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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Jun 15, 2010 - 04:19pm PT
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Michael Borghoff passed on to the land of Poets 2 years ago - RIP, Dad.
Can you say a little more about this. I used to read MBs stuff a lot when I was a kid. Curious about his life. Thanks.
JL
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 22, 2010 - 01:51am PT
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Do you have any recollections from being around in those Glen Denny C4 days?
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Jun 22, 2010 - 01:58am PT
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I promise that I will write you both personally John and Steve.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 22, 2010 - 10:45am PT
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No pressure, Erik! Just an abiding curiousity...
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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Jun 23, 2010 - 10:46am PT
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MisterE -
My very good friend Bob Locke and I met your dad in C4 in the mid-70's. Bob and Mike shared a love of lit and poetry - they had a real connection. When Bob and Dale and Mike climbed what is now called the Red Dihedral on the Hulk he/they named it "Yggdrasil the Tree of Life".
Steve thanks for posting this stuff - those poems and prose were the foundation for me in the early 70's in Yosemite. I was swept away by the valley and those romantics who were during that incredible period.
Thanks,
TC
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2010 - 12:03am PT
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A rather dark little ballad to go along with a fairly cute cartoon!
From Summit June 1960.
A bit of darker cartooning from Summit July 1960.
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Tradmedic
Ice climber
Thunder Bay, Ontario
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Aug 27, 2010 - 03:48am PT
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Oh wow, bump for a great thread!
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Aug 27, 2010 - 10:32am PT
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Great read.. Thanks for posting Steve.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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A dark and brooding bump!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2010 - 04:15pm PT
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Mike wrote regularly for Summit magazine in the early sixties. This account of climbing the joyous Crestone Needle appeared in the August 1960 issue.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 6, 2010 - 04:36pm PT
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Borghoff Bump!
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BBA
climber
OF
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Mike was a great guy...couldn't climb in the valley, but knew it and came to grips with it in his way...like loving someone who will never love you back...what do you do...write...and I still remember some of our conversations but they are mostly X rated...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, steve... erik and all...
i enjoyed all the feedback here, and the post...
here is another bump...
:)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 19, 2010 - 03:04pm PT
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Joyous Conglomerate Bump!
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Kiwiclimber
Ice climber
Kiruna, Sweden
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Was over in USA in Sept-Oct on a climbing road trip with a friend from Bishop and we were talking about Mike Borghoff's writing (seen only in snippets in e.g. Roper's guide) and wondering how to get hold of some more of it - so thanks to all for your contributions to a great ST thread.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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What a great thread. I remember a bit of that stuff from the waaay back machine.
MrE, I had no idea he was your dad.
You must be proud.
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Nov 12, 2010 - 11:49pm PT
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Just found this quote looking through James' "Camp Four" book by Roper:
The bears that visited Camp 4 actually caused us more grief than either the rangers, the tourists, or the Curry Company. Many of these beasts roamed the Valley, originally attracted by the garbage dump near Camp Curry. When the dump was shut down, the bears, denied their daily fix, became brazen. Being black bears, and not huge, they posed little real threat to people, yet they ate our food, ripped our tents, and broke into cars. Mike Borghoff put it perfectly:
the ursines were "fat, tourist-fed, insolent, monstrously facile at stealing food, contemptuously impervious to indignation, rage, terrified screams outraged threats, or supplication."
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 22, 2012 - 06:17pm PT
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Ten days back Mr.E talked to me about Mike Borghoff. I mentioned to him that Mike and I climbed The Flakes, III, 5.8, on MCR's faar right side, next to the Gunsight Gully, in 1971.
The Flakes had become my favorite in that grade. I suppose it still is. I loved "airy/hairy" things. Roper called it "airy," a perfect description. I wasn't quite the cracksman that the Reverend (Jeff Mathis) had become, but he wasn't the face guy I was, so it worked very well, generally, when we teamed up, which was about half the time. Mike dropped into our site one morning for early coffee, we talked a bit, and since Mathis was committed to something else, I invited him to go do the climb with me. I may have done it twice by then, so had few reservations about the outcome. He jumped at the chance. He had not climbed in some time and had virtually no gear with him but boots. We finished the coffee klatsch with the rest of the group and then jumped in the DORF.
The Flakes is a serious undertaking for aspiring hardmen. No flakes need apply, especially if it's done clean, Old School clean, that is, with no camming. Cunning placement (your ass is puckered, try there) is the key.
