Wild West Tour 1993, Part 3

Plans are going well regarding our coming year travelling sans travail. We're close to booking our tickets for China in October and we're also going to visit Misja Pec (Slovenia) and the Amalfi coast (south of Naples, Italy). We're psyched. But, we can't be bothered to go climbing outdoors here! The weather is beautiful this weekend, but anything on tufas is very wet after the recent monsoon. Still, it's good to go bouldering indoors.

OK, so back to 1993 and TM Herbert.....

We met Tom and Sondra Herbert at Malham in early 1993. They stayed with us a while in sunny St Helens. Tom told us lots of tales about his legendary father and the climbing at Cave Rock and Yosemite. He said we'd have to go stay with his dad. So, that's exactly what we did after leaving SLC.

TM was one of the early pioneers of big wall climbing in Yosemite and made the first ascent of  Muir Wall with Yvon Chouinard in 1965. It was the first time a new route on El Cap was climbed by a team of two in a single push, i.e. without using siege techniques, fixing ropes and descending to the Valley for a rest. Needless to say, we were in awe of meeting such a legend.

TM Herbert during the 1st ascent of Salathe Wall on El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, 1962 (photo from Galen Rowell's "Vertical World of Yosemite")

TM proved to be an amazingly funny and entertaining host, completely obsessed with The Beatles, partial to a beer (he'd announce the time as "beer thirty" which was fine by me) and still mad keen on climbing. When we woke up on the first day, he announced that we were going to go to the pie shop. We naturally assumed he was talking about going to eat some pies. So, patiently (because we were keen to get out climbing) we went along with his idea. Imagine our surprise, to find the The Pie Shop was actually a cliff and we didn't have to eat any pies after all! TM took us up Crepe's Corner (a 5.7) and then True Grip (a tricky 5.10b). It was fantastic to see how well he climbed and to listen to his constant banter at the same time. Later on he suspected we were up for harder stuff and took us to Cave Rock.

Elaine and TM at "The Pie Shop"!

TM leading True Grip

Anybody who has watched "Masters of Stone" will have seen Dan Osman on and off "Slayer" (8b+). He takes some amazing whippers for the camera. To be honest, we were a bit disappointed how small the crag really was. It is high enough but not very wide, so there aren't loads of routes there. Plus, it's right above the road and the road goes through a massive tunnel in the cliff. Still, there was enough to keep us occupied for a couple of weeks. I even bought my first pair of knee pads (as recommended by Tom for the essential knee bars). We ticked some ace routes: Asylum (7a+), Port of Entry (7a+), Fire in the Hole/Caveman (7b), Bat out of Hell (7b+), Concave (7c), Pumping Andesite (7c+), Shut up and Climb, Geek (7c+), Caveman Direct (7c+), Psycho Monkey (8a), Psycho Lord (8a) and Phantom Lord (8a+).

Dan Osman on Slayer on the cover of Masters of Stone

During our time there, we had the cliff completely to ourselves. We soon found out why. Apparently, Cave Rock is sacred to the local indigenous Indians. They were in the process of getting climbing officially banned. We were photographed and interviewed by a reporter from the Tahoe Daily Tribune and made it onto the front and back pages! Bizarrely the Washoe Tribe didn't seem to have a problem with the road and tunnel going through their monument! Just goes to show that blaming climbers is always the easy option. Sadly, you can't go climbing there anymore.

Climbers getting a bad press in the Tahoe Daily Tribune

Before we left, TM took us for our first trip to Yosemite. He led us up the classics Moby Dick (5.9) and Sacherer Cracker (5.10a) at the base of El Cap. We were gob-smacked! TM was awesome when it came to thrutching up off-widths, whereas we got hideously pumped! Still, it is important to work on your weak points! Elaine published an excellent profile of TM in High (No. 151 in June 1995).

TM leading Moby Dick

TM leading Sacherer Cracker

During a rest day skiing at nearby "Heavenly", we were intercepted by a piste patroller who told us to slow down as we were going to fast! He threatened to take our passes if he stopped us again. What a farce, we were just cruising at a leisurely normal speed by Euro standards. We also got a day in at Big Chief to do the 13a featured in Masters of Stone called All Guns Blazing. Then we headed to Donner Summit to do another 13a featured in the video called Warp Factor. We were headed for Sonora, to stay with Tom and Sondra and sample the mega steep Jailhouse Rock and just maybe, just maybe, do a big wall at Yosemite.........

