Moments of Crisis Michael Borghoff Summit 1963

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 1 - 20 of total 54 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 27, 2009 - 08:56pm PT

An interesting essay about sorting out the harsh and nasty aspects of climbing by the father of our own MisterE. From Summit July/August 1963.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Nov 29, 2009 - 10:06am PT

hey there, say... here's a bump... hope for some more folks to show... :)

cintune

climber

the Moon and Antarctica

Nov 29, 2009 - 10:43am PT

Dab.

Gobee

Trad climber

Los Angeles

Nov 29, 2009 - 01:59pm PT

Thanks Steve for all your cool mag articles!
To be in the now, and open to your choices and going with one, adjusting, staying focused, movement, rational, and commitment, how cool is climbing! And all this with strength, flexibility, endurance, power, and a pump!

If you want to once a week, on some climbs you can train for these moments, where your at the moment of crisis, to push your own boundary even on sport routes, by never grabbing gear, saying take, go tell you blow, the more you do that pumped out of your mind the more you can do!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 30, 2009 - 09:16pm PT

MisterE Bump!

Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

Nov 30, 2009 - 11:14pm PT

Good read.
Z

hoipolloi

climber

A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi

Dec 1, 2009 - 12:41am PT

it hurts my eyes to strain for that.... let me try downloading it and blowing it up...

MisterE

Social climber

Across Town From Easy Street

Dec 1, 2009 - 01:20am PT

Thanks, Steve - much appreciated. I was one year old when he wrote this...

Dad always could wax poetic with a robust splash of the aesthetic and spiritual. Always leaving you wondering about references you MUST look up, and told with one foot firmly anchored in personal adventure and experience.

Hope you don't mind I cleaned the pages up a little for easier reading:

Dad:

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 1, 2009 - 11:26am PT

It is an extraordinary essay. Most of us don't look at the big picture when pondering the value of the climbing experience. Usually some disaster or calamity forces this kind of self examination rather than measured contemplation. I really like the lack of desperation in the tone of the piece as it clearly comes from a calm center and is really a meditation.

Would you care to share anything else that your talented father has written about climbing or life at large? He is, as you say, a very gifted writer. First time reading this one?

Cheers

Fuzzywuzzy

climber

suspendedhappynation

Dec 1, 2009 - 12:57pm PT

I have always loved the Borghoff poems in Roper's Guide. I am still effected by the images. What a romantic!!

Here, on this rock, the climber finds his Mecca: the compact, interlocking simplicity of slab on slab, shard and flake and crack and hold; the burning left and right of granite infinity; his essential: the down-reflected dome of August’s sun, lips parched and cotton-flecked; the ting-ting of well driven steel or the hollow thump of exfoliation slab; the faraway spice scent of a bay tree . . .and most splendid of all, the huddled summer bivouac. . . .

- Mike Borghoff, 1959

And of course -

Look well about you, wanderer! There is but one Yosemite on the face of the earth, and through the myriad moods, the shifting cyclic patterns, will always sound this, your need: simple joy and certitude, the face of life itself.

MisterE

Social climber

Across Town From Easy Street

Dec 1, 2009 - 02:25pm PT

Yes, that was ther first time I had read that one.

He submitted a piece to Summit that was never published, but Steve Roper sent me a copy. It was a tale of a mad rush from Yosemite to Wyoming with Jim Donini, among others, but it is unavailable for sharing. He also wrote a great poem about Yggdrasil the Tree of Life, that I really liked, I am not sure if I have a copy still. I'll see what I can find.

Thanks for the addition Fuzzywuzzy - those were new to me as well.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2010 - 11:20am PT

Bump for Bong-bongs and Salamanders!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2010 - 02:11pm PT

And here they are! From Summit June 1962.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Jun 12, 2010 - 02:19pm PT

Mr. E,
The trip from Yosemite to the Tetons with your dad and Craig Shantholtzer was a WILD RIDE that would put Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to shame.

jogill

climber

Colorado

Jun 12, 2010 - 05:24pm PT

Mike once agreed to critique my poetry (pathetic) if I would instruct him in the art of bouldering. Problem was, he laughed so hard he couldn't stay on the rock. So I agreed not to read to him as he toiled on Cutfinger Boulder. I think he was on leave at the time from some sort of special forces or ranger unit, and had a nice looking 1911 .45 that I admired.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Boulder Creek CA

Jun 12, 2010 - 07:42pm PT

My first experience with trying to climb El Capitan was with Mike Borghoff. It would have been the third ascent of The Nose, but we didn't get very far...

MisterE

Social climber

Jun 12, 2010 - 08:40pm PT

^^Tom - nice! Here's a Glen Denny picture (from the web) that may have served as a partial inspiration to your effort? My left arm, Dad in center looking at the rack for the second ascent of the nose, and Mom on his right, behind Roper. You Know the other players...

Thanks for the bump, Steve - visited the Batso Museum yesterday with Radical and F10, and talked quite a while with Mr. Perryberry(?) - he knew Dad as well.

We all got Semper Farcissimus shirts on our departure. Schwag! :)

Where's those pictures, F10!?! ;)