapper Dome at Courtright. That's Guy belaying.  Herb sitting along the shore at Courtright. We were about halfway into the 8 mile hike up to Voyager Rock, with Rico Miledi, to look for new lines. Herb and Leversee had done a route up on that thing they called The Best in the West. I was stupid enough to lead it twice. Jeez, what was I thinking. The crux pitch (P5?) features the Window Washer's Traverse (30 ft left with no pro .11a) followed by the Cling or Fling arch (back up right over the belay, 40 ft no pro .10+). At the exit move of the arch if you biff it you'll enjoy a 35 foot factor two onto the belay. Did I mention that Herb was a little bold? I, on the other hand, was just stupid.  For perspective, this is Courtright Reservoir.  8,000 ft., Sierra crest in the background. The prominent peak is Mt. Goddard. |
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A story about Misa. Our little gang was climbing on the south side of Sports Challenge Rock, the opposite side from the famous test piece Leave it to Beaver. I was having a go at Paul Borne’s sandbag Rap Bolters are Weak. Misa, about 8 months pregnant, was leading Sphincter Quits (not Stitcher Quits on Echo.) I was at the crux of my climb when I heard Misa say, to our friends on the ground… “Do you know about the four kinds of orgasms women have?” Keep in mind she’s at the crux of her lead. Then she elaborated. “You have the positive: ‘Oh yes, oh yes!!” “You have the negative: ‘Oh no, Oh no!!” “You have the religious: ‘Oh God!!” And, of course, you have the fake: ‘Oh Kris, oh Kris!!” I peeled. Not only was Misa a top-notch climber, she’s among the funniest people you’ll ever meet. She, and Erikson, take the cake. |
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Kristian these are GREAT stories! They are also humbling. And the belayer is Guy? OUR Guy? The picture is starting to fill out now. I know these routes... at least the ones in Joshua Tree. I would not climb them pregnant, but I know these routes. Not to be selfish but I can’t help but feel SO inadequate reading these stories. And some sadness for missing friends I might have had. I feel Josua tree belongs to me right now... it’s becoming home in every way. But what can I say... climbing with the newfangled equipment and the squeaky rubber, with precious care taken for my every safety... and no bad words! “Redacted” now the new thing. I can’t touch the old days. “67 year old woman attempts to climb Run For Your Life” on a toprope (and couldn’t make the last 20 feet) may be my legacy. Where we can meet is that I can laugh and heckle with the best of them and hopefully that compensates some for the lack of ability. We would have gotten along. I’m about to have a visitor here for a week or so with the distinction of being Alex Honnolds mother. “Just us girls” are going to climb together... sans Alex, I’m guessing. So I have been reviewing recent movies of Alex’s feats so I can be conversant. Forget that he’s usually soloing, I’m blown away by his footwork on 11+ slabs. I’m blown away by his fingers in cracks only up to his first knuckle. I pointed out to Tony a shot of Alex’s toe tip on a microgranule of slab... After 3 years of climbing—half indoors—I still have NO IDEA what’s around the next bend for me. |
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Lori, “Joshua belongs to me right now.” Right now being the operative words. Don’t get humbled or feel inadequate because of crap some nutjobs, myself included, did 30 years ago. Run for Your Life. The last 20 feet is hard. It’s hard to read and it’s hard to execute. I don’t know how many times I did that thing, but what I remember is that the start is heady, and no matter how well I was climbing at the time, the top out was always dicey. So don’t sweat that one. You will get it. “We would have gotten along.” Past tense? One of these daze I might just jump in the car and blast out there for a day of taking pictures. I haven’t been to Josh in a while. Yes, that’s our Guy. I can tell you some stories about his skills as belayer. You see, the thing about him, aside from knowing how to climb, is that he really understands the mechanics of the whole business, and will act without hesitation, doing all the right things instinctively. He’s saved my bacon numerous times. He even caught me with his head once. And we were on a narrow ledge where falling off backwards would have been the end of both of us… Guy at his best: Our little band did a lot of climbing at a Kern River Canyon area we called The Rincon. It’s an ideal winter crag, and became our home after we burned out on Josh. I was working on a hard new route we called the Buzz Killer.” It’s thin vertical face. I had the bolts in, hooking on lead, but hadn’t got the redpoint yet (never did). The crux comes after the fourth bolt, and since there’s no way to clip after the fourth (or hook) it’s a bit run. The crux is the last move of the runout. The trick is to crimp a pea sized sharp thing with your right and reach up through to a decent edge with your left. You have to piano around on that edge to find the sweet spot. Then you can clip the bolt on your right at shoulder height. So, I was making a quality attempt, felt super solid, got cocky, skipped the crimp and just reached through to the edge. But I didn’t hit the sweet spot and couldn’t piano around to find it. I came off. This was gonna be a long one. Looking down I could see the rope making a loop my leg was going to drop into. Rob Brown, doing the route to the left, said I screamed. I don’t recall. I just foresaw my leg in the loop and me getting flipped hard, noggin’ into the rock. I didn’t even own a helmet then. Misery or death was at hand and I could see it coming. But I just kept falling. My leg went into the loop in the rope, but I just kept falling. Guy had sized up what was happening and started throwing out rope as fast as he could. When he made the catch he’d let me fall down past an overhang into the open air. I got flipped quite violently but hit nothing. Later I said I felt like I’d been to a good chiropractor. I don’t know how far I fell, but it might have been 40 feet. To quote Ron Carson, I punched a hole in the sky. That’s one of many. Guy’s the man. Honnold’s mom? Nice. |
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Kristian. You are giving me what I have been asking for... a sense of the personal history of this place. So this is two places. Grateful for them both. |
Lori Milaswrote: Really? How cool! |
Mark Frumkinwrote: Congrats. Hope it was easy, without the nasty side effects some get. Jealous of everyone getting their shots. I can't wait. And thanks, yeah, it is pretty wonderful. And no need to worry about Covid. I am utterly alone. Nearest soul is a half a mile away down a dirt road. Peaceful and beautiful out there. GO |
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I was lucky enough to climb with Herb and Eve waaaaay back in the 70's whilst they were in the DC area. Class people, most certainly. |
Steve Williamswrote: Did you get down to Seneca, or more local? |
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Seneca is one of my favorites. |
