problem does not have a name, and relocating it would be a flesh-shredding manzanita tango. like a lot of woodson's best lines, the route is long forgotten; i doubt it's been climbed in over 20 years.

actually, i've just taken a 30 footer, and am lowering to the ground, giving serious though to heading to the deli and finding someone who's 21 to but me a six-pack....

back in the '70's, we called it 11c, and believed it. modern guides list as 12a. grade creep in action.

thanks for your constructive observations, rwaltermyer. for those of us who were there, camp 4 in the 70's, this photo speaks a thousand words. airplanes trapped in ice, rangers, and the big lodge hang. how do i know this? ask the dozen and a half crag vets who lived the 70's camp 4 experience, and suggested this'd be a fun photo to post. now finish your shirly temple, rwaltermyer, and go play in the street.

thanks, pbjosh -- that's what i'm shooting for. history more so than art. i've got 30 year's worth of old slides and photos collecting dust, and they make a pretty interesting retrospective. AND I just brought a scanner heehee ;-)

find the vp's office yet? I've got a photo of lindner on it in one these boxes...

the definative bill russell portrait shot. timeless.

we always started off the ground right in front of the cracked rock, no cheatstones. definately made that first pull off tiny crimp pockets the crux! also made it pretty height dependent. a 5'5" climber avoiding the cheatstones is looking at a V7 move to get off the ground...the left start is definately way easier. Never heard of anyone attempting a traverse, but it'd be swank n' surly fer sure.

The Geek Towers...I'm givin' this one a ten just 'cause you and Eric went up there! Talk about a route with history. I'll forever regret not having gone up there and seen if I was man enough to handle the torque...

I've just cut a deal with Prana; they'll be offering this exact same bouldering outfit in 2004 as part of the "bvb signature line". Surveys and focus groups have revealed that the ladies go crazy for these kind of threads. Avoid the rush, pre-order now!

And yeah, as usual, my spotters are nowhere to be seen...or busy trying to get out of the fall line.

yeah mike, i can remember getting out of the car and running up it two or three times as the "warm-up". funny what teenagers can do. last time i was at woodson i just looked at it and shuddered. and dirko, that's not testosterone, it's blood from the monsterous flappers we got learning to wire the thing ;-)

yeah acrophobic, it's the scanner -- a $79.00 walmart special. been sick at home for 4 weeks, so i got a cheapie and started throwing up photos of me and my homies to kill time. big fun in the new world, eh?

i would like to point out for those who never believed me that i am sporting a mullet. pay up, suckers. small bills will be fine.

well kalcario, lemme put it this way: how many male climbers in the 80's shaved their legs, then climbed in shorts, in Josh?? Imagine the ruthless barrage of slander they'd have had to endure! Yep, sharon isn't just a chick...she's a Betty...

i like the geometry in this photo. it'd almost be a better shot without the climber, or with a climber midway up the arete.

yo yo yo! you're trippin, jefe. nothing but rock hard muscle and steely sinew tacked onto that rack. watchit, or we'll rat you out to that CIA-trained "wetwork" hitsquad over at "The Ladies Roof" forum. Many a rc.com male chauvanist has disappered, never to be seen again....

Damn straight, I hear ya babe. I've given ALL my photo's 10's -- I'm my own best fan!! I've been watching closely the behavioral dynamics of people and their fresh posts. Every now and then someone tries fly in under the radar by giving themselve a 9 as the first vote, instead of a ten. I'm thinking about sending free bricks of chalk to anyone who'll give me 10's, you know, like that french judge who fixed the pairs figure skating comp at the 2002 olympics. btw, i didn't throw in a vote on your photo of hanzie -- figure'd it'd be poor form -- so don't point the finger at me! ;-}

I like this game we all play of sticking our pikky's up, givin' 'em a 10 so we know people get a good look (does anybody even go to "new photos"?), and then we kick back and chart the fall as we slowly lose points. Has anyone EVER maintained a perfect ten? It's almost as much fun as playing the stock market...only it's free! There has GOT to be some way to rig the system...you know, like the ballot box stuffing they do in Chicago...my fragile ego just can't handle anything less than a 9.5... ;-}

