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| Messages 1 - 18 of total 18 in this topic |
survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jul 21, 2009 - 03:37pm PT
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Good job Steve!!!
I'd like to see Mike interviewed too to tell you the truth.
I miss that guy......
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L
climber
The Paleozoic rift of the Caradoc drift
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Jul 21, 2009 - 03:52pm PT
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Jeez, that clip almost brought tears to my eyes. What an inspiration!
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hooblie
climber
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Jul 21, 2009 - 04:20pm PT
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a moving story. you guys are an inspiration. it's humbling how much good fortune has carried me, to see you guys forge ahead, after the lucky streak played out puts a little perspective on things. glad to see some recognition for the forces of nature that you are.
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nita
climber
chica from chico, I don't claim to be a daisy
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Jul 21, 2009 - 06:25pm PT
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Beautiful story!
Bruce, if you had gone to the facelift( like you said you were) You would of saw Corbet. I hope to see ya at this years clean-up.;-)
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deeski
Trad climber
North Carolina
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Jul 21, 2009 - 09:52pm PT
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Congrats Mark for the Today Show coverage your climb with Mike 20 years ago! You have inspired so many people of all abilities to get out there and have adventures. Thanks for the times you have spent showing me all of your adaptive climbing systems and especially for helping me with that adaptive kids group in Yosemite 2 summers ago. They will never forget climbing and ascending the wall behind the Chapel and biking with you around the Valley in handcycles...and neither will I!!
Dee
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Fletcher
Trad climber
a buttery white sand beach
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Jul 21, 2009 - 10:22pm PT
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Man, that is a moving story! Mark's original El Cap climb is amazing in of itself. But what he went on to do, giving back to others... that's just wonderful.
Eric
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T2
climber
Cardiff by the sea
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Jul 22, 2009 - 12:10am PT
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Marks story is as inspiring as it can be. He is a fabulous person.
We got a call into him early in Steve's recovery. He gave steve phenomenal support from the begining of his recovery all the way through his El Cap ascent. It was cool to call him from the summit.
It was fun to see them together on the tv today.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jul 22, 2009 - 12:17am PT
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Very cool and inspiring what these guys are doing.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Jul 22, 2009 - 12:52am PT
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My favorite part of the segment was seeing the psyche of the woman zooming up the rope. Nice work, guys!
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jul 22, 2009 - 01:53am PT
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hey there, say... thanks for sharing this....
i do not know anything about these guys, etc...
so if any of you get a chance to share more on them and the story... and el cap... that would be a nice history lesson... :)
thanks so very much...
i may get back here to read it though, until either much later tonight or tomorrow...
over and out, for now... god bless...:)
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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Jul 22, 2009 - 02:13am PT
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It is really inspirational. We have nothing to complain about. It is 20 years since he climbed El Cap. Here is a photo of Mark's jumar.
Here is a photo of Mark on Half Dome 1991.
Ken
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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Jul 22, 2009 - 10:38pm PT
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Wow! Heartwarming story about people who have not lost any sense of adventure. Did you all see the triceps on Mark. Still a lot of steam in those pipes! As I joked to Steve in an email today, I'll probably be bumped off his email list as he becomes a media star. Climb on Steve! Thanks to Gene for posting this up for us to see.
Perhaps a beer at the bridge someday (this fall) Steve and T2, and Gene we will definitely share more beers at the bridge. Thanks for sharing all the stories guys and gals.
Cheers,
Doug
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Conner
Mountain climber
Donnelly, Idaho
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Jul 23, 2009 - 11:20am PT
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Awesome Steve.... the best way to get high that I know of! Congratulations! Keep on livin' the life!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Climbing with Uncle John
The first real mountain I ever climbed was Mt. Lassen, the southernmost in the chain
of volcanoes that forms the cascade Range. It is 10, 457 feet high and towers over
everything else in that corner of northeastern California. On a clear day you can see
it from a hundred miles away. Although high, there is a trail all the way to the top,
which made it t he perfect first summit for an eight-year-old mountaineer.
My climbing partner was my uncle, John Work Wellman, who had become a second
father to me. He had been a successful chemist for Kodak and had retired when he
was forty. My uncle had set up a nice life for himself in Gualala, a small town along
the rugged northern California coast, about one hundred miles north of San Francisco.
He studied botany, traveled, taught himself foreign languages and became a gourmet
cook. Since my dad was often busy with his restaurant, Uncle John became my main
ticket to wilderness adventure.
We left the parking lot long before the sun came up, using our flashlights to pick our
way along the rocky trail in the darkness. The air felt cold and bracing against my
cheeks. As we hiked upward, the thick pine forest gave way to a few scraggly conifers,
then to grassy meadows. Using his flashlight beam to point, my uncle showed me the
wilderness wildflowers that bloomed along the trail: Indian paintbrush, shooting stars,
purple lupine.
Higher up we climbed above the zone of living things and entered the forbidding
alpine world of ice and snow and rock. It was a revelation for me, a place that was
high and wild and full of the kind of adventure and mystery I couldn’t find in the
suburbs. As it grew lighter, I became aware for the first time of the huge drop-off
on the side of the trail, and my excitement gave way to fear. I grabbed my uncle’s
hand and held on tightly.
The trail grew steeper and the air got thinner, but my little eight-year-old legs kept
driving me upward. At that age I don’t think I was afflicted yet with summit fever,
but some sort of excitement was definitely pulling me to the top.
On the windy summit I turned around slowly, eyes as wide as saucers, and tried to
absorb all I was seeing. We were on top of the world, it seemed, and most of northern
California was spread out below us like a map. I was full of that special exhilaration
of high places.
My eyes were drawn to the one thing that challenged our supremacy: another
mountain off to the north, with snowfields and glaciers that gleamed in the morning
light and a summit even higher than ours. My uncle told me it was called Mt. Shasta.
It scared me a little. Climbing it or any other mountain was the farthest thing from
my mind, but it made a deep impression on me that I didn’t completely understand
at the time.
--Mark Wellman/John Finn in Climbing Back
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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rwedgee
Ice climber
CA
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Circa 2000 the Museman in Canada rapping on the first super skinny double 70m meters Mummut 7mm's or whatever those zip lines were. We bounced our way down the Weeping Wall. Some Brits asked if they could rap our lines and we forgot to tell them you really need to choke up...they almost died. LOL
Hence the modified ATC, ATC Guide
Museman dropped his glove on the top of Lake Louise Falls and while rapping to get it.....paging Steve.....
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, mouse... thanks for all the update links...
:)
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