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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 13, 2009 - 09:49am PT
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you seem to be fit for a Texan
Frame that!
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Feb 13, 2009 - 11:25am PT
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As a youngster growing up a climber in Morrison Colorado Patrick Oliver was one of those larger than life characters that I idolized. He had done it all. In High school I was involved in an outdoor activities group. We decided we wanted to have a big time slide show about contemporary climbing. Pat was of course our only choice. Being a piss-ant nobody and utterly star struck I figured he would snub my request for a show at my school. Eventually I tweaked up the nerve and called his number in Boulder. His mom answered. What to do? If she was like my mom the mere mention of the word climbing would have her covering her ears and running in circles squeaking "I can't hear you, I can't hear you". Surely his mom didn't want to hear from another fawning dweeb. So I lied. I told his mom I was an old friend and could she give him a message. "Of course" she said. To my happy surprise he called back right away. He asked how I knew him. Mortified I fessed up. He laughed. We scheduled a show. It was amazing. Pat brought slides and super 8 movies and eloquence. The flick of John Gill slacked jawed the audience. Master Gill would compress himself way down then explode upward an unbelievable distance and snatch a non hold on an overhanging face with perfect control. Then climb out ridiculous terrain like it was easy. Pat also brought an impishly youthful Dave Breashers. I believe this was just before his seminal ascent of Perilous Journey. Pat was a mentor to many of the soon to be amazing young climbers of the day. My friend and school mate Dan Stone was one of them. Dan was my cohort in all this. He was there from the first facetious phone call. But my shame at having fibbed to his mom had me step into the shadows when he actually showed up. He and Dan became fast friends and climbing partners. A year or two later I came back from college in Gunnison and Dan and I went to visit Pat at his sunny little place in Eldo.
Now Dan knew two things. One was that I fancied myself a fairly competent Chess player. And the other was that Pat was a ranked chess master. After Pat politely asked if I cared to play Dan just sat back to enjoy the show. To complicate and exasperate my inevitable demise Pat suggested we play Speed Chess. "Sure" I said though I had never played against a clock before. It was an appalling blood bath. From Dan's point of view I am sure it was very entertaining. Pat toyed with me like a ninja cat with a retarded mouse. He flipped me, rolled me and trounced me faster than I could tell what was happening. Pay back is a checkmate!
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MisterE
Trad climber
One Place or Another
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Feb 21, 2009 - 10:53pm PT
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bump for serendipity and amazing people!
hoo-ahh!
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Feb 21, 2009 - 11:21pm PT
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It'd be so cool to see those old movies! Let's see 'em or maybe time for another party in Boulder!?!??!?!
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local
Social climber
esprings
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Feb 24, 2009 - 02:57pm PT
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The photo of Ivy Baldwin in the earlier post was taken of the "low wire"; probably from the observation platform at the base of the Rotwand Wall.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Mar 16, 2009 - 02:32pm PT
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Hank, you sure live in a beautiful location. I'm envious. But the bathrobe dude, gnarly.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 16, 2009 - 03:08pm PT
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Caylor
A PINK bathrobe?????
You stud, you.
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Mar 16, 2009 - 03:31pm PT
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The color is bad enough, but it's so short.
Must be cold out there? :-)
(just kidding)
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Mar 17, 2009 - 01:17am PT
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Patrick, [if I remember right] Fowler told us in mid-'75 (either as he was shagging us out of there after coming down from T2 late or one of the earlier interactions we had with him) that he took it down because he went out one day and there was like five guys in various stages of geting on or off it. It's still a complete bummer to have just missed it by months; though you are right, without the guys in place it would have undoubtably been unwalkable out past about a 1/4 - 1/3 length. I take pieces of it every time I'm in Eldo for my wife to make jewelry out of - got a few strands March a year ago when I was out.
Edit: I remember your poem - you should post it up...
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Mar 17, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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My first youthful foray into the mysteries of Eldorado was an intensely impressionable experience. It was one of those early mornings where the shadows lay long and thick like molasses. The still dark walls towered like Gothic cathedrals and Ivy Baldwin's high wire still sliced the thin blue sky. I remember thinking excitedly that the Bastille was the biggest most beautiful monolith I had ever stood at the base of. Even as the sun evaporated the night and the walls came into relief the scale of the Redguard was still too overwhelming for me to grasp. The learning curve was a parabola of discovery. It was different then. An alternate time and space for me and many others. Simpler but more serious. Carefree but more enigmatic. Adventure lurked everywhere and was as apparent as the twittering swifts that raced among the otherwise lonely cliffs.
