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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 25, 2006 - 05:00pm PT
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Voytek Kurtyka's "The Shining Wall" Alpinist 2, Gasherbrum IV Profile.
His voice is amply invested in an honest albeit self conscious poetic style which feels as if it's a reflection of his cultural heritage. To me the read was a pure delight.
Peter Croft's "Squamish" Alpinist X
Jeanette Winterson wrote some great Lit Crit (Art Objects) wherein she characterized a mature style which disposes the writer to a level of transparency, a level which removes the writer's own ego from the material allowing a very pure directness.
I found that Peter achieved this. As to the content, for me he pegged the soul of my youthfull excursions and the overall flavor of the internal experience.
Pretty much all J Long stuff, because I like event based Narrative Fiction, his Post War Folksy Americana style is true to who he is and it's refreshing. He's the Trumpet of my generation.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Apr 25, 2006 - 05:04pm PT
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Joe Brown...The Hard Years. Total blue-collared/working class climber.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 05:10pm PT
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I said mag based, more as a follow up to S Pepelow's climbing mag "screw or renew" thread, but it's open hunting season on all sources: thanks Bob!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 05:14pm PT
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DMT!
I was just the other day thinking about that robot vs real hard drinkin' climbing guy piece.
Sweet!
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Apr 25, 2006 - 05:17pm PT
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Tar...Chuck Pratt..."The View from Deadhorse Point". The piece was so visual. You just had to go to the desert after reading that.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 05:21pm PT
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mike.
"Like New, Low Miles"
I rode in that death trap.
Bob: I need to read that C Pratt Dead Horse Point thing again.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Apr 25, 2006 - 05:28pm PT
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Alan Kearney (?????)
-Me and Hal (?????)
Pratt was a wordsmith, wish he forged more...
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 25, 2006 - 05:38pm PT
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the Chris Jones piece in the old Ascent is timeless. One big-assed mountain. Two scared looking dudes way up the wall. A leader fall, a storm, little gear left, no idea if there is a way up and off......
sewelleyondude, you're referring to "north face, north twin", jones climbed it with george lowe and the article was in the '76 ascent, the first one that was thick, like a book. the B&W photos spoke as powerfully as jones' writing, and that cover shot of lowe leading one hell of a scary looking pitch was breathtaking. good pick. one of my favorites too, and at maybe 300 or 400 words, perhaps pound-for-pound the most powerful article on hard alpinism ever written.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 25, 2006 - 05:40pm PT
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anyone remeber "future chalk", from an old ish of climbing, fiction about a valley dirtbag who makes it big, great comic illustration by john svenson? one of the funniest bits of fiction they ever published.
"FLEX, NOVICE!!"
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Apr 25, 2006 - 06:21pm PT
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Dance of the Woo-Li Masters
One my all-time fav's. Rapping off that one stopper and Bridwell (or was it Muggs?) unclipping from the anchor, then clipping back in because they figured to go fast rather than slow if the anchor pulled.
Also, the early R&I rags has some wild-ass stuff. The Largo story on crossing Borneo (with the Walkman scene) was side-splitting...
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G_Gnome
Social climber
Tendonitis City
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Apr 25, 2006 - 07:01pm PT
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I really was taken by the old Jeff Long (he wasn't old, the story is) story in one of the early Ascents called The Soloist. Sounded like heaven and hell mixed together. Sort of like retirement.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 07:45pm PT
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Shorty T:
The protagonist was Kurtz, no doubt the name taken from the famous Eigerwand death.
The guy was in a suspended promethean station stuck between life and death.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 07:48pm PT
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Hey bvb:
I didn't read "future chalk", but I really dig Svenson's illustrations.
Still waiting for "Greatest Climber in the World"
Steelmnky: thanks for the link to Pratt!
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Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Apr 25, 2006 - 07:51pm PT
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"Night Driving" by Dick Dorworth in the '70s Mountain Gazette. Included the Fun Hog expedition to Patagonia, among other jewels.
Oh, and why? Because I like the road-trip driving shift at sunup, too.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 25, 2006 - 08:00pm PT
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"The protagonist was Kurtz, no doubt the name taken from the famous Eigerwand death."
That, and the Heart of Darkness thing.
"The guy was in a suspended promethean station stuck between life and death."
Hmm, yeah I guess, see also 'The invisible man,' (ellison) 'Catcher in the rye,' (salinger) or Puragutrio (Dante); similar locations, not sure about the promethian part, though,though, they are all bound.
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sr
climber
Bay Area, CA
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Apr 25, 2006 - 08:09pm PT
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Night Driving was (is) classic! There was another article in Mountain Gazette by Doug Robinson called something like "Skiing with the Armadillos" that really captured that Bishop scene in the early 70's. I wish I still had some of those old M G's- some great writing there!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 25, 2006 - 08:37pm PT
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Jaybro:
To stay in the pulp nebula we are enjoying, there was an original Star Trek episode about a guy, Lazarus I believe, who was perpetually stuck in his space ship, stuck between dimensions. So same weary deal...
And to clean up my Parallel to Shorty's (Jeff Long's)Kurtz, or muddy it as the case may be, who's the Dude who kept rolling the Rock up a hill, only to continually start over?
And, as I recall, doesn't Jeff Long's Kurtz go to sleep by pinning his hand to the ice face with a swift axe placement? Now that's a tuff guy bivy plan!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 25, 2006 - 09:19pm PT
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boys, the actual name of the article in question is "the soloists diary". i read it many times, but never fully grasped it. i think long wanted it that way for his readers.
and "night driving"...to this day i can still quote extensive passages from memory. another great MG masterwork from '75 or so was bruce berger's "there was a river". not climbing related, but breathtakingly good writing nonetheless.
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kevin Fosburg
Sport climber
park city,ut
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Apr 25, 2006 - 09:28pm PT
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There was an article by Ron Fawcett's wife (Gil Kent?) about doing the Nose in a Day way back when, I think in Climbing. It was great. She talked about leading a 5.9 pitch that seemed particularly difficult and exclaiming, "I am fatigued!", only to subsequently notice on the topo that the pitch was rated 5.9 A1. And something about getting back to C4 via the Falls Trail and having all their bivy gear at the base of El Cap so her husband had a plan that "consisted of putting on all our clothes and laying on the ground". Very well written I thought.
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