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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2015 - 02:48pm PT
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The "Not-so-far-back Machine" is up and running.
A true hardman is a good sport.No hard feelings, Tad. :0)
More hardmen on the make.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2015 - 03:01pm PT
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Honestly, I've never been so at peace as when I've gone into the talus on my own. No Trump trumpeting, no hand-wringing over the future of stupidity, no worries about where to drop a load, and no moderation.
Just me and the gnats and the dusty silence.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2015 - 06:44pm PT
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STAPLES.
Sponsored by Twinkies,
the magically age-defying snacks
in the cellophane package.
Right now I'll settle for a plate of steak, potatoes and peas (or corn or cauliflower, broccoli, or beans).
No ramen noodles today, thanks.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Max's Kansas City, NYC.
It's so weird that the weird deli place called Bread & Butter was once the coolest hang out in New York (or anything on Park Avenue South for that matter).
From 1965 to 1981, the deli was known as Max’s Kansas City, the restaurant and nightclub first made popular not by Warhol,
but by art star customers like John Chamberlain, Robert Rauschenberg and Larry Rivers. Soon to follow was, basically every artist ever.
Bronze square dude Carl Andre, earth artist Robert Smithson, Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein,
steel beam sculptor Mark di Suvero, feminist crotch-scroller Carolee Schneeman, light artist Dan Flavin,
square stacker Donald Judd, Cor-ten sheet sculptor Richard Serra, Ab Exer Willem de Kooning
--the place was literally a walking and talking art history book, in real life.
NOT to mention Warhol and all his denizens.
Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Velvet Underground regularly played in the nightclub, and Debbie Harry was a waitress there.(I am leaving out a zillion other interesting characters, like our friend and rocker the beautiful Bebe Buell).
“I met Iggy Pop at Max’s Kansas City in 1970 or 1971,” recalled David Bowie. “Me, Iggy and Lou Reed at one table with absolutely nothing to say to each other, just looking at each other’s eye makeup.”
Max’s was actually Mickey’s — Mickey Ruskin that is, a lawyer who opened a string of cafes and bars in the early 60s,
eventually cultivating relationships with Greenwich Village artists and writers who would pop in to showcase their talents.
His first, the 10th Street Coffeehouse (between 3rd and 4th Aves.), became a poets corner,
with standing-room audiences listening to beat and experimental poetry.
In another venture, a bar called the Ninth Circle, Ruskin began attracting painters and artists, quickly becoming,
in his own words, one of New York’s leading “middle-class beatnik bars.”
Successfully moving from coffee to liquor, Mickey now wanted to try the restaurant business.
He bought the failing Southern Restaurant near Union Square, and on December 6, 1965, transformed it into Max’s Kansas City.
A staple of the late 60s, Ruskin weathered the following decade for only a few years before closing its doors in December 1974.
But the story was not over.
The name and location was snatched up by club owner Tommy Dean Mills, who revitalized Max’s as a viable punk club,
restoring a bit of its prior glamour, booking hot punk bands like Blondie and the Ramones,
glam acts like the New York Dolls and before-they-were-famous performers like the B-52s, Devo, and Madonna.
Most notably were the post-Sex Pistol shows by Sid Vicious, messy and unforgettable; three months before his death,
Sid attacked Patti Smith’s brother Todd inside the club and was thrown into jail. (Or maybe not, according to some.)
That incarnation of Max’s closed in 1981.
Believe it or not, there have been later, ill-advised attempts to reopen Max’s, but best it remain gone.
One would hate to see it become a Las Vegas attraction like "that other 70s staple."
(Take it away, Gnome...got no idea what that other staple might be.)
http://maxskansascity.com/index2.php
A few clouds of gnats and an afternoon of dusty silence and I'm good to go again.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2015 - 07:35pm PT
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So how large does the "elephant in the room" need to be before it's noticed that it's missing?
I believe Couchmaster's deleted thread list needs to be trashed as useless.
Imagine leaving out a thread that was 6,650 posts in length.
What a maroon cookie. :0)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2015 - 08:39pm PT
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BBST post.
Lonely Grave in the Sierra: Norman Clyde.
One summer day in the late 1990s, Dom and I were climbing an unnamed peak near Kearsarge Pass in Eastern Sierra. Dom, I guess, had checked his collection of topo maps, and had decided that this particular peak would be a great goal for a day hike. But as we finally approached the top, something that couldn't be seen on a topo map became apparent. A short class-3 pitch lay between us and the summit. We were so close, and yet so far away! At that time we didn't have any experience with class-3 scrambling. We considered our options, and then courageously continued up. We were rewarded in more than one way: The excitement about the successful climb, the beautiful view from the top, and … a rusty old cigar box hidden under the summit rocks. And in the box, a small notebook, with the following comment on the first page:
First ascent [followed by a date, which I no longer remember; H.G.]
Norman Clyde
I name thee Snow Crown Peak.
Very few other signatures followed Clyde's note, probably no more than one or two every few years. This summit apparently was not a particularly popular destination. We were surprised that the peak was not named the way Clyde had wanted. Perhaps he didn't tell anybody his wish? USGS maps mark the peak only by its elevation, but for us, this was Snow Crown Peak from now on.
