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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Feb 27, 2009 - 08:52am PT
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The Hirondelles Ridge from the South East (Italian) side.
This photo which Luca also shared with me shows the descent into the Freboudze basin on the Italian side. A is the exit of the Linceuil/Shroud into the Hirondelles ridge, B is the Col des Hirondelles from which one can descend to either France or Italy, and C is the approximate location of the Gervasutti hut. Luca notes that the height difference from the Shroud exit at Point A to his location when taking the photo was approximately 2000m/6,000feet.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Feb 27, 2009 - 08:53am PT
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Grandes Jorasses Normal Descent Route, Italian Side.
This is the most the common descent route from the Jorasses into Italy. A is Pt. Walker, and 1 on the lower left corner is the location of the Boccalatte hut.
Information and photo from Luca Signorelli again.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Feb 27, 2009 - 08:53am PT
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Hirondelles Ridge and descent on the Italian side.
Point A again marks the exit point from the Shroud and another route down on the Italian side.
Again thanks to Luca.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Feb 27, 2009 - 10:59pm PT
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More great pictures, thanks Jan.
Bump for the best history thread goin' these days.
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Feb 28, 2009 - 07:02pm PT
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Jan,
These continuing photos of the Shroud (how apt a name, with its jagged shape, long white yet darkly clothed look) appear so ominous, along with the descriptions of the storm, lightening strikes onto the mountain, as we all vicariously follow along the various lines and points made so possible now by scanning and computer software, hunched before our screens, the hundreds of us all connected by the wonder of cyberspace. Here we are imagining what Franks was feeling, perhaps good and strong and eager as we all have as climbers, even through a bivouac cut from ice (me so accustomed to rock, petrified by the thought of carving out and sleeping on an ice bench), now taking his steps, carefully up, up, then continuing on and around the icy ridge into complex, vast terrain with no easy choices, wind howling, lightening booming, visibility diminishing.
I greave again for Frank and his companion and have dread for their ordeal. Whatever the ups and downs of your relation with Frank, these thoughts must come to you too, perhaps haunt you at times as they do us now, if I may speak for us onlookers, going post by post, picture by picture through the brains and hearts of each of us wanting to say something, to understand, to encompass, to explain, when of course, what we are saying at root is beyond words but close to this: damn you death, you terrible thing we imagine ever more vividly with each post, damn you for how you took them and so many friends and us too in time, and therefore against it we will share our memories of Frank with honesty and sincerity, we will regret with you, we will make tribute as we have helter-skelter via electronic thread, and vow again to be kind and warm and kindred with all our loved ones because, because … there just is nothing else to go against such an enormity. And from this came my benediction some while back, really to all of us who, in time, go with Frank.
Looking back to the Chamonix panoramas, themselves speaking a story, made beautiful and organized by names we give formations, with such distinctly human touches (a ski lift, a trail, villages below, the entire aspect so inviting, when in fact we now know something else), and focusing especially on the lower part of the Mer de Glace Glacier, I am taken back to the 60's when I went up to Montenvers and followed the little white line hiking path westward along the Aiguilles de Chamonix to do a first fee ascent of two small and indistinguishable towers, the M and Albert, naive California boy I now know, completely unprepared in some sort of wool shirt and cotton shell and knickers and Kronhoffers, and thinking afterwards, wow, that was a pretty good accomplishment, even as rain caught us on the descent, barely hinting what a weather change in those parts can do, but making us feel lucky and bold. And now I get to compare my day to the giant and long away Shroud which Frank took on in the big, big upper panorama, and feel small again and am reminded all our achievements are just for us and are rightly washed down to some small pool, maybe an article here, a book there, a website or post there for others who care to visit, but really only having meaning in our own memories and hearts. I don't diminish that Chamonix day of mine, I just put it in a pleasing but modest place now next to the so much more colossal terrain above and beyond the little M and Albert I can not even place on the map.
