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wallwombat
Nov 25, 2003, 9:02 AM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2003
Posts: 727
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I dont mean to sound rude, but I was interested.
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wallwombat
Nov 25, 2003, 12:57 PM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2003
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Lot of people lookin, not many people answerin!! :roll:
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findingit
Nov 25, 2003, 2:13 PM
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Registered: Aug 6, 2003
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I'm quite sure he's been involved in some firsts here in Ontario....long time ago, in his trad days.
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mother_sheep
Nov 25, 2003, 2:44 PM
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Registered: Jul 18, 2002
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In reply to: Lot of people lookin, not many people answerin!! :roll:
Why don't you just PM him and ask him?
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passthepitonspete
Nov 25, 2003, 5:13 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2001
Posts: 2183
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{Dr. Piton awakens from his slumber - he is still bleary-eyed as it is not yet noon, and he has not yet had sufficient cups of coffee to think clearly .... ahhhh, an enquiry from Oz.}
In reply to: "Lot of people lookin, not many people answerin!!"
Crikey, mite! You're 'alfway round the world! Not only is it a different time zone here, it's probably even a different day! Sheesh.
Right, first ascents.
Hundreds of first ascents and first free ascents [of existing aid routes] here in Ontario, mostly along the Niagara Escarpment. Most reported, many unreported.
Most of these ascents were made from about 1980 to 1982 before I made the mistake of marrying someone unsympathetic to my climbing. [Funny what love'll do to ya, eh?] Back then in the days before climbing gyms about the only way to train was to climb regularly, and I couldn't keep up to me mates cuz I couldn't get out often enough! [Though we developed some stellar and still-little-known buildering areas. {wink}] I still climbed a bit in the mid-80's, but didn't get much time, and I felt frustrated falling off of routes due to lack of strength.
During these earlier years, John Kaandorp, Steve DeMaio and myself "redeveloped" a number of crags that had been previously visited, though barely climbed, such as Metcalfe Rock and Old Baldy. We uncovered crags here, there and everywhere. Apart from one rogue piton we found at Lion's Head, I believe we were the first ever to climb there and at White's Bluff.
[Gads, I sound old, don't I? However I am still at the top of my game, at least as far as big walls are concerned. But I've done very little free climbing the last few years. Though I could if I wanted to. Really. Honest.]
Perhaps surprisingly, I haven't done many aid climbs in Ontario. About the only one that comes to mind is "Bananarama" out the huge "B-52 Hangar roof" at Lion's Head.
Naturally we aided the first ascent of The Monument at White's Bluff because it was too hard for us to free climb, though we tried. I casually mentioned to Dave Smart that "somewhere on the escarpment" [which runs for hundreds of kilometres!] John and Steve and I had found this enormous roof crack. So possessive were we of our "secret crags" - and so fearful that our arch-rival Dave Smart would beat us to a climb! - that Steve wanted to name The Monument "Breach of Faith" because I had leaked its existence [not its location - sheesh] to Dave.
I didn't really get involved in aid climbing until my Post-Divorce Renaissance began in 1995, and when I got serious at wall climbing in Yosemite.
There is one commonality you will find in all of my routes, and that is that there are no bolts. I believed then, as I do now, that bolts can be indicative of cowardice and cheating. If you can't climb a route without bolting, then you should leave the route to someone who can. You would not believe the almost-unknown and futuristic routes Peter Croft put up in Ontario back in the 80's - most unrepeated, of course. Some of my routes take big balls to climb, so you can expect to be scared! [Fortunately, I am no longer required to climb the scary ones, having done so once for the record]
Twenty years later, Lion's Head has become a huge and brilliant sport climbing area. Most of the routes begin at hanging bolted stances almost a hundred feet off the ground above a band of crumbly choss that defeats most ground-up attempts. When John and I looked at these blank "apartment building walls," we dared to imagine the fear and terror of forcing a new route up them, desperately trying to get little tri-cams into the pockets! Never for a moment did we consider bolting anything.
My routes at Lion's Head begin from the ground and follow natural lines. Man, I wish we had some Valley Giants back then for Sculpted Cow! John "protected" that offwidth with some pipe I had cut and slung!
Nowadays the cliff is bolted to hell - overbolting has created numerous access issues in Ontario. The sport climbing, however, is superb.
And like the man who is opposed to capital punishment, yet stands in the village square to watch the hanging, I have been known to clip a bolt on a sport route from time to time.
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