I had seen Clyde Minaret near Mammoth Lakes many times earlier, and knew it must have been named for some legendary old Sierra explorer, but I really didn't pay much attention to the Sierra history at that time. Suddenly, this person from the legends became real and present. It didn't matter to us if this really was Clyde's handwriting, or more likely just a copy of his earlier original note. The mere fact that we were here at the top that Clyde had once considered a worthwhile goal elated us. For a moment we forgot that we still had to do our class-3 descent on the way back. In the next few years I learned a lot about Clyde. Unexpectedly, he came back into the focus, this time via the Rettenbacher story.
I had seen Clyde Minaret near Mammoth Lakes many times earlier, and knew it must have been named for some legendary old Sierra explorer, but I really didn't pay much attention to the Sierra history at that time. Suddenly, this person from the legends became real and present. It didn't matter to us if this really was Clyde's handwriting, or more likely just a copy of his earlier original note. The mere fact that we were here at the top that Clyde had once considered a worthwhile goal elated us. For a moment we forgot that we still had to do our class-3 descent on the way back. In the next few years I learned a lot about Clyde. Unexpectedly, he came back into the focus, this time via the Rettenbacher story.
Norman Asa Clyde, the eldest child in Charles and Sarah Clyde's family, was born in Philadelphia, in 1885. His father, Charles, who probably didn't get much formal education in his youth, but was eager to learn, began taking private lessons in classical literature and theology in about 1879. His mentor and teacher was David Steele.
Charles became ordained to the office of the ministry in Steele's Reformed Presbytery (RP) congregation in 1883. In the year in which Norman was born, his father got involved in a bitter conflict with his mentor. After Steele's death in 1887, Charles Clyde became an itinerant minister with no settled congregation, preaching in various places in Pennsylvania and across the midwest. Charles took care of his eldest son's early schooling, and Norman learned to read Latin and Greek at a young age. In 1897, Charles, his wife, and seven children, moved to Lochiel Township, Glengarry County, Ontario, where Charles began serving in the local branch of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA). They settled, took Canadian citizenship, and Norman and other children began attending the regular public school. Two more children were born in Lochiel.
Contrary to the frequently repeated statement that Charles Clyde had died in 1900, the entire family, including the father, was still there on March 31, 1901, during that year's Canada Census. However, that autumn Charles fell ill from pneumonia and died on December 7, 1901. The family then moved back to Pennsylvania, where Norman enrolled in Geneva College at Beaver Falls, and graduated in classics in 1909.
I recently wrote to the school to see if they had any information about Clyde. Mrs. Kae Kirkwood, Archival Librarian at the College, did some research and found that Norman was first mentioned in school's records for 1906/07 school year. (However, the records from 1905/06 are lost or misplaced, and he might have actually enrolled a year earlier). Mrs. Kirkwood also unearthed the following gem: During his student years, Clyde was one of the editors of the school newspaper The Cabinet, and served for several years as assistant local editor, exchange editor, and Adelphic Literary Society editor! (The latest function may suggest that he was also a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity on campus). No wonder that he later turned into a prolific writer.
Clyde is registered in the University of Wisconsin 1910-1911 Catalogue as a graduate student in Letter and Science for the summer session of 1910 (p. 642). He is also listed in the UC Berkeley Catalogue of Officers and Students for 1911-12 ("Clyde Norman, Beaver Falls, Pa., A. B. Geneva College 1909, graduate student in Social Sciences, [address] 2529 Dwight way, Berkeley, [phone] Bkly 4474"), and in the UC Berkeley register of students in the summer session of 1912.
His name was first made known to general public when several major newspapers picked up the Associated Press wire report about Clyde's record setting climb of Mt. Shasta in July 1923. Apparently, Clyde climbed from Horse Camp to the summit in "three hours and seventeen minutes", thus "breaking a record that had stood for forty years". One of the papers that brought this information was Los Angeles Times. This newspaper kept its readers well informed about Clyde throughout the rest of his life.
I found more than forty Los Angeles Times articles that had mentioned Clyde and his mountaineering related experiences between 1923 and 1963. But long before the Shasta record of 1923, which launched his public career, Clyde's name was mentioned in an article that had nothing to do with climbing or mountains. In a Sunday issue of Los Angeles Times from June of 1915, we can find a brief description of his wedding. In a simple ceremony, in a small house on West Mountain Street in Pasadena, Winifred Bolster became his wife! (Winifred died in 1919).
The complete list of Clyde-related articles can be found in Appendix B. Although Clyde was a major figure in the history of the Sierra Nevada, his comprehensive biography yet remains to be written and published. If you want to learn something about Clyde, you have to rely on one of several shorter texts about his life, scattered in various (often hard to find!) books. I have tried a different approach here. What follows is a view that an avid reader of Los Angeles Times might have gotten of Norman Clyde, over the course of forty years.
Two months after the Shasta "record", Los Angeles Times of September 16, 1923, brought an "exclusive dispatch" with the subtitle "Thirty-six Mountains Scaled by Man on Vacation". The article introduced Clyde as "36 years of age, a small-town schoolmaster of Weaverville, California, …, and a member of the Sierra (a mountaineer) Club of San Francisco". Actually, Clyde was 38 years old at that time.
