Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 11, 2012 - 09:35pm PT
|
This article Mountain Climbing As A 'Family Sport' appeared in the July-August 1958 issue of Summit.
A lot of folks have been reading Ruth's letters so I thought this would be of interest.
|
|
JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 12:08am PT
|
As always, thanks, Steve.
|
|
BBA
climber
OF
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 11:36am PT
|
The rock climbing extended to Ruth Mendehall's cousins, Phoebe Russell and Elizabeth Lewis. Here's a footnote from the transcription of the Mt Starr King registers for a 1939 entry:
116 Russell also climbed Starr King on May 30, 1941 with her sister, Elizabeth Lewis. Phoebe Russell and Elizabeth Lewis were the cousins of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, an early climber of note in southern California. The two ladies joined the Sierra Club in 1938. Ruth married John Mendenhall and they climbed peaks and technical rock climbs at Tahquitz. See Woman on the Rocks, the Mountaineering Letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall.
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2012 - 01:18pm PT
|
Less Puffin' n Fluffin' and more Climbing!
|
|
Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 03:33pm PT
|
For you Mendenhall fans: Here is an RDM supertopo to Strawberry Peak (San Gabriel Mtns, Los Angeles) from 1943.
If you really want your own 3rd generation copy you may send me a private message to make arrangements.
|
|
There is No Other Me
Social climber
Reno NV
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 06:48pm PT
|
I am (was) the 12-year-old girl on the right, in that 1958 cover photo in Summit Magazine. [I am much taller now, not to mention much older.] Let me set the record straight. It is NOT true, as the gushy article states, that "both girls share their parents' enthusiasm." It is NOT true that "neither girl has been pushed." NOR did climbing bring "the Mendenhalls closer together." I gave some small & polite hint of this in the Epilog of the book of my mother's letters. I named my Epilog "Growing Up Afraid."
|
|
Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 07:19pm PT
|
Coincidentally, I was just going to post this photo I got at a So Cal yard sale over 30 years ago. I was told by someone then that the climbers are the Mendenhalls. On the back it says "Climbing Mt Whitney". Anyone recognize them or the photographer?
|
|
jogill
climber
Colorado
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 08:00pm PT
|
Very nice! Neat family outing. Brings back fond memories from that year, although the photos and Summit Magazine in general make it seem like that was 54 years ago, which cannot be the case since that time is still alive and fresh in my memory!
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 08:07pm PT
|
This trivial past time you call 'climbing' and the related 'on topic' sillyness of posting climbing related material just will not stand Mr. G.
Until such time as you are cured of your malady, we will just have to bear with it.
oye,
M
;)
|
|
Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
|
|
|
Feb 12, 2012 - 10:08pm PT
|
Valerie, I've not read the book yet, but I plan to. I did see your slide show in LA a few years ago. I did see the article above as typical journalism; a writer putting down what he or she thinks others want to hear.
So when I read the Summit article that Grandma watched the kids at basecamp while Mom & Dad climb in the Canadian rockies, I added in my own, "several hundred miles South, somewhere near Spokane."
Oh the positive side, the Mendenhalls where great pioneers who did things that many people, who call themselves "climbers" today, would never do.
|
|
SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2012 - 12:20am PT
|
Great post! Thanks
Susan
|
|
There is No Other Me
Social climber
Reno NV
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2012 - 12:33pm PT
|
To Spider Savage: Yes, Grandma kept us kids in Spokane (12th Street house) where she ruled with an iron fist.
|
|
Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2012 - 01:53pm PT
|
My sympathies. Spokane is bad enough without all that. (I grew up in that area.)
|
|
Sam R
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2012 - 07:27pm PT
|
Back in the mid-70's, the first climb I did at Tahquitz was The White Maiden with John Mendenhall. Though older, he was very fit- he had an old man's head on a young man's body. Good memories of a good man!
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 4, 2012 - 09:51pm PT
|
Bump for family fiction...
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2012 - 01:49pm PT
|
Valerie,
You seem to desire a corrected version of events so how about a spoof of this piece? Could be therapeutic.
You certainly have an audience here... LOL
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 20, 2012 - 04:46pm PT
|
Bump for a send up...
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2017 - 04:53pm PT
|
Bump for all things Mendenhall...
|
|
Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
|
|
|
May 27, 2017 - 08:18pm PT
|
^^^Steve, bump for Mendenhall indeed. I'll long remember John pounding out his malleable pitons at lunch rock @ Tahquitz before heading up to lead the right Ski Track at Tahquitz while us pimple faced teenagers were trying to get our nerve up for routes well below thast grade. I do remember Ruth from those days but never met any of their kids.
|
|
reed b.
Trad climber
Bishop
|
|
|
Aug 17, 2017 - 10:27am PT
|
my sister and myself were a bit younger than the Mendenhall girls, but i am quite certain we all spent time together; especially at Taquitz, having spent a lot of time there with my folks, Burt and Gen Turney.. i remember both John and Ruth...think we started climbing around 1959.. my mom made our cloths- corduroy pants made into knickers with leather 'seats' for rappelling, made our climbing slings, our tents, and followed my pop up any climb he wanted to try out... El Capitan, Lost Arrow, Half Dome; we went up and down the Sierra's, as well as Wind River Range, the Selkirks in Canada, and many others.. climbing was a year around sport for us, and it was a family sport.... and as Valerie has noted, it was not always what we 'kids' felt we wanted to even try; but if my pop said 'let's try this one', well up we went.... i have an old 16 x 20 of Taquitz sitting up on the wall above my desk, as well as my 'climbing wall' with photos of my folks on the Lost Arrow, lots of old pitons, a hammer, slings, some old carabiners, and a two piece wood ice axe made by claudius simond... ... it may have been a bit tough being a kid in a climbing family, but i have to say that those were some of the very best of times in my life..
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!