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Bldrjac
Ice climber
Boulder
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Dec 30, 2007 - 10:26am PT
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bump...
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 11:18am PT
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I have to contribute to this thread. Chuck was really unique, obviously became even more so as the decades added up. I knew him in the early 1970’s. He and Davis beat Peterson and I to the FA of the Heart Direct, much to our dismay, and my private relief. Chuck was incredibly independent, bowing to no one, deeply interested in being here, and at the same, unusually casual about it. Very nice, classy guy. Although we all do go, it is a bitch when we do. And for him, a rather tough way to go too. And I also had been hearing about him through Rob Miller (Platinum Rob) who knew him from Telluride. I thought that Chuck was fighting cancer for quite awhile, much more than 5 months, but some years.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Dec 30, 2007 - 12:17pm PT
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When Chuck was up on El Cap in the late 60s it was almost like an unchartered ocean, and he (and Scott Davis), a kind of Columbus or de Leon. Should the rest of us be so lucky to have had those kinds of experiences . . .
JL
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 12:42pm PT
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Yeah, Johno. There were only 7 routes by that point, and all the really desperate, exposed routes were still left to be done. Though Robbins called it “a mopping up operation”, actually unbelievably important climbing was still to be done, all over the Stone. It wasn’t even clear if such climbing could be done by anyone, and how. The sense terror and wonder was constant! Those seven routes were classic expressions of a previous generation, RR's and Frosts et al. But they did not in the end actually comprise what would be the only definitive statement made on features and in the Valley.
I certainly do envy Chuck’s and Scott’s experience on that route....it was only a matter of two or three days that Peterson and I missed out. I have to think it might not have gone well though; Don was very hard to be around and the route was not trivial. But back to your point, those really were incredibly adventurous years. Looking up at El Cap and other huge walls was very very different than what it is like gazing on the formation today. The big wall free climbing movement has restored or rather turned the corner for us and made those routes, though not everlastingly tame, completely fresh again in really challenging ways, really creative ways. But I do, as you do, actually yearn a lot, for that same sense of absolute otherworldliness one got, just walking along the base back in the early 1960’s and for a bunch of years afterwards.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 03:20pm PT
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The Valley walls were wilderness in the truest sense a half century ago. Salathe showed us the way with style and RR, Frost and Harding, to mention a few, took up the gauntlet with gusto. In conversation with TM Herbert about the time period, he made the observation that once he and Yvon had completed the Muir Wall in impeccable style in 1965 "it had all been done" and the game moved on to the bigger ranges. Just a little hard to wrap your mind around that concept. El Cap climbed out in 1965 with a half dozen routes in place!
Chuck and Scott were the next generation to raise the bar in a meaningful way with respect to preparation and style.
Peter- were you guys also eyeing up the Dawn Wall area before moving left for a project? Did you experience any pressure or deterence from the Bridwell/Schmitz camp or did you have some local immunity? Doing a long route with Peterson could have been pretty interesting ala Tis-sa-ack. LOL
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 08:19pm PT
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Hi Steve, actually there was “work” already being done on the beginning of the Dawn Wall area, sort of. A fixed line was hanging there forever. Schmitz/Bridwell were kind of tinkering around with it and were having a hard time just charging the thing. They were quite worried about it as one expect, back 37 years ago. The Aquarian was the next I think, and they took quite a bit of time getting that done too. We were all intimidated and worried about the next level of wall climbing; we knew it was going to be just so very hard and dangerous. And we were right of course. Plus the previous generation had not seen much more to do, so we had to wonder if we were really off-based risking our lives in renewed interest in Big Routes On The Capitan! Maybe the Grand Adventure was out of it, but the technical ferocity was ramping up something horrible!
Yeah, a long new, unknown route with Don P......thank god that did not happen. Bridwell and Schmitz wanted us to go up on the Heart Direct line immediately, and it was more their idea than mine, frankly. They were friends and partners of mine btw, and we were already kind of pooling resources and info, in our manner of very early Stonemasters. In fact they were quite pushy, in a good way, and were keeping tabs on Kroger. Scott and Chuck were total outsiders, just blew in from Stanford, no less, and encountered a reasonably cool attitude from us but not much better. Don and I were not going to fix the route either, just alpine-style it, just as they did. They just kind of took a mild mannered, low key and private approach, as one always has to when competing for an important FA, and bam, then it was done a week and half later. Great, novel, fresh approach and obviously a tremendous experience for the two of them.
