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Top of Baboquivari after repeating the Spring Route. What I did on my Christmas vacation back in high school.
Scenes from the Iron Age!
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Gary Hervert on the second pitch bolt traverse on the Spring Route, Baboquivari. The last 1/4"bolt pulled out as Gary approached the belay and was whacked back in to maintain the necessary soft rock ambience.
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Gary Hervert and I on the summit of Baboquivari after the fourth ascent of the Spring Route, my first wall, in 1975.
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Hitchcock Pinnacle with the usual suspects. Clockwise on top are; Mark Axen, Mike McEwen and Kem Johnson.
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Dave Baker and myself at the base of Cripple Creek (5.9+) on the Pharaoh. (Rich Thompson Photo)
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Rare double moonrise over the Pharaoh.
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Rich Thompson leaving the groove during an early repeat of Helm's Deep, a Rappel Rock classic.
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Fig thinking sideways on the first ascent of Electric Aunt Jemima In Heat, the girdle traverse of Chimney Rock and an obscure classic.
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The overhanging Bill of Goosehead Rock. This picture almost cost me dearly as the first bolt sheared off while back-aiding, leaving me a very slow lower off the solitary and equally lousy remaining second bolt. (Rich Thompson Photo)
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Offwidth master Dave Baker coasting up the "5.9" second pitch of Abracadaver on the first ascent.
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Mike McEwen responding to remarks about his bolting prowess after leading the infamous third pitch of Abracadaver, Cochise Stronghold.
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Mike McEwen still floating after sending Abracadaver's third pitch on three pieces of the half dozen or so that he would usually carry. The numerous vultures that were out that day were keenly interested in his lead and would fly in close as if to sample the prize ahead of time. The black comedic dialogue that ensued gave rise to the route's name.
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The difficult opening stemming sequence on Cap'm Pissgums (5.11), Cochise Stronghold. Fig and I did the second ascent of this difficult route on hexes and stoppers only and I free climbed (with a top-rope) a variation well right of the original short summit bolt ladder. The route was named "What A Burn" briefly in honor of the short bit of aid but was soon renamed in favor of Zap Comics anti-hero Cap'm Pissgums (and his Pervert Pirates!) a Mark Axen favorite.
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Bottle walking at a Syndicato Granitica banquet at Scott Baxter's place in Flagstaff. (Rich Thompson Photo)
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Testing my personal affinity for disaster on the first ascent of Lucky Goes To The Creamery (5.11- X) my most desperate lead on Sedona sandstone. After surviving this lead I came within a foot of being brained by a rock as I sat in the dark (no headlamp or helmet, of course) at the end of a rappel. Lucky was the name we gave to a man in the news that had just escaped one gruesome industrial accident only to change jobs and narrowly avoid a freakish death in the creamery where things were supposed to be safer.
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At home on Central Pillar of Frenzy Direct Start (5.11+) Middle Cathedral Rock, Yosemite Valley.
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On the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock, Yosemite in the seventies.
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Gary Hervert starting the Roof pitch on the Shield en route to the thirteenth ascent in 1978. The finest seven pitches of aid on El Cap.
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