Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
New and Experienced climbers over 50 #21
Terry Ewrote: Oh Terry you are right. I forget sometimes! through my eyes my questions are a) can I get to a route and b) can I climb it by top rope or following? I don’t ever really have to think about the hazards of leading a climb except for out of courtesy to my partner who may not want to risk his or her life to set up the top rope for me. I will say this route is a stinker to get to and would definitely factor in to my decision whether it’s worth the time and energy on a 4-6 hour outing. Even after all this time I don’t have a lot of desire to lead because I do enjoy the pure movement of climbing and the relative safety at an age when things break so easily. I do wonder who I would have been as a climber in my 30s. |
|
Lori, that is the only area in Josh where I have gotten ticks so beware of that possibility especially if you go up there in the spring. Dave had a philosophy when bolting to make the route accessible to everyone so we never put bolts more than about 15 feet apart if it was at all possible. Mostly we managed this but there are exceptions like EBGBs and Good to the Last Drop. |
|
I can’t seem to finish up with this area and it’s a great place for a morning hike, so I am once again at the base of Bob’s route on the Sphinx. Even though it’s a thin crack it reminds me of Count Dracula over at Belle. The first bolt is probably 25 feet off the ground so I’m back to asking why put a bolt in at all? Note the full bush of cats claw at the base. If I could invent something to leave to the Climbing community here it would be some simple device you could carry on your belt to cut yourself free from cats claw. I have gotten tangled up in it more than once and bled a lot. The most memorable and helpless time was when I was lowered off of EBGBs and dropped into a full bush of it and I got pretty cut up just trying to get free. My belayer was still up next to EBGS and had no idea that I was thrashing about 100 feet below.  |
|
Thank you for the heads up Jan. As I write this I am sitting at the base of Bottle in front of me and it looks like 90 feet of blissful climbing for me. I wonder about the vision and the collaboration of seeing these routes and deciding to put them up. Maybe this is nothing special to your average climber but I am looking at great edges and thin crimps on very steep slab in a beautiful setting and I can’t imagine anything nicer. Much as I’ve kidded about Dave Houser it’s only been half kidding. I wish he was here . Whatever you guys had as a team was pretty special.  |
|
That crack most likely takes some small cam placements down lower and the rule is that you don't put bolts in if there is natural pro available. So you get routes like this with only one bolt where the crack peters out. Most routes went up on walls that we thought we could climb at all. We would spend a lot of time wandering around the park looking for clean faces at the right angle with the right size and number of holds. Some routes turned out easier than we thought they would be and some were impossible. Some were only impossible then and were later led as shoes, strength and technique improved in the climbing community. The Thin Red Line on the Cyclops is like that. Dave and I failed on it but later Ron Faucet sent it. |
|
Tee hee...that would be Ron Fawcett... |
rgoldwrote: Yeah. That Ron “Faucet” guy was a real turn off |
|
Actually, Lori, that route (Afterthought, rated anywhere between 5.11a and 5.11b/c depending on your source) has three bolts, or at least did when Bob and Scott did the first lead, and I'm pretty sure the first one is lower than 25 feet. Sometimes they're hard to see until you're right on top of them. |
Brandt Allenwrote: Brandt is correct. Well protected with three bolts down low with some gear in the (much easier) crack above. Tricky and somewhat intricate face moves make it seem longer than it would appear. Nice route. |
rgoldwrote:  Here's a shot I took in the early-80's at Joshua Tree. That's Ron Fawcett on the left and Largo (John Long) on the right. Fawcett was perhaps the best rock climber in England in the late 70's to early 80's. First day I met him he asked if I could point out the routes around Hidden Valley campground- which I did. He promptly free soloed Toe Jam (5.7), downclimbed Dandelion (10a), then soloed Lower Right Ski Track (10b) and Left Ski Track (11b), all on-sight. Once I got to know him (he's a great guy) and saw how talented he was I showed him Thin Red Line as a little gift for a first ascent, which he did on toprope lickety-split. (5.12) |
|
Great day out at our new spot with my younger brother (1.5 years younger). Temps in the mid 60s, overcast, low humidity, a solid 9 out of 10 for August around here. We both cleaned a bunch and then did all the moves on our new routes. His maybe 11+ or 12-, mine I though might be a 13 but “only” maybe 12c. Great to have been climbing with him for 46 years. We have a level of trust and partnership that is hard to describe.  |
Ward Smithwrote: Great to see Smith Bro! He has not changed a bit! You guys are still cranking. For sure. |
Right. Not to detract but he did the first TR of Thin Red Line, not the first lead. That was done later by someone else.
