Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 21, 2015 - 02:29pm PT
|
Thanks for the post, Mouse! Yeah, quite the collection of my idols. And, the guy sitting across from me is Tom Choate; very nice guy and good company. He's in his 70s and had climbed Denali earlier that summer for, I think, the eighth time!
|
|
Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 29, 2015 - 03:14pm PT
|
A Bird Birthday Bump!
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Jul 29, 2015 - 03:27pm PT
|
Mark--
I didn't see that last post with Choate's creds. I met him at that function and he told me he's the oldest to have gone to the summit of Denali, I think.
Or, if you will, Choate, Tom, and Long, Dick.
MORE BIRD PHOTOS & STORIES, PLEASE!!!!
|
|
johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
|
|
|
Jul 29, 2015 - 07:05pm PT
|
Everybody's heard about the bird
ba ba ba bird bird bird
the bird is the word.
I can't ever hear enough about the bird.
|
|
Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 1, 2016 - 08:35pm PT
|
Huzzah for the lord of Camp 4 bump!
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Dec 23, 2016 - 03:55pm PT
|
Let the Bird continue to soar....I had some great times with Jim. He inspired multiple generations.
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
|
|
|
Dec 23, 2016 - 04:02pm PT
|
Jim bought me my first underage drink in the Mountain Room Bar, 1978, when it was still in the same building as the Four Seasons.
I've always grinned about that.
I was 17.
|
|
Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Dec 23, 2016 - 04:16pm PT
|
Survival! It's small world time again, were you there for this minor happening?
May of 1978, in the crowded Mountain Room Bar, when Jim Bridwell & his girlfriend politely asked if they could share a table with my Idaho buddy, Mark Mason & me.
Mark & I had been drinking a fair amount of beer, to celebrate our 3rd day of surviving being visiting “turkeys” from Idaho, in Yosemite.
We had some more beer with Bridwell & his girlfriend, while making small talk.
Mark overheard him say something about Upper Cathedral to another person and leaned over and asked him what he thought of Braile Book. Bridwell smiled and said something about really liking the route, since he had done the first ascent. At this point Mark stuck his hand out and said “Yes I knew that, you’re Jim Bridwell aren’t you?”
As they shook hands, I blurted out: “You’re not Bridwell!
Bridwell has a mustache!”
Bridwell laughed, stroked his face, and pleasantly remarked that Bridwell did not now have a mustache.
I stumbled through an apology, then slumped back against the wall with my “red-face,” while Bridwell & Mark chatted pleasantly about climbing.
It was only one beer later that Mark looked seriously at Bridwell and said:
“Do they just pound those chrome-moly pitons into the rock, or what??”
Bridwell looked like he had been pole-axed and could only stare dumbly, while my mind recalled that Mark had been very-impressed by the thin aid-crack on Bishop’s Balcony.
I quickly explained the Bishop’s Balcony aid-crack was what Mark was likely thinking of.
Bridwell now knew he had not one, but two, hopeless idiots sharing his table.
The conversation faltered, and Mark & I soon stumbled out into the night.
|
|
rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
|
|
|
Dec 23, 2016 - 04:40pm PT
|
As an underage drinker in the Mountain Room bar circa 1974 I bought him a few rounds.
To borrow Ament's book title- He was the spirit of the age, probably for longer than any other climbing individual of the 20th century.
|
|
Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 23, 2016 - 04:41pm PT
|
He was the spirit of the age, probably for longer than any other climbing individual of the 20th century.
Here, here! May the Bird continue to soar.
Fritz, thanks for that story about you, Mark Mason, and Bridwell - good stuff.
Survival, Bridwell has always been about helping people around him have newer and bigger experiences!
|
|
Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 28, 2017 - 07:50pm PT
|
Bump for The Bird. How willing has he always been to help us reach in for our biggest nature. One and all - even for those lower on the ladder like me - he would give an encouraging word and a push to go and get it done. You didn't always have to have talent - as long as you showed heart he is your advocate.
|
|
BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
|
|
|
Mar 29, 2017 - 01:09am PT
|
I remember when the Mountain Shop burned down in 1974(?) Jim and Dale Bard were met by the feds coming out of the remains one night on an unannounced fire sale.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Mar 29, 2017 - 07:39am PT
|
Bruce H -- "I remember when the Mountain Shop burned down in 1974(?)
