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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 15, 2012 - 11:33pm PT
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Batso couldn't cut the boredom, so he formed his own group. More farce, but fewer farts?
Anyone know the people on Batso's right?
This was taken by my climbing partner from Upper Michigan, Kelly Laakso. So he was burned out at Indian Cyn. and came to Moab, only to run into these burn-outs.
Then he came west to do Lurking Fear. With Mouse,
who learned from this guy, Millis, who learned from Chuck Ostin, among others.
His partial legacy: Hamm, Mouse, Throwpie, Mathis, Tuolumne, 1973 or 1974?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:05am PT
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[Click to View YouTube Video]
Yes, yes, yes! We are not to be confused with these black musicians or the hippie scums.
We are not Famous Flames, but infamous stealers of government biscuits.
I gott go make some Cowboy caw-fee.
Larry "Cowboy Larry" aka "Crazy Larry" Moore.
The best free climber in the bunch. Despite the Bircheff's reputation, shining as it is, Larry could've kept up with almost anyone.
The artistic Flames, Throwpie and Peggy, and Randy.
A typical Flames outing. Maxines Wall.
The only other picture of Mathis on rock that I know of. Red Lodge, MT.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
Fumbling towards stone
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:13am PT
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Look out, MFM has fired up the scanner.
Elvis has not left the building. Well, actually, he appears to be buildering.
Psychedelics not required. However, flashback still occurring from that trip 40 years ago are most welcome.
Bring it on, baby!
Eric
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:29am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:32am PT
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The travelers of the bunch, Randy and Gypsy.
The very first (legal) procreators of the bunch.
The DORF, Mouse's 1964 Ford Econoline laundry van and hauler of Flamehood around the State.
I sure do hope everyone who lived in Camp 4 at one time or another had at least as much fun
and learned as much and met as many
staunch, rowdy, and loveable friends as I and my buddies have.
It's a wonderful life, George Bailey, and don't ever take it for granted.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:41am PT
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Eric Bjornstad was a family friend BITD...
Makes me think crazy thoughts
Monkey-wrenching
an desert rats
keeping the spirit
of the place.
Thanks for the pictures.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 03:32am PT
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One more and I'm done for tonight. This is my rendering of the Arch Rock Cliff, the Playground of hardmen.
The triumvirate of Mouse, Millis, and Mathis returned after Christmas to the Valley to put into use the practical experience we had gained by growing
beards, drinking to excess, and trying to keep warm at JT in snowy conditions.
We coulda stayed in Camp 4, but why? The desert's nice in the winter.
I went up to do the Gripper with Mark, the Bullfrog, and came down a bit wiser about 5.10. I got poison oak real bad from the talus there
at Arch Rock, so beware. I also got a flu bug which sent me packing down to Merced for a week, but while there, I got the news that my money from
the settlement over the loss of my thumb
in the peach cannery accident came in and I paid cash money for DORF and didn't come back for months, or so it seems.
We rolled out of YV to the Consumnes River, Larry Mooore and I and the two of us had a ball. We took Mathis and Randy over to Hetch Hetchy and had a ball.
Shining times! Big walls ahead! Watch our smoke! And where there are Flames, there's generally some around.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 16, 2012 - 03:50am PT
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Actually this is not Maxine's Wall.
It looks like Derringer on Machete Ridge, Pinnacles National Monument.
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splitter
Trad climber
Cali Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Oct 16, 2012 - 04:11am PT
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zBro - is that your version of 'daBrim' yer wearing in that pic?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 04:39am PT
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Hey, there Clint,
You getting ROWDY here, say?
It cannot be the Pinnacles.
Reasoning: I say so.
No, bro, what it is not is the Pinnacles. What it is is a photo of Randy Hamm, I'm certain of that.
It's also a photo of myself, not Mathis, as I had thought.
Jim Shirley took the photo, also. Positively, no pun meant. (Not much!)
We three were never in Pinnacles together.
This was just when Jim Shirley was learning to climb. He and I had driven to the Valley to climb and Randy and Gypsy were living in the bread truck they got from Dick Ellsworth when he lit out for AK. Randy must have initiated this climb, whether it's Maxine's or not, I can't say, because if I had suggested it, I would likely have remembered it.
