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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 26, 2010 - 01:01pm PT
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Holiday Bump!
Is Mothers still open for breakfast or long gone? It was a Boulder institution BITD!
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Dec 26, 2010 - 10:32pm PT
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Thanks for starting this thread, Chiloe!
Even though I never climbed the Edge, the memories that the scenes of Eldorado bring back are special to me...
Also wonderful are the memories of friends of a bygone time; Layton, Pat, Bob, Larry, and a myriad of others.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2011 - 12:23pm PT
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brokedownclimber:
Also wonderful are the memories of friends of a bygone time; Layton, Pat, Bob, Larry, and a myriad of others.
When Jimmy Dunn and Billy Westbay made an early ascent of the NA Wall, back in 1971, a lot of us in Camp 4 were impressed. Jimmy had a memorable response to the praise:
"There are two North America walls. The one you climb, made of rock like any other route. And another one ten feet behind you in the mist, you never see but it's always in your mind."
On my rare visits these days I feel two Eldorados, the one of rock and another of mist, that formed more than 4 decades ago when it all felt so new. As in the story that kicked off this thread.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 11, 2011 - 02:41am PT
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Move over Denny and Frost. How about this one for a nice shot,
with my first little camera, at age 14...
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 11, 2011 - 11:10am PT
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Yes Kevin, I'm sure I could probably put it into Adobe and bring out
some detail. I still have the old original shot... I probably didn't make a very good scan, just a basic one on a cheap scanner... I might have to dig out some of these old shots...
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Jan 11, 2011 - 11:44am PT
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Damn! I didn't know you did the second ascent of the Naked Edge, Pat! Jeez Louise! Did you do an early free ascent also?
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 11, 2011 - 02:16pm PT
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Well, I could tell you a story about all that. I was actually the
first person to think about doing the Naked Edge free. It
occurred to me when Layton and I did the second ascent. I then got to
becoming a free climber, in company with Rearick and Royal, and then
was bouldering a lot with Gill, and being on the University of
Colorado gymnastics teams, and so forth. I had it right there in focus
and would have done it, certainly, when the bottom fell out of my life
in 1967. I had a horrid experience that shook me to the core and caused
me, for a time, to give up longer climbs. I mean, to make the shortened
version of a long story, when I went up on longer climbs I had the
strangest urge to unrope and jump. I never did, because I didn't
want to endanger my companion... Anyway, until I could work all that
out I mostly bouldered and did
very hard shorter climbs for a few years... I mean, now and then Pratt
would talk me into a big wall in Yosemite, such as Sentinel, or something,
but I was in a healing period (the ravages of the '60s, let's say). When
Jim Erickson moved to Boulder, in the early '70s, he and I climbed
and hob-knobbed together. There were some good laughs during those years,
such as the night Jim and I got horrifically drunk at the Sink, and
walking back to his tiny apartment two blocks away in the rain, I
was approached by a blanket-clothed hippie who asked if there was a
place out of the storm. I said, "Sure, come on over to Jim's place.
You can sleep on the floor." Jim's eyebrow rose a bit, that I would
feel I should offer his place. Well, about 40 hippies lined up at his
door, all the one hippie's friends. One by one they snuck in, so the
landlord wouldn't see them as a big group. They filled the entire
floor of Jim's apartment, snored, stunk, wet, awful humanity, and
Jim and I slept together in his one-man bed, side by side, kept awake
all night by the breathing and farting and snoring... Ok, back to the
story. Jim couldn't get off the ground on my easiest boulder problem, but on steep routes he had these Devil's Lake Popeye forearms and
unbelievable endurance/staying power, determination. He got
real determined to free everything, even dumb little routes we specifically
did to practice aid and could have free climbed in our sleep had we
wanted to... whatever. But lo and behold I one day shared with him my dream, to do the Naked Edge free. I told him he should do it, that I
probably wouldn't be in the right mind for another year or two or more.... So this became his big dream, then. I started coming out of my darkness
and was in really good shape and could have gone up and done it, but since
I had gotten Erickson stoked on it I decided to give it to him and let him
have it. I watched as he finally succeeded. I climbed up solo on Redguard over to the right and actually took some super8 footage of him and Duncan, apparently the only shots of their historic first ascent. I then went to the top and shot some more looking down the last pitch. I greeted them, and they were riding high... For some reason I didn't go back to the route, as it was almost better left to imagination, but one evening when it was about an hour from dark, after I had led a 5.12 on the West Ridge, I had an urge to go up and see how hard the first pitch of the Edge was. My friend and I raced up, and I led the first pitch straightaway. It seemed like about 5.7 to me, as I was in good shape, and my fingers were strong. At that moment in time I could do 150 fingertip pullups in five minutes, and various presses to handstands, such as a slow hollowback off the floor. I once even did a plange, a difficult C move on the floor. But I was in shape, and in dark we rappelled off, and I never returned. On the other hand, I repeated routes such as Vertigo and Northwest Corner of the Bastille probably thirty times each. I did Supremacy Crack 60 times (sure, a good climber could almost do it that many time in a day, if s/he wanted to). I wasn't setting records, just casually going back to routes I loved. I kept thinking I would do the Naked Edge free in my old age. It hasn't happened yet... something strange and mystical about it all... Mark you
should come out and finally take me up the thing!
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Jan 11, 2011 - 02:46pm PT
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You're on, Pat! I'll make sure to get a hold of you next time I'm in Colorado!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Jan 11, 2011 - 03:14pm PT
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Maybe Jim E knows. I'll ask him about it. I see him several times a week and he's still very strong like ox.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
wussing off the topout on Roadside Attraction
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Jan 11, 2011 - 03:17pm PT
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Bump for amazing history recollections.
Thanks Pat!
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 11, 2011 - 07:09pm PT
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Crimper... maybe Jim knows...what?
I have the old footage. I may one day digitize it. It's nothing too
great... Maybe one day I'll let the AAC have it or something, or
sell it to a ready buyer...
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Jan 11, 2011 - 08:54pm PT
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Crimpregirl, tell Jim E to contact PitonRon about signing Kor's book for the fundraiser.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jan 11, 2011 - 09:20pm PT
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Yeah. Left him messages!
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 11, 2011 - 09:47pm PT
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By the way, nothing I wrote above was intended to be any sort
of slight on Erickson or to take anything away from his ascent.
Hardly. I have only admiration for my old friend.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Jan 11, 2011 - 10:19pm PT
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Sure. When I see him next, I'll mention it Piton Ron.
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okay,whatever
Trad climber
Charlottesville, VA
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Jan 12, 2011 - 12:50am PT
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This thread got so grumpy that I deleted my previous post. Best to all....
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 23, 2012 - 10:16pm PT
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Anti-Grump Bump!
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Jan 23, 2012 - 10:59pm PT
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deejay
Trad climber
AV
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Jan 24, 2012 - 12:42pm PT
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An incredible line with great climbing. Did it many years ago but still a memorable climb.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Jan 24, 2012 - 12:49pm PT
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Chiloe posted and it is so worth repeating...
When Jimmy Dunn and Billy Westbay made an early ascent of the NA Wall, back in 1971, a lot of us in Camp 4 were impressed. Jimmy had a memorable response to the praise:
"There are two North America walls. The one you climb, made of rock like any other route. And another one ten feet behind you in the mist, you never see but it's always in your mind."
On my rare visits these days I feel two Eldorados, the one of rock and another of mist, that formed more than 4 decades ago when it all felt so new. As in the story that kicked off this thread.
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