Trip Report
the ROMANTIC WARRIOR, First Ascent, 40 years ago, October, 1977
Sunday October 1, 2017 2:15pm
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Summary: I had only been climbing about 3 years. While hanging out at Dome Rock, I discovered the line of the route, on the Warlock Needle, miles away. Shortly after my discovery, I slyly took the opportunity to plan an attempt the route, ‘sight unseen’ (from the base, anyway) when John Peca casually expressed to me that he wanted to do a route that had a bivy. Again, neither of us had ever been to the base. We walked up to it without further inspection and climbed the route with our crappy shoes, stoppers, hexes, a few pitons, and a bolt kit (placed 11, 8 for belay anchors). Even then, I felt that the route was a big deal; we had to climb it. After 3 days, we summited. My focus had been just to get up the thing, free climbing or aid. We chose the RURP seam, as it appeared to be a more direct line ‘up’ than the current free version that goes out left and up the roof. And to be frank, out left was crumbly, insipid and uninviting. I had been inspired from pictures of The Shield, and we had our own right there, not to be missed. LoL, one can get into serious sh*t by reading books. It was a life-changing adventure, for sure.
Please post any pictures or stories of your own adventures on the Romantic Warrior here.
thx - ec
Link: The Original Tale of the First Ascent
The Romantic Warrior by Neville Potter
Standing bold Romantic Warrior
Timeless one in amour gold
Giving your message to warriors all
The victory of victories is about to be told
Don’t succumb to the sorceress warriors
Tarnishing your purpose bright
Have your senses yet to have their fill
Of battles old and fearsome stories told each night
You’ve wandered off the path my warrior friends
Those pictures painted in your weary eyes
Tell of age old times gone by
When you fought and jousted cross the skies
In those battled faces etched so deep
Are stories of those gruesome duels
When locked in combat for a thousand years
You earned the title tyrants cruel
But even in those loud victorious cries
The magician spun a strange defeat
For as you smote from view the jester bright
Your battered selves lay at your feet
The sadness in your hearts ring out
Protesting those whose silent will
Led you to this bloodstained trail
And you can't recall deciding to kill
Pick up the gauntlet warriors
Sheath your swords put up your trusty lance
Channel the power used to rush every foe
Into giving the future a chance
Believe in yourselves old warriors bold
Create a path so firm and sure
Fight for the birth of the freedom of man
The end of this medieval overture
ec
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About the Author ec thinks, “WTF?! 40 years ago!” |
Comments
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, ec... thanks for sharing...
hope to see lots of folks chip in, too...
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
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The bar for experience-based contributions is pretty high on this one...
I can just say "whoa, pretty gnarly."
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Great...forty years goes by pretty quickly.... !
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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This is great, thank you for sharing. Hope to climb it as free ad possible one day. Looks way good and way hard. The rock in the needles is the best!
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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ec ...... way to go.
you sir, are well known by your quality climbs.
and as Jim says... 40 years goes by fast.
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Thanks for the history EC! An amazing line that kicked my ass, didn't finish due to style violations ;-)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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That was a fun read!
Some good stuff in there:
They would be considered quaint when compared to today's super outdoor shops. There was lots of natural wood, gear hanging in every available space and the merchandising was as if it was some guy's closet. It was the simpleness of it all that I recall that was most appealing.
...
The stance measured about one foot by two feet and was perfectly flat. It was situated in a position at the very top edge of the overhanging wall we had climbed up; giving us a clear view of the base of the route. The walls below were steep, gray and streaked with black and yellow lichens. This view of the exposure was so surreal here we dubbed the stance 'Excess Reality Ledge.' We were glad to have this small place to stand instead of hang. The summit corner loomed overhead.
...
In the years after this, I have chuckled at the efforts to neophyte wall climbers, remarking to them, "Yeah, you are going to spend all this time making your plans to climb your route and even relish the thought of living on it for days. I'll tell you, once you get up a ways, unless you bail off, you're going to do everything in your power to get the hell off the damn thing as fast as possible. From:
http://www.vertical20.com/the-romantic-warrior.html
......
ec,
It's a pleasure after all these years, to see your voice on the forum. Not that you are by any means new here, but we haven't really interacted.
