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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 29, 2009 - 11:14pm PT
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From a master of the wide, this excellent article from Climbing Sept 98. Craig's contributions and love of climbing are more than evident.
My condolences to family and friends. Rest in peace, Craig. You made a difference while you were here.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 29, 2009 - 11:40pm PT
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Pretty nice swath of classics showcased there!
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
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Aug 31, 2009 - 01:13am PT
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Thanks Steve for highlighting Craig and the Stone!
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Aug 31, 2009 - 10:16am PT
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Somehow I missed this one. Seems like one of the best articles ever on the OW.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Aug 31, 2009 - 10:56am PT
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A wonderful tribute.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 31, 2009 - 11:23am PT
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One night last night last week around a campfire in Vedawuoo, Grug, Scarpelli, Mike and I*, among other festivities, conducted our own brief, mini-wake for Craig.
We told stories, aired greivences, laughed out loud and put various dogs to rest.
good luck on the next adventure, Craig!
*-Em, Ed, Dingus horning, Goatboy, Manny and Lute were also there, but I don't think they actually knew Craig
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 31, 2009 - 11:33am PT
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I wish that I could have had an ear on that conversation...I bet Craig did.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Aug 31, 2009 - 02:52pm PT
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That conversation is coming back to me Jaybro. I seem to remember ragging about Craig at one point. I don't know what I was thinking - too many beers followed by that wonderful tequila that Goat Boy brought. All I can say is that, with respect to Craig, I am not worthy...period.
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Aug 31, 2009 - 02:54pm PT
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UP TO THE TOP WITH YA.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 31, 2009 - 03:13pm PT
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We're a tough love crowd, Grug, I think peace and dynamic equilibrium was established. (you weren't That hard on him...)
Much respect all around.
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Mei
Trad climber
SF Bay Area
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Aug 31, 2009 - 04:57pm PT
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Does anyone remember this other article of Craig's: Vedauwoo Fats — Wyoming’s Wide-Crack Crucible in the June 2005 issue of Climbing Magazine? It was a beautiful article with beautiful photos. I was so amazed by his narratives that I flew over to experience Vedauwoo first-hand that same summer. Before the trip, I had met Craig once at a climbing camp and we kept in touch. He drove up and climbed with me for a day on a very short notice. It was an incredible experience watching him redpoint Bad Girls Dream. The evening before I flew out of Denver, living close by, he offered to lead me up a classic route, The Yellow Spur, at Eldorado Canyon. He must have flown up that thing because we climbed up and came back down within three hours. Those were such fond memories. His love for climbing, adventures, and his family was apparent and inspiring.
Craig, you will be missed. R.I.P.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 31, 2009 - 05:56pm PT
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Mei, is that you in the sidelines on a photo of Brad or someone on Tripmaster?
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Mei
Trad climber
SF Bay Area
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Aug 31, 2009 - 06:10pm PT
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Hi Jaybro. I know a couple of guys with the name Brad, but sidelines? Tripmaster? I don't know what those are.
Edit: Just did a Google search, and realized that you might be referring to a route Trip Master Monkey at Vedauwoo. I've never heard of that route, so the answer to your question is most certainly "no".
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 31, 2009 - 06:15pm PT
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Jackson
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2009 - 12:59pm PT
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Any Craig photos to share???
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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everyone I knew wanted to meet Laura Strauss after that article (Climbing 239)
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Again, my compliments to the historian Grande, Mr. Grossman.
Wonderful stuff!!!!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Laura Strauss?
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Karmakanix
Trad climber
Berkeley CA
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Sep 10, 2009 - 02:14am PT
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AWFULWIDTHS:
Everybody chuckles when ya cannot get your finger in a 1/2 inch crack, but they sure want to follow once it gets over 4 inches. Yeah I am the guy with the Aidell sausage fingers and the size 9FFFF feet. Offwidth, schmothwidth, I go for it. NOT!!!! Lmao.
CRACKJACK:
Really the purpose of this post is to give credit to Les Wilson and Al Steck for coming up with the first viable protection for offwidths. The crackjack. Les is currently self employed as a webmaster and did have a few pages up for his own site that included pics of The Hourglass, a massive flake on the wall west of El Cap near Ribbon Falls that involves an inglorious awfulwidth. The crackjack page is most interesting, showing several lengths of crackjacks, which are basically large turnbuckles with angle iron mounted on each end. I think the largest version was 30 inches. I have a smaller aluminum version that Les had made, and I am thinking about copying it on my lathe. I do have bigbros, but the crackjack can be tightened harder than any other pro, using leverage through the turnbuckle, which could prove handy on the right crumbly chosspile auffwidth.
I learned to lead with Les, following him up a few things, like Cathedral Peak with one set of nuts. Then among the first batch of leads, he stuck me with Little John Left on the El Cap base. Yeah, I made noises and got a knee stuck, everything Craig swears will happen. And my second still swears at me about it to this day. I think Les put me to it cuz I bitched about leading Lena's Lieback cuz I could not use 90% of the places where there was already chalk, I was limited to the pin scars for finger work and had to use a lot of small pro.
LINKCAMS:
So give me a fist jam, and I will hang from it. Give me thin fingers and I will flee from it. Thank Dog Omega Pacific came out will smaller versions of their Linkcams this year, a .5 and a .75. I gotta French Free about 90 feet of Serenity cuz my toes don't fit the pin scars and I don't have enough Uumph to pull it on fingers alone, especially since I can't get fingers in much of the undamaged crack, forget the 10d thin fingers at the top. When I see "thin fingers" on Roper's topos, I react like lotsa you when you read offwidth. Except, I reach for the Linkcams. Pardon me, Purists. I just do what I gotta do to get there from here. I have already written Omega Pac begging for larger and smaller linkcams, same as a I did 4 years ago. I got the same answer about physics and materials limitations this time as I did 4 years back. At least we got the .5's and .75's. I bought 4 each.
I will ask Les about WTF with his webpage and then stick a working link on this site. If nothing else, I will take picks of said Crackjacks and post them. In case the link comes alive again here you go:
http://www.les-wilson.com/WSCrackjacks/Report3Screen.html
http://www.les-wilson.com/WSCrackjacks/HourGallery.html
Luck and fun with fists. RIP Craig, we really believe you finally got to the top off the hardest offwidth in the universe. Maybe 5.13zzzz
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