Wild West Tour 1993, Part 2

Q. What to do when it's raining heavily for the fourth consecutive day?
A. Go back to bed after a late breakfast, get up at 3.30 pm, take Scamp out for a long (wet) walk and then try and write a blog post. Simple as that.

What? No climbing today? Our bodies are aching all over after a great session at Val de Grimpe yesterday (along with just about all the other climbers down here - boy it was busy, but good fun). Anyway, spare time is good to do some thinking and planning for the future, i.e. the future after we finish work at the end of next June. And also good to think back to what we were doing in Salt Lake City, over 20 years ago.

In early 1990, I was facing a dilemma. I had to make a difficult-ish decision. For the past 2 years, I'd been testing gear for Lowe Alpine. I was one of a small team, which included Dougie Hall, Glenn Sutcliffe, John Hartley and was coordinated by Tony Ryan. I felt very privileged to have been asked to join the team and enjoyed using my knowledge of the outdoor trade to good effect. We had Beal ropes, Vertical shoes and Lowe Alpine sacks and jackets to test. It was great fun. Then I was approached by DMM, hence the dilemma. I didn't like the idea of turning my back on Lowe Alpine, but to go with DMM was too good an opportunity to turn down, as it meant access to La Sportiva shoes, Mammut ropes and all the cutting edge DMM gear at the time such as Truclips, Mambas and Wallnuts. Such fabulous gear to test and to be part of such an innovative company. It was amazing to listen to Fred Hall's ideas for the next new piece of kit and to liaise with witty and super cool dude, Paul Simkiss.

So, what does this have to do with our US road trip? Just be patient, OK?

After seeing "Masters of Stone" at Pete Kirton's in Portland, we had more of an idea where we wanted to go on our road trip. One of the must-go places was American Fork Canyon, near SLC. We remembered Paul's tales about the guy who imported DMM stuff into the US, Steve Petro. Paul described him as a really cool dude and an ace climber and told us we should try and meet up with him and his then-partner (now wife), ace climber Lisa Gnade. Whilst at Smith Rock, we met somebody who told us that John Barstow (a really talented climbing photographer) was a neighbour and all we'd have to do was look him up in the phone directory when we got there.

It was way past bed time when we finally ended up on Steve and Lisa's doorstep (at that time they were both teaching as well as setting up their business, called Excalibur, and they had to be at school the following day). John mischievously left us to it, after making brief introductions. Steve was very unimpressed and looked very mean standing in his boxers, he had the most impressive six pack and lats I'd ever seen (however, the effect was somewhat cancelled out by an enormous out of place handle bar moustache). It was turning into an embarrassing stand off and we were making our apologies and about to leave, when Lisa appeared and told Steve to let us in. Steve capitulated immediately and we crossed the threshold.

That was the start of the next part of our amazing trip. We stayed for over 2 weeks and did some great climbing at AF. Steve and Lisa were wonderful hosts and pointed us at the best routes and as the days passed we became great friends. Steve adopted me as his "little brother"! He also tried to help me cope with a particularly bad bout of farting by prescribing something called "Beano". Needless to say it had no effect, if anything it seemed to make me worse.

October wasn't the best time to be at AF, it was pretty cold and damp infact. Still, it was nice for us to send some of the hard routes in the Hell Cave, including "Melting" (7c+) and "Burning" (8a) and countless other classics such as "License to Thrill" (6c+) and "The Abyss" (7b+). Soon we were ready to head west, past the Great Salt Lake towards the sun. We headed towards TM Herbert's place in Gardnerville, in Nevada, and the prospect of steep climbing at Cave Rock above Lake Tahoe and the next chapter in our wild west adventure.

My big brother, Steve Petro about to make a trip to Hell.

Elaine and Lisa thawing out in the sun at the Hell Cave, AF.

Lisa cruising "Wizards", 5.13c (8a+).

Steve crushing "Hell", 5.13b (8a).

A more recent photo of "Burning", 5.13b (8a).

Wild West Tour 1993, Part 1

Planning to take a year off work is really exciting, despite the other things going on in our life at the moment. It reminds me of the last time we took time out 20 years ago....

We flew out of Manchester the same day our (ex) colleagues went back to school after the summer hols. The cross Atlantic flight was a novelty for us as we'd not been in a plane for more than a couple of hours before. We made the most of the free Jack Daniels, the air hostess even gave us the left over bottles for the internal flights! We eventually arrived in "Portland Oregon" (as said by Jack Nicholson in The Shining) having travelled via Chicago and Dallas to be picked up by Pete Kirton (the one from Ellesmere Port!) and driven back to his flat in downtown Portland. Jet lagged, we struggled with the heat and the city noise for a couple of days whilst Pete and Sandra worked long hours at Geraldi's deli.

