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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2011 - 09:52pm PT
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Mighty, use your imagination or having a slow day try Google.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 10, 2011 - 09:54pm PT
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Werner-I bet you were hoping to get a look at some of those old Salathe pins on display at North Face? eh
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 10, 2011 - 10:35pm PT
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Get a loada Doda! My google definitely runneth over...LOL
Thanks for joining in Chris!
These recollections are pure gold!
Where did Doug Tompkins grow up?
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Jan 10, 2011 - 11:15pm PT
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Anyone here done any routes on Doda Dome in Tuolumne? Silicone Corner?
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 10, 2011 - 11:29pm PT
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guido
Yeah that North Face shop was the real North face climbing shop.
It was a really cool place.
I used to go to the electronics row down on Market Street mostly back then.
Things sure have changed in the world, mostly for the worst.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 12, 2011 - 10:15pm PT
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Dick- When did that name originate? There has to be a story...
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Jan 13, 2011 - 12:08am PT
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Hennek's cabin on Mono Lake
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 13, 2011 - 12:28am PT
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Nice!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 13, 2011 - 01:12am PT
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Hey Boo that is cool.
Terry King and I were on our way to Jackson Hole to deliver a sign for Tim at the Calico Pizza. King was a superb wood carver and if Mr King was around good times were in the making. We helped Dennis on the outward trip and again when we returned. The Paiute Tribe paid a couple dollars to Eastwood for the rights to all the wood from the movie set.. Something like 300,000 board feet. Oddly enough there use to be lumber barges on Mono that transported the wood for the construction of Bodie.
On a quick historical side note, Hennek's dad started the restaurant Bodie Mike's after immigrating from LA.
On the outward journey Hennek had a number of Paiutes working with him. On the return they had all bailed out and Dennis was a solo act. King and I were in a little bit of hot water because we had hung a dummy from the center of the bell tower before we left. Dennis's brother was married to the daughter of the chief of the Paiute tribe. Cannot remember how we talked our way out of that mess but most likely Hennek took all the flak.
I remember all the structures were framed at minimum probably 4ft on center since it was a movie set. Some were two stories high. We picked up Hennek's building with a backhoe and and had it on a flatbed trailer. As we drove around the lake things kept falling off. Pretty funny now to visualize it. Dennis did a super job on the "remodel" and it was a great hang out for the East side. One of the upper bunks had about 12 inches above your head anyone sleeping in that bunk had a perennial bump on the head.
Wonderful times, partying, climbing and skiing and when Harper was around we could always stir up a fight or two at June Lake. I had a key to the Tioga gate and I remember taking Galen up there one winter day so he could ski down to the Valley. Turbo Rowell.
I think Dennis spent a good year there. A most spiritual and growing period for Von Hennek.
Hell, I'm starting to sound like Ramblin Jack Elliot.....................
Then there is the story about climbing into the pen of Arnold the #350 pig as a dare. The last person to mess with Arnold had lassoed him from his horse and Arnold dam near broke the riders back. King and I barely got out alive. Dam that was one mean and fast pig.................................
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Jan 13, 2011 - 01:52am PT
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Chris,
I'm glad you remember our little ski tour. I think of it fondly too.
It seemed little enough to me, the winter after skiing the John Muir Trail. Parcher's Camp was a resort up the South Fork of Bishop Creek. I talked myself into a job -- or at least a cabin -- as the winter caretaker. In the footsteps of Clyde, you know. It's kind of squeezed into deep shaded forest in that canyon, though, without much of a view. Nothing like the winter before up the Middle Fork at Cardinal Village, where you could see off toward the crest of the Sierra. And I had no company until you showed up.
We skied three miles up the road and stoked the old Ashley stove. Then we headed on up canyon. That was hard skiing too, even the next mile of twisty, narrow road. It got worse above, where you had to sidehill through willows above South Lake. I had been practicing the fast section down the road, so by the time you arrived I had the timing down to pre-jump the double windbumps. It was tricky at speed, and I'll never forget your classic assessment, "Ski touring is a sport for fit men!"
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jan 13, 2011 - 07:21am PT
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Back in the days before the Chinese made everything so cheap, Americans actually made their own clothes and gear to save money. I remember buying nylon cloth and thread and a big bag of down from North Face which sold them in bulk. I was even allowed to go back into the sewing room to watch new equipment being made and get some tips on how to handle down and nylon. Having an actual quilt for the bed instead of using our double bag for a quilt seemed like the height of luxury at the time.
