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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 5, 2007 - 12:48am PT
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Like many others or the last few years we've lost another friend in the person of Jim Anglin. I don't know any more details than the info below which was posted on cascadeclimbers.com. I was just out with Jim last week working on a project and was so looking forward to our next go on it with him.
Jim had strong connections throughout the West given he's basically been round-robin'ing all the major climbing areas out here since he retired. I'm not a close friend having only met him in the past several years and others with deep relationships with him can speak better to the man he has been. I know from my brief time with him that, like Vern, he will be sorely missed by many here and all the other places he climbed so brightly...
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Wa man dies after 100-foot fall at Smith Rock State Park
06:48 PM PST on Sunday, November 4, 2007
A Washington man was killed Sunday morning while climbing with friends in Deshcutes County Oregon.
55-year-old Jim Anglin of White Salmon Washington lost his footing while climbing down a steep trail at Smith Rock State Park.
Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputies arrived and determined that Anglin had died from the 100-foot fall.
Anglin’s friends told deputies that he was an experienced rock climber and was wearing climbing gear but was not wearing a helmet at the time of the fall.
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ground_up
Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
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That is very sad news.....
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mike hartley
climber
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I'm not in a place to write a lot but unfortunately its true, Jim died today. He was approaching the lower gorge at Smith Rocks when he slipped on the trail, got rolling, and went over the cliff. Friends got to him within minutes but he was gone. Jim was a beloved fixture on the NW climbing scene for over 30 years. He was a man in constant motion. Jim was a unique blend of gentleness, good humor, and tenacity. He loved climbing regardless of whether it was clean Yosemite granite or some rotten Menagerie first ascent. Tonight, there’s a hole in the heart Jimmy. A hole in the heart.
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michaellane
climber
Spokane, WA
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Sorry for the loss ... tragic. Will be keeping Jim's family and friends close to the heart.
--ML
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there all... say, i am very sorry for the loss of your dear friend, jim anglin.... best wished to his family, now, for them trying to take hold of the future, with such a sad loss... god bless...thank you for sharing with folks here..
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Mike from Phoenix
Trad climber
Phoenix, AZ
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This is truly very sad. I only climbed with Jim a few times, but it was always a good time. I could've climbed with him in Vegas recently but did other things instead. Guess I really missed out.
How many times do we all scramble unroped down steep trails?
Very sad news indeed.
-Mike
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Mike Hartley described him well and said it best
"a hole in the heart Jimmy"
He was a friend to my family and I and we are stunned by this tragic news.
God speed to Jim and solace to those left behind.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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This was my first attempt at the whole photo bucket process.
Cheers and God speed Jim
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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My condolences to the friends and family as well. Very sad news...
-Tom
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Sorry to hear this. Didn't ever meet the man. Condolences to family and friends.
Steve
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tokyo bill
Social climber
tokyo
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My thoughts are with his family and those close to him.
My chances to spend time with him were few, but even in that short span I could see that he squeezed every drop from the days that he had.
What a loss.
Readying a rap at Redrocks, 2003:
Leading Risky Business at Redrocks, 2003:
Following on Warpaint at Cochise, 2007:
Leading on the Rad Wall at Cochise, 2007:
At ease at Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Taking advantage of an empty campground at Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Topped out at sunset, Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Cheers, mate.
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WBraun
climber
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Hummmnnnn So Sorry
I don't think I know this man. Seems like a cool dude from the photos.
Again, so sorry.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 6, 2007 - 12:14am PT
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Werner, Jim was quiet and unassuming and a prolific climber. He was a recently retired fireman who developed much of Southern Oregon's climbing. Since his retirement he's basically been doing a permanent round-robin of The Menagerie, the Valley, Indian Creek, Red Rocks, Moab, and Mt. Hooker in the Wind River Range. He's been coming your way a few times a year for awhile, but being Jim, I suspect he just did his business and moved on. On a recent trip through I know he did WFLT in under nine hours and put up a pretty fast time on Free Blast as well.
He was an incredibly competent and accomplished climber. He was the last person you'd ever expect such news about. He will be sorely missed in many places, but especially here in the NW and I know also in Red Rocks where he has many close, long-time friends among that crew. He is the person I had hoped to finally make it to the Valley with to do a wall with. He (half in jest) had just proposed we try for the old guy NIAD record at combined age of 110 given we were both 55 and still moved pretty fast. I had to let him down gently with the news I'm not the worlds best at jamming. I do count my blessing in the fact that I did get to climb with him some as opposed to Vern who passed before I had the chance.
Some one else said it on one of the forums with threads about Jim - "hole in the heart". It's been a rough couple of years for all of us with regard to losing friends and loved ones.
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WBraun
climber
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Thanks for the history on Jim, healyje.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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never met him, but I'll definitely look for him on the other side.
