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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Feb 17, 2018 - 05:56pm PT
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Time fogs the memory but here goes...
The last time I saw Jim was when he was working on the Pacific ocean wall. We were hanging out in the camp 4 parking lot, and after a smoke, he recruited me to haul some bloody gear down from the el cap base. Billy Westbay had cracked his noggin pretty good the day before. We took a high-speed, terrifying run to the captain in a white van. Not sure if it was Jim‘s or not. As we hiked to the base Jim was describing all the features of the unclimbed line that loomed above us. We were soon greeted by huge streaks of blood and piles of bloody ropes and gear. Bridwell mused the the route should be called the Painted Wall. He asked me if I wanted to Jumar up and belay him while he worked on the unfinished pitch. With zero experience in that realm, I begged off and just gathered up the gear and headed down to the van. My friend Jay (who was with us) offered to join him and the rest is history. I hitched back to camp and that was it.
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ron gomez
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2018 - 07:45pm PT
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Very funny Kevin, on our many road trips, Jim would tell me he woulda been a race cardriver, but his parents couldn’t finance it. “Gomez... yer one of the few guys I’ve driven with that, I wish I had a chalk bag! My hands are dripping sweat, but you still seem to be controlling it!”
Another was, “ never seen anyone drift a truck through corners like you”. We had a blast driving the interstates at high speeds and the mountain roads smelling and listening to melting rubber. Oh Jimbo.... the times we had! Loved em all.
Peace
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john hansen
climber
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Feb 17, 2018 - 08:03pm PT
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Sometime around 84 or so, me and my brother and some friends were top roping at 90 foot wall.
These three hippie looking dudes came walking up and started soloing the 5.8's and 9's.
My brother was looking at the 5.11 moves just left of the 5.1 corner.
One of them came over and said, "this ain't tennis shoe territory,,"
and then he pantomimed the moves you had to do to make it in the right order.
My friend called me the next day and said "That was Bridwell"
Like many have said above, he went out of his way to encourage and interact with everyone in a positive way.
Aloha
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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Feb 17, 2018 - 08:44pm PT
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I had the pleasure of working with and climbing with Jim Bridwell. I first really got to know Jim while working with him for a couple months in 1992 in the Itallian Dolomites, on the movie Cliffhanger, featuring Sly Stallone. I was the Safety Officer and Jim was a Rigger. Good times.
Later in the 90's I got to know Jim even better when I worked with him at Joshua Tree, guiding SEAL Team 6, and climbing with him on several occasions. After that we had many great conversations every time we ran into each other.
Jim had a heart of gold and many Olympic moments.
RIP free bird
Condolonces to Peggy and Layton
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California, now Ireland
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Feb 18, 2018 - 02:50am PT
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I only climbed with him once, partied with him several times and listened to him all the time. RIP and condolences to family and friends. Patrick
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Feb 18, 2018 - 06:16am PT
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When it was finally my turn, I ordered a New York, medium rare, baker with sour cream, salad. . . and please change those idiot's orders to the same!
Gotta say eKat, you dirtbag in style....
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Feb 18, 2018 - 07:20am PT
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This last couple months I have spent a lot of time with Jim. The last decade I have spent a bunch of time with jim. We have had some of our best conversations and communications lately. I will miss traveling and hanging out with Jim. Jim was a unique one. I liked jim a lot. His politics and conspiracy theories didn't bother me at all. His love of adventure, people, experiences, and wonderment was something I admired and shared with him. I will miss him a lot. Jim was very very sick these last couple months. He is now free of his illnesses. I am appreciative of our friendship and all the time spent with Jim. He was a very good friend to me.
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couchmaster
climber
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Feb 18, 2018 - 07:58am PT
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Only a climber would look at this photo Jim Herrington put up above on Snake Dike and think to themselves: Isn't that a 9.4 Bluewater dominator rope? /shakes head... we're a strange bunch.
Jim had better than a good run, he had a great run. He lived a great life and on his terms. Then he got old. Like Robbins, Kor, Pratt, Sacherer, etc etc etc. Which sad to say, will happen (is happening) to all of us as well in turn. Much, much too soon. Call received the other am, my fathers brother (uncle Bob) had passed away last night. His passing was a blessing which finally relived him from the pain he was in. I can remember not long back when he was younger than me. So like many other have noted above so capably: live your own life like it's about to end, because it is. Treat others the way you wish to be treated.
Vios con dios Jim. See you on the other side all too soon.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Feb 18, 2018 - 08:04am PT
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By the nineties, I had watched with admiration as Jim had progressed from a Valley-bound pure rock climber to ticking off first ascents on the hardest alpine walls around the world. The AAC had a meeting in Denver and Jim was getting an award, so he came to stay at our house. I told him to get to my downtown law office from nearby Stapelton airport and then I’d drive him to Boulder.
I was working in my office when the receptionist buzzed my extension. In a whispered voice filled with trepidation, she said,
“There is a homeless man here to see you.”
I laughed and went down the hall. He did look the part: a large, faded, red frameless pack on his back, disheveled shoulder length hair, and a darkly tanned face, crevassed like a summer glacier.
But I knew that this was not from exposure on the mean streets of a big city. That face had weathered sun and storms on wild adventures in some of the most exotic and beautiful places in the world.