Great pikky, but not off-the-charts killer. I give it a ten because very often there is more to a photo than technical expertise, composition, and exposure. A lot of photos tell a story, have a moral, evoke a time and place, and so on. This particular photo, while making me pine for the high country, also has a moral, and a damn important one, too: DON'T create three bolt sport routes unless they are over 35' high and very, very, very steep. Anything else is a future boulder problem. Yeah, we all want our name in the guidebook, and some knuckleheads just like to drill. Fine. But with the new pad technology and the continued and evolving willingness of boulderers, pioneered by Gill, to go WAY strato, bolting something like the boulder problem in this photo is just plain lame and gives us veterans of the bolt wars a reason to drag out the crowbar. Thanks for throwing this photo up, roughster. If you ever want someone to yank the studs, just PM me.

the deep cool blue...with a family and kids, alaska will never happen...but thanks to shots like this, i can teletransport via imagination...shots like this are a public service.

nah pornstar, thry're gallencamp scats, almost as good as eb's and $16.00 a pair. they came stock with this blue-colored rubber that frictioned ok and edged like a demon. everybody in socal had a pair. before scats, adidas "green dot" countrys were the tennie of choice. of course, if you were being totally badass, you ALWAYS went with converse chuck taylors!

well, at the time, i don't think the route had been led yet, or maybe led just once a month or two prior. i'd have to check the guidebook to be sutre. anyway, it was still a pretty new route (compare the amont of chalk in the photo to how it looks today). but, as far as 1980 nomenclature goes, sure you could flash a route on tr. for years the "best" ascent of acid crack was attributed to skip guerin, who flashed the route on tr with full running beta from the ground team. maybe with sport climbing now being the dominant form, the meanings of terminology has changed? interseting question.

this photo bears an amazing resemblance to a photo of chris linder on tusk, taken by his dad tom...exact same body position, angle, lens, and perspective. This is a NICE pikky.

god i wish. it was a mighty stylie outfit! hell, they don't even MAKE knickers like that anymore...

How wide is the crack on Undertow? I went looking once and never found anything that looked like this... looks phenomenal! -- pbjosh

starts tight hands; goes all the way through hands to fists to wide fists hand stacks to fist stacks to leavittation size...it's WAY physical. if you look close at this bad scan of an old slide, you'll see rick is hanging off his left leg with a kneelock as he places his next piece, a 6" friend. -- bvb [edit]

nice hair dude......kewl -- day_o00

holy smokes -- rwaltermyer

stout. you've got some awesome photos, dude. -- camhead

Nice shot. It looks like the Owl Roof, Separate Reality and Paisano Overhang are the training grounds for that crack. Where did he get the 6" Friend in the 80's? -- apollodorus

Was this the route that was also done by underclinging (on TR) like Silk Banana? -- tigerbythetail

Oh yea !!! Get your Big Fat Trad On !!! -- rrradam

Yikes... looks like this will be quite a challenge... I'll have to go looking / bushwacking / trailcutting... -- pbjosh

camhead, come home!

that'll be enought, curt. go solo an offwidth or something. ;-}

glad you like the photo, but it's not mine -- i'm the guy standing off in the right hand side of the frame. many of these photos were taken by freinds; they've just been sitting in shoeboxes and plastic bags out in the garage for the last couple decades. enjoy!

great pikky -- more about atmospherics than the usual shot of some stud bustin' and flexin' on a move -- love the greens fading to haze.

from slc, drive east 100 miles, gain some altitude, take a left on the dirt road into some blue spruce forest, park the car at the cattle guard, hike 1/2 mile northeast, and you're there. i beleive in free access to all. tell vito he'll have to take out my brudda vinnie before he can get to me...

it's been 15 loooong years since i touched valley stone, cz. this spring might be the time. and remember, at night i like milk and cookies....uh, you're not actually gonna expect me to CLIMB anything, areya?

