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| Messages 1 - 18 of total 18 in this topic |
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 5, 2010 - 07:34pm PT
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An engaging account of the an early all-female ascent of Denali written by Arlene Blum. Classic Alaskan adventure!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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my gaze limps.
it falls short of the minutia
and soars to summits and further horizons beyond love.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2010 - 08:41pm PT
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Big Frosty Bump!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Loved Arlene! Great woman. Met her about 1970-72 in Berkeley.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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An impressive person to be sure especially in view of her 'regular' life.
I got to meet her before the Annapurna trip as I was a friend of team member
Joan Firey. All those women on the Annapurna climb were rad!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 11, 2010 - 01:21pm PT
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Arlene and Joan are the grand dames of American mountaineering and flat out impressive people by any measure!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Dec 11, 2010 - 09:28pm PT
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Arlene's Annapurna expedition revolutionized climbing in the Himalayas. As one Sherpa put it, "At first no one wanted to work for a woman's expedition but after Annapurna, all the Sherpas wanted to work on one. The women's expeditions were much safer." He was also favorably impressed by some of the non climbing activities on that expedition."Much safer and much more fun".
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Dec 11, 2010 - 09:35pm PT
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Who knew there was so much sexism in climbing coming from Berkeley (of all places) as she was making her way? What a-holes!
You obviously didn't know the Berkeley scene in the 60's and early 70s! Joseph Taylor in his recent book, Pilgrims of the Vertical, Yosemite Rock Climbers and Nature at Risk, labels that whole era and the Berkeley climbers in particular, as "homosocial".
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Dec 11, 2010 - 09:47pm PT
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LOL, I love that T shirt. Women rock. Thanks for posting this Steve.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Dec 12, 2010 - 07:51am PT
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Sully-
Some of the most bigoted people I've met were true believing liberals from Berkeley. The problem is not that a person is liberal or conservative but that true believers of any persuasion tend to think the ends justify the means. That's scary. The rest is just a nuisance.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 12, 2010 - 09:48am PT
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Nothing more dangerous than the concept that “the ends justify the means”. Nothing. That’s the Uberkonzept from whence all our nightmares spawn and a kind of self-catalyzing principle that once lit, won't stop till it finds its Gotterdammerung.
Born in Honolulu but having grown up in Berkeley from the early fifties until college in the sixties, I agree Jan and Sully, re. Your comments on the town. It is surprising, no matter how many times one has to be reminded, that hardliners of all stripes will set up shop in places like Berkeley and similar college towns. I would remind you all too that Berkeley was a right-wing retirement community in the fifties and very early sixties. We were defeating all our school bonds for example until all of a sudden the great sixties wave hit, we started bussing the kids around town, and in a year or so, everything was different, better mostly, especially for what was to follow in this country. Thanks Sully for reminding about “the photographer and his girlfriend” crapping on Arlene. True to form for him.
Berkeley had its share of extreme right-wingers too, nuts even. We had Fred Huntley; anybody remember him? A near psychotic anti-communist ham radio operator who had a house on Grizzly Peak Blvd about ten blocks to the south of Marin (ave). Huge-ass antennae on his house, house never kept up and slowly oxidizing away year after year as he glowered away with his giant view of the Bay and what must have been his imagined soon-to-be landing of the Russians. Endless diatribes about creeping communism and the rest of that big fearful acidflash those people used to bathe in to stay fresh, you know, all on his radio programs. We even had him come down to Berkeley High School one time and talk to our “Socialists Club”. It was high drama, I tell you. Deeply pathological and tortured S.O.B.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2010 - 12:48pm PT
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Real change is always much slower than the pace of events. I recall having to de-gloss the sixties once I started to learn about the undercurrents and pushback from a feminist's perspective.
Arlene's stature as a pioneer continues to grow in my mind as I learn more. The closer you look, the more luminous she becomes.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 26, 2010 - 12:58pm PT
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Proud Gals Bump!
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lucander
Trad climber
Shawangunks, New York
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Jun 15, 2013 - 06:48am PT
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JBC,
Thanks for posting that link of the old shirt, my wife has been looking for one since reading about Blum several years ago. We didn't even consider that these were still in circulation.
DL
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 25, 2014 - 01:55pm PT
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Come and hear about the 1978 American Women's Himalayan Expedition directly from Arlene Blum, Irene Beardsley, Annie Whitehouse, Christy Tews and hopefully Dyanna Taylor at the Oakdale Climbers Festival coming up on October 17-19 in Oakdale, CA.
The theme is: A Woman's Reach- Adventures in a Parallel Realm. We will be taking a diverse look at women's climbing history
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2386489&msg=2484077#msg2484077
Come and meet these amazing women and hear about how climbing has fit into their lives. Don't miss it!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 22, 2016 - 08:45am PT
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Damsel bump.
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| Messages 1 - 18 of total 18 in this topic |
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