Gotta check the authors of the book, maybe the answer is there.
Maybe Davenport said he had to do it to cement his superstar status
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Gotta check the authors of the book, maybe the answer is there.
Maybe Davenport said he had to do it to cement his superstar status
When you look through the book, it seems like Davenport tried to mix it up geographically and in terms of gnarliness. Avy Gulch (especially), Tuckermans, and many others aren't super gnarly. But they're definitely super classic in different ways.
Plenty of gnaaaaarly lines too.
This kind of got me wondering if anybody has climbed all the routes in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. This husband and wife team got 48 of them but the last two just proved too dangerous. Fascinating story...unreal amount of effort and sacrifice.
https://www.climbing.com/places/comm...e-50-classics/
now that I have seen the list a 3 year time frame is going to be very difficult. Logistics will be tough. Is this going to be Lorne Glick style or Axel Naglich?
Chris, Art, and Penn explained in the intro that they wanted a mix of easier routes (Silver, Shasta) and routes that rarely see descents (Robson). The Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, which certainly served as an inspiration, was done in much the same way. Taken from the introduction of Fifty Classic Ski Descents, "We use the word 'classic' because it best describes what we are after. Classic is a word that over time has broken from its once stringent definition to be flexible. Classic can mean anything from a stellar, commonly skied, accessible descent, to an untouched line of the future."
Cody, fantastic project. I am extremely excited to follow along, and also excited to hear you've chosen Bjarne Salen to document a good portion of it. I truly look forward to your account of each and every line. I've had 'The Fifty' on my coffee table for a while now, and it regularly gets flipped through to give me inspiration. Seeing the lines through your eyes will only bring me that much closer to them.
One of the things I'm most excited for is to see how the various traverses go. All in all, this sounds like quite the logistical challenge and I look forward to seeing how you manage it. Curious as to lines like Pontoon & The Sphinx, will you be climbing these as well?
Good luck, be safe, if it takes more than three years, we won't stop watching. :cool:
I myself currently sit at 2/50, the two that we've all identified here in this thread to be the easiest, which I don't disagree with, but I obviously can't compare to the other 48. I look forward to hopefully adding Tukuhnikvatz (and possibly another one or two in Colorado) this season. If you want to crash at the Gold Basin Yurt in mid-April, you'd be more than welcome. ;)
wordQuote:
Originally Posted by flowing alpy
and nice pics gnarwhale
Altasquawlik, you need help with anythings in CO for Silver or the rest, you hit me up. My bar is at basecamp if ya wanna post shred beverage.
I believe you can do it!
Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Cool idea, and an ambitious one at that (good on ya). Pretty curious about the logistics for the big gnarly ones (robson, etc.). Are you going to prioritize attempts on those lines each season? Seems like it might take more than one good attempt for things to line up on a few of them. Rooting for ya!
Awesome. Hoping Salomon gave you a healthy travel budget cause you're gonna need it to do all of these in three years, jumping on each when the timing is right.
The Rogers Pass to Bugaboos traverse should be an interesting one. Lots of history in the latest issue of Backcountry.
From Lou/ Wildsnow: "Which brings me to how “Fifty Classics” is put together. Authors BDN give us introductions to each region, as well as the occasional intro style text for a given route. But they turn the actual blow-by-blow descriptions (for many but not all routes) over to sixteen contributors (and themselves, in the case of Davenport). " "Ergo, Andrew Mclean shares a beautiful line on Utah’s Mount Timpanogos, Lowell Skoog weighs in with a traverse of Mount Baker first done in 1939, and seeing that the book had potential of being a testosterone laced sausage party, I opted to share a mellow but beautiful Colorado line, Silver Couloir on Buffalo." https://www.wildsnow.com/3797/review...-ski-descents/Quote:
Originally Posted by kathleenturneroverdrive
Kickass project, best of luck to Alka nailing the timing, which I suspect will be one of the cruxes of the whole thing. Wish I had the budget to give it a try.
Look forward to following and seeing which characters show up along the way. Be safe mang!
oughta hit up giffy-pops for an early april watson/shuksan weekend.
Because the Messner only fills in its ice with skiable snow one out of every 4 to 5 years. Plus, the weather was spectacular for us. So yeah, got lucky!Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeywrenchMoose
Might just do that. I need a network of people with local beta to rely on. So yeah, if you email me at codytownsend at the gmails I may hit ya up.Quote:
Originally Posted by weibo
University and Combatant are on the list of attempts this spring...Robson, well I sure the fuck hell it never looks like that when I'm there. Yikes!Quote:
Originally Posted by The Gnarwhale
They most definitely will. Episode 1 just had to have too long of me talking in it to justify a super long piece about Denali...plus I didn't have a cameraman and do now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peruvian
the humor was pretty good though and i wouldn’t want to watch fifty episodes of Meru fwiw
Congrats on a great plan.