We bought a Chevrolet for 600$ and set off for the vertical, crimpy ryolite walls of Smith Rock, armed with Glenn Sutcliffe's topo and memories of Ian Horrock's superb photos. Pete had put us in touch with a non-climbing friend of his (called Marla Gibson) who lived opposite the car park at Smith. It seemed that we'd be able to camp in her extensive garden. However, when we got there she insisted we stay in her house. The next day, she announced she was heading off on a rodeo for a couple of weeks and was wondering if we'd mind looking after her house! But we'd have to water the plants, feed the horses, feed the cats, etc. We couldn't believe our luck. After 2 weeks, Marla phoned up asking if it was OK if she stayed another week!!! We were amazed at her generosity and her trust.

September proved to be a bit too warm for Smith, but we were more than happy to get stuck into lots of new climbing. We were well prepared, having been Pex Hill regulars for many years, and had 3 fantastic weeks ticking the classics, eg. Darkness At Noon, Last Waltz, Chain Reaction, Aggro Monkey, Churning In The Wake, Kings Of Rap, Rude Boys and many more. We also visited a new area of cliffs called the Lava Tubes, with Midway/Prime Minister being a wild, steep 5.13a (7c+).

At the beginning of October, we headed on to the granite cliffs of City Of Rocks in Idaho. We were expecting plenty of rednecks (having seen the Clint Eastwood film "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot") and we weren't disappointed! It seemed weird putting the tent up after being at Marla's. Still, it was nice camping near the crags, even if the grades were tough. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to climb on The Dolphin at that time so we settled down to ticking lots of classics between 5.11 and 5.13a (6b to 7c+).

After 4 days without a shower we were stinking and drove to the nearest civilisation (a shop at a road junction about 15 miles away). We both took it in turns to keep watch whilst we used the shower.

Smith Rocks seen from the parking lot in front of Marla's house.

Smith Rocks

Sunshine Dihedral, To Bolt Or Not To Be, 5.14a  (up the smooth wall) and Last Waltz, 5.12c (up the arete left again).

Keefe Murphy on Vicious Fish (Churning in the Wake is the easier bottom part at 5.13a).

  

Aggro Monkey, a soft, but great 5.13b (8a).

Ligthning over Elephant Rock, City of Rocks, Idaho.

Energizer, 5.13a at City of Rocks, Idaho.

We then headed on east towards Salt Lake City for the next chapter of our wild west tour.

Heart Of The Sunrise

We don't tend to watch TV here. Instead, most of the time we have the stereo hard drive playing on random, whilst reading or whatever. Last night, a particular song played and it took me way, way back in time almost forty years. The song was "Heart of the Sunrise" by Yes.

Inevitably, I grew up listening to my parents musical tastes, particularly The Seekers, Val Doonican and musical soundtracks, such as South Pacific (I wanted to meet a girl who wore a hoola hoola skirt!). The Beatles happened and I was completely oblivious. However, as teenage loomed ever closer I began to take more interest in the sounds out there. In 1971, with some birthday money, I bought four singles. They were "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison), "The Resurrection Shuffle" (Aston, Gardner and Dyke), "Give Me Just A Little More Time" (Chairman of the Board) and "Sugar, Sugar" (Saccharin version). They were all so different, but all classics in the Top 30 at that time.

For the next three years, I became hooked on the songs by T Rex, Slade, The Sweet and Gary Glitter. Yes, I was into pop music, big time. Then something amazing happened. In the spring of  1974, a boy in my class (called Hayden Davies) lent me an album to take home and listen to. The album was called "Fragile" by a band called Yes. I'd never heard of them. Apparently, they were into something weird called "Progressive Rock", whatever that was. The album had been around for a couple of years already (according to the sleeve notes, it was released on 4th January 1972).

I waited until there was nobody in the house (I didn't want my sisters laughing at my music) and put the LP on the turn table and settled down. After the first few chords of the first track (Roundabout), I knew that the music was good, very good indeed. I was stunned by just how special the whole album was. The quality of the musicianship was of such a high level, compared to what I was used to hearing and the lyrics seemed to hint towards folklore and nature. I was also fascinated by the album cover as well. It opened up, like a book and inside there were the lyrics to read and sing along with. Also, there was a colour booklet with photos of the five band members and (significantly, because I'd just started rock climbing) there was a painting of a climber scaling a sheer cliff on the side of a pinnacle.