I like it that folks are enjoying this photo.
I think it's also worth mentioning that this photo was snapped by douglas "off" white, my best freind from fifth grade (1968). the van broke down later that summer; we wound up hitchiking and got a ride -- siphoning gas to make our way back across nevada -- with a crazy cowboy who'd just broken off an affair with a transvestite...but that's another story...

my self-esteem is suffering...could somebody throw a few 10's at ths photo, please?

i'm still staring at this photo. it is probably the best photo of the crackhouse i've seen. added bonus: the foreground (upper half) of the photo has all the texture and canyonlands ambiance of a good jim dykinga or tom till shot. bravo! was this shot a fluke, or do you have more, equally quality shots of other routes/places?

This one gets a 10 from me...even though it will drive my far superior photos one notch down the ol' totem pole. This is such a great boulder problem, the autobahn of roof cracks...and the photo really captures the problem...although it don't look like our homeboy s.t.g. got too far into the thing...like the rest of us, eh? ;-)

hellya thats just a boulder -- the SO high boulder. already had four 25' -30' problems on by the late 70's -- sorta high, button high, so high, and crank city. no pads and eb's.

i continue to maintain that highball bouldering reached it's fullest flowering, it's fullest potential, the height of achievement, in joshua tree national monument between the years 1974 and 1984.

stick people back into in eb's, remove the pads, and all of a sudden it's gonna seem like we really haven't advanced that much over the last two decades. when you look at what people were doing, in the context of the time, today's bouldering, while utterly amazing, comes into a slightly different focus.

i love this boulder. jtree represent!

oh, please god, not another photo of saigon...

ahhhhh. thanks, bro. i needed that.

heartwarming, eh?

Bwahaaahhaaaaa! Actually camhead, I've worked the moves and i think with linkage it checks in at a weak V4, not V4+.

yeah, i know, i know, it is a great shot...but saigon...**burp**...it's been shot soooo many times....after so many back-to-back meals of fine french food, ya want a little thai food, right, or maybe some VIETNAMESE?? HarrrHaraharahar God DAMN I'm funny!

Hoooooo Man! Does THIS scene ever look familiar! When we did Hoppy's favorite, the empty "hoppys favorite" milk carton was still tucked back into that little huecoo at the last belay station. When we did this route -- and i am not making this up -- we smoked a pipeload of thai stick at EVERY belay. Pull out your valley guides and add 'em up, folks, that's a lottareefer. -- we were the ORIGINAL white rastafarians. Oh GOD, I could spray FOREVER.......

re: "deadender", registered 2003-04-15 11:38:45. mp lost one front tooth, while outlaw skateboarding in illegally drained backyard swimming pools back in the days of the zephyr team -- another aspect of mp's very colorful past. mp never fell off this route on the solo, ever. he'd be in a wheelchair if he had. yeah, jaws is 10d. thanks for the news flash. gumby route we hucked solo laps on between bongloads. you are who? put yer name up in yer profile, lil' homie. no need to hide...we don't bite.

ouch! hope there's a pad waiting for him down there....

ahhh yes, "act of contrition"....another kevin daniels classic sends the newskool running, tail between legs. I love the JTree V3's. Talk about equalizers. Oh yeah, the crux is the VERY LAST MOVE.

au contraire. the poor guy needs all the beta i can give him to get up even my easiest problems...and at 6' 4", he mkes this highball nightmare look like a pee-wee herman problem. where are the short, honed, shapely bettys when ya need 'em? i'm gonna have to hire some models....heh

No comment left

1977. tennies. stout, workingman's 5.11a. hexes and stoppers. good warm-up for the hards. heh.

ahhhh, oldskool josh boulder problems. they don't get no betta. but what's spotter #2 doing? he's, like, 10' from the base of the boulder!

jt, why the heck y'all hanging on that face hold with yer feet swinging in space?

hilary, i'd guess that prob's about V4. what's the beef?

woodson 5.11c

who is that grinning fool in the background? were you guys feeding homeless people at this party?

who is that grinning fool in the background? were you guys feeding homeless people at this party?

pure, unfettered choss. bring it on.