One of the differences between a middle class climber and a dirt bag in those days was literally what kind of sleeping bag a person could afford. And of course the patching varied too. It turned out that many of our old army sleeping bags were so old, you couldn't sew them as that would shred the cotton fabric further and no one could afford a lot of large North Face nylon patches with bicycle tire glue. Hence, sleeping bag repair by duct tape was invented.
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Jan 13, 2011 - 10:50am PT
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Steve, I wasn't around when Doda Dome got its name, but I always thought that some horny climber saw what looked like a giant tit emerging from the forest and named it for the owner of the most famous giant breasts of the time. Of course it could be fun to imagine a more involved and detailed explanation.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 15, 2011 - 03:05pm PT
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There has to be a good story around that name. I wonder who the FA team was?
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storer
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jan 15, 2011 - 11:08pm PT
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I bought a pair of Sohler skis from the North Face from Tompkins himself, probably 1964. This was a big purchase, probably $45 but that was a lot of money for a poor Berkeley student. It sure didn't leave me enough to see Carol Doda and her twin 44's next door. Previously I only had army skis and then wooden Northlands. The latter were fitted with Touren Zusatz and Marker cable bindings.These allowed you to bypass the rear cable clip and lift your heel for touring. A great setup used on many Sierra tours.
For downhill a lift pass at Signal Hill was $2 and rope-gripper rent was 50 cents. One could camp outside Clair Tappaan Lodge but use the library to study, especially at Spring break. Big splurge was a day at Sugar Bowl, $7.
Best part; The Chinaman's cafe inside the snow sheds with hot coffee after a cold night. Anybody remember that?
The Sohlers were noodles but they were a big step up in class.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 16, 2011 - 02:20pm PT
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More golden nostalgia please!
So was Doug Tomkins a California boy from the outset or did he move to Berkeley from elsewhere?
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jan 16, 2011 - 03:39pm PT
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I started out on wooden Northlands skis that I earned from baby sitting. The Marker cable bindings were great for cross country but hard on the knees if you took a fall doing downhill. They didn't call them bear traps for nothing.
And I used to get a special discount for locals at Aspen Highlands - $2 a day.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 23, 2011 - 01:50pm PT
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What a deal! Some areas are a hundred times that now. LOL
Who was behind Class 5 equipment? Anyone know the principals involved? I don't think they made it past the mid-seventies but were based around Berkeley if I recall correctly.
I had an outlandishly loud for the time fuscia colored 60-40 jacket that earned me the nickname "The Purple Streak" to go along with Steve Sitzmark on my first outing on skiis with the Udall clan long ago. They were big on greenhorn sacrifice for its entertainment value and I didn't disappoint!
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scuffy b
climber
Three feet higher
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Jan 24, 2011 - 12:20am PT
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The only name I ever heard associated with Class 5 was Justus Bauschinger.
He certainly was involved with design, but i don't know if he was a
principal.
I always believed him to be a Ski Hut/Trailwise alum, along with almost
everyone else in the business.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Jan 24, 2011 - 01:10am PT
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I hitched a ride from Camp 4 to San Francisco with Doug and Susie and camped out in their little apartment. Doug immediately introduced me to a recording he liked by a little known song writer and singer named Bob Dylan. With my background in professional concert violin, I was politely unsure what to make of his music.
Then he hired me to work in his shop mounting skis and doing some of the book keeping. I think the three of us were the main one's running the store at that time.
The drafty board ceiling of the downstairs ski shop was the floor of Carol Duda's stage. It was a bit hard at times to concentrate on setting the dimensions for ski bindings.
We participated that year in the ski exposition at the Cow Palace. The stars of the show were Austrian ski champions Anderer Molterer and Pepi Gramshammer, demonstrating their new short-swings technique on a cocoa rope matted ramp. The third attraction for each show was me climbing up a rope to the center beam of the huge room and then rappelling down.
Then I got a job at Fireman's Fund American Insurance and worked up to managing their big computer floor of IBM main frames. For a while I was working three jobs; night shift at Fireman's Fund, day job as bookkeeper for Gerry Mountain Sports on Grant Avenue, and evenings at The North Face on Columbia Avenue.
That work schedule allowed me to get my own apartment and make the payments on a bright red MG Midget (poor man's Lotus) for the weekend races to Yosemite with Frank's jalopy and Galin's 289 AC Cobra. Galin let me drive up to Tuolumne and back one day just to see what I was missing; until we realized from the smell of hot brakes that I was driving without releasing the hand brake.
I never forgot still owing Doug $117 for a new pair of Tony Sailer honeycomb fiberglass skis that I used for many years after losing track of him. I hate to think what that might be worth if it was an investment instead of a debt.
I lost track of him to walk up the coast with my girl friend and a copy of Euell Gibbon's book 'Stalking the Blue-eyed Scallop'.
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