I first started climbing in The Needles in 1978 and 1979 with Erik Eriksson. At the time, we once visited Richard Leversee at a modest USFS cottage which he inhabited for a time, as I recall, connected to a local job that he held. And we would run into him at Dome Rock.
There sure weren't very many locals to The Needles at the time, not that we were aware of anyhow, Richard being one, and later Patrick Paul and Ron Carson. Of course Tony was around, as were others of our Southern California crew. But you were the one storied individual with whom I never made acquaintance.
In the early 60s, I used to visit my grandparents and aunts and uncles who lived in Bakersfield. But that's another story.
Never climbed Romantic Warrior. Great route name, BTW, and I have the album right here at home (two copies, one of which belonged to Erik from way back in the 70s), both on vinyl!
Looking forward to reading all of your other climbing adventure recollections on the website:
http://www.vertical20.com/
Happy trails,
Roy
.....
EC, from the Moser, Vernon, and Paul Needles guide:
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ec
climber
ca
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Author's Reply
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Oct 2, 2017 - 01:01pm PT
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Thx, guys...40 years like a vapor...
Great shots BassNuts!
Roy, strange we hadn’t crossed paths. Beleve it or not, your name did come up in conversation with acquaintances (nothing defamatory). I was about, but probably spread myself ‘thin’ by attempting to explore the vast resources of the area. You mentioning the cabin in Camp Nelson gives me a definite time frame.
I met Erik in the summer of ‘77 when he and Badyrka first showed-up around Dome Rock. At first, they appeared apprehensive or even suspicious of my friend Scott Edmiaston and I for whatever reason. However, after hitting some hot springs, partying-down a bit, and climbing together on the 2nd ascent of what is now known as ‘Grand Delusion’ on the southern prow of the Hermit, all the planets were aligned.
And thinking about the recent rockfall in Yosemite, the last time I saw Erik at the Needles was when he was on a route on the Witch Needle (‘78-‘79). Leversee and I were scouting for new routes in the lower Witch/Sorcerer Gully. I got caught in a major talus slide where I literally was thrown a distance, slamming my chest into a stationary boulder and somehow was able to literally ‘shoot the curl’ in a desperate lunge for safety, all the while sucking air. My main incentive to move was a VW Beetle-sized boulder headed my way. I still can’t figure-out how I pulled that off; I’m totally sh*tty at dynos. Erik and Leversee thought I was surely dead.
ec
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Matt Sarad
climber
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Last time I climbed at the Needkes I met a young couple who had come to climb Thin Ice and then Romantic Warrior. They had left Yosemite a few days before after climbing Astroman.
I loaned them my Moser/ Paul Needles guide for reference.
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drewsky
climber
Seattle
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ec, thank you for posting the story of the first ascent. What a cool adventure it must have been to find such a beautiful line before anyone else had climbed it! I had the opportunity to climb Romantic Warrior about twelve years ago. Though I wasn't quite equal to it at the time, it was still every bit a worthwhile experience.
I had been to the Needles once before and had climbed a number of more moderate classics such as the Don Juan wall. I knew about Romantic Warrior and was intrigued by it, but it wasn't a reasonable choice on that first trip. A couple of years later in mid-October I was two weeks into a rather unpleasant job painting a communications tower that involved a lot of old lead paint and a lot of time in a respirator mask. Needless to say, when my friend Ben called me from California imploring me to come down to the Needles (I was in Seattle at the time) and climb Romantic Warrior with him, it was an easy decision to ditch the job and go climbing.
I drove the 20 hours pretty much straight through with maybe a two hour layover at a rest stop. Upon arrival at the Needles, I learned that we would climb the route the next day, as a large storm was moving in the day after with some significant snowfall forecast. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of having no time to get comfortable with Needles climbing, but how could I possibly say no? Ben really wanted to climb the route and I had no desire to be a source of disappointment.
After some fitful sleep, we woke up early and made our way up the trail and down the gully to the base of the route. I knew the moment my climbing shoe touched rock that I wasn't going to have an easy time of it; I was tired and somewhat discombobulated from all the driving. Nevertheless, the climbing felt fine until I tried to lead the first of the harder pitches, which is the free variation that avoids the RURP seam from your original line. I started up, shoved two lobes of a purple TCU into the wavy, incipient crack ten feet above the belay, and felt all resolve crumble away.
