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Leroy
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 6, 2006 - 09:51am PT
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Rick Piggot, Tom Gibson ,Greg Cameron,Tomīs cousin George Manson.These were some of the first guys I met when I got to Yosemite.The same fallwe made a trip down to Woodson.Super Guys ,super climbers,Lets hear some stories,and above all ,lets see some pics.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Leroy...you put me on the spot. I'm the only PMB that I know of who's posting to ST, and I've told most of my stories already elsewhere (the small percentage that I remember).
Here is one that comes to mind, though. Tom Gibson and I were still in high school when we made a Spring trip to the Valley. We were hiking up to Independence Pinnacle to do Steppin' Out when we ran into Mark Chapman, who was coming down from doing the Center Route. Mark casually asks us what we are going to do and we tell him. He takes one look at our rack (some hexes with perhaps one tube chock) and tells us that we shouldn't be doing that climb with our rack. We were certainly aware of who Mark was and were kind of excited to meet the famous Valley climber, but we continued to the base. We ended up sending the climb with little incident. I remember this as a coming of age incident of sorts.
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Leroy
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 7, 2006 - 08:54am PT
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I was hoping to lure Tom out.
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Watusi
Social climber
Joshua Tree, CA
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Wow!! I knew those guys well!! Cheers, Michael Paul
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Nihilismus
climber
Seattle
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Jun 20, 2006 - 05:25pm PT
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eee on kee
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 20, 2006 - 05:37pm PT
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EEE-YONK-EEE whoever you are.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Not in Southern California
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Jun 21, 2006 - 11:43am PT
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Thanks for posting this thread Leroy.
Though I am of the Orange County climber clan, these cool Poway folks were my close friends in the late 70's. We all attended Columbia College in the Sierra foothills to be near the Valley and get through college at the same time.
Tom and I did bunches of great routes together in the Valley and I joined the whole Poway clan for several backcountry ski trips, parties and shroom-fests. Grug, you know I had a giant crush on the very beautiful Joan Horner, an integral part of the clan. What ever happened to Joan and her brother. I heard that the super-cool George had sadly died climbing some years back.
Tom, remember High Pressure and what else did we do back then?
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 21, 2006 - 12:10pm PT
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Tom's a luddite - he goes out of his way not to use the internet (still climbing hard, however).
Sadly, the very charismatic George Manson died in 1980 on Denali. He, Alan Chase, and two others just never returned. At Clean Dan Grandusky's memorial in 2004, I was given a postcard written to Dan from my buddy Rob Rohn, dated June 1980. In it, Rob descibes he and me doing Astroman, the Rostrum, and the Crucifix over the two weeks that I was there. He ends it by cheerily adding that George and the others just left for Denali. That was probably my best two weeks of climbing ever. I had no idea, however, that the innocence and flavor of our group would never be the same.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Not in Southern California
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Jun 21, 2006 - 12:33pm PT
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Wow Grug, your post hit me just North of my belly. Powerful stuff!
Do you happen to have any images of the crew to share online?
Be well,
Spencer
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 21, 2006 - 03:02pm PT
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Hashbro. I don't have pics of the crew readily available. I just have to get together with Tom and get some of his and Clean Dan's pics digitized. As Leroy knows, I have been saying this for some time now. Just thinking about George - it would be nice to see some pics.
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matisse
Trad climber
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Jun 21, 2006 - 06:07pm PT
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Wow Grug, small world. I know Rob Rohn
I ski patrolled with him in Banff c. 1984.
(unless there are 2)
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 21, 2006 - 06:20pm PT
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Matisse. That's the same Rob all right. In the mid to late 1970s to 1981, he used to come out to the Valley every Spring with George Manson and a contingent of other climbers from the Buffalo/Toronto area. They would meet up with us Poway Mountain Boys and we would typically stay in the Valley until it got too hot and then cruise up to Tuolomne (um, anyone ever do this?). Sometimes we would then go to San Diego; other times we would head up to Squamish, or maybe the Bugaboos in Canada. Those were good times...at the time you think they'll last forever. Rob was an excellent climber...I did probably my best climbing with him.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Jun 21, 2006 - 08:27pm PT
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Hi Grug. I don't know that you'd remember me, but I surely remember you from Poway. I was PHS, class of '76, so we overlapped by a bit. But my climbing friends and I all wished we could climb like you! Dave Hersey and I worked at the Poway Burger King together, and became good friends. About the time I said to myself, "I've got to take this guy climbing," he met you and took off for the Valley. After spending a lot of time on the rock with you and others, he came back a pretty bold leader. In fact, we climbed together for several years after that, and quite often his boldness scared the water out of me! I wasn't as into leading then (with all those zippering hexes, manky bolts, stoppers and PAs/EBs) as I am now, but what a difference that trip to the Valley made. Anyway, lots and lots of good memories from Poway, and the hard guys like you who paved the way for us aspiring newbies. Cheers!