I became a big fan of Yes, particularly the line up of Anderson, Howe, Brufford, Squire and Wakeman. I was gutted, in 1982, when our Vauxhall Viva was broken into in a Liverpool car park and the stereo and cassette tapes were stolen (including a pre-recorded cassette of Fragile). I still have my vinyl copy and of course the CD, too. Fragile is still one of my favourite albums and Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise and South Side of the Sky are still wonderful songs that evoke memories of blissful teenage summers.

I hate climbing at Christmas, it's so ....... cold! (said Elaine).

We had some superb days climbing at Jurassic Park and Cayenne, in early December. The weather was amazing and very mild and the crags were bone dry. It was nice to go out and feel our bodies moving, even though we didn't do anything new. It's always good to break in new shoes on stuff you know, too.

Kirstie and Hardin finished off a couple of their projects, Well done! Seb and Cathy ventured down from the cold, further north. It was really fun to see them again, after such a long time. Amazingly, Seb was still climbing in shorts when he sent Psychopat! Cathy was more sensibly dressed when she sent La Queue du Diable. Both 8a+'s dispatched very quickly by a mega pro team! Encore, well done!

Seb Hemmery showing Psychopat whose boss. Shorts at Jurassic Park in December!

Around the same time, I finally saw another dentist about my on-going saga with my root-canal. It has finally been taken out and (fingers crossed) the infection is finished. I've been feeling so much better ever since.

However, the day before the Christmas holidays started, the rain clouds rolled in and I also picked up a bad cold. Perfect timing for both!

Ashley Lewis on Viatge a Venus, 7a, at Montgrony. Photo by Rich Kirby.

We decided to go to Montgrony, just inside Spain. Rich Kirby had recently been and his photos looked ace. So, we were hooked. The first two days was very promising (even with a runny nose and constant coughing) with blue skies and plenty of sun. Then we had 3 days of rain and snow, accompanied with very cold temps, during which we were stuck inside the camper van. Still, we managed to cook a fab meal on Christmas Day. We managed one more day of sun, before giving up yesterday when it turned out cloudy and very cold again. We drove home through the rain. There are some great looking routes to go back there for, especially Gaia and Callabruix (Aromes de Montgrony looks fantastic but I can tell it also looks well gnarly!). Still, it was nice to do some climbing up to 7c.

Home made mince pies!

Christmas Day lunch washed down with champagne.

One of the best doss spots ever? Right under the crag in the sun and quiet too.

Back home and the sun is out. Artbloc tomorrow!

The good news and the bad news

Not much happening at the moment. It's a damp and cold day here today. It should be nice and sunny again tomorrow, so we're sitting tight waiting for then. No training and not going to climb indoors either.

Here's a couple of photos of Hardin climbing at Chouchou Place last Sunday:

The bad news: 
The infection in my root canal has returned with a vengeance. It probably explains why i'm so seriously tired these days. I had the confirmation from a new dentist yesterday (recommended by Marie-Jo). Tuesday next I should find out what he is going to do. He has said it needs to be taken out but there may be further complications and maybe another operation to clean it all out again.

The good news:
We asked our head for a year out. He said OK. So we're looking forward to some cool travelling and climbing next year. Brilliant! 20 years ago, we were on our last year out climbing in the USA.

Here's some photos from that trip:

Ascent of man, 7c+  1st redpoint, Virgen River Gorge in December, brrr!

Yaak attack, Red Rocks, also in December!

Marla's house at Smith Rocks, where we stayed for 3 weeks in September.

Elaine and TM Herbert at "The Pie Shop" in late October.

Sissy Traverse (8a) took quite a bit of effort and quite a few goes to do. Red Rocks.

Aggro Monkey (8a) 1st redpoint. Smith Rocks in September.

My favourite US crag, Jailhouse Rock. Not sure what the route is though.

Heading back to Portland from Red Rocks.

Buttermilks in November.

The legendary Smith Rocks.

A nice warm up at Red Rocks.

Loud and proud!

You'd hear a load roar as a super bike arrived at the car park at the top of Pex Hill. A tall, slim figure clad in black motor cycle leathers, would step through a gap in the railings and announce his arrival by letting out a humongous belch. Every head would turn to look at him as he nonchalantly down soloed The Dateline, a tricky 5c finger crack, with his helmet in the crook of his elbow. Of course, I'm talkng about the legendary Phil Davidson.