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AMB
climber
CA
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Feb 18, 2018 - 08:24am PT
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Hard to remember, but I think it was the winter of '81-'82 when I was working at the x-country ski school in the valley. One night I wandered into the Mountain Room bar. It was quiet, only a few people in there, and Jim was sitting alone at the bar. I'd never spoken to him, but I joined him for a drink. He at least knew who I was. He said he'd hiked up along the southwest face of El Cap that day to the base of the West Buttress. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white object and handed it to me. "Know what that is?" he says. "Uhh... a piece of some kind of bone, I guess" I reply. "That's a piece of Jim Madsen's skull." Whoa! I was skeptical, but he clearly believed it. Later on I got to thinking that he could have been in on the Madsen body recovery (way before my time) so he would have known right where to look. Maybe they're together now....
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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Feb 18, 2018 - 08:46am PT
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Winter of 1976-77 I was down in Patagonia helping soome friends get their gear on to the icecap to climb the West Face of Cerro Torre. After they were on there way I was free to explore the Fitzroy massif. I spent the next month and a half hiking around meeting the other 6 parties or so that were camped in various valleys at their basecamps. Every two weeks the mail truck came and brought us some supplies that we had ordered two weeks before.
One day the mail truck arrived with Bridwell riding along. He was partnerless but eager to climb something. Since I was without a partner we made a plan and headed off to try the super couloir on Fitzroy. It was a long day on the approach and we were both knackered. We settled in to a bivy with the weather fine. In the middle of the night I woke to Jim spooning me saying he was cold. I was kind of freaked out but thought maybe thats how they do it on the big walls. I was young and only had a few years of alpine experience. No big walls.
In the morning we woke to high clouds and gusty winds. We started up the gash to see what we could do.We made it a bout 1500 feet up when the wind really turned on, only as it can down there. We both knew it was over but then it became so windy we could hardly downclimb without being blown off the route. We helped each other wherever we could.
After that I didn't see Jim for eight or ten years. Then one day we bumped in to each other at Dornans bar after a day when we were each guiding in the Tetons. Jim and I immediately recognized each other and we had a beer together reliving that attempt.
Jim was like that, though he was well known and could have been another super climber with a huge snobby ego instead he took the time to relate to me, just another climber, and was really interested in what I had been up to. Whenever we saw each other after that we just laughed, shook our heads at that day in the wind, and how I was freaked out by being spooned by Jim Bridwell in the middle of the night.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Feb 18, 2018 - 09:14am PT
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Are you still there? Need anything?
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Rollover
climber
Gross Vegas
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Feb 18, 2018 - 09:41am PT
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Rollover
climber
Gross Vegas
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Feb 18, 2018 - 09:48am PT
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Dale Bard had SEVEN A5 leads in a row..
On a first ascent..
Freaking mind blowing!
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ron gomez
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2018 - 11:32am PT
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EKat....guitars. Wanted to get to hold that guitar John Pesca had that he was so kind and generous to get back to you. Post some photos?
Side note: talk with Peggy everyday, this morning we spoke about being at his bedside moments after he was taken Off Belay. She said,"isn't there some saying about when one life ends, another begins?" I said yeah something like that. She mentioned it would've been nice if a baby was born in the hospital when Jim passed. This morning, she tells me a nurse who helped talk care of Jim in the hospital and is a climber, gave birth moments after his passing in the same hospital! She named the baby, Wren....a Bird! She was not aware of Jim's passing. Peggy was tickled that a person that took care of him, gave birth that day and named her baby after a Bird!
Peace
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Maysho
climber
Soda Springs, CA
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Feb 18, 2018 - 11:44am PT
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Wonderful memory shares you all. I am still awash with so many vivid memories of those great days, about a 25 year span 1979-2004, when my life was made much richer by my association with Jim. I will write some of these down a bit later. We are all part of an incredible tribe, with intense lineage. Sad when such a leader passes, but also a beautiful moment to reflect on those who shaped us, and how they inspire us as we forge our own route through life.
Peter
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Feb 18, 2018 - 01:29pm PT
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I’ll be smoking non filters and sipping some fine bourbon tonight in memory.
I crossed paths with Jim in the meadow after coming down from doing the Muir. He asked what I had been on and I told him. He gave me a smoke and we talked a bit shared a laugh and that was it.
The first time I ever talked to him I was walking through a Yosemite parking lot, with my climbing gear, on a hot day and he stuck his head out of the back of his truck and asked if I wanted a beer. Calling it "warm" would be diplomatic. I think it was PBR, but if it wasn't, it was something comparable. A number of more warm beers followed. Although it wasn't the only time I talked to him, it was probably the most memorable for me.
I didn't see this thread when it first went up, but maybe I need to swing by the store and get a six-pack of PBR and leave it in the sun for a while. No fine bourbon for this memory lane...
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Feb 18, 2018 - 01:48pm PT
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Will's will be for sale on Blanchard's site, comin' up shortly
eKat-
email me @ johntpenca@gmail.com
VVVV
ya can't fool me eKat; yer smarter than the average bear.
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ron gomez
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2018 - 02:45pm PT
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Ohhhh man, those are some sweet works of art. Where's the shop...on the eastside? Hope to be heading up soon
Peace
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