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sobo

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    Vantage accident 3/18/12

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Glad to hear you're doing so well, HOR! That damned coulee almost killed me once, too. Whole freak'n column tipped over, with me on top of it. No helmet either - I still don't know how I got up, dusted off, and walked away from that one...
    Are you sure this didn't happen to you online, but over time you've just convinced yourself it really happened? :wave:
    Nope, it really happened... :shock:
    Yeah, but did you finish the lead?
    Ummm, no. There was no climb to lead anymore. It was lying in pieces at the bottom of the talus slope... :)

    Vantage accident 3/18/12

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Glad to hear you're doing so well, HOR! That damned coulee almost killed me once, too. Whole freak'n column tipped over, with me on top of it. No helmet either - I still don't know how I got up, dusted off, and walked away from that one...
    Are you sure this didn't happen to you online, but over time you've just convinced yourself it really happened? :wave:
    Nope, it really happened... :shock:

    [TR] Stone Mountain, NC - The Great Arch 3/15/2012

    in The rest of the US and International.

    Posted

    I performed my first (and almost last) solo. Downclimbing the Entrance Crack unprotected in the gathering gloom and the growing cold, while being bull-horned by the ranger to hurry up cuz the park is closed, will always be a cherished memory of Stone Mountain for me. :)

     

    Did Frank not tell you that one can rap from Tree Ledge? Great story, thanks for posting it. I really liked that place, slabbing is my strong suit as well and I'd have loved to get out on some of those slabs, though perhaps not for my first day on real rock for the year.

    As I recall the events of the day, we started to get the bullhorn treatment from the ranger about 4:30 or so that afternoon (week of Thanksgiving, so was getting dark early), and he was letting us know that if we didn't get the fuq down and out real quicklike, then Frank's rig was going to get locked in the parking lot for the night. Frank offerred to zip down real quick (no pack or gear) and make a run for the gate and move the Subie, then come back and me help drag all of our gear back aross the meadow. For whatever reason, he pulled the rope after his rap. :shock: I was too involved with gathering up/sorting the gear that we had lying around on Tree Ledge, and didn't realize that the rope was slithering away until it was too late.

     

    We had a short "exchange" wherein I informed Frank that his act was not very intelligent, and he realized his mistake only after it was too late, and apologized profusely. We had had a very long day, were very tired, and both of our brains were probably not firing on all cylinders at this point. Ranger Bullhorn wasn't helping matters any, either... Anyway, I told Frank that I felt real good and not to worry about it, and that I would "just solo it" and be down shortly. I mean, I had been leading run-out 5.9s all day and felt pretty strong and good about myself, so WTF, right? Frank bolted for the parking lot at an all-out run while I hefted a ton-o'-shit upon my back, and started a very delicate downclimb in the gathering gloom...

     

    The water grooves were full of pine needles and ball bearing-esque grit, which didn't help my traction much, and with the sun now well below the backside of the dome in late November, the evening chill settled in quickly. My breath was already fogging when I took my first slip. Scared the bejeezus outta me! Sucked it up a bit more, and worked my way down from Tree Ledge a little bit further, and took a much bigger slip that I barely arrested. I was really shitting my drawers now... I froze at this point, and so the ranger starts bullhorning me again to hurry up. This is when I lost my composure and yelled at him to STFU and to tell Frank to get back here quick.

     

    This outburt of mine seemed to expose my anxiety, and imbued a modicum of sensitivity, to the ranger, and he quickly quieted down, and Frank returned to assist shortly thereafter. So I "clung" to my stance (no handholds, just podiatric friction), shivering in a sweat-soaked short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts (it had been a remarkably warm and sunny day for Thanksgiving break), confident in the knowledge that I would soon detach from my airy perch and die a hideous death in the moss-covered boulders lurking in the darkness nearly a ropelength below me.