Throughout his life, Clyde's habit was to mislead the reporters about his true age. The accomplishment that the article refers to was Clyde's climb to 36 peaks in as many consecutive days, including eleven first ascents, during the summer of 1923 in Glacier National Park, Montana. Not too bad for a "man on vacation"!
In the following years, several other of Clyde's climbing successes were described in various Los Angeles Times articles. For example, his ascent in 1928 of Mt. Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, was declared to be "one of the most difficult climbs in the world".
However, one major event in Clyde's life from that era would remain undisclosed to the readers of Los Angeles Times for the next 36 years. Only in the 1960s, the reading public would find out that Clyde, in spite of his mountaineering achievements, had been fired from his teaching job in 1928.
At that time, Clyde was a high school teacher and principal in Independence, Owens Valley, California. Here is a brief description of the event that led to Clyde's dismissal, taken from an article in the Sunday issue of Los Angeles Times of September 22, 1963: "His teaching career ended suddenly on Halloween in 1924 [the event happened in 1928, not in 1924. Clyde was first hired in Independence during the summer of 1925; H.G.] Clyde fired a revolver into the air, according to his recollection, to turn some young pranksters from school property. Although no one was hurt he was discharged from his job. From then on his home was the Sierra wilderness".
One consequence of this event was that Clyde could now fully pursue his passion for mountains, free of the confinements and social obligations related to his teaching job. But it also meant that he would from now on have to rely on his writing, lecturing, and guiding abilities to earn enough for his food, shelter, and equipment. This would probably explain how Clyde's name ended up in the advertisement section of Los Angeles Times and other local papers in the spring of 1929. In a paid ad, the popular Switzer resort in Upper Arroyo Seco, Angeles National Forest,was inviting the public to a lecture by "noted mountaineer and writer" Norman Clyde.
For the visitor for whom mountain tales were not the most favorite pass time, a soprano and a pianist would be at hand to provide additional entertainment, hinted the ad. Several other lectures and courses by Clyde were mentioned in Los Angeles Times during the early and mid 1930s, and many more probably didn't make it to the newspaper.
Clyde was also submitting his photos of mountain scenes to newspapers and periodicals. One such identifiable "filler" photo appeared in Los Angeles Times in April of 1935, but there could also have been a few more unsigned ones. Each little honorarium was a big help to this man who no longer had a steady job. Guiding tourists was another way for him to earn income. Clyde was, for example, presented to the readers of Los Angeles Times as a fishing expert (which he really was), who could lead parties of sportsmen and fishermen to remote Sierra lakes with abundant supplies of fish.
All those secondary functions did not keep Clyde from his main activity: climbing unconquered peaks and finding new, ever more challenging routes to mountain tops. In 1929, a Los Angeles Times article said that Clyde was "the only man who has climbed all of the California mountain peaks over 14,000 feet high", but the article didn't elaborate on when this feat was completed.
On August 16, 1931, Norman Clyde, Glen Dawson, Jules Eichorn, and Robert Underhill, were the first to make an ascent to the top of Mt. Whitney via the East Face route. Los Angeles Times was a little late in reporting this spectacular climb. It only informed the readers about it in 1937, but better late than never. In spite of such occasional tardiness in reporting by the paper, its readers could still get the idea that Norman Clyde was an exceptional mountaineer.
For example, in an article from 1932, Clyde was called "one of the best known mountaineers of the West", and two years later, in 1934, he was described as a "veteran of more than 600 mountain ascents".
The more Clyde's climbing skills and unparallel familiarity with the mountains became known, the more frequently was he called upon to search for missing persons in the High Sierra. Sometimes his help would be sought by the family of a climber or hiker who didn't return at a scheduled time. In other cases he was summoned to a rescue mission by forest service officials, or just happened to be near an accident scene and willingly helped in the rescue efforts.
Los Angeles Times reported six search and rescue/recovery missions between 1929 and 1950, in which Clyde had played a role (see Appendix B), but that was probably just the tip of the iceberg. For example, Clyde's participation in the Rettenbacher search was not mentioned in Los Angeles Times, and there were probably many other occasions when Clyde's help in mountain searches had simply not been registered in the newspaper. One story that attracted a lot of attention in the early 1930s was the disappearance of a young boy, Howard Lamel, on Mt. Whitney.
One day in July of 1930, Howard had left the Mt. Whitney trail to explore the mountain on his own, and never showed up at the meeting place where his father and brother had waited. In the following days, airplanes and more than 100 forest rangers and volunteers participated in the search for the lost boy. Norman Clyde joined the search at the request of the boy's father. Clyde and Robert Evans eventually found the boy's body high on the cliffs on the east side of the mountain. Three years later, another young man didn't show up for a meeting with his father in a mountain lodge. The missing man's name was Walter Starr, Jr.
The compelling story of Starr's disappearance is well presented in William Alsup's book Missing in the Minarets. Several articles in Los Angeles Times were devoted to the Starr case, and in three of them Clyde was mentioned. Readers learned that he was the one who had discovered the body after an eight-day search, then helped with the burial. Clyde apparently stayed in Mammoth Lakes after the burial, and, according to the newspaper, talked about his search in an evening lecture at Tamarack Lodge in early September of 1933.