The memories are keen and fresh sometimes I can still smell them. The narrow gravel road where you parked anywhere including right up against the base of the Bastille. The bouncy old log bridge with no hand rail and creaking slats that would randomly and quite disturbingly break underfoot. Shimmying out the water pipe to drink from the source. The MILTON moniker still apparent. Old man Fowler sitting in his little entrance booth. Sometimes willing to accept as entrance fee whatever change I had left after spending my only five spot on $2 in gas and $1 for two hot dogs at the DynoMart. There were few 'real' trails then. Getting to the solitude of Rincon was a treacherous talus trot. Getting down from the Bastille could easily dislodge rocks that would tumble all the way to the road. I saw a few cars creamed in those days.
Transitioning through klunker hiking boots and blue jeans to Royal Robbin's blue suedes and sweat pants to EBs, White painter pants, rugby shirt and scull cap or doo rag. The style d'jour and d'riguer. Progressing through the ABCs of grades from 5.Can't do it... to 5.Better that time... to 5.Already did it!!! A lot of what little growing up I have done started in that sandstone sanctuary. At my philofive0inEldo the Rangers gave me a 6" piece of Ivy's high wire. It whisked me back in time so fast my head spun. I was really honored and choked up about it. I was, how you say, verklempt. Tawk amongs ya selves. Here's a tawpic; how cool is Eldo and the Edge?
VERY!
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friendofthedevil
Social climber
california
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Mar 17, 2009 - 12:31pm PT
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if i died next week, i'd be doin' what i'm doing, cause that's good enough for now.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Mar 17, 2009 - 01:18pm PT
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"Getting down from the Bastille could easily dislodge rocks that would tumble all the way to the road. I saw a few cars creamed in those days."
Ha, guilty as charged - we used to love to 'run the talus' down from the Bastille, get the whole thing moving, and run / ride it down. The time I spent in Eldo in '75 completely changed every aspect of my climbing and what it meant for me. I can still smell the place sitting here. Best of all, except for the bridge and a few trail improvements it all seems pretty much exactly the same every time I go back.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Mar 17, 2009 - 01:30pm PT
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1975 was when I moved to Gunnison Colorado to attend Wasted State College and the Black Canyon University. Even though my focus shifted to the big out there I still prowled around Eldo and Boulder during breaks and vacations. Gotta wonder who I passed by and moved amongst?
Could it have been Healyje the self admitted trundle-bum?
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 17, 2009 - 01:33pm PT
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Philo, Healyje
I'm sure we brushed elbows in '75, that was my intro to
Eldo, spending 3 weeks in June having one of the best times
of my life. What climbing, watching Wunsch & Bragg free some
of the real classic routes, and doing some of them myself.
What a time, and that's why I live in CO now.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Mar 17, 2009 - 01:46pm PT
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That is what is so wild to think about now SteveW.
Who knows? There was a considerably smaller population of climbers then.
And most of them, with the exception of Nigro, looked a lot younger than we do today.
There were not lines waiting at the base of routes and most everyone was cool and friendly. How many chance encounters were there in those years?
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 17, 2009 - 02:23pm PT
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Phil
no kidding. Who knows, we might even have shared
beers up at Fowler's campground then. It was a special time.
And though I don't have a piece of Ivy's highline, when I do
a route on the Bastille, the guy wires are still there.
With Woody's loss it makes it all so much sweeter, knowing
the times we've all spent in our own lives sharing such times.
It also hurts when we lose one of our own.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Mar 17, 2009 - 02:55pm PT
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SteveW and Philo,
Yes, it was a hell of a time it's quite possible we might have crossed paths. For us it was such a melting pot, meeting and climbing with some of the locals as well as folks from Seneca, NC, the Gunks, and Europe. I'm sad to say I let twenty or so years lapse between visits after the death of a good friend we lost who fell during her descent from having led Werks Up on the Bastille.
On finally returning in 2007 it was startling to see how little it had changed overall. The Bastille Crack was my first roped solo back in '75 and it was surreal getting off the plane, driving directly to Eldo, and do it again thrity two years later. Definitely scored a piece of Ivy's wire that time as well - such little treasures.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 17, 2009 - 03:01pm PT
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Healyje
I remember your friend's passing. There have been way
too many of those. It's just hitting me with all of those
we've lost recently. I'm saddened for your loss.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Mar 17, 2009 - 05:51pm PT
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Hey Philo, my first trip to Eldo was early summer of '72. Did Calypso and finished all the way to the top, the last move was pulling up on Ivy's wire. I got a small cut on my finger doing it and just sat looking across the wire to Bastille, sucking on my finger, rusted iron taste in my mouth, trying to imagine walking that thing. The next 2 weekends we did Wind Ridge, the Bastille, and then we did a moonlight ascent of the Bastille, only my 4th climb ever in Eldo, boy did that hook me! Although, the descent was far from fun.
How's that knee doin?
I still have some slides from 1980 of Mr. Nigro that I have to get scanned.
Moss
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Mar 18, 2009 - 04:23am PT
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SteveW - thanks, it was hard for the whole SoIll tribe for quite some time...
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