     

    Within a few minutes, Frank was free-soloing up to me with the rope on his back, superbly reassured by his many years of climbing experience (this trip was at the beginning of only my second season on rock). The promise of salvation, as indicated by the heavenly beacon of Frank's headlamp literally flowing up the slab toward me, was awe inspiring and would lead even the staunchest atheist to embrace religion. He climbed up to me, chirped our standard friendly greeting (Hey, Willlll-burrrrr! - think Mr. Ed), and moved past to set up a rappel above me, rapped back down to me, inserted a rap device on the ropes below himself, and attached it to my harness, all without me moving a finger from the rock. Once clipped in, I immediately relaxed and rapped uneventfully to the ground with the pile of gear on my back, quickly followed by Frank. Lastly, before we could leave the park, I had to endure "the lecture" from Ranger Bullhorn. :rolleyes:

    Vantage accident 3/18/12

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Glad to hear you're doing so well, HOR! That damned coulee almost killed me once, too. Whole freak'n column tipped over, with me on top of it. No helmet either - I still don't know how I got up, dusted off, and walked away from that one... :noway:

    What's Up With Ft. Lewis?

    in Spray

    Posted

    @Mtguide-

    You're welcome.

     

    Sobo, I think I may have been confused by what I heard some years back, about the Aug. 4 incident, which the NSA said never happened. Again, thanks for the full info.
    Possibly you were. August 2, 1964 is the actual GoT incident wherein four PRVN sailors were killed and six injured. The August 4, 1964 "incident" was likely the result of overzealous radar operators... Both events were embellished by the NSA and the Johnson Administration and used as a pretext to escalate the Vietnam conflict into a full-scale war.

    [TR] Stone Mountain, NC - The Great Arch 3/15/2012

    in The rest of the US and International.

    Posted

    The first time I went to Stone Mountain was with my first partner and mentor, Frank Gibson (RIP). That day, among other climbs, I led GA and Mercury's Lead (the adjacent, seriously run-out 5.9 friction-fest) on one of my greatest days on rock ever. It was that same evening, in late November after the sun had disappeared behind the dome and the chill of the dusk began, that I performed my first (and almost last) solo. Downclimbing the Entrance Crack unprotected in the gathering gloom and the growing cold, while being bull-horned by the ranger to hurry up cuz the park is closed, will always be a cherished memory of Stone Mountain for me. :)

    So you lead the Great Arch as your first multi-pitch then you turned around & lead Mercury's Lead? That's nutso. That climb is freakin' run out with nasty fall potential!

    Eee-yup! You've met me, Billy. You've seen that I am not the most muscle-bound individual, so cracks and strenuous routes requiring upper body strength are not my forte'. However, I am strong-legged, sure of foot, and have an incredible sense of balance for an ancient simian... I am the Slab Master, which may explain my predilection and proclivity for returning time and again to such places as Lightning Dome, Looking Glass, Peshastin Pinnacles, Stone Mountain, Goat Dome, certain routes on SCW, etc... :whistle:

    What's Up With Ft. Lewis?

    in Spray

    Posted

    as a history teacher i of course flinch every time i hear a "uss tonkin" type malapropism but have inevitably become inured to them and find whaling on those who utter such silly-yet-honestly-felt atrocities akin to clubbing retarded baby seals :)
    :lmao:

    What's Up With Ft. Lewis?

    in Spray

    Posted

    HappyCamper,

    The USS Turner Joy was not involved in the "real" GoT incident. Only the Maddox (discounting the F-8 Crusaders) gave fire against, and took fire from, the three PRVN torpedo boats on August 2, 1964. The Turner Joy was involved (along with the Maddox) in the August 4 shelling of the phantom radar images.