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 22, 2006 - 09:54am PT
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Thanks Mooser. Dave Hersey was a piece of work. I was always kind of known among my peers for, uh, not having much of a rack. No problem most of the time, as I would typically just augment my partner's rack with my gear. But Dave had even less gear than me. When we went climbing together we'd have like 10 carabiners between us. Dave, who was a California state champion greco-roman wrestler, was pretty darn fearless, and got up to speed with climbing in short order. I'm surprised we lived through some of our exploits - particularly Dave.
The only picture of Poway Mountain Boys that I can come up with - a picture of my older brother Jim (right, one of the originals) and I with our Dad last year.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Jun 22, 2006 - 11:03am PT
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Thanks for the reply, Grug. Wow! There ya are. Makes me wish I still had a scanner, since my multiple photos of Dave's and my exploits haven't been digitized. I've still got a picture of you and me and Dave when we were in his wedding: scary moments in tuxedos.
Yeah, Dave's a pretty dang bold guy. I was belaying him on that 10.c face/seam route just to the right of Double Cross in JT back in about '78 or so, and he got about 2/3 or the way up when his only piece (a lousy #1 or #2 wired stopper) popped. He stayed in that crimped position for what must have been 5 minutes (giving me a blow by blow: "I've got 45 more seconds left, Tom!!"..."OK, 15 seconds, Tom!!"). I ended up soloing up even with him on Double Cross, sinking in a big hex, and running the rope through the 'biner--that up to that point had been running through nothing between him and me--and then holding on for dear life while he launched off his precarious perch. Between my subsequent rope burns, and his seriously road-rashed butt, we escaped disaster. But I often felt like we were on the verge of something similar. Anyway...it's good to see a picture of you, and really fun to know you're still climbing strong. I can still remember you and your water polo guys--all wearing your letterman's jackets, sitting at your "place" on the quad! Cheers!
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 22, 2006 - 03:11pm PT
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Wasn't going to bump this, but I had to correct your observation about the water polo guys in the quad, Tom...I never owned a letterman's jacket. Not my style...
Anyhow, good to hear from you, Tom. Sounds like you're still climbing - always a good thing!
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Jun 22, 2006 - 04:45pm PT
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Sorry Grug! My bad. I guess all the green and grey around the quad blurred my vision (I now wear glasses)!
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Jun 22, 2006 - 10:32pm PT
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Grug, Watusi, and all Poway Mtn. Boys:
It has been really good these past few months to get up to speed on the the SM and PMBs. Filled in a lot of history that was happening all around me but I wasn't so aware.
Greg, I knew I've seen you up at Woodson so many years ago. You don't look different except for the greying hair. You have aged well.
Mike Paul, man you inspired me all those many years ago in the mid to late seventies. I witnessed some way wicked solos or just tieing directly into the rope with a few wraps with a bowline on a bite. After that I started doing the same to carry less gear while bouldering at Woodson. I recall a few of your exploits were done while smoking something . . . Damn you were good, you just danced up the rock, high or not.
It sure would be great to see something like what the SMs did recently up at JT happen down in Poway at Mt. Woodson, but only bigger. Another Stonemasters Great Western Bouldering Competition/Social Get-together should be done, just to get everyone together again. Those were very special years and really fun competitions. A time of innocence and glory. I miss the 70s and early 80s. It would really be great to get all the SM and PMBs together and those who were around at that time who recall those years.
Glenn Simpson
PHS Alumni, class of '80
Now living by SDSU
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jun 22, 2006 - 11:57pm PT
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Hey Klimmer,
where you been man?
we been yuckin' it up, bitchin' and moanin' and back to stories and photos and all manner of wacko fun out here in cyberspace...
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Jun 23, 2006 - 12:35am PT
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TB,
The end of the school year for teachers is always way crazy busy. Today, the day after the Summer Solstice, is my first day of summer vacation. Our district gets out late.
I'm heading to Mammoth/Bishop next week and going to finish out the Spring/Summer skiing, and climb, and fly my paraglider :-))
Play time finally . . .
Klimmer
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