Teton Tales

it was the era of father knows best so they made arbitrary rules that often made no sense.  The one that really burned me was not letting us swim for 45 min if we ate anything.. My entire adult life  I have never had the slightest trouble swimming after scarfing god knows how may beers and burgers yet the adults in the 60s would put a kid in jail for so much as thinking about eating a cookie and going in the water.  I bet those adults paid zero attention to the 45 min rule for themselves.. Do as I say not as I do. 

John Gill wrote:

The mention of Cloudveil reminded me that Dave Dornan and I climbed an existing route on the right side of the north face back in about 1957. I remember some sort of a jam crack that I led and face climbed around, but virtually nothing else about the climb. I seem to recall that Pete Cleveland may have gone up later and done the north face direct, but can find nothing about it on the web. Many years later free soloing the W (?) face of Little Bear (a lot of hazardous rock) in Colorado I was somehow reminded of Cloudveil.

I climbed that route on the right side of the N. Face of Cloudveil in, I think, 1965 with Peter Gardiner, Steve Derenzo, and Frank Adams.  i have a bunch of pictures and just spent a while searching for them but no luck...

I looked up a few notes scribbled in my 1965  guidebook, and we must have taken a route later attributed to Fred Wright and companion in which a direct line between two points is climbed rather than the original FA by Pownall and Kenworthy in 1950. No mention of Cleveland doing the direct face. 

I was in error with my comments about Baxter's Pinnacle. The original team, from Stanford, made the FA with some aid in 1947, then it was lost and I rediscovered it ten years later. Chouinard and Weeks made the second ascent. The I made the FFA and in 1958 free climbed the aid crack on the south side using holds in the crack and on the face to the left. Over the years the spire and the ridge below have become very popular guides. 

I had forgotten that the refinement of the Guides' Wall on Storm Point was an effort by the Exum guides to compete with an influx of CA climbers who had honed their skills in Yosemite, and East Coasters from the Gunks. These interlopers had begum putting up harder stuff than the locals. Chouinard was a vanguard of that group. Looking at the guide I see that Rick LLoyd and I did a new route out of Cascade Canyon, one among many whose details have been lost over time.

Just came across this (maybe I already posted it).  South Buttress Right on Mt Moran.  It's either me or Joe Kelsey.  Whoever it isn't took the shot,

Moran is a beautiful mountain. 

I remember watching someone ski skillet glacier on telle skis in 1981 while I was hitchhiking up to Yellowstone for some back packing.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I remember watching someone ski skillet glacier on telle skis in 1981 while I was hitchhiking up to Yellowstone for some back packing.

I've climbed Skillet Glacier early season when it is snow (including the "handle" all the way to the summit.  This would have been in the mid-sixties, so hiking around Leigh Lake. Things were kinda soft on our ascent and a few warm days later someone avalanched down the whole thing, which included going over a big cliff band on the lower part.  

Here's a crummy shot of us preparing to bivvy at the base of the glacier

The shirt is a Joe Brown model, adopted directly from the medieval hairshirt worn as an act of penitence and as a constant reminder of faith. The point was to avoid any temptation to sin by living in a continual state of discomfort. I can report 100% effectiveness: no sins were committed while this garment was in action (well, maybe the lord's name was taken in vain once or twice).  In case the legs felt neglected, the outfit was completed by a pair of wool knickers to assure more than 90% discomfort coverage.

The modern climber has no idea how to suffer for their art.

Nice remembrance Rich. I always enjoy reading your posts. I always assumed my knickers were so I could have third degree sunburn on my lower calves while the rest of my legs remained lily white. No?

As to Joe Brown gear. I had one his five pound helmets. Weight not cost. While descending from Symmetry Spire one afternoon a party above us dislodged a rock that hit me square in the top of my helmet and punched 1 1/2” divot in it. It also broke my collar bone as it continued its trajectory down the couloir.
I sent a written note to Joe Brown about the incident and he wrote back a nice personal handwritten note saying he was glad I was happy with the performance of his helmet and that he was pleased  that it did its job of protecting my noggin. He also sent me a free helmet! That’s customer service.

Norm Larson wrote:

Nice remembrance Rich. I always enjoy reading your posts. I always assumed my knickers were so I could have third degree sunburn on my lower calves while the rest of my legs remained lily white. No?

As to Joe Brown gear. I had one his five pound helmets. Weight not cost. While descending from Symmetry Spire one afternoon a party above us dislodged a rock that hit me square in the top of my helmet and punched 1 1/2” divot in it. It also broke my collar bone as it continued its trajectory down the couloir.
I sent a written note to Joe Brown about the incident and he wrote back a nice personal handwritten note saying he was glad I was happy with the performance of his helmet and that he was pleased it did that it did its job of protecting my noggin. He also sent me a free helmet! That’s customer service.

Professional wrestlers used Joe Brown helmets as part of their extreme neck conditioning exercises.  Just putting one on immediately decreased your climbing ability by a full grade and condemned you to years of PT for compressed neck vertebrae.

I used to wear a plastic Sporthaus Shuster model. It had no internal padding, just a fabric harness. Probably slightly less effective than putting your hands over your head when rocks are falling. Here's one in action on another Moran route, the regular South Buttress.

rgold wrote:

Professional wrestlers used Joe Brown helmets as part of their extreme neck conditioning exercises.  Just putting one on immediately decreased your climbing ability by a full grade and condemned you to years of PT for compressed neck vertebrae.

I used to wear a plastic Sporthaus Shuster model. It had no internal padding, just a fabric harness. Probably slightly less effective than putting your hands over your head when rocks are falling. Here's one in action on another Moran route, the regular South Buttress.

Joe Brown shirt and helmet, add to them the Whillans Harness ---definitely 'character-building' gear ( and ball-crushing for the latter)!!!! But, then, when you consider what they were using ( or, really, 'not using') for protection.....

my Joe brown helmet in action. It was basically a motorcycle helmet. 

Jud and I did a rescue on Mt Washington in 1986 where a guy slid down the fan below Central Gully and smashed into some rocks. He had a punctured lung and split his joe brown in half so was pretty wonky from a head injury. we got him down pretty quick and he survived. 

Colden asked about Symmetry Spire on another thread so I will retell a tale from above in more detail from a climb of Symmetry in1976.

May or June of 1976 I found myself climbing Symmetry with a friend named Randy. Randy had never climbed before but was a tough Wyoming bred kid. We were both kids in our early 20's.

Things went well on the snowy approach and climb of the SW Ridge. Glissading down was a blast and we were both stoked to have had a perfect though chilly day on a Teton Peak in early summer splendor. The Tetons are at their alpine flavor best in early summer. We stopped at the usual spot at the bottom of the couloir to take off our gaiters, put our ice axes on our packs, and drink some water. We drank directly from the creek in those days. As I drank from my canten looking up at the rushing creek a rock as big as the helmet I had on blasted through the trees above me and hit me directly on top of my head and careened off my left shoulder breaking my helmet and collar bone. If it hadn't been a cold day I would not have still had my helmet on and wouldn't be writing this now almost 50 years later. We self rescued, I carried my pack with one shoulder strap on and drove to the hospital but only after stopping at Dornans for a six pack of whatever beer was cheapest. I doubt Randy ever climbed agin after that, he saw all he wanted of mountaineering I think that day. Glad I lived through my 20's as a beginning self taught mountaineer.

I went on to climb Symmetry more times than I can remember, but it's been quite a few years since now.

Wow.

north side Symmetry Spire late winter