By 1934, Norman Clyde's career had reached its peak. In January of that year, Lowell Brodgart published a long article about "These Strange Peak-Grabbers" in the Los Angeles Times' Sunday Magazine.Clyde is mentioned several times in that report. It was Brodgart who, without hesitation, named Clyde "the best known mountaineer of the West". Several months later, Ed Ainsworth called Clyde's first ascents of ten of the Devils Crags (with Dave Brower and Hervey Voge), "the most remarkable mountaineering feats ever accomplished in the United States".
On Monday, July 23, 1934, the Rettenbachers were getting ready for their trip to the Sierra, and probably couldn't wait for the working week to end. Their first destination was to be Tuolumne Meadows, in Yosemite. On that same Monday, some eighty miles to the south of Yosemite, a USGS surveyor, Jim Murphy, had disappeared on Outlook Peak. A search began. Jim was a federal worker, and two Army bombers were used in the search together with ground crews, but no trace of the missing man could be found.
According to Los Angeles Times of Thursday, July 26, Norman Clyde and his climbing partner from Mt. Whitney's East Face and El Picacho del Diablo, Glen Dawson, had been asked to come down from Tuolumne Meadows to assist in the search. From a followup article in the newspaper we learn that Murphy's body had been found by members of his own Survey party the next day.
There is a possibility that Clyde and Dawson were immediately informed about the tragic ending of the search, and didn't have to leave Yosemite after all. A day or two later, Anna and Conrad Rettenbacher arrived at Tuolumne Meadows. Did their path cross with Clyde's? If Clyde was still there, were the Rettenbachers aware of his presence? No doubt, they had heard of the legendary climber, and perhaps would have hoped to meet him one day.
A week later, the Rettenbachers themselves became the subjects of a massive search. Los Angeles Times printed two wire service reports about the Rettenbacher case, but Clyde was not mentioned in them. Unknown to Los Angeles Times readers, Clyde's and the Rettenbachers' stories had briefly overlaped that summer. For Clyde, it was a sad event quite similar to many others that he had witnessed. For the couple, it was the end of the road.
Less than eight months after the Rettenbacher accident, Norman Clyde found himself in great peril. This dark episode from his life began early in 1935, when Clyde and his friend and occasional climbing partner William Dulley were wintering at Andrews Camp in the High Sierra. Nothing unusual for Norman Clyde. Since he didn't have a permanent dwelling at that time, when fishermen and hikers left with the first snows, Clyde would frequently spend winters as a paid caretaker at vacant mountain resorts. Andrews Camp on Bishop Creek was one such a place.
It is known that the snow cover was well above normal during the winter of 1934/35, but Dulley and Clyde didn't mind: Both were fond of skiing. During the stay in Andrews Camp they had already made several mountain tops together. On Saturday, April 6, they decided to take food, sleeping bags and heavy bed blankets and do another skiing trip over the Sierra crest, from the east to the west side. The weather forecast, Clyde would recall later, was favorable. (How/where did he get the forecast? A battery operated radio? But he was right, and that weekend's forecast was one of the great blunders in the history of the Weather Service). The depth of the snow, according to Clyde, varied from five to thirty feet.
About half way up Piute Pass the wind had swung to the southwest bringing heavy clouds and a fresh fall of snow. At about 4 p.m. they reached the pass at 11,428 feet (3,480 meters), then went down the other side, about a mile below, where they spent the night in a makeshift camp. The next day it was snowing heavily and they remained there.
On Monday morning, August 8, the storm was still raging and nearly three feet of new snow had fallen. They scrapped their plans for further exploration of this region, and decided to return. Although Clyde had suggested waiting another day, Dulley thought they could negotiate the ten miles back to Andrews Camp without running undue risks. They started the trip back at 9 o'clock in the morning.
What happened next is described in an article in Los Angeles Times from June 5, 1935. The climb on skis to Piute Pass through the fresh soft snow was exhausting, but they made it. It was only downhill from there. However, the wind was heavy and snow was falling again. About half a mile below the pass Clyde had to wait because Dulley had fallen behind. When he finally caught up, he didn't complain or show indications that anything was wrong.
About a mile further, Dulley was out of sight again. Clyde waited for him at Piute Lake. This time Dulley said he had had two falls on this section of the trail. They continued together, but as they struck a field with very soft snow, Dulley veered from Clyde's trail. Clyde made it to Loch Leven Lake, but by now the wind had doubled in velocity.
"One could not see more than fifty feet and the force of the blizzard was such that at times I had to prop myself on my ski poles to prevent being blown over", explained Clyde later to a Los Angeles Times reporter. Clyde continued slowly, calling his partner frequently, but Dulley was nowhere in sight. Clyde was still several miles from the relative safety of Lake Sabrina road. The blizzard seemed to increase in intensity. It was impossible to go back and search for Dulley.
"I figured", said Clyde to the reporter, "that Dulley, if in trouble could throw away his heavy pack and follow me without it or crawl into his sleeping bag and remain there until help should come on the following day". By that time, Clyde was in big trouble himself: Cold and wet, exhausted, and no longer feeling his fingers and toes. At seven in the evening he stumbled into a miner's cabin near Lake Sabrina, where he spent the night.
The next morning was clear and cold. Clyde went back alone over the trail. At the lower end of Loch Leven Lake he found Dulley's body.An autopsy later disclosed a stroke caused by "high altitude, plus cold and exhaustion". Frost bites on Clyde's hands didn't last long, but his frozen toes wouldn't heal. Two months later the situation got so bad that Clyde had to travel to Los Angeles and seek medical treatment in a hospital.
