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| Climbing Profiles - Timmy Williams |
| By Courtenay Schurman |
|
What might my occupation be, you ask? Well, I'll have you know that I'm gainfully employed being retired. I do get some degree of pleasure out of telling people that. It's something akin to being able to respond to the question, "What do you do for a living?", by saying, "Whatever I darn well please." But I must say that being retired I'm equally, if not more, busy than when I was working for a living. This appears to be a common ailment of retired Mountaineers (you know who you are). But, when I was working for a living ... by education I'm a microbiologist (my specialty is viruses). But making good money in science can be difficult. So I spent most of my career masquerading as an engineer, for the most part, within the Military/Industrial complex. Like many backcountry folks I cut my teeth on hiking. And then just kept on getting deeper and deeper into the backcountry experience. I never did any technical climbing during these earlier years (at least not knowingly or intentionally). Things waxed and waned over the years according to life's ups and downs. And I kept in touch with the backcountry Then, some years ago, I was in Ridgecrest, California for some schooling at the Naval Air Warfare Center at their China Lake facility. If you know where Ridgecrest, or China Lake, is then you know that it's not quite a hundred miles to Death Valley. I was there for just over a couple of weeks. That meant that I'd have three full weekends to occupy my time. And Death Valley seemed the perfect place to spend those weekends. So I took my backcountry gear with me and had the company rent me a 4X4. When business ended at 4PM on Fridays I'd hop into the 4X4 (which already had my gear stuffed into it) and head straight to Death Valley. About a 2 hour drive into Stovepipe Wells, at the north end of the valley.
So, I started off in my cotton shirt, Levi's, cowboy hat, day pack, and cowboy boots. I could see what appeared to be a route that would go. Not a climbing route (I thought). But one I could scramble. The friction was excellent on what amounted to a mix of sandstone and volcanic rock. It was like sandpaper. Really sticky. And those cowboy boots were great. Most of it was fairly easy going. But there were a few rather steep, exposed sections. Up I went. I got up a bit over 1000' and wound up at a small outcropping. It was a small ridge of rock that stuck out from the side of the mountain. Maybe only 6'- 8' from the face to the end of the outcrop. At the outward end it terminated in a small rise or cone. This made something akin to a small saddle where I could safely sit and relax. At the end connected to the mountain there was a small, shall we say hole, or cave. The opening was maybe 2' - 3' in diameter and maybe as deep. And it was obvious that something lived in that cave. Although, it wasn't there at the time. And I was glad. Because, given the size of the cave and what I could see of the 'furnishings', if I and whatever it was were to come to blows I would've probably lost that fight. HAt any rate, I stopped and looked up to see where the route led me. I was about 400' from my goal. But at that point I decided that it was too steep and too dangerous to continue. So, at that point I sat down, took off my pack, and dug into my lunch. And, of course, sitting there I looked back down the route that I'd come up. Whoa! I have to go back down that!? Holy Toledo! At that moment I realized that I shouldn't be up here without a rope and a partner. And at that moment I decided that I needed to learn how to climb. The rest, as they say, is history. Favorite Type of Climbs Favorite Climb But my other favorite climb is somewhat at the other end of the spectrum. It's the R&D route on Icicle Buttress, in Leavenworth. What makes this such a nice climb (other than it's a 5 minute approach, and a walk-off at the top) is that it has virtually everything you want in a rock climb: stemming, chimney technique, a crack, lie-backing, and friction (depending on your start). It makes a nice 'warm-up' at the beginning of the climbing season. And it gets you back to town in time for beer! (to quote another well known Mountaineer). Most Memorable Climb I think that I'd have to say that my most memorable climb, to date, was the Entiat Ice Fall on Mt. Maude. What is memorable, to me, about this climb is that the actual climb, the ice fall, is trivial compared to the approach and what you have to do to get to the summit and back to camp, AFTER you get off of the ice fall! Yes, yes, yes, we weaved our way through the broken ice fall. A long running belay and then 6 roped pitches. We listened to the ice fall settle under us a number of times. We struggled getting off of the ice fall back onto rock. But this was all trivial compared to the 5 hour approach from camp to the base of the ice fall. And the 4 hours of 3rd and 4th class rock we had to do to get to the summit AFTER we got off of the ice fall! And then the 4 hours back to camp Whew!! Memorable, eh? Favorite Books If I had to pick one I suppose it would be My Journey to Lhasa, by Alexandra David-Neel. The account of a French woman who, between 1911 and 1924, sets out to ultimately reach Lhasa, Tibet (on foot, of course). And in doing so does it in the guise of a religious pilgrim. A western woman disguised as a Tibetan. And she succeeds. Of course what she has to suffer through makes the life of any ordinary person, today, look quite pampered and uneventful. And there are many more like her over the years. If only we could all experience life like that! As an epic. See you in the mountains! |
Occupation:
Well,
one of those weekends in the valley I went off-road into The Hole
in the Wall. Not far from Zabriski Point (yes, the movie of the
same name). Once through The Hole in the Wall I headed up towards
Red Amphitheater, drove around a bit, hiked around a bit, and then
decided to bag a summit. My goal was actually a minor peak (4,429')
on the west side of Pyramid Pk. (6,702'). I was starting at 2,950'.