Ok, picking up where I left off...
CH24:
-Smoot alludes to Alan's aching fingers and Vitamin I a number of times. It was pretty well known around Smith circles that chronic finger injuries ended Alan's career prematurely. It's really unfortunate because I think he could have made (an even more) significant dent in US sport climbing history had he stayed healthy. Clearly he was way ahead in 1985. I think this was the result of climbing too many thin finger cracks and climbing too much (he once famously tried to climb every day of a calendar year--made it ~180 days IIRC?). I've always been leery of climbing too many hard cracks for that reason. Torqueing fingers in pin scars is just not natural or safe (for very long). Steve Petro has the same finger issues.
-As I mentioned above, Smoot erroneously states: "Alan...bolted the [East Face} sparsely..." In fact the original aid ascent bolted it. I actually have Jeff Thomas' guidebook from 1983 ("Oregon Rock") that describes the "bolt line" on the 2nd pitch of the East Face.
-I completely relate to Alan's fear of someone scooping his FFA, however unlikely. I'm super paranoid about that, even at secret crags nobody knows about.
-As I said before, Alan was intending to properly redpoint the East Face and was really close to doing so. According to Alan's account in Wizards of Rock, the issue was pulling 110' of rope up to clip in the middle of the crux (which is overhanging, on slopey fingerlocks, right at the end). He devised a long sling, pre-clipped to the lead rope, that he could clip to the bolt, eliminating the need to pull up slack (note that he didn't just fix the sling like we would). On his best burn he was through the crux with the sling clipped but couldn't pull past because the biner at the end of the sling (the one pre-clipped to the lead rope) had gotten lodged behind his tie-in knot. The way Alan tells it, Heinz Zak was around at the time (not clear if he witnessed that attempt, or they talked about it later) and told him to just Yo-Yo it, so that's what he did.
-I love the story about Crack of the 80s. I'd never heard that before and its perfect. It really shows how myopic the old guard had become (and how far Alan was ahead of everyone, at least on the West Coast). I think Alan nailed it when he said they had a mental block. One of those guys should have been able to onsight that thing, especially on toprope.
CH25:
-I wonder if it was really Smoot's idea to lead the Stigma on gear, or if this is all a dramatization. Same for how the finishing section was done. Also I have doubts about the timeline. The East Face was done in August 1985. According to WoR, Alan did the Stigma in 1986 (but doesn't give a month or date, so perhaps WoR is incorrect?). WoR says:
"1986. Alan Watts made a free ascent of Stigma (Renegade), 5.13b... Since certain Yosemite locals had removed the pitons originally fixed by Todd Skinner, Alan chose to lead it without putting them back in. Alan's act of repeating the climb, even without the pins, did not make him immune to the taunts and enmity of some locals. Alan was heckled, and unkind messages were written on his car*..."
(*a while back there was a short story of these events (by Smoot) circulating around the message boards. In that account Smoot says the locals drew homophobic pictures on Alan's car.)
Anyway, Alan's ascent was super impressive. It really showed how far ahead he was. I imagine leading it on gear was probably worth an extra letter over Todd's ascent (especially without toprope rehearsal), and then the fact that he did it in two days, in 4 or 5 goes, is just incredible (it took Todd 13 days). It seems to me that Alan was probably a good 2 letter grades beyond Todd at that point (not that its a contest). It's really pathetic that the locals didn't respect his ascent, which was really incredible and pretty damn pure. It's a bummer about the shenanigans to climb the last 20 feet. I wonder why Smoot never mentioned the idea of continuing to the higher anchor on any of his previous attempts?
-I don't know if Alan is actually as funny as Smoot writes him, but I hope so, haha. He's definitely a very intelligent and witty guy from reading his guidebook and the brief interactions I've had with him.
-I love that Alan was somehow a big celebrity in Japan.
-The interaction with Kurt Smith is incredible. I wonder if that really happened as written. The picture he paints of Smith is rather unflattering, but I could see it based on the times I've met him. My impression of Smith is that he's a typical trend follower. When mullets were in, he had a mullet. When Ben Moon cut his hair short and dyed it blonde, Smith did the same. When soul patches became a thing, he was one of the first... So its natural that he would do what was trendy at the time--hate sport climbing with all his might, until the moment it became more popular to embrace sport climbing (For those who don't know Smith became one of the main protagonists at Rifle in the early 90s).
CH26:
-The way he describes the "Valley Syndrome," - a bunch of lazy myopic haters, is exactly how Smith Rock felt to me when I started climbing there a lot in the early 2000's. I guess its just the natural lifecycle of a crag. Once it gets old enough, all the obvious stuff is done, the locals become entrenched and resistant to any kind of change or evolution, for fear that their best achievements will be surpassed. If that is allowed to happen, and nobody rebels, the crag will ultimately "die"--become relegated to a museum piece with no growth. Eldo felt very much like that when we were climbing Slice of Time.
-Throughout these Yosemite chapters, Smoot seems overly sensitive and paranoid about people not liking him. Seems weird considering who he chooses to climb with and what he chooses to write. I'd argue in general he has a very low risk tolerance (whether physical risk or emotional risk), and that's a big part of what kept him from developing as a climber.
-He refers to Christian Griffith's "Manifesto." I've never read this but would love to (anyone have a copy)? I find his snippet personally ironic, since our Eldo route Slice of Time is essentially the complete version of a wall that Griffith partially climbed (via the route "Color of Pomegranates"). Griffith's section was protected by RPs and one runout bolt. He's staunchly opposed to bolts being added to "his" section of the wall. Which is fine, his prerogative, but somewhat ironic. Personally I think bold and safe routes can coexist, and a single climber can embrace bold and safe ascents, so I don't see any hypocrisy in doing both types of climbs, but I do see hypocrisy given what he wrote: "Climbing needs no shaggy watchdogs...snapping in their own self interests." IMO refusing to allow a retrobolt of his R-rated 5.12c is in his own self interest--an attempt to preserve a monument to his boldness. Ironically, nobody knows or cares about his route. Its fallen into obscurity because who wants to do 12c face climbing on RPs? If it were retrobolted it would become popular, and people would go "wow, imagine leading that on RPs!"
-At the end he refers to Kauk's transition to sport climbing and conflicts with Bachar. One important nugget he left out was the Tuolumne route "Peace." Apparently Bachar had been trying this ground up, Bachar-Yarian style, when Kauk unilaterally decided to rap bolt it (and call it "Peace," haha). There's a video out there somewhere of Bachar discussing this and saying "What the hell kinda peace is that?"
CH27:
-Smoot really seems to resent sport climbing! This seems to be a theme throughout the book. I thought it was odd that the book was published by the Mountaineers Press--a thoroughly traditional organization known for archaic tomes like "Freedom of the Hills." It makes a bit more sense after reading that Smoot isn't really a fan of sport climbing. It feels like he went on a 5 year sport climbing bender, finally sobered up and moved back to stuffy Seattle where he was born again as a traditionalist.
I'm going to stop here....