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squatch
Boulder climber
santa cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 18, 2010 - 10:29pm PT
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RIP
the bushy section was laying on the big ledge above pitch 2 this last weekend.
it's still slingable as part of the anchor for a little while.
there will be a burial ceremony at the base with Royal Robbins speaking.
please do not bring cut flowers.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Feb 18, 2010 - 10:37pm PT
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end of an era.
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Gene
Social climber
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Feb 18, 2010 - 10:39pm PT
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May it rest peacefully with After 6 tree.
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PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
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Feb 18, 2010 - 11:37pm PT
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Truly sad. One of the few times this web site has caused my eyes to well up with tears...
Further proof there is no God.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 18, 2010 - 11:49pm PT
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All is well.
The Earth has time.
Time is on HER side.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:12am PT
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Diggin' the PimpDaddy.
Oh, yeah.
Check out all his Majesty.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 19, 2010 - 01:11am PT
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Yet!
All is well. Millions of years, Kevin.
Millions.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Feb 19, 2010 - 03:49am PT
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So, what happened to it? Rockfall, icefall, climbers farting on it?
Enquiring minds want to know!
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squatch
Boulder climber
santa cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2010 - 04:16am PT
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i wish i knew.
all i can do is think of the obvious scenarios of it's death,
• a Peregrine needed nest material, broke it off and couldn't carry it
• during a recent climbing trip, Gandalf decided to practice his staff
magic on inanimate objects
• Royal did a recent repeat of his route and decided it needed some pruning
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Feb 19, 2010 - 04:45am PT
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Likely that heavy snowfall a few weeks ago did it in.
So many trees fell or limbs broke off.
In 20 years of living in the park, I had not seen a storm do that much damage to trees.
then again Gandalf is a bit rusty..
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:14pm PT
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from time-to-time my botanist wife and I have a gentle argument about climbers' treatment of the flora which occupies their path... we choose up sides as expected, I advocating for the climbers, she for the flora.
Of course I point out that as climbers, we try to tread gently, and that anyway, there is a great expanse untrod by us, so lots of opportunity for the flora to have a space.
She says that we don't really know how heavily we do tread on these places, and that the expanses may not be so great since we actually don't know what occupies the places that we go.
While it is unlikely that the individual who died recently up on the Nutcracker (and I am referring to the tree) represents the last of it's species, it may be true that in other places, there are unique representations of flora, left over from a time and a climate long ago, that thrive up to the point of the climbers visit. We will probably never know. It is true on the few outcrops of cliffs in the great flat middle of our country, that those outcrops, unplantable, useless to agriculture, represent the last refuge of an ancient flora.
I promise to be minimal in my "gardening" (a wonderfully Orwellian appropriation of a word describing an act which is the opposite of the word's meaning) and assure her that as a group we tend to be careful not to do harm, but it seems inevitable that the flora will eventually succumb to heavy use on a route. That tree was probably not a direct victim of an act by a human, nature is fully capable in generating its own violence against life.
That was a great tree, it represented to me the improbability of life, that individual clinging to the cliff, implanted, finding just enough of what it needed to make a life, a life that numbered in years, exceeded that of most of the recent climbers that passed it on their way from the bottom to the top of that cliff. It was a familiar individual which I met occasionally, a stranger you could always count on when you were in a particular place, where though you are strangers, there is the gleam of familiarity upon meeting... I'm sure the tree didn't recognize me, but that hardly matters as we were the children of the realm of the living, kindred, though distant relatives.
In years to come the remnants of that individual will slowly return back to constituent elements. The individual's passing fading from memory, as the existence of the individual also fades.
But I will try to have a thought of remembrance upon passing that spot, and use it to meditate on all the other individuals that our brash species push aside, obliviously, as we try to wring out of our own existence all of the experiences we can. And perhaps I can tell the tale of that tree to others who will never have a chance to meet it.
So we are all diminished by this passing, but it is a passing that we all make, part of the symmetry of living.
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Crillz
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
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I bet a rock took it out, but in the kick back picture that dude slung that sucker right at the breaking point.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:53pm PT
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Ed, that was awesome!
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:57pm PT
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it was, huh, Studly?
Thanks, Ed. You've quite a way with words.
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billygoat
climber
Pees on beard to seek mates.
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Feb 19, 2010 - 12:58pm PT
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Treehuggers! Why don't you quit your whining and make some paper.
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Jay Wood
Trad climber
Fairfax, CA
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Feb 19, 2010 - 01:03pm PT
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I've had some beautiful times sitting on that tree.
LOT of trees went down in the valley this winter.
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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Feb 19, 2010 - 01:58pm PT
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I don't even recognize or remember no tree??? Maybe that is (was) on the left variation of pitch 3? I've always gone right. Or perhaps it is on the direct start pitches (which I've never done)?? In any case RIP old man. I've always sensed that the trees are ancient spirits just watching us - keeping track of what we do, good or bad, as we pass.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Feb 19, 2010 - 08:10pm PT
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Paying my respects - RIP, tree.
Imagine all of the hands and feet, of the greats and the grunts, that have touched its bark over the last half century. Long live the Nutcracker tree.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 19, 2010 - 08:11pm PT
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Hopefully it's not dead- just broken. We'll have to see if it starts sprouting some young'ins.
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