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Swifter
Social climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Nov 11, 2012 - 05:48pm PT
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Doug mentioned earlier the startup of MGS (Mountaineering Guide Service) in 1959. This was a follow-on to Norman Clyde's guiding the Palisades area in earlier years. MGS was run by Larry and Laurie Williams, who had a tent camp at the Big Pine Creek roadhead and worked out of a camp in Sam Mack Meadow during the summer. (Larry was a chemistry teacher in a high school in Oakland during the non-climbing part of the year. He was a very low-key guy, self-deprecating in the manner of Smoke. I first encountered him while he was leading a UC Hiking Club trip up Mt. Lyell. I thought he was just another "kicker" (i.e. rock-kicker) as Jules Eichorn described those you wouldn't wish to follow up a route. I changed my assessment in the early 60s when I was taking a party up the standard route on N. Palisade and I saw Larry off to the side of the route climbing effortlessly while encumbered with a 16mm camera and tripod tucked under one arm. (A credible story tells of his method for calming down potentially unruly students in his class: He would stand stationary, feet together on the floor and jump landing with both feet atop a standard chemistry work table.)
I guided/instructed for MGS over several summers. In addition to the routine, on one occasion he and Frank "Snake" Sarnquist and I flew out to Honolulu in order to search for a missing young man from a prominent family.
By the mid 60s Larry was coordinating MGS activities with the insipient Mountain Travel(USA). He had leased a Cessna 336 twin engine (push-pull configuration) in order to transport clients from the Bay Area to the eastside. (The company describes the in-line engine configuration as better suited to "...overcome conventional twins' problems of poor engine-out asymmetric flight handling characteristics."
On one weekend in summer 1967 Larry ferried a group of prospective trekkers up to MGS for a session in the basics of off-trail walking in difficult terrain (self-arrests, etc.) On a hot Sunday evening Larry needed to get the party back to the Bay area but could only start one of the 336's two engines. So he off-loaded his people and took off intending to windmill the second engine into life. Unfortunately that second engine failed on takeoff and in an attempt to 180 back to the field, the Cessna crashed, killing Larry.
Don Jensen and I then agreed to take over MGS from Laurie, and at the suggestion of Smoke's two youngest we renamed the enterprise PSOM and...so forth.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 11, 2012 - 06:49pm PT
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As they say "most of his life was obvious."
But this clears things up in a very loving tribute, I thought.
He made sure it was a tribute.
He is a damn fine writer, too.
The pair of Jim and Mouse went to the Pals in '82. While on the trek across the glacier to get to Gayley and Sill, we met with Bardini. It was the only time I ever met him or came close to climbing with him intil then. He was conducting clients, so we didn't stop long to chat. It was a long day ahead. Says a lot about how to treat a client.
From Wikipedia, a list of AAJ articles about/by SB.
American Alpine Journal: 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1972, & 1990
The AAJ is working at this project of making their articles from WAYBACK available online. As yet their files are limited to the RECENTBACK (my word!) the Librarian assures me.
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Dec 27, 2017 - 08:10pm PT
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Does anyone remember the year that the cozy mouse-infested PSOM hut was finally removed/blown-up?
I can't find anything on the 'Net that pinpoints the year of its demise.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Dec 27, 2017 - 09:09pm PT
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good thread bump Robs, thx. Hadn't read those.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 27, 2017 - 10:24pm PT
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Somewhere on this supertopo thing, Don Lauria posted a picture of the Palisades through the window of the old lodge.
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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Soulsbyville, California
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Dec 28, 2017 - 12:32pm PT
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I remember seeing Paul Bacon ski down to Second Lake from the U-notch in June 1962 or 1963 (?) when I was up at the Palisades with a group from the Carlmont Alpine Club led by UC Berkeley world record half-miler Phil Arnot, who taught at Carlmont HS in Belmont.
Seemed like Bacon was one of the guides with the Palisades School of Mountaineering. Was it in existence that far back? Or was this at its embryo phase?
