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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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Nov 10, 2009 - 12:43pm PT
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Wish Roger Derryberry would post up some stuff on Warren. He was one of Warrens best and closest friends and I'm sure he has stories galour to tell. Everytime I go by MillCreek Station outside of Bishop I try to stop in and see Roger. He loves to talk about Warren and we almost always go through his "museum" on Warren and Roger ALWAYS tells a different story, or points out something in the museum we didn't see the last time. He is a wealth of history and I treasure every visit with him to hear his recital of Back In The Day! Post up Roger...next time I swing by, I'm gonna bring a tape player, turn it on and let you talk till the sun comes up!
Peace
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Gobee
Trad climber
Los Angeles
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Nov 10, 2009 - 01:18pm PT
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I need no stinking badges!
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storer
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Nov 10, 2009 - 02:00pm PT
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I climbed with Harding about '61 or '62 in the Valley. It was a Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter rockclimbing trip led by Jack Rankin who was a climbing friend and fellow surveyor of Harding's in Sacramento. We were down to do Sunnyside bench, my first climb in the Valley and maybe my second climb period, I being in high school. Jack said that his friend Warren wanted to scout a new route up to the base of the NW face of Half Dome from Mirror Lake so that's what we did on Sunday. I was really impressed with Harding's 3rd class scrambling and, indeed, scared sh*less, but I was even more stunned when I, dying of thirst with a parched mouth and out of water, heard Harding deny a drink of water somebody had offered. He said, "no, I'm training for the walls." As I recall, he came to several "dynamic belay practice" sessions Jack held at some property he had down in the Sacramento river bottoms. We'd hoist a 200 lb concrete block up a tree using rope wrapped around a washing machine agitator bolted to Jack's car wheel. The belayer would request slack be let out (say, 20 feet of white Columbia) and the block would be dropped. The belayer used a hip belay with a leather butt patch and gloves. Smoke was produced, the belayer most often upended, and the lesson, in those days, was "the leader must not fall!" Times have certainly changed!
(Rankin obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=131730225);
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Ray Olson
Trad climber
Imperial Beach, California
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Nov 10, 2009 - 02:55pm PT
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thanks again Peter et all for making this letter
available.
I like the part about "political in-fighting".
Pretty sure David Brower said the same of
the Sierra Club when he left.
EDIT: also of note is his mention of not only
Jerry Rubin, but Eldridge Cleaver as well.
Perhaps indicating he felt connected to,
or identified with, the cultural revolution
taking place in the big picture, all around him.
It was a questioning of conformity, as I recall.
And a suspicion of the establishment's rules
being used as a means of suppressing human
liberties, both in lifestyle, and creative self
expression.
Something, which Warren's actions may indicate,
he found unacceptable.
Who knows?
:-)
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TKingsbury
Trad climber
MT
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Nov 10, 2009 - 06:33pm PT
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Awesome stuff!
As a young one, I appreciate all this great history that gets posted here. Thanks for taking the time on this.
Cheers,
Tom
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 10, 2009 - 07:25pm PT
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hey there peter hann.. say, thanks so very kindly for sharing this...
there is always more to man, than meets the eye...
even with letters, there is many a personal trail that leads to why one writes them....
i would have liked to been around somewhere, to listen to him and learn more of who he was, and such, as to his adventure...
hearling from a man's heart, etc, when he's not put-on-the-spot, and just happens to unfold, is very inteserting indeed...
god bless...
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Ray Olson
Trad climber
Imperial Beach, California
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Nov 11, 2009 - 01:25pm PT
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Well, Warren is gone,
and so we may write, think and say what we will.
History, as they say, is always written by the winners, anyway;
the ones with the coin and the material status, the ones who
the book publishers, movie makers, book buyers or consumers
of their products tend to favor.
Well OK.
And it is, OK.
Because, there is this thought, an idea
maybe
more than a thought
less than a thought
like a whisper in a faint breeze
circulating through aspects or human culture
for about as long as anyone knows...
That the battles we chose here
on the physical plane
are the child-like or insignificant embodiments of
the great archetypes themselves -
Essential conflicts that have circulated and raged
not only on our planet
but throughout the universe, forever...
Kinda hard to create a spark without friction, eh?
Such is life.
And so yes, Warren is gone, believe as you will.
But it may be wise to consider,
as we move through this brief manifestation
that remote or near impossible idea,
like a whisper in a faint breeze
that "he" might just be waiting...
on the other side.
:-)
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Nov 11, 2009 - 01:30pm PT
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"My once-keen analytical mind has become so dulled by endless hours of baking in the hot sun, thrashing about in tight chimneys, pulling at impossibly heavy loads.... so that now my mental state is comparable to that of a Peruvian Indian, well stoked on coca leaves..." — Warren Harding (1925-2002), Reflections on a broken down climber.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Nov 11, 2009 - 01:57pm PT
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bump for Batso
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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and another bump
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Still a great thread!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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What ever drove him to join in the first place? An open bar buffet?
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Reno, Nevada
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Great post Peter, thanks for sharing.
I met Warren a handful of times a few years before he passed away. I was in awe of him and wanted to hear tales of lore.
"Tell us about Wall of Early Morning Light", I would ask. "The Nose, Leaning Tower, Porcelain Wall", I wanted to hear it ALL.
He shared a few tidbits, but then looked at us enthusiastic youngsters and said, "Listen, you all know what I've done. Tell ME what you guys are up to, that's what REALLY matters right now"
I was blown away and will never forget that moment. "Uhh, yeah well, we've been developing these techniques to climb faster", I began...
And just like that he turned the tables on us and he sat back and listened with a big grin on his face.
A classic night that will remain in my memory forever.
Thanks Warren!
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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I met Warren for the first time about 30 years ago in the Lodge parking lot - the morning after I had topped out on a winter solo of the West Face of the Leaning Tower. I'll never forget his B.A.T. shirt and that devilish face. What a time and a place to run into my hero!
The last time I saw Warren was in 1993 at his 69th birthday party and a meeting of the LSED&FS. Warren and I shared a bottle of Tequila. We still have some of the LSED&FS signs from the party.
We got this business card from Alice at the party. Sadly, she died in car crash many years later.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I don't have heroes. I think hero worship is stupid.
And yet... And yet... Yeah, Warren Harding is my hero.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Even though my flap eared copy of Downward Bound is almost
falling apart, it is one of the best books I own!!!
I wish I could have met him.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Who has the rights to B.A.T.?
It would be wicked cool to have a bunch of modern B.A.T. T-shirts made up.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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It would be wicked cool to have a bunch of modern B.A.T. T-shirts made up.
Nature did a bunch of B.A.T. T-shirts about three or four years ago. I bought one and wear it with pride when the right occasion arises.
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mountainlion
Trad climber
California
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Warren sounds like he was alot of fun to be around both on the wall, and partying around the campfire. Love the stories. Let's hear some more. Did Royal Robbins crew and Warren not get along?
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Yeti
Trad climber
Ketchum, Idaho
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Warren was wicked intelligent. Warren was really funny. Warren was his own man and nobody's fool. Warren was wonderful as well as being the essence of what climbing is (or should be, in my opinion) about. Warren enjoyed life and climbing and took himself seriously enough to get the job done but not seriously enough to ruin the enjoyment and the ability to laugh at himself and, of course, others of a more serious demeanor. And, yes, Warren spent lots of time in Truckee, some of it curled up on my living room floor with a bottle of wine, telling fine stories and sometimes sleeping. One of his best slide show presentations took place in The Passage in Truckee, and anyone present will remember it, or maybe not.
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