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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 22, 2009 - 02:44pm PT
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So this large sized cartoon image depicts a fretful character in Hollow Flake, but with the situation reversed for artistic requirements, I suppose. It was given to me recently by Bill Zaumen a climbing friend and construction client of mine. It was done by a Steve Gropp??. It is hard to read the signature. It is from the seventies. I photoshopped out all the tears and a large fold mark; it’s about 11 x 17 and falling apart. It is not on acid-free paper as you see and is not long for this world so I scanned it in two sections, merged it and cleaned it up.
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ec
climber
ca
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Feb 22, 2009 - 03:10pm PT
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Situation 'Normal' AFU
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jstan
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 03:38pm PT
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Absolutely great print! The author clearly knows what it feels like.
Do I see a t-shirt forming up here?
In the 60's there was a Bill Zaumen in the gunks. MIT I think. Or maybe Princeton. Could not find any clues on the wreck though.
EDIT:
OK. MIT. I can even bring up a mental image.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 22, 2009 - 03:51pm PT
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AFAIK, Bill Zed is alive and well and living in Palo Alto, and still working for SRI. I saw him at a get together at Mazama Rick's (in Mazama...) a few years ago. I vaguely recall that he did his doctorate back east, and the following seems to agree: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1972PhDT.........1Z
A lively character, is Bill. He used to hang out with climbers from B.C. and Washington, in the Valley.
ps Nice cartoon - I've seen it before, but can't place it. Maybe google under the artist's name?
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mazamarick
Trad climber
WA
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Feb 22, 2009 - 04:10pm PT
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There's a story behind that drawing. Gropp was on the Salathe with Steve Swensen circa 1975. I believe he was following the Hollow flake pitch when he literally became "jammed." He was stuck in a very constricted position for an extended period of time, something like 1-2 hours, before SS extracted him using a crude pulley system. If memory serves me correctly, SG was pretty freaked by the experience and they ended up rapping.
It was a bizarre situation, but not totally uncommon. I had a friend jam his Robbin's shoe so badly he had remove his foot from the shoe then hammer the boot out.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2009 - 04:13pm PT
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HI everyone. yeah hilarious image for certain. Actually I absolutely loved that pitch since it was an offwidth and runout. Insanely perfect granite too.
Tami you are absolutely right, how could I have missed that it was a litho! And an a/p as well. Thanks for that. I put the thing under a powerful magnifying glass and you are certainly correct, it's a print. I have been assuming it was an ink drawing. And it explains the mystery of why the very familiar image was reversed.
Mighty Anders, No Billy Zee is not at SRI any more. He was at Sun Microsystems for a number of years and two and half years ago got laid off. He is getting a little LLC started there in Palo Alto though and is kind of having fun with it. He lived in his house while we remodeled the thing completely inside and out. That was fun only for a while however. He remembers you well by the way and I have been giving him updates on you. His doctorate was the one you post, it was at MIT.
Johno S. That's right. You two actually knew each other back then and it was a photo of his camming nut I posted here---the nut that was kind of a copy of one you had been making. That thread was about two years ago here. As far as a tee-shirt coming up, great idea!!
Stichie, that was the Bill of whom we are speaking here. yeah. He doesn't post any more; I think he got tired of the scrambling and hostilities as well as he needed more privacy.
By the way, Bill does still climb, actually usually twice a week in the Bay Area gyms with other fossils around our age and also likes to the Meadows still during the summers. He is in good health and can still hard 5.10 face and slabs usually.
Here is the image set up correctly, taken to grayscale as it originally was intended, and brightness/contrast etc developed for a tee-shirt or other printing:
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MH2
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 04:41pm PT
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Vivid.
I am particularly impressed by the rendering of the grain in the rock and the faintly flowing texture it sits in.
I climbed with Bill once, and John Dill, and Mike Sogard, all MIT students I think, on Lazy Bum that afternoon before the night rescue attempt on Watkins.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2009 - 04:43pm PT
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And MH2, the dead guy was Bobbo Locke, a friend of mine and a former employee. Really extensive thread on that also back awhile.