Yes, Larry Williams was there too (after reading the entry in this string above).
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 28, 2017 - 02:02pm PT
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On September 1, 1963, I was an assistant guide with Larry Williams on Thunderbolt Peak. It was the only time I guided with him. I think John(?) Sharsmith was working for him that day.
As for the photo of the Palisades through the cabin window, it hangs on the wall of my living room right next to Norman Clyde's portrait. It was my understanding at the time that the cabin was used as a small shop with fishing and camping do-dads along with a cafe-style food service as evidenced by the salt and pepper shaker and sugar container on the table in front of the window (barely discernable). The Glacier Lodge along with the pack station provided summer camping in tents surrounding the cabin. I can retrieve my photo from Photobucket and reprint it here. Stay tuned.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 28, 2017 - 04:24pm PT
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As per Bob Swift's post above, a glimpse of the roots of the PSOM from Summit May 1966.
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barbara brower
climber
Portland
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Dec 30, 2018 - 11:11am PT
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A VERY late response to Patrick Sawyer's 1971 PSOM memory: I was the cook most of that summer! What I remember most, besides the fun of visualizing my dad's stories about first ascents in the Palisades, was Chris Frederick's preoccupation with chess and the beautiful mug Susan Blanchard made me, which I used in camp. . . and kept for years. She was an amazing potter. . .
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Dec 30, 2018 - 11:21am PT
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Don ( god father ) Lauria... Amazing window panorama photo...Where was that cabin's location...?
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Capt.
climber
some eastside hovel
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Dec 30, 2018 - 12:19pm PT
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Great thread.
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johntp
Trad climber
Little Rock and Loving It
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Dec 30, 2018 - 03:38pm PT
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Bardini Lives!
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California, now Ireland
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2018 - 07:27am PT
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I was just 'informed' by the Rotting John (I hope to meet and climb with him someday) about this thread I started.
Doug Robinson:
Have fun? Fulfill your parents expectations? Yours?
Parents?
Well, yes. I never had a father (he died when I was five months old (1956) my mom, a dentist, never remarried, I am the youngest of five but I never knew my sister Nancy, she died of polio at age seven (1952), but yes my mother was happy that I learned about climbing, proper knots and all (some of which I knew, sailing and Royal's tomes).
I had a great time. The Palisades are so beautiful, perhaps the closest thing the Sierra has to Chamonix.
I have since climbed North Pal, and Temple Crag (both 1973). I want to go back.
Sorry to hear about the problems with John, he seemed a nice chap, but alcohol...
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 31, 2018 - 11:18am PT
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Rotten John:
High above Fourth Lake's "far" shore (far from the glacier), as I recall. The foundations remained for a few years after it was demolished.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Dec 31, 2018 - 11:28am PT
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Thanks Mr. Lauria...stunning view...
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F10
Trad climber
Bishop
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Dec 31, 2018 - 11:29am PT
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Very cool
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 31, 2018 - 03:02pm PT
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When I interviewed Bob Swift on Friday he told an interesting story about taking a group of Mountaineering Guide Service students up to see the Sheelite deposits up near Mount Tom where a small community of the same name was located. Chuck Pratt was along and while they were driving he spied what became Pratt's Crack and had to go and do it with Bob Swift as his belayer. I suspect that is a lost detail in Eastside history. Nobody loved him a fat crack like Chuck. It turned out to be Bob's only Sierra FA that came up during the conversation.
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johntp
Trad climber
Little Rock and Loving It
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Dec 31, 2018 - 04:27pm PT
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A VERY late response to Patrick Sawyer's 1971 PSOM memory: I was the cook most of that summer! What I remember most, besides the fun of visualizing my dad's stories about first ascents in the Palisades, was Chris Frederick's preoccupation with chess and the beautiful mug Susan Blanchard made me, which I used in camp. . . and kept for years. She was an amazing potter. . .
Uhm, err, Barbara Brower posted up. Gold. Thanks for joining the campfire...
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