I've never had a more emotional meltdown while climbing. I literally cried in frustration. I tried to convince Ben to bail from the route: he would entertain no such tomfoolery. He half-encouraged, half-shamed me into continuing. It was the right combination of approaches: I managed to calm myself and proceeded to follow him up the rest of the route. Being a consummate granite magician, he floated up the climb, showing no sign of it being remotely challenging save for a couple of grunts on the second pitch of the Book of Deception, which has some notoriety for being difficult for its grade.
For my part, I managed to climb the route cleanly save for having to hang once to retrieve a stuck cam from the short, steep finger crack traverse that accesses the belay stance before the slab traverse to the base of the final corner. I yelled and pounded the rock with my fists at this fresh indignity: I really wasn't at my best that day. To redeem myself, I led the last short face pitch in the dark with a headlamp. Somehow, I got off route far to the left after clipping the lone bolt. I had a few minutes of real terror as I grappled with suspect rock and climbing that seemed well above the 5.9 paygrade, far too runout from the bolt to contemplate failure.
We had to rappel the route because of a slight logistical error. On one steep rappel, I hung helplessly in space, unable to touch the wall while the ropes, blown by wind, became stuck far around the corner on a highly featured face. As I pulled myself further and further around the corner to investigate, they released, sending my swinging out into the darkness. In that moment the frustration and fear of the day inexplicably modulated to an odd feeling of peace. I still recall how strange it was to feel a deep sensation of well-being at that particular time, but when I think of the route and the experience, that feeling stands out above all.
Thank you for your work establishing the route. It's truly one of the great ones.
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limpingcrab
Gym climber
Minkler, CA
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One time I looked at it, peed a little in my pants, and then climbed something easy.
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L
climber
Just livin' the dream
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The Needles area is such a stunningly beautiful family of formations...and mysterious beyond words. I've climbed there a couple times and always feel I've stepped into an alternate reality when I first look upon them.
Thank you for the excellent TR from 40 years ago. Truly inspired climbing and taletelling.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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You know, there's the excitement of pioneering a new route, and then there's the excitement of pioneering a great new route.
Cheers, EC!
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
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Bump for the real deal.
TR of the year?
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ec
climber
ca
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Author's Reply
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Oct 9, 2017 - 12:01pm PT
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ec
climber
ca
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Author's Reply
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Oct 20, 2017 - 08:21am PT
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I tried getting some of other FA images, but somehow they’re lost :(
ec
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Jon Clark
climber
philadelphia
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Oct 20, 2017 - 10:49am PT
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An awesome read. I also appreciated Drewsky's write up. Thanks.
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ec
climber
ca
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Author's Reply
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Oct 20, 2017 - 05:26pm PT
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Yep...Joel was a hip specialist! I originally met Doug thru Joel on a trip to the Valley (Yos).
HaHa...Doug told me to be careful of what you read (in regards to his piece I shared).
Joel had some unbelieveably crazy stories about working the ER. He even worked on me once after breaking my ankle at Dome Rock.
ec
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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May 17, 2018 - 03:56am PT
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So much here! = some morning bumpige, to go with coffee,& nkidz home from schoolz
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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May 17, 2018 - 11:51am PT
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Glad to read it was first climbed with aid. ;>)
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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May 17, 2018 - 06:29pm PT
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Thanks for bumping this back onto the front page.
The valley is awesome, but the Needles is magical.
Love.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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May 17, 2018 - 08:45pm PT
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Dr Mata is a highly regarded orthopedic surgeon. His innovations in hip replacement techniques are revolutionary. An elderly friend of ours who danced with Fred Astaire and Lucille ball had Dr. Mata do her hip replacement with remarkable results and a short recovery time.
Amazing to see this on your TR, EC!
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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May 19, 2018 - 12:11am PT
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Great TR on a legendary route!
In the strangest of coincidences, my work colleague told me today of having his hip rebuilt by Dr. Joel Matta back in the early nineties.
PB
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