He was met there by the newspaper reporter who then retold the story in the article entitled Blizzard Tragedy Told by Frozen Survivor. However, there was one thing that Clyde didn't tell the reporter. I have had this newspaper clip in my posession for quite a while, but only when preparing this Web page did I realize what was missing in the article. The day of the tragedy on Piute Pass trail, April 8, 1935, was Norman Clyde's fiftieth birthday!
A lingering question remains: Would they both have died had Clyde stayed with his distressed friend? Would they both have survived? You decide.
From other sources, we know that a month later, Clyde was in the mountains again, and well enough to make eight more first Sierra ascents during that summer. Several years later, in September of 1937, Los Angeles Times reports of another Clyde climbing success. This time it was his ascent of Kinnerly Peak, the "highest unscaled peak in Glacier National Park". Clyde was with three other Sierra Club mountaineers, Ed Hall, Richard K. Hill, and Braeme Gigos.
In 1939, Norman Clyde's alma mater, Geneva College, awarded him the degree of Doctor of Sciences in appreciation of his mountain writings. This got reported to the readers of Los Angeles Times by Ed Ainsworth in his daily column "Along El Camino Real".
In the war years, and during the early post-war years, Clyde was mentioned a few more times in the newspaper. In 1942, he found the wreckage of a crashed Army bomber on the south side of Birch Lake. A photo-report from 1948 shows him guiding a group of tourists up the Palisade Glacier. In 1950, Clyde was mentioned in yet another search mission, for two missing boys, Christopher Reynolds and Stephen Wasserman, who disappeared on Mt. Whitney.
The last article about Clyde during his lifetime was published in the Sunday edition of Los Angeles Times on September 22, 1963. This is a warmly written account of Clyde's fifty years of rambling the High Sierra, with a nice picture showing him at a Bear Creek camp, enjoying his morning coffee. It was clear from the article that Clyde continued to act as a guide to private parties on mountain hiking trips well into his seventies. I couldn't get permission from Los Angeles Times to reproduce the article or the picture, nor could I get the name of the reporter who wrote the article, but it was somebody who deeply respected Clyde and his mountaineering feats.
In the last decades of his life, Norman Clyde settled in a simple ranch cabin near Big Pine, and lived there of a small county pension. He died two days before Christmas of 1972. He was 87 years old. I have been searching for his obituary in Los Angeles Times and other major California newspapers, but couldn't find anything. Was an obituary published? Perhaps not. The world had changed significantly since the days when Clyde first stepped into the Sierra mountains.
At the time of Clyde's death, the heroes of the day were reaching for far higher goals: America has landed a man on the Moon just a few years earlier. Compared to such spectacular successes, the life (and death) of an old High Sierra climber and explorer might not have looked important enough to new generation of newspaper editors.
Among the documents found upon Clyde's death, some material was apparently related to the Rettenbacher accident. This is now cataloged as "The Vanishing of the Rickenbackers", in the collection "Norman Clyde Papers, [ca. 1928-1945]", BANC MSS 79/33 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. It would be interesting to see if this folder contains more than just a newspaper clip from the Examiner, mentioned in William Alsup's book. (Note also yet another spelling variation of Anna and Conrad's last name!)
It is known that Clyde kept a day-to-day diary ('Field Notebook') during his most productive climbing years. William Alsup used Clyde's diary entries from the summer of 1933 to reconstruct some events related to the Starr search. According to Alsup, the Field Notebook was in the possession of Clyde scholars David Bohn and Mary Millman. If the Notebook also covered the summer of 1934, we would be able to reconstruct Clyde's steps between July 27, 1934 (search for Jim Murphy), and August 15, 1934 (when he joined the Rettenbacher search), and perhaps even find Clyde's more detailed account of the Rettenbacher accident. Unfortunately, I was not able to get in touch with either of the two scholars. It would be wonderful to have this valuable resource about Clyde available publicly one day.
When asked to sum up his fifty years of lonely rambling through the Sierra mountains, without many of the basic commodities that most of us consider necessary to carry on with our lives, Norman Clyde said to the Los Angeles Times reporter in September 1963:
I sort of went off on a tangent from civilization
and never got back.
I was privileged to be in the crowd at the Visitors' Center in YV to hear Mr. Clyde nearly forty years later in 1970.
Very good read on Norman Clyde.
I have zero idea who "H. G.", the author of this was. I found it on a Stanfoo website. Perhaps Clint Cummins knows. What am I sayin'? Of course he knows. He would not be Clint, otherwise.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Aug 25, 2015 - 08:52pm PT
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hey there say, mouse... good solid stuff here... love those photos, ...
very nice share, so many things ... will go back and read the longer stuff, soon, too... (norman clyde) ...
yep, our man from merced, doing his thing...
and--we get to enjoy it all...
happy good eve!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 26, 2015 - 06:01am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 26, 2015 - 10:23am PT
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From this morning.
Have a good one, please.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 26, 2015 - 03:40pm PT
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I moose wake up!
Been fallin' asleep at the desk.
Energy level's...danger zone.
Want some garuda blend.
All I have is powdered 3-in-1 SE Asian mud.