Unfortunately, Mike had a semi-flakey reputation, climbing-wise, both among the residents of Camp 4 and historically. I thought about the term Flakey Mikey, but that is not appropriate nor the least bit "cool" for such a hip guy, one whose other accomplishments, outside of climbing, were sophisticated in comparison to my own feeble efforts and those of many others. (I needed to look up the exact meaning of "contingency" in reading his essay on crisis, not to mention a few other words.) It would be an injustice, Erik, to bestow it on your dad, per our discussion, simply because it doesn't do justice. His own generation, those who occupied the Camp 4 sites just prior to my era saw fit not to nick-name Mike, so far as I know. He's just Mike Borghoff the wordsmith for most of us, and an unknown quantity for me, except for this one all-too-brief, but enjoyable, encounter with what was then "Old School." Not to mention his writings. Brilliant guy all-around.
"Whymper never climbed 5.10."--Sheridan
But I saw to it that Mike got his ass up and managed to help him get some measure of satisfaction, though he was not truly happy with his performance. I wish I could say I made him laugh so hard he fell off, but that's not what happened. I can easily overlook his "for real" faux pas, which was in deriding his own efforts. Modesty is only becoming in virgins.
The climb went smoothly, until the beginning of p4. I led and he tried to make the step-across but couldn't commit to the move despite a nearly-vertical upper belay. I could relate, because it's not very easy and it's trickier than it seems the first time. He hacked it. There's no other way to describe it. He just said F it and relied on the rope to allow him to complete the passage.
I liked his attitude. He seemingly would rather do that than hold us up. He was the experienced one, so who was I to judge? And I have thought of this need to get on with the climb rather than to fiddle-fart around with a meaningless step-across or other tech-a-nique a fussy individual might try to look good. it is a sensible attitude when speed is necessary to avoid crises.
Not all have the grace in the vertical plane of a Comici. The Flakes seems more Dolomite to me than Yo, IMO. Not having climbed the Dos, but seen lots and lots of photos of guys doing the "Co-Do" style and grinning into the camera, I feel not far wrong in that assessment. I beg correction, those who've been there, or corroboration.
I suppose I am rationalizing Mike's rather selfless act. I truly don't wish to make him look bad. I try to have as much fun as possible on a climb, and I shared this ideal with Larry Moore and Dillis, but not so much with the Reverend. We were rather more serious as a team. More bent on giving it our damnedest and playing "tech-a-nique" to the max. But I know Mike enjoyed the rest of the climb. It was just that one sequence. NBD, really, in terms of having accomplished our goal. And it serves well to categorize Mike's ability. It gives me no better satisfaction to say we did the climb well enough together that it was enjoyable, memorable, and satisfying. Only two things missing there, money and sex. Plenty other places to find them out of the realm of verticality.
I remember he wasn't too sanguine about his ability to keep up with me. I'd been hitting it hard for months and he was not in good form, to put it politely, but he was more than willing to go on it, since he admired the hell out of Sacherer and Powell. For my part, I was eager to lead all the pitches rather than swing them. And I wanted to be able to say that I had climbed with someone who had climbed with those giants, since I had lost the chance to climb with either of the first ascensionists: It would be a small feather for my cap, but very validating for my career as a climber.
He was in old Krons and I was in RDs. We both wore moss green downies and Levis. My long hair, his golden coiff. Near twins, except in brain power. I wish I had taken the Instamatic. Pictures. Sigh. Always the same old story.
Having read the article Moments of Crisis (and I really thank you for steering me here, Erik), I have more of an ikling of what may have been going on in that great brain during our climb. I will look forward to climbing The Flakes with you and Skip, Erik, should the chance ever come our ways, and chooting the chit about the Man and his thinking. Kind of the Circle Game. Round, up, down.
And Happy Anniversary, Lovebirds!
This is my gift.
Small edit: The description of Yobears could extend to the dirtbag climber as well with some reservations. I never begged.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Sep 22, 2012 - 11:03pm PT
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Thanks for the wonderful post MFM - it jolts some long forgotten memories, and creates a whole new perspective at the same time.
A really wonderful gift you have given me/us - given well beyond any reasonable time allowance of recollections for this post, and one of the best.
Erik Wolfe Borghoff
Edit: The poem he wrote "Yggdrasil: The tree of Life" was given to me by my mother at a very young age. Hand-written, with a picture of me and Mike.
It made me try to be a poet, which I was never very good at.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Sep 22, 2012 - 11:42pm PT
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Mike Borghoff was one of the most interesting, intelligent and enigmatic characters I met in early 70's Camp 4.... and that, ladies & gentlemen, is saying something!
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