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Bldrjac
Ice climber
Boulder
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Jun 25, 2017 - 08:09am PT
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Tim,
Funny, I've had a similar dream about Jack re-appearing. The first was about a year after he died. He suddenly was with me, wearing his mustard-yellow Mammut jacket, orange rope coiled over his shoulder. He told me when he fell off Bridalveil, he ended up falling into a rushing river, and was swept downstream. He was then picked up by Siberian herdsmen and taken to Siberia. Because he was in Siberia for the past year, he had no phone or internet access, and wasn't able to contact me or anyone else. I remember a mix of feelings. First, I was elated to see him, and words poured out of me, telling him of all that had transpired in the past year without him. I also felt a bit worried and uncomfortable. I said, "people are going to be angry with you....I mean, people were REALLY sad and upset that you'd died. They might now feel like you've been careless with their love, their emotions." I was also very nervous about telling him about all of his stuff that I'd gotten rid of in the past year, and about how I was now going to have to yet again re-orient my life now that he was back, and felt vague resentment that he'd gone, and then expected to come back as if nothing was wrong.
I've had different iterations of that dream since, although I guess not in a little bit. I wish I dreamt about him more........funny, how time is.
Thanks for sharing so much, Tim.
best,
Pam
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NorCalProf
climber
CA
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I’m a non-climber, but it is possible that I met some of you (friends of Tobin) many years ago. I hope you don’t mind me posting about my brief, but memorable, encounter with Tobin in 1976. It meant something to me and I hope it adds just a bit more to the appreciation of, by all accounts, an amazing climber and human being.
In 1976 I moved from Sacramento to Morro Bay to attend Cal Poly SLO on the G.I. Bill. Knew nobody, lived in a cottage in north MB and hitchhiked to campus once when my truck was broke. Some friendly guys picked me up one day and during the ride invited me to their house one evening to see a slide show of their El Cap climb. That night their little living room was full of people and they were all very stoked about the climb and the slideshow. I had never seen pictures anything like those before and was thrilled and captivated by the scary views from the wall. I think it might have been the 1975 first one-day Nose ascent, but that was lost on me at the time.
I was a living room guitar player then and one of the guys present, Tobin Sorenson, was playing a guitar, or maybe I had brought mine, don’t remember. Also, I only remember knowing his first name at the time, so I hope I have not made a colossal error of memory. I was impressed at his playing of "Blackbird" by the Beatles, and he offered to show me how to play it. He demonstrated the unfamiliar fingering to it so clearly that I learned quickly and have never stopped playing it the way he taught me. It is even very close to the way McCartney plays it in concert videos I have seen.
My memories of the other people present are hazy but there were mustaches, beards (not Tobin), long hair, names like Jim and John. I remember noting that nobody in this hippie-ish looking group was smoking pot. Will never forget the slide of a huge haul bag (looked to me like a military duffel bag) viewed from above on the wall, hanging by a rope out in space with the valley treetops way, way below. I had backpacked in the Sierra many times but that group of psyched and friendly climbers, and that slideshow, started me on a lifetime of fascination with Yosemite and rock climbing in general. (From my much later research I figured them to be some of the Stonemasters.)
And of course I will never forget Blackbird taught to me by Tobin, RIP. I still play it and think of him every time.
I wonder if anyone will confirm or correct my spotty memories, which I would appreciate. I think I had a life-affirming encounter with some amazing climbers but didn't know it at the time.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Thanks for chiming in and welcome to our world again.
Your recollections sound pretty accurate to me. Jim was Jim Bridwell and John was John Long but you have clearly sorted that out along the way. Add Billy Westbay in a dashiki and you have the Nose in a day team.
Getting together and showing slides of one adventure or another was the stuff of life for a lot of us when climbing was front and center in the mix.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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This is cool history. Anybody else, that can add to this slide show night? Let's get the details out on this one; it would be cool to see how it connects together.
Seems like the NIAD event might not have had much in the way of photo opps, the emphasis being on speed and low visibility, until crashing the bar later that night. Werner? Largo?
Where was this party? Who's house and slide projector? Though a tad disappointing, I like the nod towards the "pot free" zone observed. It puts the focus on diligent, commitment to climbing, into perspective, that they were that good.
Werner, am I all full of sh#t? OK, happy 4th of July super taco.
arne
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NorCalProf
Social climber
CA
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I added a little more detail at the end of this reply. Thank you Steve Grossman and ionlyski for your acknowledgment. I worried that this story would sound too much “about me”, which I guess it partly is. I waited several days deciding whether to post it.
The part about Tobin is what I’m hoping to confirm. That is, that he at least, in fact, did play guitar. The name Tobin had definitely stuck and his last name must have turned up in my internet reading about Yosemite climbing many years later, and the pictures looked very, very familiar.