When you ski Tuckerman I recommend you recreate Toni Matt's historic run:
http://newenglandskimuseum.org/remem...-1939-inferno/
https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/...7197482c0.html
I see Pontoon, Sphinx & Meteorite are all on the list. Climbing each of 'em could take you weeks if you get unlucky on weather. You could ski all 3 in a single day with a heli. Throw the Tusk in while you're there.
The Tusk. 2014. Gnarly. So out of my league along with most other mortals.
Attachment 265627
It's all about timing. That'll be a mid-season, high pressure last minute mission.Quote:
Originally Posted by powpig
Here's to hoping weather stays on your side. [emoji106]
Following... such a great idea.
Rogers and Swiss make for a great day! From last week...
Attachment 265679
How often does the north face of Robson get skied?
Cool project, subscribed.
As of June 2017, sounds like its only been done 3 times.Quote:
Originally Posted by gramboh
http://biglines.com/featured/mt-robs...ham-interview/
[Size10]Unfuckingbelievable. I can’t believe you’re a pro. I’m so much better than you![/size]
ps - go get um, Cody. Take Dirksen along for something.
Awesome project, I will eagerly consume all the social media about this, but damn,,, do you pay attention to the snow pack?? literally everywhere right now? You picked a seriously dangerous year for deep backcountry exploration!
Be safe. Be smart. It's better to back way from a peak to ride it another day, than get swept away in an avalanche, getting pummeled by debris on the way down, only to find yourself buried upside down, heavy weight pressing from all directions preventing a single breath deep enough to fill your lungs. Quietly hoping a friend will get to you in time for you to be able to see your family again, before slowing fading out of consciousnesses, and eventually, fading out of this world.
Be safe.
(yes, this is meant to add a little fear to your decision making process... Come back alive.._)
With unstable snowpacks all over, at the the very least this should be a good year to check off the Eastern Sierra lines when back home between other trips, especially a slog like Mt. Williamson.
Hoping you track your progress in this thread, as it would be a fun way to follow along.
Trust me, I already got enough fear in me. Hence why I'm just sitting around, sleeping the back of my truck twiddling my thumbs...Quote:
Originally Posted by ExPowderSnob
Yeah, that's the way my mind has been going lately too. Although even Cali has been sketch. But there is snow to the valley on Williamson so that could help a lot. If we get a big high pressure and some stability, that'll be on the list for next month.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
Dredged this up from the vault, I think the average age of our crew that day was 20.
Think you'll have better production value?
^^Cool video BC!
Watched again last night. Very funny. Laughed out loud at the baseball bit.
As I get older, I have a harder time stomaching the incessant wisdom/sermonizing/I'm-not-religious-but-I-am-spiritual sententiousness of mountain athletes. For some reason, everyone with an IG account and a few stout lines to their resume projects themselves as Lao-tzu + Buddha + Yoda = Aksel Lund Svindal in a $100 head band with a walkie talkie. Bonus points if you make the hardships in your trip sound like the Siege of Leningrad which you were only able to conquer because of your indomitable will.
We don't need more sermonizing 20 year olds with selfie sticks. We need more Glen Plake. Seems like this dude is part of the solution. Keep it up.
(And I acknowledge that athletes in the mountains do encounter very real danger. I just would like honest reporting. Was it Beth Rhoden who said, style doesn't matter as long as you're honest about it? Paraphrasing.)
Four perfect sentences.Quote:
Originally Posted by hafjell
Ptor Spricenieks & Troy Jungen in 1995, Dylan Cunningham in 2017.Quote:
Originally Posted by gramboh
Looking at that face of Robson, it's understandable why it's only been skied three times. Probably very, very, very few opportunities to ski when the conditions are right - and then you need the balls and skills. Toughest descent on the list?
http://biglines.com/featured/mt-robs...ham-interview/Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
The awesomeness is awesome.Quote:
For some reason, everyone with an IG account and a few stout lines to their resume projects themselves as Lao-tzu + Buddha + Yoda = Aksel Lund Svindal in a $100 head band with a walkie talkie. Bonus points if you make the hardships in your trip sound like the Siege of Leningrad which you were only able to conquer because of your indomitable will.
We don't need more sermonizing 20 year olds with selfie sticks. We need more Glen Plake. Seems like this dude is part of the solution. Keep it up.
Fuck yeah Cody. I hope it pays the bills but most importantly stay safe and have fun.
I'm only really familiar with the Canadian Rockies ones but Comstock couloir is rarely skied as well. Robson sees more summits (by other routes) so it might be easier to have conditions beta, though I guess Comstock stares you in the face any time during the winter if you climb one of the peaks on the south side of Rogers Pass.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