Doggone it!
Happy National Dog Day!
Brought to you by Hebrew National and Nathan's.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Aug 26, 2015 - 06:38pm PT
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wake up, woof woof, eat well, do what your momma said, it's a grind, woof woof
Coulda been a Beatles song - A Day in the Merced Life
It could be worse, you may have been a street girl (or a sailor?)
I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you on
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Aug 27, 2015 - 06:37am PT
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Well back a ways, you inspired - and two T-bones,steaks, with broccoli and sweet patatoe fries, were the result.
The menu for the second day of High-school's dinner. At grass fed organic blah blah, I baulked, but the gryle,( NJ, Accent ) insisted.
The smell of raw meat and the the wafting smoke from the un-used broiler, sent the dog into hiding. The prep, was a simple sear, with a hint of salt & pepper.
Thank you for posting the picture, um that was like forty pictures back but hey. . .
Also we had a heron fly at eye level along with us as we drove along the reservoir ,the second day without a camera. Um that was some forty days ago.
Today's go go thing trips me up, some random gym rat has two pairs of shoes, a two hours drive away.
Then a week must pass for the budget to be lived, if anything can be it is put to the causes chosen ; They are Camera, and rubber that fits.
I need shoes from this decade, that fit
I have a pair of lace up boots from 09'? They are two sizes to big but do not crush the toes, they even have room for an orthotic.
So on the on line garage sale, I see the two pairs at sizes 40.5 for Scarpa 'topa da line'
Techno x , and a lesser and less stiff La Sportiva, Nago s size 39.5. Some where in those two sizes I should be. . . .
Days of not quite getting the right beta and then the kids 1st day of School in the way .
now past, and with some free time to do the drive I check, and the seller says he only has the Nagos and the board says so too, he edited out the better shoe.
Now that is a bit low so I'm not as psyched to know this cat, but if the shoes fit? . .
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Aug 27, 2015 - 07:50am PT
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EDIT
I give up, I made six changes then lost four yo some gremlin, in some system. Pictures and commentary lost. . . .
Things I said were as to the nature of the post and a Geezer rating based on a grading system that was squewed,- 1,2,8, 8, 8,8, 8, 8, 8, 9, Donnini- but it went poof, also I took aim at the frog, whom it seems has no knowledge of F R O G, RAY OLSON,
THE From Ray Olson's Garage! FROG.
Said with wit instead of derision, sorry if you read this frog. I may try again or not. . . ???
shot.
From the 70 year old thread:
jogill
climber
Colorado
Aug 1, 2015 - 12:39pm PT
78.5 now and I climbed up until shoulder arthritis and questionable inner-ear balance made climbing (all solo) too risky - age 74. I chose not to continue if it meant being put on a top rope and jollied along by youngsters. But then I had a fall-back in bodyweight exercises that I have done since my days as a gymnast 60 years ago. Puttering Around
&
jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Aug 3, 2015 - 08:19pm PT
I am 71 and by now have a shoulder that needs to be replaced, so the docs tell me, but from what I hear those replacements are not so good and the recovery time is very long
I ruined my shoulders 55 years ago working the still rings but it only caught up to me about 10 years ago. The surgeon presented three options: shoulder replacement (no more gymnastics stuff at all, ever - including difficult climbing), resurfacing (he said sometimes the person is left with a lingering ache - I declined), and doing nothing. I chose the last.
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Messages 21 - 40 of total 40 in this topic | Last >>
johnr9q
Sport climber
Sacramento, Ca
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 2, 2015 - 03:14pm PT
Thanks Brad. When are the Women going to report in? Yeti: Herman is one of the 3 hero's of mine I mentioned in my original post. Got a buddy who has an airplane and we are headed to the East Side of the Sierra tomorrow morning for 2 days of climbing. With his new plane it will take us all of 45 minutes to get from Sacramento to Bishop. Life is good. When I was in France a year ago, I met a fellow that said his dad was in his 70's and climbing something like 8b or 8c. Does anyone know who he is? He was either French or Spanish.
MP
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
Aug 2, 2015 - 07:39pm PT
You all are so inspiring, thanks.
frog (the real frog)
Trad climber
San Diego
Aug 2, 2015 - 08:14pm PT
73 in September ... mostly gym climbing 2 -3 nights a week at Mesa Rim ... great gym in San Diego with 53 foot walls (and another about to open) ... will get to try some easy stuff again at Facelift this year ... always use Jam Crack and Lazy Bum as bench marks ... didn't start climbing till my 50th year, so got a lot of catching up to do ...
frog
hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
Aug 2, 2015 - 11:50pm PT
73
Placed 9 bolts [hammer drill] and an anchor today. I usually climb with a couple of other retired OGs.
I think we should introduce a new term "DOG", for Distinguished OG!!
steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
Aug 3, 2015 - 06:55am PT
Almost there at 69, but I don't want to rush it.
elcap-pics
Big Wall climber
Crestline CA
Aug 3, 2015 - 08:17am PT
Yo.. I am 71 and by now have a shoulder that needs to be replaced, so the docs tell me, but from what I hear those replacements are not so good and the recovery time is very long... arthritis in the hands too... I haven't climbed in a few years now but as I have aged I have found a peace and personal satisfaction that was lacking in my younger days. I would climb if I could but for me it is no longer important. I have done other things to fill the gap left from not climbing and those are just as rewarding as climbing was... I stay in touch with the sport through my photography and writing, among other interests... so if you are still out there climbing then good for you... you should do what you feel is right for you and not feel pressured to do anything that isn't. Now I only do what I want to do... that is one of the great rewards of retirement... it is all on you!!
