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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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Got it Russ, thanks. Also registered.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 17, 2009 - 12:23pm PT
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"the little paper plates of our lives were really loaded down again"
And thanks for loading down our little paper plates with another great read!
'Love these things Peter... almost as much as swimming around in the hot water of my offbeat follow-ups. Can't yet see my way through to any non sequitur soggy plate comments here, but where there’s a swill there's a sway.
Say there ... hey...
What about that Vandiver guy?
‘Only met him a couple times, leaning against a mop as it were.
Is it true one of his nicknames was "The Diver"???
Least that's what a nicely-naughty blonde girl I used to get roped up with once told me...
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scuffy b
climber
just below the San Andreas
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Feb 17, 2009 - 12:50pm PT
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Glorius, wonderful really, Peter.
Thanks so much.
sm
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2009 - 02:25pm PT
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Thanks Scuff.
Tarbaby, Vandiver lives in Graegle, CA up near Quincy, north of Truckee last I knew. He has married again, to a fabulous brilliant really attractive solid gal named Lori. They met in SLC a bunch of years ago. I have really liked all three of his wives (g).
Chris is now a builder and Japanese-style woodworker. He often is in the Bay Area on projects. In fact he and I were on the Larry Ellison Japanese Village estate project for awhile in Woodside and also the David Teece estate in Berkeley near the Claremont. He loves woodworking and is good at it. (I got him into it back in 1973). Anyway he does still climb some, pretty fit---hasn't had health issues, and looks about the same as he did in 1970. Amazing.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 17, 2009 - 02:35pm PT
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Interesting how some people hold up so well isn't it?
I'd guess Vandiver will always be lean and fit; lots of talent there.
Well, per your story, it looks like you were The (cliff) Diver on that particular day...
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2009 - 04:50pm PT
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No it's true Tarbaby. Chris was insanely active sexually when he was young. I am thinking maybe the most so of anyone I have ever known. I mean it really got in the way of much of his climbing the first 20 years, truth be told. He was like an Irish Setter really. At the time I was not aware that there actually were that many women in the Valley, surely he would have been in great peril, he might have had to repeat himself!
I think I want to do another short story, this time on Vandiver actually. He was so under-rated, as you suggest. Really talented. We were really close for most of about 25 years and still off and on. He has been through a lot but nowadays has a real, firmly established career, although as with all "private practice" it has its ups and downs. He was instrumental for Galen's career for quite awhile too. RR used to say Vandiver was the only climber he would climb unroped below. He was a ferocious boulderer and incredibly bold, still is by the way.
best p
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 17, 2009 - 05:00pm PT
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Awesome.
'Would love to hear some good Vandiver stories.
Not exactly an unsung/unknown hero, but unheralded to a noticeable degree ... tales of his efforts seem somewhat lacking when you paw through the histories and appreciate the rich tapestry of players.
As a small side note, not that it is by any means the best example of his career or contribution; but are there not some pretty good pictures of him on an overhanging crack somewhere in Tahoe. Something that he had wired and did ropeless on a somewhat routine basis? I think it is 5.11?
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scuffy b
climber
just below the San Andreas
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Feb 17, 2009 - 05:29pm PT
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I got to climb New Dimensions with Chris and Galen in March
1977. It was the 1-year anniversary of my arm-squishing
encounter with a boulder below Arrowhead Spire.
Now, I'd heard stories about New D. Listened in on parking lot
descriptions that were, really, somewhat horrifying. e.g.
the last pitch...handcrack in a flare, then the crack just keeps
getting thinner and thinner, and steeper, and the flare keeps
getting more and more open, and you're just on fingertips with
no good feet...
or
150 ft pitch, and the last 50 feet you're in this relentless
lieback, you can't stop, totally desperate...
So Chris starts leading the last pitch, and, really every few
moves he stops, casually puts in a nut, casually chalks up,
totally resting on foot jams and knee bars.
Toward the top he's standing on these subtle heel/toes, he's
practically sewed the thing up, he's made it look like 5.9 at
the hardest. Busts out a few moves and he's on top.
I follow, with this advanced-class lesson fresh in my mind,
having quite the reasonable time, thinking how bad it would have
been had I been following my natural inclinations and just
tried to gun through it at speed.