arguably one of the prettiest bouldering areas on the planet.

seen 1,000's of photos of this prob, this is one of the better ones. telephoto lens from up the hill, or hanging from the rap anchors with a wide angle? it's one or the other.

i'd do her.

twice.

twice.

i'd do her.

two guys: jeff ellington, and adam grosowsky. WAAAAY back in the day. adam did a leashless lap after a few practice runs.

badass.

don't forget brooke sandahl. he was right in there with those guys. i've got a 1983 photo of brooke and jeff tossing pins while standing on a slackline in the old smith rocks parking lot. and you should have seen the tightrope adam and jeff set up set up behind the evergreen state college circa 1979...20 feet up, and no leash, ever. fall off and grab the line, or go flying towards a bad 20 foot crash landing....the original masters, for sure. much respect.

hmmm. first time viewing a winter shot of el cap, kids? if you enjoyed this one, you might want to check out the work of galen rowell, ansel adams, or ed cooper. nice shot, though.

btw joe, you should try boulderign again sometime. i know you got spanked on entry-level B1's in josh back in the mid-80's, but you're a seasoned climber now. you might stand a chance. give it a go....

fukin a. kalcario "homo joe" spouts off again. go bugger a choirboy, sportfag. leave the highball bouldering and the 5.13 trad to those of us who can handle the torque. merock can crush you at any climbing game you choose to play, and he's probably the best dark horse photog in the u.s.

this photo is choss compared to his good stuff.

to summarize: pffffffffffffft. sukit, n00b.

don't feel bad. that's the most sandbagged B1- in Josh. It'd be vee5 in little cottonwood canyon or the valley.

you've posted a number of nearly identical photos of the same climber in the same section of the same climb. if you consider the rc.com photo pages to be a digital, on-line "coffee table" book, you should pick one photo -- the one YOU like best --, and post it. too many attempts at a shot sequence can dilute the effect of a single brilliant photo.

santee. luv that place, all vback in tha day n' shit. nice photo, but you should pick the best of bunch and go with it. too many shots of the same move going on here.

heh. yes john, they're called "bouldering pads".

one of the better shot i've seen of this "most-photographed-move" in josh. this guy must have one helluva wingspan -- i have to lose the left hand before i get to latch the jug with my right, and i'm 6'2" with a 2+ ape index!

no, ikefromla, you're not supposed to "be impressed", you're supposed to react as you will -- psyched, curious, indifferent, whatever. i was born and raised on SoCal granite, and it's still my favorite rock.

gimmee gimmee gimmee JOSH treatment (with apologies to the ramones) ;-}

the bottles contain gin. the cans contain beer. and you missed the whisky bottle entirely, dude. every boulderer's most important accessorys. you do boulder, right???

turbodiesel.

i'd do her.

yes. you can't imagine.

rc.com photograding clusterfuck note: this photo has gotten everything from 3's to 10's.

it's all one really big joke.

screw the problem, check out the hottie!

are you kidding? fist cracks in roofs, sweat, body odor, suspenders, and as rrrADAM so succinctly puts it "blue collar climbing", are all making a BIG comeback.

I AM THE ORIGINAL DUDEBABE. BOW DOWN BEFORE ME, YE LYCRA WANNABES.

"where's the dudebabe's Greenpeace beanie?"

hillary, i'm one of those rare eccentrics who actually wears a beanie to stay warm on a cool day. this particular midsummer day was warm enough, so i took it off.

but, if you'd like, i can arrange a private fashion show for you...just me and my greenie beenie, and nothing else at all.

it'll cost ya.

