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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Greg is the greatest. He has sandbagged me more times than I can remember.
The first: I had just moved to San Diego, it was 1985ish. I was hiking down Mission Gorge road with Mooney and Freriks. Along comes a Toyota 4x4 and out pops Eppie. Freriks already knew him. Freriks says something like "cool here is Ep, he is a local and can show us the classics." Greg hops out, he doesn't even have his shoes or chalkbag on. We are heading for the "Pink Boulder." We are walking along the road and Ep deadpans "huh, look at that wierd boulder." It is like a nose, jutting out over the abyss of the canyon from road level. There is huge exposure and an injury guaranteeing fall into the jagged boulders below. My trained climbers eye doesn't even see a line. Suddenly he sprints ahead turns perpendicular to the road and leaps like superman out over the abyss. He latches the end of the nose and does an incredibly dynamic mantel onto the very end. Our jaws drop, our hands sweat, we are flabbergasted by this "impromtu" performance. Greg says something like "huh, that was cool." We were so blown away we just followed him in awe without really knowing what to think.
I have since seen him pull similar moves that years later put that one into some kind of perspective.
The last: It was the 2nd Josh climbers rendevouz. I see Ep, Linh Nguyen, Dave and Jen Wonderley and John Sherman hanging in the parking lot.I go over to chat and someone says "let's go climb something." Eppie says, "I know a new Gordo 5.7 near by, how about that?" We are all psyched, I mean a 5.7 isn't too threatening, it sounds like fun and we are off. We get there and Greg is trying to get me to take the lead. Luckily John volunteers to lead and heads up. The rock doesn't look all that great and John hesitates a bit. He soon makes the top while making comments about "kinda' feelin' a little out of it" and the rest of us follow in turn. When I see Linh hesitate I am thinking "hmmm", I am a little worried. My turn comes and whoa, I can barely keep my feet on the horendously gritty smears. I barely pull it without skating. All of us reply in turn, "that is the hardest 5.7 I have done in years."
The next morning I see Todd at the rendevouz and ask him about the route. He says "dude that route is 10b and some of the worst rock in the park!" Well.....he should know!
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Greg E is the man with the killer pics! He was also nice enough to take the time to draw me a custom map of the approach to the Hulk, but I still managed to slog my way through the swamp despite his fine art work. :)
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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Here's to Greg! Hey don't you have a birthday comin' up in the NEAR future Greg???? Happy early Birthday to you, ya don't look a day over 49!
Peace
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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A cool bitd friend, truly. Having a Pacifico with Epi on the front deck one day just hanging. He's a thoughtful, kind dude you can kinda share your dreams with. Told him I'd like to write and he totally encouraged me to go for it.
Thanks Guy, had some stuff published since then. Peace and a toast to the great memories...lrl
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T2
climber
Cardiff by the sea
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Greg is a "class act" in my opinion. He has a wonderful friendly spirit.
My wife of 18 years now had no connection with any climbing, climbers, or any activities related to climbing when we first started dating some 20 years ago. I had taken her to Tuolumne for her first experience in Yosemite or even the great outdoors for that matter. I don't believe she had ever slept out side before this trip, she was a complete noob in my little climbing camping world (sorry Babe but it's true.) At some point we cross paths with Eppi, I say Hello Greg he smiles says hello Tommy, Hi Chris. My girlfriend says hello Greg. I am like WTF you guys know each other? Turns out Chris had done some work for Greg printing his buisness cards and what not back in San Diego.
I ran into Greg the last time I was climbing in Josh about a month ago. He and I joked and had a chuckel about how we think she secretly had a crush on him back then. She denies it to this day, but I do remember her commenting on how beautiful she thought his long hair was at the time. When she said that I thought "thats no big deal I can farm hair to" Hehe LOL
Greg your a good man! I am proud to say I know you.
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Here he is again;....up by the Sisters....
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