Jim and Dale Bard were met by the feds coming out of the remains one night on an unannounced fire sale."
Didn't happen like that.
Bridwell was the lookout, except him and Dale didn't know there was a stakeout that day.
Dale used my climbing pack with my name on it without me even knowing anything about their plans.
Dale tried to run and escape on the roof of the shop was caught.
They saw my name on the pack he was carrying full of the goods and thought I got away.
During this whole time I was in the broiler room with one of the off duty leo rangers eating dinner.
There was an APB out for me and when I got to C4 I was surrounded by Rangers and apprehended.
They asked where I was in the last hour or so and told them where I was.
They didn't believe me until they called my alibi to confirm.
I still had no clue what was going on at all until Bachar and Kauk showed up a few minutes after the rangers left and told me ......
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Mar 29, 2017 - 09:03am PT
|
The 70's in the Valley were fun. Unfortunately, the "outlaw" nature of life in Camp 4 led to a rift between climbers and rangers that remains to this day.
|
|
i-b-goB
Social climber
Wise Acres
|
|
|
Mar 29, 2017 - 09:45am PT
|
^^^
Ranger Danger vs Ranger Dinner!
|
|
life is a bivouac
Trad climber
Bishop
|
|
|
Mar 29, 2017 - 02:34pm PT
|
I kind of remember, what might have started the "bad blood", was the "Stoneman Bridge" fiasco. After that, the next year and on, the Feds were all over the place.
That was a long time ago; perhaps Werner or another can shed more light on this. Before that happened, "we" still had a good low profile relationship with those dog gone Rangers...
Cheers Russ
|
|
Rollover
climber
Gross Vegas
|
|
|
Sep 18, 2017 - 10:12pm PT
|
We hit it off immediately
I had Camels
Just gassing up
Semi-blazing mush (booms)
From the night before
Mobil Mart or whatever it was
Beater wagon rolls up to the pump
Bridwell and 2 super fit dudes
WAY poor communication
In shitty what sounded like pig Czech and Spanish mixed together
Jim instructed them to gas the beast and sniffed out my smoke instantly
Over he came
My 19yr old protégés Jason and Jason respectively
Murmured reclusively and warned of the oncoming Bird
In stark contrast
Jim was THE gentleman of gentlemen as he made his approach
No intimidation factor whatsoever
Then he was on me
As much to bum a cig as much to chat
And snap the filter
Most of you here have the best of the Bridwell stories
Some certainly similar
But none of those could ever be mine
We talked for like two hours
Gassing up
Birthday's a day apart it seems
Same secret areas in Tahoe
Skiing and otherwise
Championship bullshitting
And of course the topic of sport f*#king
Gassing up
I am just a moe
And maaan did we talk
Wasn't the last time
We are both named Jim it seems
|
|
Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
|
|
|
Sep 18, 2017 - 10:37pm PT
|
On an afternoon circa 1966, a very young Jim Bridwell accompanied by a very young, but already bald, Chris Fredericks, came rushing up to me to announce he and Chris and others had just done a first ascent. It’s only 5.7 (Yeah, sure. It’s really 5.8) and it’s an incredible climb. You gotta do it. We named it “The Braille Book”.
Well, we sat down at a table broke out some beers and began chatting about life in general around the Valley. Jim said he was sick and tired of the incessant queries from tourists who would walk up to him and ask if he was a rock climber. This, while he was standing there with a huge hardware rack and two ropes draped over his shoulders. He and Chris were getting some tee shirts made up that stated plainly on front and back, “High Country Spire Repair Service”. They hoped that this would eliminate any further inquiries.
I have used the label “Spire Repair Service” innumerable times since in formulating answers to the inevitable questions from the uninitiated tourist.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!