Though the name John was almost certainly in my original memory, the Jim name could have been triggered later as I “sorted out along the way” as stated by Steve G. Very possible, since I of course came across many references to those names and the Stonemasters. Recent neuroscience casts human memory in a less certain light than before, so I’m sort of on tiptoes with some of this. Plus I’m 68, so…there’s that!
The comment about pictures possibly not being taken during the speed climb made me think about the big haul bag picture I distinctly remember. Would such a thing have been part of that kind of ascent?
Approximate date of slideshow: January to April or so, 1976. It was a severe winter drought in CA and Morro Bay was a warm and sunny paradise compared to the Tule-fogged Sacramento valley I had just left behind.
Location: The house was in the neighborhood known as North Morro Bay, which is mostly small houses and vacation homes on a slope rising gently up from the ocean across Hwy 1. This was low down on the nearly flat land. I “think” the house faced south, on a street that ran up the hill perpendicular to Hwy 1. Don’t know why but I tend to recall little directional details like that. Drives my wife nuts sometimes.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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NorCal,
It's OK you feel a part of it is about you. We all try to hang onto memories that connect us to our past, don't we? And if your past included a brush with Tobin, all the better.
Correct-the trio you speak of did not haul a bag and there are good descriptions I think from both John and Jim at least, of that climb. But there were lots of other climbs I'm sure, going on, that would have been cause for a slide show.
Someone here will add to your encounter no doubt.
Arne
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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I distinctly remember Tobin during his high school years practicing the guitar piece 'Classical Gas' all around our house, and to the wee hours of the morning, until he had it wired and then played it for us flawlessly one day. Oh yes, Tobin played guitar. More later...
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NorCalProf
Social climber
Nipomo CA
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Thanks Arne and Bushman. The kind responses have soothed my original anxiety about posting.
No haul bag on the NIAD climb makes sense. And if Tobin nailed Classical Gas he was definitely a player! Wow, that is so good to know. Blackbird would have been a piece of cake for him.
In a totally weird coincidence, I reconnected in person yesterday with a musician and climber friend at the Avila Beach Farmers Market, after 30+ years, and ended up relating this story to him. In an “Are you kidding me?” voice he related his 1975 (he thinks) experience climbing on Bishop Peak (the P route?), one of several volcanic peaks that line up from San Luis Obispo to Morro Rock. He was geared up with his novice girlfriend and a guy was free soloing around them. Tobin Sorenson. I didn’t have time to talk more about it with him since he had to get back to playing fiddle on a set with Cuesta Ridge, a local prog-bluegrass band. We’ll be in touch again soon though.
What a life this is. The older I get the better it gets, despite wearing the same body the whole time.
Steve
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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The Fisherman
Lowering down he would not swear
But wore his grimace silently
Pulling EB’s from his blistered feet
He wiped the sweat off of his brow
And tears away from sunburnt cheeks
I’ll get it next time he’d say
Bowing his head in a quiet prayer
Mumbling a psalm or favorite verse
His eyes lit up while he looked down
With a jubilance so unrehearsed
Years gone by and memories fade
But not so those of he and I
The blueness of two eyes like mine
Blood to blood and soulful sighs
I miss him still I would not lie
Do you know Christ the savior he
Was seldom ever heard to say
A message carried by his work
Firsts and far away pursuits
I still remember to this day
Friends who showed up from afar
Still wanting near though he was gone
Swapping stories of the fisherman
Held something of him in their hearts
But most a joyous young man’s song
-Tim Sorenson
03/02/2018
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Wonderful bit of poetic conjuring Tim.
Tobin was a very bright flame in American climbing for a long while and the loss is still keenly felt by those of us who had a sense of the deeper game that he was playing right to the last move...
Thanks for sharing your recollections of your brother again with us here.
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Remembering Tobin again,
thirty eight years ago today
...today and every day.
-Tim
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Thanks for keeping his flame burning.
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Roots
Mountain climber
Redmond, Oregon
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So I might have told this story somewhere on ST but thought I would add it here:
When I was at Richard Harrison’s home buying up his kit about 5 years ago…..I was grabbing everything that was there from the 20th century. Richard seemed to enjoy me going through his milk crates and just tossing his gear into (2) piles; one to buy from him and the other to not buy. I was going crazy fast stacking it all up….my nephew and I were trying to get back out into the Las Vegas desert before dark so we could find our campsite.
With the gear sorted and a price agreed upon, my nephew and I headed out as the sun was setting. We were (2) happy dudes that evening seeing how we just scored a Stoners’ kit. We spent the rest of the night drinking beer and being stoked.
