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Posted

I still was wintess to Beckey in his master form.. He can still french free 10b finger cracks at his age as well as approach big ass peaks. [Cool] Beckey is my great grandfather's age and still rocks all our worlds. [Wazzup][Eek!] Beckey is the best climber there ever was [Wazzup][big Drink][Cool]

Posted

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According to Smoot Beckey called it 5.8 (Smoot's take on Angel). Also note on that page that Smoot has further upgraded Angel Crack to 10b. [big Drink]

 

Hey you history guys...when did jamming come to the PNW? I remember hearing that Beckey and others liebacked all this stuff, then someone brought jamming back from Yosemite and things changed. When did this happen?

Posted

It used to be 5.8, but due to erosion, it's now become an extended despo high-ball. When I first climbed at Castle, the ground in the Angel Crack area was high enough that you could mantle Jello-Tower.

Posted

The real question is why a Squamish site has a groovy L-Worth route as its prize photo!

 

Pope you are a youngster! The recent sporto controversy is nothing compared to the reaction when we first uncovered the top of Jello Tower! The fear was the trees we were chopping were going to take out a car on the highway.

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by chucK:

(snip)Hey you history guys...when did jamming come to the PNW? I remember hearing that Beckey and others liebacked all this stuff, then someone brought jamming back from Yosemite and things changed. When did this happen?

From my understanding, Jim Madsen and friends visited the Valley in the early to mid sixties. They saw the stuff that was happening there and brought some of the ideas back to WA. Jamming technique was one of them.

Posted

The origins of climbing are somewhat vague. There were no doubt cave men who scrambled up cliffs trying to escape being the meal for some relative of todays tiger. But early documented claims might be by the Abrahams Brothers whilst taking photos in the The Lake Distict.

 

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One of the contenders for the first real climb (a roped ascent with a party of more than one?) was in 1886 when Haskett-Smith made the first ascent of Napes Needle in Wasdale. The next thing you know there are loonies in tweed jackets and flat hats going all over the world, hauling cameras to unlikely looking places and snapping away.

 

Napes Needle is currently graded as a Severe 3, which makes it a reasonable challenge and one of the classics (for &quotclassic" read - &quotThis climb should be done with a hangover and in the rain"). The Lake District has a lot of classics, and not entirely co-incidentally, a lot of pubs.

 

So the Lake District is the home of modern climbing, but it has always

 

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kept pace with the increasing standards. Many of the early climbs were hideously unprotected chimneys and gullies (Napes Needle was quiet ahead of its time in this respect), but it wasn't long before the bolder and more foolhardy stepped out on to the faces and crack systems with a hemp rope securely tied around the waist and a bunch of slings over the shoulder. It's definitely a place to head for if you want to catch the full flavour of UK climbing. North Wales would be in a pretty close second place, and if you don't mind the longer walk-ins and are willing to trade good beer for excellent whisky, Scotland is worth the trip too.

 

sennen.jpg

 

by Rob

Posted

I think the climber is Fred Stanley...? This and a couple others were on the walls of Sheltons Cafe in L-worth, Freds coffee place. He was "fond" of the owner, Maxine. The real controversy at Castle was the logging of Loggers Ledge by climbers. Before that it was a bush wack to the top of Jello and the moss and dirt fest to the top.

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Puget:

The real question is why a Squamish site has a groovy L-Worth route as its prize photo!

 

Pope you are a youngster! The recent sporto controversy is nothing compared to the reaction when we first uncovered the top of Jello Tower! The fear was the trees we were chopping were going to take out a car on the highway.

Trees? What trees? I started climbing at Castle Rock when it was sticking out of a continental ice sheet.

Posted

I remember when there was no Castle Rock. Only a bunch of dinosaurs. They all took a dump on the same site one day and CR was born.

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Puget:

The real question is why a Squamish site has a groovy L-Worth route as its prize photo!


Agreed. The least the guy could do would be to reference the book he scanned the photo out of.

 

That guy's got some cool photos on his page. Maybe I could put a couple of 'em on mine [big Grin] .

  • 1 year later...
Posted
Dru said:

I remember when there was no Castle Rock. Only a bunch of dinosaurs. They all took a dump on the same site one day and CR was born.

 

Now that I took the acid I remember when there were no dinousaurs. Some hotshot fish grew legs and sent the sit start to Pangaea from the bottom of the ocean floor. mushsmile.gif

Posted
Dru said:

I remember when there was no Castle Rock. Only a bunch of dinosaurs. They all took a dump on the same site one day and CR was born.

 

Pups! That "site" as you call it was hundreds of feet underground - we used to boulder the pod on ROTC on midnight rock, long before the castle was exposed.

Posted

such new-schoolers. I remember back in the day doing some highball hand traverses with trask's dad (a amorphous pile of goo waiting for a lightning strike) where your crash pad was hot lava and there was more methane production going on than at the locals only parties after the LaPine hot chili and sloppy joe festival of '97 yellowsleep.gif

Posted
Norsky said:

I remember doing Angel. I swear there was a black ooze flowing from within it. Oil Baby!

"Welll, lemme tell you a story 'bout a man named Jed..."

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