On another occasion, we were walking down the main street in Llandudno, when I felt an urge to burp. I let it out loud and proud, which we always did. Phil was suitably impressed, but only until I apologised to the two appalled ladies walking towards us. After that he was very un-impressed!

I first met Phil in the glorious summer of 1976. There was a heat wave that summer and water was rationed. But, more importantly, the crags in Wales were all dry and the routes were all for the taking. John Roberts, Pete White, Brian Jones and I were regulars at Humphrey's Barn in Nant Peris. We used to spend Saturday nights there after a great day's climbing and a lot of beer in The Padarn in Llanberis. Phil used to turn up with his equally talented climbing partner, Gaz Healey. We used to call them the "Psychos" because they did such outrageous climbs and rode their motor bikes always at full throttle. Other regulars at Humphrey's were Andy Sharp and Steve Lewis from South Wales and Mike Griffiths and Sandy Dobie, like us from North Wales.

18 year old Phil Davidson making the 5th ascent of Right Wall in 1977 (photo Gavin Peat)

Our paths crossed many times on the crags. Phil quickly worked his way through all the classic hard routes and made a name for himself when he did the 5th ascent of Right Wall in 1977 with nonchalant ease. From that moment on he become well known for making incredible on-sight ascents and amazing solos. (When Phil soloed Right Wall, in 1984, he hadn't done it during the intervening 7 years!)

Phil Davidson soloing Right Wall in 1984

I got to know Phil really well, when Elaine and I moved to the St Helens area in 1980. We became good friends and we climbed together for many years. My favourite memory goes like this:

Elaine and I had just returned from a two week holiday in Corfu in 1982, spent chilling out on beaches, eating too much and doing no exercise. We just happened to see Ron Fawcett, on the TV that evening, climbing "Sardine" at Raven Tor. As soon as the programme finished the phone rang. I knew instinctively that it was Phil and what he had in mind for tomorrow! Sure enough, it was him on the other end of the line and he confirmed my dreadful suspicion, he wanted to go to Raven Tor. He absolutely strolled up Sardine, as usual. I was dragged up it and then lowered down into the nettles in my shorts (he was too busy chatting away with Jerry Moffatt to notice).

Phil strolling up Sardine on-sight in 1982

Between 1982 and 1984, Phil was probably one of the best climbers in the world. He was one of the first climbers to look carefully at his diet and used to eat a couple of tomatoes, whilst we'd tuck into fish and chips on the way home from the crag. Secretly he used to do loads of sit ups, press ups and pull ups and was the most supple person I have ever known. (I wonder if he can still do the box splits or stand against a wall and touch the wall above his head with his toes on one foot?) As a result, he had an incredible physique that we all envied!

Phil making short work of L'Obsession at Malham during his comeback year in 1990

Then Phil just quit climbing when he went to I M Marsh College to become a teacher in 1984. He applied the same dedication to white water canoeing and became very well respected for his skill and bravery on the flooded Welsh rivers. Later on he became an accomplished saxophone player and more recently took up clay pigeon shooting (of all things).

Phil got back into climbing in 1990, making a very good comeback of course. However the sport had changed a lot in the intervening six years. Everybody was into sport climbing; this involved dogging and rehearsing moves. Despite Phil always having preferred to climb on-sight, he embraced the new red-point ethic and ticked most of the classic 7c's and 7c+'s at Malham, Kilnsey and Gordale. But the magic 8a grade proved elusive for him, he tried desperately to finish Zoolook, but kept forgetting the exact sequence necessary to achieve success.

The dude on his Ducati 900SS (photo by Steve Foxley)

Phil has always been into motor bikes and has been the lucky owner of all sorts over the years. His gleaming Ducati 900SS used to be kept in his parents back entrance hall until he finally got his own house. His helmet and leathers matched the black and gold on the bike, apart from his boots (as seen above). He regularly wore out the outside edge of his boots due to banking so low on corners at fast speeds. I remember the soles were held on with red duct tape!

Phil has always skied immaculately, he still canoes horrendous rivers (especially when they're in flood), he still enjoys playing the sax and is still very keen on climbing. Recently Phil has been receiving justified respect for working his way through the desperate (and very bold) routes at Nesscliffe. I'm very happy to add that whatever he's doing, he's still doing it loud and proud. Good on yer, mate!

Footnote: I just happened to read through this today and noticed a few things that needed improving or adding. So I've edited it and hopefully it's better now. (Mike 23/10/18.)