I saw Chuck once more, a few years later at Stanford, congratulated him heartily and tried to make friends with him, but he was actually rather vacant and unresponsive to everyone.
best PH
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 30, 2007 - 08:32pm PT
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Several times up thread, people have referred to the route as the "Heart Direct", rather than the Heart Route. The latter being the name the Kroger and Davis gave the route, avoiding use of the word "wall". In the absence of a previous route in the area using the word "heart", it seems a bit odd to call it the Heart Direct. But perhaps there's a story there.
Even in relation to the feature called the Heart, the route doesn't seem all that direct. I suppose the Salathe could be considered the Heart Indirect, but that's stretching it a way.
It sounds like Kroger and Davis were known in the Valley, just that they didn't stay there much. Four ascents of El Capitan in a year, including the third of the North America Wall and the sixth of the Dihedral, and all in good time/style, speak for themselves.
When was the second ascent of the Heart Route?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 11:42pm PT
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Anders, , that is right they would not hang with us but were good wall climbers obviously. And adventurers. They hit the Valley at the right time for the plums they picked and did deserve these various ascents. There were social differences between us that they kept discrete and clear, albeit passively. Kind of a Palo Alto thing; I won’t go on about this but I have spent an enormous amount of time there professionally over 40 years and my dad got his PhD there as well. And I know of what I speak. But beyond this, it seems that very often it has been the outsiders that got things moving. We have tended to get stuck as locals.
The Heart Route was originally called the Heart Direct amongst us prior to it actually having been climbed in 70. Since it was their ascent, I should be calling it that, but it has been ever so long ago now that I did in fact slip up and someone never returned my Big Wall Yosemite book.... It certainly is not out of disrespect. Chuck and Scott’s title is just fine of course; just force of habit after all these years. And as far as being “direct” or not, after the highly wandering Salathe, just about any route nearby would have to be termed “direct” Anders! And there were hardly any routes at all on El Cap then.
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Anne-Marie Rizzi
climber
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Dec 30, 2007 - 11:46pm PT
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First, I became friends with Kathy Green. She was a ranger in the valley in the mid-70s, I think working the new concept of a "mall ranger" coupled with "shuttle bus ranger." For those of you who were lucky enough to be there, she was the tall one with curly red hair---no perms needed for her. She lived up to her last name by starting the first recycling center in the valley and, off-duty, hauling all her stuff around in a little red wagon. She broke the mold for a LE ranger and befriended most of the mall C4 bums and had us all over to her house regularly for showers and chow and heat and company. I met Mike Corbett through her…
Kathy was already involved with Chuck by that time, but they were doing the long-distance romance thing.
So finally, Chuck came to visit and we met and decided to climb a short route for fun. Some left-facing book on the Apron. However, the crack was running with water. Chuck easily led the first pitch but I could barely get off the ground. I was embarrassed but Chuck said it was a good day anyway.
Throughout the ensuing 30+ years, I've stayed friends with them both. Visits back and forth, mainly at their home in Puerto Penasco, then Telluride, and some at my homes. We waned in and out of seeing each other but always kept in touch.
Chuck introduced me to trail running, an endeavor he loved. In fact, it was only after dropping out of the Hardrock 100 this year (which he had completed many years) that he was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer.
He was unconventional but in an unaffected way, just a brilliant mind---when he asked questions, he was truly inquiring---in a hard body of a man who never seemed to comb his hair. He was at ease in the outdoors as in dining at the Ahwahnee (and dressed the same for both).
Kathy and Chuck were the most generous people I've known, period. Hosting everyone with warmth and equanimity and concern for them. Just after he died, Kathy wrote, "Early in his illness, Chuck told me that our best asset was all of our friends ...he was so right."
Anne-Marie
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Dec 31, 2007 - 12:10am PT
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Anne-Marie wrote: Chuck told me that our best asset was all of our friends ...he was so right.
The older I get the more I believe that friends are one's only asset. I know that Chuck had a stack of them, meaning he died a rich man.