YO da. heh, he.

it's even better than you think, dude. she's full commando.

noah is the guy john sherman was spotting when noah did the first ascent.

where above parowan? the parowan by panguitch, in the dixie n.f??

mmmmm...jojo. one of the best single pitch 5.10s in the valley. i sorta forgot about this wide section....musta blocked it out...

negatori on the ps shenanigans, big guy. tiny camera, wide crack. you do the math.

i'd do her. fuck yeah. tats get me so fukking HARD.

sweet. the duece.

dooooouceymammmmaaaaaaaa...

you don't like the photo? then BOMB IT, you nitwitted weenie. pffft.

actually, you need 'em -- falling 5' unto your back can hurt, and the topout on this roof is a sketchy highball nightmare with a steep, sloping rock-strewn hillside for a landing. the photo does not capture that...

hey babe, why don't you just blow me? (you are a hot climber chick, right)?

fyi -- i pm'd nthwhatshisname to tell him to quit whining. if he thinks a "fix" is in, he should lodge a formal complaint with the photo editors, fukking whiner. if i ever get insomnia, i'll just look at his pics....**YAWN**

sandbag. that thing is V7 on the outside.

this photo would be way better if that dude was a topless chick wearing a thong under her harness. just my 2 cents.

p.s. it is a snapshot. good call.

so....you prefer your climbing shots to be deviod of climbing accoutrements? must really piss you off when you see those quickdraws in the sportclimbing shots.

pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft

"would have to be one of the most origianl shots I have seen..."

ummm....see above comment.

blatant ripoff of the photo i posted last month. concept thievery.

(i do like fist cracks, tho...) ;-}

this is that, um, "place" i been telling about, curt. you'd shred there. let's go.

uhhh, oneninehundredsuksadick, i take it you're not privvy to the great legacy of literature produced by the writers of the south?

yeah, in this pic you can't see the top 2/3rds of the route. it's over 20 feet. when the climber gets his feet where his hands are, he's about halfway. for extra points, the ground slopes away at the landing. if you blow the topout, you will probably get hurt -- for the 33 years that i've been boldering, that considered a "highball". this problem has made some pretty good boulderers quite nervous.

shoe dab. invalid.

i'd do her.

i'd do her.

hey...that's my wife, circa '85 - 86! plus, lemon chiffon was never chipped...kevin powell did the fa in early winter of '77. NOBODY was chipping at woodson back then....the whole chipping thing started in the mid 80's. which holds do you think were manufactured?

what's jeff up to these days? ain't seen him since 1986 or so....

ah...i see the mandatory photobombing has commenced...already scored a couple of "4's"...thank you sir, can i have another? ;-}

the "blur" is the whole point of the photo. you guys are stuck in an artistic rut, churning the same boring old technically perfect photos out, over and over and over...take some risks, experiment a little, do something DIFFERENT fer chrissakes!

maybe she was out drinking the night before.....as for bruckner, the guy was a blowhard. the route is natural.

cool. somebody just gave me a one. i am the bone-crushing KING of the photobombed.

psyched! this photo has now recieved votes of 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. would somebody please vote me a two so i've got a complete set? i think this may be a first! can anybody else claim this fame?

nope, i now have the full set: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10. proud!

fucking AWESOME, dood! just laid a big fat 10 on it. more GEAR pics, pleeeeeze!!!!!!

you don't get it, homeboy. i double-dare people to photobomb my stuff. i've started threads begging for photobombs. THATS how you go about unravelling the "ratings" bullshit.

ps: you are an idiot. now get off your ass and vote me a 1, you invalid comment-dabbing bitch.

and i thank you, moonshine. i now own the complete collection!!

thanks, cagster! 'preciate it. BOMBS OVER TOKYO!!!!!

jesus curt, put on some long pants, those legs of yours are gonna scare the chickens.

"10" 'cause she's hot and i'd do her.

truly sweet pic. outstanding, subtle post-production work. it garners one of the very few 10's i've ever doled out.

hey merrick, when did you take this pic?

fuzzy, slightly out-of-focus close-up pic with poor color saturation of some random dude on a 50 foot IC 5.11plus/5.12minus sporting, of all things, frikkin' TICK MARKS. proud, dude. learn to use photoshop, mmmkay?

camhead you fukker you were in town and didn't call me? yer a dead man. you'll never climb in this town again.

jesus. "ecstasy, f.a.?" get over yourselves. you're a day lkate and a dollar short. flag posse been tearin' that shit up for year. clue home, homeslice.