     

    And yes, I have spent many hours on board the Turner Joy in Bremerton. Taking a seat in one of the main gun turrets was a "joy"... :)

    What's Up With Ft. Lewis?

    in Spray

    Posted

    ivan,

    You confuse the meaning of my post. Mtguide says nothing ever happened in the GoT, that it was all a lie, and a total fabrication. That is untrue; something very real did happen. Was it enough to go to war over and get 58,000+ US soldiers killed along with millions more VN, Cambodian, and Laotian civilians? I agree with you; no, it was not. But that is not the argument being made here.

    [TR] Stone Mountain, NC - The Great Arch 3/15/2012

    in The rest of the US and International.

    Posted

    Excellent work, Doug and Nora!!! :rocken:

     

    ...While the Entrance Crack, a 5.4 offwidth (!!) given an R rating due to most folks not packing big bros or valley giants, and reviled by many, had a certain appeal (who wouldn't want to do a little 5.4 chicken winging?)...
    Much like Billy Finley, the Great Arch was my first multi-pitch lead as well, having been schooled on the one-pitch wonders of the NRG the season before. The first time I went to Stone Mountain was with my first partner and mentor, Frank Gibson (RIP). That day, among other climbs, I led GA and Mercury's Lead (the adjacent, seriously run-out 5.9 friction-fest) on one of my greatest days on rock ever. It was that same evening, in late November after the sun had disappeared behind the dome and the chill of the dusk began, that I performed my first (and almost last) solo. Downclimbing the Entrance Crack unprotected in the gathering gloom and the growing cold, while being bull-horned by the ranger to hurry up cuz the park is closed, will always be a cherished memory of Stone Mountain for me. :)

    What's Up With Ft. Lewis?

    in Spray

    Posted

    ...the Vietnam War( which was also started, by the US, based on a complete and utter lie about an attack on the USS Tonkin, an incident which never happened, a total fabrication...
    A student of history you are clearly not, Mtguide. You make reference to a USS Tonkin; no such vessel exists, nor has ever been listed, in the Naval Vessel Register of the US Navy. The ship to which you are referring as the "USS Tonkin" is actually the USS Maddox, an Allen Sumner-class destroyer which began service near the end of WW2 in the PTO. The Maddox was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in the early 1970s, transferred to Taiwan and renamed, and ultimately scrapped in 1985.

     

    Regarding your claim that the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin never happened and is a total fabrication, your information is flawed and your understanding of the event is skewed. There were two (2) incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin in early August of 1964. The first one occurred on August 2, and is undisputed by all sides to the conflict. At the end of the day, one PRVN torpedo boat was left dead in the water, the other two were damaged, and four PRVN sailors were killed and six injured. Maybe it's just me, but I think that with stats like that, it's kind of hard to say that it never happened. :rolleyes:

     

    The second incident "occurred" on August 4, and is now largely accepted as the result of false radar images at long range being interpreted as approaching enemy vessels. Indeed, there was no attack by the PRVN Navy on August 4, and this has been confirmed by correspondence from the Vietnamese government after the cessation of hostilities. In addition, the NSA admitted in the mid-2000s that the August 4 incident never happened. However, for you to state unequivocably that nothing ever happened in early August in the Gulf of Tonkin is simply ludicrous and a disservice to history.

    Kandahar Kountdown

    in Spray

    Posted

    Hey Sobo -

    I have a dirt nerd buddy due to be in country for the new embassy work.

    Similar situation?

    Similar mebbe, but not same. Not embassy work. Troop infrastructure/logistical support facilities.

    Kandahar Kountdown

    in Spray

    Posted

    Sobo - I'd worry more about burning trash toxins than the Taliban. If you have any questions send me a PM. I spent Dec 2004-Nov 2010 in Afghanistan. Good times!!
    Holy shiite, muslim! Six years!!!??? :shock:

    Kandahar Kountdown

    in Spray

    Posted

    Sobo, it sounds like an awesome opportunity and big time challenge which I'm sure you will handle with aplump aplomb and elan. (if those words don't work just make up a couple, you know what I mean) Congrats all the way around.
    Fixt it fer ya, Bill. Thanks for the well wishes!
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