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LostinMaine
Nov 3, 2009, 10:27 PM
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So, I was thumbing through "Adirondack Rock" looking for climbs this spring in Poke-O Moonshine and started reading about Great Dihedral. The footnote directs me to Climbing no. 123, for the FFA history, but I don't have that issue.
I was wondering what the whole story was beyond the quick sentence in the book. Does someone know (or if RG is lurking around, maybe we can hear it from the horse's mouth)?
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foodgeek
Nov 4, 2009, 1:04 AM
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He hangs out on supertopo.
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curt
Nov 4, 2009, 1:54 AM
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Rich is also here--almost every day.
Curt
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rgold
Nov 4, 2009, 2:54 PM
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I think I might have a copy of the article I wrote somewhere, but can't find it at the moment. Gimme some time to root around on my hard drives...
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LostinMaine
Nov 4, 2009, 8:10 PM
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rgold wrote: I think I might have a copy of the article I wrote somewhere, but can't find it at the moment. Gimme some time to root around on my hard drives...
Thanks! I did the route last year, so it might be fun to do it again with a little more background.
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billcoe_
Nov 5, 2009, 3:59 AM
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rgold wrote: I think I might have a copy of the article I wrote somewhere, but can't find it at the moment. Gimme some time to root around on my hard drives...
I've read some of your work, it's very very good writing and interesting as well. Thanks Rgold! Loved that Eye of the Needle story on Supertopo and also the followup about the tourist asking you how they got the cables up there!
Total classic!!!!!!!!
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LostinMaine
Nov 22, 2009, 12:41 AM
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Any luck digging up the old article yet? I suppose I can get it the old fashion way...
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clintcummins
Nov 22, 2009, 2:52 AM
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I have Climbing #123 (12/90-1/91) on my shelf. The article is [Classic] The Great Dihedral, by Richard Goldstone.
Here are a few highlights:
Let me take you back 14 years to a time when a hexcentric was the most sophisticated camming device in existence and climbers still proclaimed an ascent accomplished without pitons. ...
... The Great Dihedral ... faces right.... Entry into it is blocked by by a cave-like overhang, a dark and nasty nostril waiting to inhale unsuspecting leaders, baggy natural-fiber clothing and all.
On June 13, 1976, Ivan Rezucha and I stared up at the gigantic menace and nervously added some extra Stoppers to our rack, reasoning that we could always aid our way around the overhang and try to climb the rest of the dihedral free. Were careful to bring a nut tool for the leader so that he could clean dirt from the cracks and, we hoped, discover nut placements underneath. ...
[Ivan led p1 past] a nasty section of cracked posts and pillars. ... A hush fell over the assembled multitudes ... (... Ivan and I were the only climbers on the cliff.)
[Rich started up p2] Suddenly, the realization dawned on me that I was about to have a fiasco. I was jammed up to the waist into a bottomless hole barely large enough at the top to allow my head to move. It was dark and wet, and my glasses turned instantly opaque with fog. ... My hands were soaked, my rack pinned between my side and the rock. ... A major tug-of-war with the pinned rack ensued, punctuated by heaves, bumps, grinds, and continuous expletives as every little thing that could go wrong, did. Finally, after trying a veritable Kama Sutra of different positions, I had the right-sized nut in my drenched hand. I found I could reach up and around to the outside of the dihedral and, squinting through the crack, watch from the inside as I placed the nut into it.
It was time to leave the hole for the outside world. ... I underclung the bottom edge of the nostril to the base of the dihedral, torqued my fingers in the crack that had formerly been the window of my prison, and launched myself upwards for a long stretch of what turned out to be delightful and deceptively moderate stemming. Ivan, although apprehensive after my antics, followed the 5.9 moves without difficulty, and another short pitch put us at the top of the dihedral.
Here ... We would either need a bolt, or have to mount a major unprotected effort. We had neither a bolt kit nor the courage, so we followed the FM-Body Snatcher rising traverse to a petrifyingly wet and slimy 5.8 finish. Later, the direct finish fell to a team that had the foresight to bring a bolt kit.
About eight years later, after an ascent of The Snatch, I traversed over to finish up on this top pitch to the Great Dihedral. ... [after some tricky moves] I was trapped like an utter beginner ... [I stood up erect] and the next thing I knew, I reached the bolt [and soon the top]
(This post was edited by clintcummins on Nov 22, 2009, 2:56 AM)
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LostinMaine
Nov 24, 2009, 2:15 AM
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Thanks for posting this.
That climb is... not fun, but very exciting. Interesting to hear that I wasn't alone in my awkward scrambling coming out of "the nose." My second climbed it incredibly gracefully and led the next pitch because my head was so rattled.
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rgold
Nov 29, 2009, 3:42 AM
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Thanks to Clint for posting an abridged account. I found a .pdf copy of the article, but it won't upload as an attachment because it is too big.
If anyone wants the full version, send me a note with your email address and I'll email you the .pdf.
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sungam
Dec 1, 2009, 1:45 PM
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If you want you could send it to me (tbh I'd be interested in reading it anyway) and I'll upload it and post a link so people can see it.
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rgold
Dec 2, 2009, 9:05 PM
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Sungam, I'm not sure what you mean---are you speaking of uploading to some other site or a personal web page?
In any case, if you want a copy, I'll need an email address, since it won't upload to rc.com. The file is big, I think, because it contains two large pictures of Poko-moonshine climbs.
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sungam
Dec 2, 2009, 9:39 PM
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sungam[at]rockclimbing.com 
I was meaning uploading it somewhere else and posting a link to this thread, or splitting it into two uploads.
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onceahardman
Dec 2, 2009, 11:11 PM
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In reply to: That climb is... not fun, but very exciting.
I'd phrase it differently.
Like many classic routes, The Great Dihedral is not fun while you are actually inside the "nostril", but it's really fun once you have escaped into the dihedral itself.
It's even more fun when you are drinking beer around the fire that night, miming the moves out by firelight.
Thanks, Rich, for your contributions to the sport.
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