I know I had a beard about this time (my foruth or fifth by then). I am wearing easily-identifiable boots, the BBs from Galibier. What really threw me when these slides came from Jim, was the holster on the left. I always wore mine on the right. It leads me to believe the slide is reversed. This may have led me to say Maxine's. It may or may not be so, but it's the best I can say about it.
There are more pix of this climb at the very tail end of the Camp 4 Photos thread. It sure looks like granite to me. Not a cobble in sight.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Oct 16, 2012 - 05:25am PT
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This thread sounds like Couloured Balls, Endless Boogie and Boogie Angst. Cool stuff. Keep posting!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 16, 2012 - 06:17am PT
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Brian,
Here are 6 related photos that you've posted on supertopo, and a 7th that I am sure is Maxine's Wall (p1; I've done the higher pitches also).
1. Main photo. I claim it is not Maxine's Wall. *Might* be Derringer.
Brian leading.
1A. Horizontally flipped version.
2. Climber dressed the same as lower climber in main photo.
I am claiming this also is not Maxine's Wall.
The bowl at the start of Maxine's is similar to this, but the holds are not this big!
3. Same climber
4. Brian, dressed the same in main photo 1.
5. Brian, dressed the same, following with pack.
6. Somewhat unrelated - this is The Hatchet.
I recognize Tiburcio's X and the Pinnacles East Side Reservoir and trails in the background.
Rob Yang's photo from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhyang/5720293581/in/set-72157626721795232
7. Blitzo's photo of Eric Barrett on Maxine's Wall (p1), 1975
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Oct 16, 2012 - 10:34am PT
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Parallel lives slightly offset in time and juggled in space. A fine thread to be videying here in Moab on the front porch of the love muffin, swilling caffeine waiting for my droogs, anticipating today's adventures in longs cnyon or some obscure tower or something. Gotta work tomorrow.
Maxine's wall was my first five ten lead back in '75/76 or so.....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 16, 2012 - 10:54am PT
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Great photos....brings back memories. I regret that I have zero photos from that era. My first are from early forays to Patagonia.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:28pm PT
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Fletcher,
Sorry as heck to disappoint you. Had the topic actually been
about Jimi and those Flames, it would have read The Blue Flame.
Or The Famous Flames. Or Colored Music.
See ya.
Next page, clint, the print won't go off the edge, maybe.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:33pm PT
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Clint,
I respect your judgement more than I trust my memory.
If is is Maxine's fine. If it's not, I have to be equally fine with that.
I am guessing on what I say, because I did not take the photos, obviously, and the slides Jim shipped to me were ordered pretty well, but not by each individual climb, exactly. I don't like it, but that's what I have to do in some instances. I'm not trying to stir up sh#t. Nor are you.
I am certain you have argued this kind of case in the past. It's not worth our time, I think you'll agree. Let's get together at the Oakdale Festival and yammer. OK?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 12:45pm PT
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I hate it when the edges go haywire. It's a first world problem when your print lines run off the page and you can't read half of what's written.
Almost as much as I hate arguing.
Clint, here's the Rev and he has some advice. He says you need a job.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 01:36pm PT
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Threads do drift, but it's part of the Plan.
I began this thread with one idea, to chronicle the Flames. Others lend their light on the path. Plato's cave is no comparison. It's confined. The climber, as opposed to the benighted spelunker, who will never see the moon eclipse from a Colubmia Icefield peak, nor a sunrise from a portaledge.
Tightrope, the threads weave and we perceive. Uke'n see this, plain as day when you consider the photo above.
Jeff and I were in scouting together. It brought us together as friends in eighth grade. Scouting rounded us out. We as Flames considered ourselves to be living advertisements for keeping your kids out of scouting! That's regrettable, but the fact is, we were wrong. I wouldn't trade my camping and other experiences in the BSA for anything, just like I wouldn't trade my climbing memories. I could say the same about my competitive swimming experiences and some jobs I have had.
Thanks for the word on Clint, I am just having some fine fun and he can take what little I can dish out. I have yet to meet him, but am looking forward to it.
I wonder, are you and the Mysterious One are going to go to Oakdale? It would be fun to see you guys.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 16, 2012 - 02:07pm PT
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Ron, from what I can tell, you would have fit right into the Black Cave, the Flames clubhouse in Camp 4.
I climbed the EGG. Jim Shirley belayed. But we weren't doing anything nearly as hard as that talented young guy in the photo.
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