Gunkswest
climber
Aug 3, 2015 - 02:36pm PT
George Hurley of Wonalancet, NH (age 80) atop Pywiack Dome aft...
George Hurley of Wonalancet, NH (age 80) atop Pywiack Dome after leading House Calls (5.7) in late July, 2015.
Credit: Gunkswest
In the background are a 68 year old and a 55 year old with another 55 year old behind the camera. 194 years of climbing experience in the party. House Calls never stood a chance!
Sewellymon
climber
.....in a single wide......
Aug 3, 2015 - 03:04pm PT
George Hurley ROCKS!
jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Aug 3, 2015 - 08:19pm PT
I am 71 and by now have a shoulder that needs to be replaced, so the docs tell me, but from what I hear those replacements are not so good and the recovery time is very long
I ruined my shoulders 55 years ago working the still rings but it only caught up to me about 10 years ago. The surgeon presented three options: shoulder replacement (no more gymnastics stuff at all, ever - including difficult climbing), resurfacing (he said sometimes the person is left with a lingering ache - I declined), and doing nothing. I chose the last.
OnsightOrGoHome
Trad climber
Fair Oaks
Aug 3, 2015 - 11:28pm PT
After nearly forty years climbing with my dad, he's still reaching the peaks. Here he is two years ago, at age 78, atop Cathedral Peak in Tuolumne with my younger brother.
Kevin and dad on top of Cathedral Peak.
Kevin and dad on top of Cathedral Peak.
Credit: OnsightOrGoHome
And last year on a wall in Yosemite.
Credit: OnsightOrGoHome
I think I'll call 'em, summer's winding down! Get on it!
Ron Hermanson
Trad climber
California
Aug 4, 2015 - 10:30pm PT
I have been using a slack line to help with balance. It is fun and it works. Go slow and then you will be thinking you could to some Dean potter moves on the line,he was a master.. Try it you will like it.
johnr9q
Sport climber
Sacramento, Ca
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 5, 2015 - 09:12am PT
John R again (OP) Just got back from a 2 day trip to the Sierra East Side with Chuck and his Lancair airplane. Pine Creek the first day and yesterday we were at Patricia bowl at 4pm and I was at my house in Elk Grove (near Sacramento) by 8pm. That included a stop at in-n-out-burger (that's the west coast version of McDonalds). Airplanes make travel fast. Wish I could afford one. onsightorgohome's dad and George Hurley we see pictures of you herein at age 80 on top of some big features. Keep it up. I gota get some exercise tomorrow (today is my daughter's birthday so big celebrations are in order) so I think I'll go out and mountain bike South lake Tahoe doing Sidewinder, Armstrong Connector and Armstrong Pass bike trails. I don't go very fast uphill (it's over 2500 vertical) but go too fast downhill. Gone over my handlebars too many times. 6 stitches under my eye and stitches in my nuts once (hit the goose neck). Broken ribs twice. Mountain Biking is more dangerous than rock climbing. The problem is the faster you go downhill the funner it is. I will try to slow down or next time I'll probably kill myself.
David Lewis
Trad climber
North Conway,New Hampshire
Aug 6, 2015 - 09:04am PT
Another picture of George Hurley leading WI5 at 80 years young
Credit: David Lewis
George Hurley leading Widow's Walk Frankenstein NH 3/13/2015.
johnr9q
Sport climber
Sacramento, Ca
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 26, 2015 - 03:40pm PT
Now this is what I am talking about: http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Linking-and-long-days-in-the-San-Juans-a-brief-perspective/t12825n.html
This may inspire me to solo the Tanya-Matthes-Cathedral traverse when the days get longer (like spring of 2016) But this wouldn't be close to what Donini did at 12 miles and 6400 feet elevation gain. It might be a little more technical which might make up a bit
TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
Aug 26, 2015 - 11:37pm PT
73...still climbing, often solo or with one of my partners
also flying, boating, commercial diving, SAR, volunteer fireman, and raising a poultry flock in the woods
this summer drove solo across the country and back to NJ for two weeks in the woods with Tom Brown Jr's Tracker School...Apache training all day and all night exercises in the woods and swamps with no lights
then drove up into BC islands to teach classes on tracking, awareness and wilderness survival with one of my climbing partners who is also my age and quite fit, Gifford Pinchot III http://www.pinchot.com/perspective/
drove a moving van back and forth between CA and WA several times this summer, loading and unloading...starting another round trip tomorrow...
generally just retired and loafing...
AP
Trad climber
Calgary
Aug 27, 2015 - 05:45am PT
The lesson is stay off the couch (except resting after a good day out).
smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
Aug 27, 2015 - 06:33am PT
Thanks for all the inspiration guys!
