Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40
Randywrote: That is a sweet bike sir! I don’t like to admit it but riding our bikes has kind of taken priority over climbing for Denise and I. The continuous application of power combined with speed sure feels good.  |
|
Jubilant Song.    |
|
And I thought that Bill and my climb of Jubilant Song was a second ascent!? ;) A lot of folks on this site have great senses of adventure (and longevity too - longevity means they've had time to do lots of various routes). Fun to see how many have done that one route. Shorts and shirtless at Pinnacles today. |
|
Anyone here led the Gobbler. I led it in 86 with all 1/4 inch bolts. I didn't know that they are marginal in sandstone at the time but it seemed pretty run out. Enough that I remember it being spicy 39 years later. |
Nick Goldsmithwrote: Didn't lead ( typically), but followed Andy Embick up it a year or 2 before you did it--could tell it was 'spicy', even from the 'dull end'. We linked it into the upper pitches of Wild Turkeys ( we'd done the lower pitches a couple of days previously). My recollection is that, back then, the bolts on Turkeys were pretty 'iffy' as well, though there were lots of them. Both excellent routes---the climbing style on each seemed very distinct from that on the other, even though they were adjacent. |
|
I did the Gobbler in 2009. Makes me sound recent… Did it with a hard-man from Tucson named Ray Ringle. He put up rather extreme routes in the 80s and 90s (mostly in Tucson) when hard, runout, and scary was the norm. I’m sure some of you here knew him and people he climbed with like Steve Grossman. |
|
Led the Gobbler into Dream of Wild Turkeys during an AMGA Guide’s exam back in 1995. I was a little nervous, since I had two “clients” in tow, one being an AMGA examiner who had a little notebook and was scribbling notes at every belay. The whole day I was being scrutinized, from car to car: the approach, the climb, all the rappels- so I wasn’t very relaxed, although I do remember the climbing was stellar. I hadn’t taken any AMGA courses or prep before the exam. Back then you could “challenge” the exam if you had 400 documented days of professional multi-pitch guiding, which I had. I think they were a little out to get me, since almost every route I was assigned to lead during the 5-Day exam was 5.10. I passed, but barely. All the critiques during the evaluation were spot-on, which made me reflect on the mistakes I‘d made. One examiner said that everything I’d done was basically safe, but that he felt like I’d “Learned in a bubble,” which was true, since I was self-taught as a climber and as a guide. The process opened my eyes to how I could benefit from peer review and professional training from guides who had decades of experience, and after that I sought more AMGA training and mentorship. |
|
I remember half of the rusty 1/4" bolts on Prince of Darkness were bent and partially pulled out of their holes! I bet those bolts all came out easy for the re-bolt effort. |
|
We did POD, Dowt, The gobblers, trisaic sands and a bunch of other stuff on that trip. someone had bolted a name tag/ direction sign anodized aluminum thing where DOWT and POD split. Someone else had scratched into it 'this sucks" I thought it was pretty cool. POD was not in the book but we had a topo on a bar napkin from Mike Kennedy. the scariest thing was I think at the top of Triassic sands? no nuts on the 1/4inch studs. Just sport tape wrapped Round the threads holding the hangers on the studs. the 2nd rappel was almost as bad. tat wrapped around a dead stump... This was rapping from whatever rappel line we took to get down from the gobbler. That diving board at the top of the arch was where we found the couple in meltdown mode. the angry dude left us with the damsel in distress whom we gladly rescued..  Charlie leading DOWT or POD?  rapping something on Black velvet wall with two 11mm Beal ropes that were the exact same color. thats is all that was available at our local shop. those things were so heavy that I thought they would rip those little 1/4" bolts right out of the rock when they whipped by you and snapped while pulling the rappel ropes.  |
James Harvey wrote:  Black for Prince of Darkness, red for Dream of Wild Turkeys, yellow for Yellow Brick Road... Some holiday reading:  |
|
Did the Gobbler twice in the 90's. The first time we had intended to carry on into DOWT but it startled to snow about 3 pitches up (it was April) so with numb hands we bailed. That afternoon I onsighted Running Man which I thought was much easier since I could feel my hands. |
Brian in SLCwrote: Am really looking forward to reading Joanne’s autobiography. The preview available on Amazon is very well written and super interesting! |
Terry Ewrote: I plan to order it as soon as I get back from some travels. She still gets out climbing all the time and still has a passion for new route discovery. When I saw her in June at Kim's she said, "anytime you are in Vegas and want to go exploring with me, let me know". I may take her up on it! |
|
that little tag that was bolted on the cliff at the junction of DOWT and POD was an angle plate. the leg of the plate that went left to POD was painted red, the one pointing to DOWT was painted black. I know we rappelled Yellow Brick Road with it's yellow hangers at least once but I do not remember climbing up it? We both had the same Calma shoes as that was also the only option other than EB's from our local gear shop. |
|
On the Red Rock theme, here is a photo essay of a Red Rocks trip from fifteen years ago (yikes). Although photos have in general vanished from Supertopo, they remain (for the time being) in the Trip Reports section, where this account resides. http://www.supertopo.com/tr/A-Week-in-Red-Rock-151-A-Photo-Essay/t371n.html The metal route sign Nick describes was in place during our ascent in 2010. |
|
Bloodied and bruised leading this thing…  Tried hard and could pull all the moves, but not all in one go. WangerBanger, Joshua Tree |
|
Shot of Jorge (L), Allen Steck (M), and Joanne (R) at a 75th birthday party weekend for Allen in Vegas, 2001  |
rgoldwrote: Mid March...2008? The comments on your TR start in June 2008 by none other than Russ. We climbed Birdland on a very crowded day on 17 March 2008... Not sure I'd ever seen that TR...great! Thanks! I remember climbing up as a couple of older gents (and a lot of other parties) were descending... We had a kinda late start (noon-ish). Darn fun route! Was really popular back then (maybe still is). Edit to add:  The Urioste's at a local watering hole git together in Vegas in October 2009. Is Scary Larry really that tall? Ha ha. His t-shirt says, "Alcohol Tobacco Firearms. Who's bringing the chips?" Good times. |
|
When we climbed POD in 2004 the road sign was not there. |
|
Last night I chopped a hole  And fired up the sauna. Had it up to 165 and wondering why Isa was taking so long to show up. I was just about to jump in the pond when Isa arrived with the news that someone was in the ditch on the bad turn just above Isa,s house. I jumped in the pond, got dressed and trudged through the snow, fired up the truck and discovered that the poor Lady,s car was most likely totaled. Air bags deployed so no point in me pulling her out. Isa made her dinner while we waited for AAA. Things can happen that can drastically affect your life in an instant... Thankfully she was just banged up a bit and not really hurt. |