I got up to those heel/toes, still fresh, pulled that #7 stopper
out from where he had "clicked" it between two bumps in the
crack, just as he had said, saw the choice of the two jugs at
top. Yes, he was right, if you grabbed the right one, your
balance would be off. Grab the left one and everything's fine
(though I may have that backward).
I think that may have been the biggest impact on my technique
that anybody ever had.
When you watched him climb, you didn't think about his strength
or fitness.
You thought about what a good climb it must be, to make him
move so gracefully.
But, you know, when it came to bouldering, he was also a
consummate sandbagger.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2009 - 05:41pm PT
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That's what I am talking about too. And I guess we should have mentioned somewhere he is like, 58 years old now, still doing it.
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Feb 17, 2009 - 06:16pm PT
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Don’t you think it’s interesting that so many good or accomplished climbers are really such fine writers? From Herzog to Robbins to Rowell to so many others, it’s really pretty amazing. Haan’s accounts are always so compelling and a great pleasure to read. The Valley is such a center of adventure and individual struggle, such a focal point of intense experience and talented, introspective seekers, I wonder why no really great piece of literary fiction has been born there. There are certainly great examples of writing about climbing, accounts of really amazing adventures and so on. But who’s going to write that great novel that defines the experience for all time, that reveals the subtleties of why people are up there glorifying “useless experience,” a novel that gives us a defining sense of the place? Photographers and painters have done it, but I don’t think there is yet a literary equivalent to Watkins or Adams or William Keith. In fact, there are so few works of fiction that deal with climbing and have achieved the quality of literature. Off hand I can only think of Salter’s “Solo Faces.“ It’s time for writers like Haan or someone with that kind of skill and talent to make it happen.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 17, 2009 - 06:30pm PT
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Scuffy Said:
"When you watched him [Vandiver] climb, you didn't think about his strength
or fitness.
You thought about what a good climb it must be, to make him
move so gracefully."
I like that!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 17, 2009 - 06:39pm PT
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I know Paul. Thanks for the comments as well. I do keep working on this in my head and the short stories are my starter kits.
So recently Tarbaby emailed something to that same effect but the problem was his proposed title was "Gone with The Granite". What was he thinking; he's still not through with his Lewinsky period he admits. No seriously, I follow your queries there and I think that excellent writing is rare, to get the overall grip for such a book is going to take some really huge creative thinking---some of it new too---and something much more than a corny approach to the plot or structure at any rate. Cohen had a book out, I guess I should find it and see what he did soon.
best p
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 17, 2009 - 06:45pm PT
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Oh come now, given the correct treatment, I still say that title has legs ...
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Feb 18, 2009 - 12:04am PT
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Peter's Threads don't ever slip by. It's just that their content and intensity need time to absorb and digest...to appreciate to the absolute fullest like a good cigar and a shot of tequila.
This was one of yo best. Your use of the language and phraseology along with how you couple words together to create brain pictures like the "paper plates of our lives" is beyond good.
Peter is a Story Teller from back in the days of Eskimos and Indians. The life of the culture is in the story. In Peter's instance....the climbing culture.
"Blinded by the Dark", Thick Dude. Nice, Lynnie
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Double D
climber
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Feb 18, 2009 - 12:22am PT
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Classic PH, just classic.
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MH2
climber
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Feb 18, 2009 - 12:54am PT
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I fear for your pet turtles.
Thanks for the great look under the lunatic dome of the brilliant Haan skull, birds flitting in the darkness and all.
Quite funny, too.
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Mimi
climber
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Feb 18, 2009 - 12:57am PT
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The title definitely grabbed me.
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 18, 2009 - 12:58am PT
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Where the F__ck is Vandiver now?????
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 18, 2009 - 09:12am PT
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Wern,
check upthread here, I go into where Vandiver is and what he is up to. Last time I checked he was doing great.
best p.
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couchmaster
climber
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Feb 18, 2009 - 10:58am PT
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Fish said: These posts are exactly why there needs to be a SuperTaco depository of non-BS stuff. I'm down stream arguing with Jebus, and this one slipped right on by..... the shame!
Thanks Peter! You 'da man!
This may have been repeated over 90 times and still these great stories just disappear off the face of the earth on this site. I'm nominating you Russ since you already have it started on the Fish site! Since this extra work will undoubtedly conflict with rock time, I'd recommend giving some internet savy kids the keys and telling them to load it up! Eventually people will just post to both places on their own.
Peter, awesome story telling for sure!
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