Later that week, when I got home I started going through everything. You know…looking hard at the treasure trove. That’s when I noticed “TS” raggedly engraved on the rigid stem of a Friend. “No f’n way!” my brain screamed. I called Richard immediately. Told him I was holding a cam that had “TS” marked on it.
He paused for a while. Then he asked something like ‘you sure it says TS?’ “F*#k yes” I blurted out. He laughed a little…he was already taken aback by my fan boy demeanor when I was buying his gear…now I was doing it with this cam and the thrill of possibly holding a piece of Tobin’s history.
He told me that it had to be Tobin’s as he climbed with him a lot.
A few years later an odd thing happened in Orange County at my place of work; a crew was out in the street pulling cable. I can’t remember if it was a phone cable, or an internet cable upgrade but they were out there for a couple of days.
Eventually, one of the workers made their way into our office building to pull it into our communications closet. The guy’s name was Michael. He was not a climber; looked like he worked hard and rested hard.
So I came around the corner and Michael was standing there with a coil of ½” white webbing. He said “you want this? We use it to pull cable and we’re done. It’s good for tying things in truck beds, etc”. I told him I’d love to have it. He handed it over and mentioned that a Water Knot would be a good way to attach the ends (to itself).
“Yep, I know about water knots”.
“You do? How about a figure eight?”
“Sure Michael, I’m a climber”
“No way!?”
“Do you know who Tobin Sorenson is?”
“Yes, famous Stone Master that passed away”.
“How do you know about him?”
“Well, coming up in Socal you know who the Stone Masters are and I collect vintage climbing gear. In fact, I think I have one of Tobin’s cams”.
“You do, I’m calling his brother right now”.
So he gets on the phone with the brother. They talk a while. Mention the cam. Hangs up and sees the bewildered look on my face and says “I am married to Tobin’s sister”.
We both acknowledged the odd, unusual, never-in-a-million-years chance that he and I would meet under these circumstances.
He didn’t tell me what brother said. He kind of just walked out of the building. He did come back later to give me another coil of the webbing. He looked at me and said, “Weird man…just weird. I gave his brother your phone number. I got to go get on the truck”.
Well, I kept it in Richard’s kit and another year went by and I started to realize that the version of the cam came out a couple of years after Tobin’s passing. So I posted a pic of the cam on ST or maybe I sent the pic to Stephane? Either way, Stephane confirmed that the cam was made after.
Doing more research, I noticed that the Sorensons’ first names all start with a “T” so I must have one of the brothers’ cams. -He probably went climbing with Richard after Tobin passed away to reminisce.
Another year went by and we hired a new customer service person. She was of Mexican heritage with the last name of Sorenson, so I couldn’t resist asking her if she was married to a “white guy”. She laughed and said yes. I told her about Tobin and mentioned that Sorenson was not that common of a last name. So I begged her to ask her husband if he knew of a Tobin in his family. He told her "no", but I still think that her husband is related…Small world?
RIP Stone Master
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Yes...a very nice story indeed.
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johntp
Trad climber
Little Rock and Loving It
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Cheers Tobin and happy birthday..
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Dec 20, 2018 - 08:00am PT
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`
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Just Showed up on my "recommended for you"
getting to the point
 I hope the hoe is sharp, ya know
don't bring to many hard tears,
When & where you go
some for sure - what a year
thinking of you and yours
MerryChristmas on this hard row
To add a smile I hope too:
"Might as well" put this here, but if'n you go Flame me for it
I'll return the favor with a more grateful share.
Puttin' On the Dog; skip straight to 3:00 minutes in
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 16, 2019 - 10:28am PT
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Bump!
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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May 16, 2019 - 04:33pm PT
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Fantastic thread. Just read Largo's Green Arch again and Root's story. Thanks for the bump.
Scott
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Klimmer2.0
Mountain climber
San Diego, CA
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May 18, 2019 - 05:17pm PT
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Brunosafari,
This is such a great ST thread. Thank you for posting it and getting it started. I remember reading your article back in 1980? when Tobin passed away and you published the memorial article in the climbing periodical. I remember you talking respectfully and inspirationally of his faith in that famous article. Powerful memorial. And then it got published again in Largo’s book on the history of the Stonemasters.
If it weren’t for you sharing personal stories about the Poway Mountain Boys, Mtn Woodson early History, and your close friendship with Tobin Sorenson, I would never have known all that history. It was great to know there was a connection and friendly competition between the Stonemasters and The Poway Mountain Boys, and Tobin was certainly that link between the two groups. I will cherish the stories and memories you shared.
It was also very incredible to find out we have a common friend whom we both know well ... George Tabler. He was your next door neighbor, and he was my close friend from our church youth group. I did manage to get George to go climbing with me up on Mt Woodson several times.
We should have met back then. Perhaps one day we will.
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