|
Darrell Henselwrote: And a very bold lead at that, with only 2 bolts, done ground up, 5.12b R as I recall? I believe you led it first, then Jonny Woodward very soon after? After that, with many people working it to death on TR and Mini Trax, eroding and breaking off some key holds, I've heard it's much harder now (12d?) and approaching impossibly hard. |
Todd Berlier wrote: Nice Todd! Will we get pictures? |
Bob Gaineswrote: Bob, Oh ye of little faith. In my heart, I believe Darrell could still lead that route! I just am putting it out there that 12d is nothing - NOTHING! - for him if he wanted to do it. |
Todd Berlier wrote: Nice! V9 was my hardest send in my 50s, I’m hoping to equal it this year. I’ve been training hard and no injury problems so if I can lose 5 or 6 pounds it might happen. |
|
Your recollections regarding the Thin Red Line are correct Bob. I've also heard that the route has morphed and become harder. I have some knowledge of who was working it and suspect that is true - but to be fair - it was friable when we did it. Thanks for the vote of confidence Phylp - you did hit the key with "if he WANTED to do it." At my age sometimes I'm the bug, and sometimes I'm the windshield. Wanting to do something is good for windshield mode. Hopefully this won't bore people to much - it's a little background story I like to tell because it was one of the times when what goes around (from) came back around (to) Woodward. Skip it if the wall of text makes your eyes glaze over. JW and I went to JT for a weekend with plans to do a new route in the Comic Book area as well as seeing about leading Thin Red Line. We started with the FA of Brain Damage in the Box Canyon Area, JW's lead. A little over halfway he decided the gear was kinda funky and went through a little angst about whether a bolt was needed before finally deciding to downclimb a bit and drill the lone bolt at almost exactly mid-height (so it wouldn't be near the hardest climbing, obviously). After a few more pieces of small gear he found a pumpy "red" sling cam placement. Only problem was it was my rack with a different size on red. Not only did it not fit, it got stuck, and he got torched working on it. He finally gave up, clipped it, got above it and pumped off. Like butter everything ripped all the way back to the bolt. I was catapulted a body length up where he and I lazily swung back and forth bouncing of each other like a couple of clackers. Eppi had a classic picture of the fall aftermath with us swinging around a few feet off the ground. Good thing he placed that bolt.... Using the correct red sling cam on the next try solved the problem. Next day JW informs me he's up for a relaxing day due to the previous days events. I'm the elected Thin Red Line leader, and we're going to minimize bolts. I buy in and set off. The first bolt was already there (not sure who placed it) so we were into the first crux almost immediately. After 3 or 4 attempts breaking holds and figuring out where the usable crimps were I hit the halfway shelf, mantled, and drilled. Looking up it was obvious about 10 feet higher the angle kicked back and it should be in the bag from there. I lowered off, pulled the rope, ate lunch and got ready to finish it. As I'm getting ready to go JW tells me to leave the drill/hammer/bolt on the ground so I won't be "tempted" to place an extraneous bolt (after all, in 10 feet it's over, right?). Gullible me agrees and sets off. After arriving at the second bolt I manage to on-sight the second crux (to my surprise). I'm at a good stance and I start to measure the distance I'll go if I fall from any higher without a bolt (I have none.) Ground potential. Probably still OK, until I notice the rock had turned to ball bearing smears. Didn't look harder than 5.8/9, but loose - the technical difficultly wouldn't get me but the rock might. I decide I want a bolt and tell JW to send up the kit. He refuses - because he can "see" it's easy. As I ask for the kit again I notice that Eppi and JW are already busy clearing a "runway", and they promptly inform me there is no need for concern (or a bolt) as they've eyeballed the footage and have concluded that if they run they can take enough rope out if I come off. Trust us they say. I resign myself to no bolt and start grinding grain off smears. Finally a big handhold appears and I'm done. Maybe 15 mins later JW pulls the rope for his SA run. He's shortly through the cruxes and arrives at the stance I gripped out on. He suddenly realizes the rock is dicey, and all isn't as it appears from below. After going up and down a few times he starts to berate himself, "I shoulda sent the kit", "I shoulda sent the kit". Finally I tell him "Oh, wow, look, somebody cleared a runway... doesn't look like you'll ground if I run. Trust me." Some people never learn add-on: A while later I went back with Eppi and led it again for pictures. Having been there the first time he asks me, what about those top moves? I confidently inform him that I now know they aren't hard, and if I can do the bottom cruxes there will be zero problem this time around. Knucklehead. I get to the stance and it's Deja Vu all over again. I finally ask our third to go around and drop a rope. While he's doing that I decide that this is kind of embarrassing and manage to compose myself enough to go for it a second time. The top isn't hard, but it turned exciting on me - twice. Given how fast we did it ground up the 12b rating seemed appropriate. It would be interesting to see how much it's changed and how much harder it is now. But if I did manage to lead it, there's always those lurking top moves - even if there's no chance of them being a problem, haha. |
|
I tr'd Thin Red Line in 2007. Prob 12b (Jtree) or C (real world) would be reasonable at that time. |
|
Darrell, I placed the first bolt on Thin Red Line. Houser and I tried to lead it and after failing many times we named it Wet Dreams and pulled the rope. A funny side story is that the day before Dave introduced Waugh and me to the Meter Game when we were TRing Wangerbanger. Well, neither one of us really enjoyed being dropped multiple meters so the next day we got payback. After failing to lead Thin Red Line we put a TR on it and Dave went up. He got thru the first crux but was stuck and asked to be lowered. We took our end of the rope and tied it off to a joshua tree way out in the desert so that he couldn't reach it and we left him there hanging on the wall. He did eventually climb his end of the rope to extricate himself and promised to never play the Meter Game with us again. Payback is a bitch! |