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survival
Big Wall climber
arlington, va
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Wow, that truly is sad news. Jim will be on the other side waiting for us with a willing belay, a solid lead or a ready smile. Let me say for the old school crowd at Smith Rocks that we can only hope to have such a positive impact on our sport or our partners as Jim did. I climbed with Jim only in the mid to late 70's, when we were both much younger. Smith Rocks could be very quiet and empty in the winter back then, but I could often find Jim. We shared some quiet times and climbs. Once when I was about 17 I found Jim soloing a scarey aid route (Monkey Face, NW Passage), we were the only people around. I offered to join him and hold his rope, but he politely declined. I backed off a few hundred yards to give him his space, found a nice spot, pulled out my pile jacket and laid back and watched for a whole day. A lot of people were very lucky to hang out with Jim. Our best wishes go out to his family.Peace Jim, you old hangdog...
Bruce B.
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Jobee
Social climber
El Portal
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Did not have the pleasure of knowing Jim.
The photos' say it all, such joy when climbing.
My sincere condolences to family, friends, and aquaintances.
May you find peace.
jow
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WanderlustMD
Trad climber
Lanham MD
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I didn't know Jim, but looking at the photos, I definately wish I had. Thanks for the history, he seems like a stand up guy.
Many regards and condolences...
-Matt
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mike hartley
climber
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Writing is therapy for me and right now I sure feel like I have some work to do… If you care to read I want you to know about Jim Anglin.
I had the good fortune to take a beginning rockclimbing class in Feb of 1978. The instructor was this prematurely balding guy with skinny legs who twitched with energy. There weren’t many climbers living in Lebanon, OR those days so Jim was thrilled to have an eager gumby to climb with. Life changed for me after that and Jim became my main climbing partner and soul brother for almost exactly the next 30 years. He may well have been the most influential person in my life.
Jim was a firefighter/paramedic and a damned good one. He chose the occupation after attending a high school presentation on firefighting and heard that they worked 24 hours and then had the next 48 hours off. “That’s my kind of schedule”! He started planning early on how he could pack the most into his life. He didn’t waste the opportunity.
In terms of individual ascents, Jim would never have made it into a climbing mag. He had climbed 5.12 but that was the exception. He had put up an A5 but it was short and nothing like the bold routes on El Cap. He had been up El Cap and Half Dome numerous times but only on the trade routes. But in terms of shear volume he could hold his own. He was a climber’s climber. He was a man in perpetual motion who loved nothing better than knocking off a route like Dreams of Wild Turkeys in a couple of hours. And then do it again the next day.
Much of Jim’s climbing went unobserved. That’s because he loved to explore areas where he could put up routes that required all-around ability and boldness as opposed to gym rat strength. He found it in a small pocket wilderness area in Oregon called the Menagerie. Probably no one, outside of possibly Tom Bauman, knows the Menagerie the way Jim did. It’s an area that most would hate. It’s a heavily wooded area filled with 200 – 300 ft spires. At least 80% of them are composed of rock that has been characterized as “a disease”. Many of the approaches take over an hour and in the winter, when the logging roads are closed, the only trail gains 1000’. Occasionally climbers will spend all day trying to find a spire but be unable to locate it in the big timber. But Jim loved it. He would often put in his “Half Dome” days rope-soloing 20 pitches. He would not only climb all of the routes, even the most horrendous, but he’d go back and repeat them time and again. And he put up route after route.
Jim had already accomplished more as a climber than 99% of us ever will; and then he retired from firefighting. After retirement he repeatedly did his loop; Yosemite to Red Rocks, see the kids in Phoenix, then to Tucson, back up through RR and Yosemite again, then polish it off with the City of Rocks or the Elephant Perch. Spend a month at home and then do it again.
Jim had had so many close calls and bad accidents. His solo top-rope system failed once resulting in a long fall. He was only saved from serious injury when his jumar jammed leaving him upside-down with his head resting on the ground. He broke his neck skiing bumps. He had to be rescued as a beginning sailboarder when he was almost sucked into the outlet of a big dam. He didn’t know how to tack against the wind and he was damned if he was going to abandon his new board. He took a 40’, factor 2 fall directly onto his anchor rope soloing a new route in the Menagerie when his hook popped. He broke some ribs on that one. He was dragged off his road bike at full speed by two Rottweilers, resulting in a multiple fracture of his femur. He had a head on with a flatbed truck when he was driving home from the City of Rocks. But he always survived.
As the years passed and I climbed less and boated more, our rendezvous’ became less frequent. I did talk him into joining my family on a self-supported kayak trip this last August. He’d never done a trip like that before and he loved it. We were both thrilled that we had a common pursuit again to fill in the gaps between our rare climbing trips. But it was not to be.
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