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Aug 27, 2015 - 06:59am PT
AP....the couch is the key. You need to get off of it and go out and get things done, BUT....you also need to take complete rest days where you rarely budge from it.
johnr9q
Sport climber
Sacramento, Ca
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2015 - 08:53am PT
I am sure glad some of you "old" guys post using your real name. Most of the people that post on SuperTopo have a handle which doesn't give any light as to who they are. I'm sure I would know or at least know of the reputation of some of the posters if I knew who they were. Whenever I somehow get a connection of a handle and a name I write it down so I can use it in the future. Wish there was a list of handle/real names.
rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Aug 27, 2015 - 09:05am PT
Your real name is johnr9q?
Messages 21 - 40 of total 40 in this topic
It was a better read at dawn some how, but I will transport more pics
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2015 - 08:47am PT
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They sucked me into checking a sidebar add for Buffalo Child Wings by using my Broncos as bait. I did find out something about beer I did not know about: nucleated beer glasses.
http://www.buffalowildwings.com/en/beer/
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Nucleated pint glasses
It is increasingly common to find pint glasses which contain markings on the base; very often these glasses are branded to one particular beer. The markings themselves are formed from small pits which aid in nucleation, allowing the gas within it to be released more easily, thus preserving the head.
Without the aid of these pits a regular pint glass will keep a head for only 3 or 4 minutes before appearing 'flat'. The markings come in a variety of styles ranging from a simple circular or square hatched pattern to more complicated branding messages.
I took this info and ran with it, as is my wont, to see where I might end up.
The fact that broncos were involved, and branding, led me to the Wild West and round-ups.The Hawaiian cowboy, known as the paniolo, evolved out in the Pacific during the Wild West, but has been largely overlooked. They likely prefer it that way, brah.The Orchid Isle (Hawaii) is not the mecca for surf that Oahu is, let's face it. But...when some of the spots get goin' they're probably worth a visit, surely.
Never been there, so I don't know.
http://www.thesurfingsite.com/Surf-Spots-BigIsland.html
Various artists / Hu'ehu'e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBI7p2btAkU&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4bv2xYO008WmcBMht-7b3G0&index=10
Best I can do on a Thursday.
Good luck with the shoes, Gnome.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2015 - 12:08am PT
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Like it? Game of Drones: Book One--The Pitons Have Eyes, by Mouse RR From Merced. Soon.
With an introduction entirely made by stitching together quotes from the works of JRR Tolkien and Royal Robbins.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2015 - 02:19am PT
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Speaking of whom...
I get so that I miss the climbs, now I'm out of the game. But it hasn't really been the same game at all for decades now.
We old-time climbers used to get to smell the rock dust from driving iron, and from cleaning it, especially. I miss that smell. The placing of chocks as a point of style and a creed by which to climb "drove" ironmongery to its knees.
It was quite a while ago that I purchased from Grossman a copy of Sentinel: The West Face. When I got the DVD I found that my computer's ability to read a disc was kaput, I let it slide, and never watched the DVD until tonight.
I've had the replacement part, got it from BS Computing for ten bucks. But I knew nothing about how easy it is to disassemble a desk computer. The part languished in the book case until this morning, when I trekked over to BS and asked them to install the bugger. It took like five minutes and I STOOD THERE GAWKING, thinking how technology just keeps on getting better and more simple, just like the idea of chocks overcoming pitons or digitized information makes paper obsolete. It seems like it's a game of paper, stone, scissors to me.
And so tonight I was finally able to watch this fine film and live out some of my own memories. In thinking it over, I don't believe I have ever watched the entire film except one time until today. I've seen snippets here and there, several times. Now, having the opportunity to freeze scenes and repeat narration, it's eye-opening to see the technology of that era explained and demonstrated.
But I think that the film's bent for philosophizing about life in terms of climbing is rather special and a classic. The blended dream sequence while the climbers are SLEEPING IN HAMMOCKS is greatly appreciated here in Sleepless Merced. The sight of RR's butt hangin' in Yvon's face is a touch of comedy I liked, as well.
Likewise, I'm listening to some classical CDs, which I have sort of missed. There is always the classical station in Sacto I can stream, though. But this new unit means that I can download a program to edit photos which was on my computer but which got wiped when a virus was cleaned.
It's like a new day dawning, as the narrator says in the film.
Late night thoughts while listening to Rossini.
I want to take this opportunity to honor our memories of the late Chuck Pratt, who was a cameraman on this film, along with Tom Frost.
Doug Robinson's thread "Chuck Pratt."
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=861139&msg=861139#msg861139
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Aug 28, 2015 - 02:46am PT
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sometimes when the western sky yells displaya show goes on in the eastwhile evening slides into placeeasily
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2015 - 03:15am PT
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For Jan.
From a fan.
For the heck of it,
but mainly to help cheer you.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2015 - 03:21am PT
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And hooblie wins a pair of castanets!!!! Bravo!!!!
I don't know is on deck.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2015 - 04:22am PT
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After taking care of the computer business, I spent nearly two hours down on the intersection of Main and M hoping to get some interesting shots; but at two p.m. on a midweek day it's virtually all business.
The guys with the neat old cars, the rods, the GOOD STUFF that soaks up money--they're all out tryin' to turn a buck to pay for their toys.
I never really realized how many people apparently think they need a huge-ass 4x4. You never see them dirty and 'the engines just gleam.'
I saw a number of people who I have met either in my building, riding the bus, or out on the streets truckin' around.
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