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jstan
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:00pm PT
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Peter:
Ah, yes. Now I remember.
We need a Facelift T shirt with that image on its back.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2009 - 05:08pm PT
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Yes, John. I think the image underscored the terrible issue of leaving equipment behind, even boots (big grin).
Tami, I do agree wholeheartedly with you. I was married to a professional artist/ tenured professor of art for 23 years. Ed The Cartooni has posted the artist's website just above---check out Steve Gropp; he is still in these four dimensions.
At this point we are just yakking, trying to keep our feet warm and our lungs working.
hugs, ph.
added: I just emailed Steve Gropp in case Stannard gets really serious on me (grin).
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jstan
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:25pm PT
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Hey mom! Peter's picking on me. (no problemo)
That's a great image. I am definitely not a T-shirt type. But that one I would like.
Tami, I had linked to Steve's website so we are all on the same, so-called, page here.
Peter is our lead here I think.
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:25pm PT
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Bill Z. and I had an absolute epic on Glacier Point Apron in the 70's. We were four or five pitches up on one of the latest horrors (wearing t-shirts and shorts) when thunder clouds boiled over the rim and started hammering us with hail and rain. Of course, what made the route we were on difficult was the fact that it was a water runnel. By the time we did the last rappel, Bill was completely hypothermic and I had to set up his rappel and push him off the belay. We couldn't manipulate the shoelaces on our climbing shoes and ended up hiking to the car in EB's. We were so cold, we weren't able to talk till we got to the parking lot.
Say hi to Bill for me and tell him I'll never go slab climbing with him again.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2009 - 05:29pm PT
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Wow Mastadon. I had heard about that epic from BZ some while ago. The Apron is not a good place to be in a downpour. Every so much more serious than steeper cliffs. I'll see him v. soon and tell him (grin).
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mazamarick
Trad climber
WA
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:30pm PT
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We did the S. Face a week or two before the accident and I remember being spooked by the pitch up to Sheraton Watkins- poor protection and awkward moves.
According to Gropp's website he climbed the Dihedral Wall. I forgot, he did it with Glen Dalby the spring of '77. Steve was also with us on the first xc ski trip to the Methow Valley in 75, when they first started grooming trails at Sun Mountain. Looks like he does some incredible iron work!
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:34pm PT
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The dapper, T-shirt less, Stannard of Arabia, at the FaceLift. (Pocket protector not visible.)
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jstan
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:41pm PT
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I must admit. I really could use a nice T-shirt, among other things.
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jstan
climber
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Feb 22, 2009 - 05:47pm PT
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Well, I actually am a specialist. I do only plastic milk containers.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Feb 22, 2009 - 06:48pm PT
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Cool print, drawing whatever it is!
I remember Bill Z used to tell stories about some Wacky physicist and one in particular about how he talked his way out of a speeding my explaining how he could not be "accelerating at 75mph," or something. Drove back to the Bay area from the Valley, with him and others in the Stumpf mobile ('66(?) 'cuda) in the early 70's Whoever he had had ridden up with was having an epic somewhere and Bill wanted to get home. Bill and Mark, and a third who I can't recall, had just climbed some long route on the apron, so Mark was an obvious choice for a ride. On the way out we stopped at El Cap where somebody (Mike Covington? Washburn? (is that even possible?) & Partner, having done a, then fast, 2 day ascent of the West Face, were waiting for the same ride Bill z had been going to catch. Wonder how that worked out?
Isn't Bill Z a buddy of Dingus'? har.
Jstan, I had a state of the art Widefetish T-shirt in my hand today, being offered up by a sincere soul who is devoiding himself of earthly possessions. I didn't want to be a glutton, so I think Scuffy (or maybe, Bird L?) ended up with it. Had I known your plight I would have scarfed it!. I'll give you one of mine, the next time I'm in Santa Barbara, or at the facelift, or something.
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