JL
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Dec 31, 2007 - 10:02am PT
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Has anyone been up Chuck's Via Ferrata in Telluride? It sounds like a masterpiece. Would love to hear more about it.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 31, 2007 - 09:35pm PT
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Chuck repeated the Spring Route 5.9 A4 on Baboquivari Peak near my hometown Tucson back in the seventies. I believe that he bagged the third ascent before 1975 when I did the fourth. The route is usually done as a short grade VI and was put up by Bill Forrest and George Hurley as an even longer route below Lion's Ledge in the early seventies. Does anyone know who Chuck's partner was for that adventure? I don't think that he soloed the route. It was the first mention of his name that I can recall outside of the Heart Route.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Anders- From RR's El Cap commentary tabulation in Mt. 25, the second ascent of the Heart Route happened in 1971 and went to Jimmy Dunn, Roy Klingfield and the late Dr. Andrew Embick in six days! The Heart Route required only 27 bolts making it even that much more impressive.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Amazing to me that I don't think I ever met Chuck, but he was an inspiration. As an outsider to the Valley, he would show up, do a good route or two, and leave. This was counter to the local wisdom that you needed a long Valley apprenticeship before doing anything hard. Chuck and Scott were a bit like Kor in that regard--go anywhere, climb anything.
I'm sorry he's gone.
-Jeff
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Anne-Marie Rizzi
climber
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He was one of the first people I knew to take up unicycling. And then that unicyle went on every road trip.
Anne-Marie
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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God's speed sir.
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Weekend Warrior
Trad climber
Palo Alto, CA
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I last saw Chuck in April 1972. Despite the lapse of almost 36 years, I remember our few encounters clearly.
When I arrived at Stanford in 1967, I was an aspiring distance runner who knew nothing of climbing, but fate decreed that my roommate would be Russ Van Dyke. While he also arrived with no climbing knowledge, he encountered SAC on reg day and signed up. While I was running on the frosh X-country team, Russ was learning to climb.
At the end of X-country season, I developed tendonitis in my Achilles tendon. Despite treatments, this condition persisted through track season and into the summer. When I returned in the fall of 1968, my tendon was still not fit for competitive running, Russ was, once again, my roommate and I was ready to try climbing. Chuck was Club president and BCOC.
My first trip to Yosemite was the traditional 1st outing to Tuolumne. Chuck was one of the trip leaders. On Saturday, he took a group of other beginners to do something which at this date is irretrievably lost in the archives. Meanwhile, I was doing my 1st 5th class rock climb, The Great White Book, with Russ and Ken Cox On Sunday, the Club went en mass to the Echo Peaks, where I saw Chuck in action for the first time.
The second and last time -- and the only time I climbed with him -- was on a Club trip to the Valley a short time later. Chuck, another beginner whose name I no longer recall, Russ and I headed to the base of El Cap. Chuck and the other beginner stopped to do the Right Side of Little John. As Russ and I headed for La Cosita's Left Side, we wondered about this choice as we knew that Chuck's partner couldn't climb 5.8.
Arriving at La Cosita, Russ took the sharp end and headed up the hill. About 40' up, he fell, pulled a pin (yes, piton) that he'd just placed and continued plummeting earthward. Fortunately, his next piece held and I stopped him about 10' off the deck. Russ had suffered only a few scrapes, but he was in no frame of mind to continue -- and I was no leader. While we sat wondering how we would retrieve the gear, Chuck and company walk up; his partner having failed to get very far on Little John. Problem solved: Chuck led, effortlessly it seemed to me as I struggled to follow. Chuck then TR'ed the 5.9 variation, while I and the others watched in amazement.
By April 1972, I thought I was ready for a bigger El Cap route, The Nose. So, in early April, Chip Caroon, Rick Boyce and I set out in a downpour. It rained all day and into the night. We got soaked. After spending a miserable night on Sickle, the 3 of us and 2 haul bags stuffed inside a 2 person tube tent, dawn greeted us with black clouds whipping though the Valley accompanied by brief showers. We were in no mood for more rain and while we sat glumly trying to decide if we should bail, Chuck walked up to the base. We had difficulty understanding him, but, as I learned later, he could understand us well. We, of course, wanted to know what the weather forecast was. Chuck, after some smart ass remarks, let on that it was supposed to clear. It did and we continued.
So long, Chuck. You cast a big shadow back when I was learning to climb. My heart goes out to your friends and family.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 24, 2008 - 11:38am PT
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Thanks for the link Anne-Marie.
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