Farewell to Frank, again, and hopes to you Jan for your own good mountain days, and bravo to all posters here for making cyberspace one of honesty, insight, caring, tribute, and dare I say, love.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Tom-
You are right, I am haunted by these photos and their memories, but also by the contradictory impulses they provoke. If I were a person with “normal” hobbies, it would be easy to pronounce the whole climbing endeavor as mad, and to dismiss it. Instead, Lionel Terray’s book wonderfully descriptive book title, Conquistadors of the Useless, provokes a sense of ironic admiration. Contemplating the Chamonix scene and the Grandes Jorasses in particular, provokes a sense of great sadness for Frank, and a certain amount of anger. What in the world was a Valley climber doing up there? He didn’t like cold weather and ice ledges any more than you. And didn’t they consult a long range weather forecast before they left, didn’t they notice the cirrus clouds, didn’t they remember there would still be climbing opportunities the following year? Why take risks for something that was not a first ascent, especially for someone whose reputation was already made? He looked so happy a few days before on top of the moderate Frendo Spur. Why oh why couldn't he have been content to stay there?
At the same time I must confess that I can’t help but look at those photos out of an aesthetic enjoyment for their sheer beauty. I even found myself thinking it would be agreeable to climb the Grandes Jorasses from the gentler snow covered slopes of the Italian side. I also have the remembrance of many happy times in the Alps, of Frank on his best behavior with no great ambitions, of the challenge for me of translating French for him as best I could, of our many friends in Geneva. For all those sorts of reasons it is impossible to see those mountains as all good or bad. Even in Yosemite, I have had friends like Jim Madsen killed in perfect weather only a few days after spending an evening at our house. While I remember him and them when I go to the Valley, it doesn’t stop my enjoyment of the place nor do I see the Alps as a sinister place.
Likewise, in this post modern age relationships are not seen as all good or bad either. It is quite possible to have a falling out with a climbing partner over principles or to divorce someone, and still be deeply concerned about their welfare. It’s also no longer felt necessary for families or friends to choose sides. Especially in our small community, we all belong because of our eccentricities, not in spite of them, and we have a long tradition of speaking frankly with each other. This is good since so few people on the outside can understand our way of life at all.
I believe one of the reasons this forum has been so valuable for me personally is that I wasn’t able to grieve with my climbing friends at the time Frank was killed. The closest I came was circumambulating the Buddhist monuments in Kathmandu where I ran into Sherpa women who had lost their husbands and were doing the same thing. Even then, their family members climbed to earn a living for their families in a place with few other opportunities, quite different from a western climber’s motivations. Meanwhile, when I mentioned to the people I worked with in Nepal, that my former husband had been killed in a climbing accident, I soon discovered that everyone was quick to say they were sorry, and equally quick to have somewhere else to go, if it looked like we might talk about it for more than a minute or two. Our society does not deal well with death, especially death at a young age, let alone by doing something not necessary for material advancement. Who else other than fellow climbers could possibly understand?
I know that Frank would be surprised, probably even a little embarrassed at this forum and its outpouring of memories. I’m sure if he could comment today, he would want us to brush over the bad ending and remember him in his glory days, especially his all time best year, 1964. Meanwhile the rest of us are left to grow ever older, ever stiffer and more pained in the mornings. We remember our climbs but forget what we just walked into the room for. Most of us have arrived here without a great year like 1964, and if middle aged and beyond, are well beyond our abilities when we were younger. Even so, climbing and climbers are important to us for the shared memories, the shared values, the sense of camaraderie across languages and cultures, and now the vast distances of cyberspace. No one knows what’s on the other side of this life, but I like to think of Frank as just a ways beyond our communications abilities right now, yet still within our space.
-Jan
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nice posts Jan and Tom,
As Jan points out, climbing is so personal and so deeply imbedded into our sense of self, we can be very connected to climbers we do not personally know. I did not know Frank, or even meet him; I was not even climbing in the Valley when he was there. Nevertheless, Frank’s impact on climbing reached me.
For me, personally, when the fogs of climbing myths in the Valley lifted, I was still faced with beautiful, hard, run-out, scary lines that Frank had chosen to climb in his singular style. Staring at them, along with other aspiring 70s Valley climbers, we had to decide if we would try to follow, not just the climb itself, but the methods and aspirations that Frank gave reality to.
I think that this observation is true for all climbers at some level. And, for most of us, this grounding of our climbing is usually tied to an actual person, but usually someone we climbed with. But Frank’s climbs and his all-free ethic had such a singular focus and meaning that the climbs themselves formed a definitive point of aspiration, an aspiration that could be applied to new routes, at new skill levels, in new areas.
So, Jan, your words “…Frank…still within our space” are prophetic for a whole generation of climbers, some more self-aware than others, but all grounded in his expression of himself in his routes.
We are all lucky that you found us and shared your life and Frank's with us.
Best, Roger
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Frank Ekman
Mountain climber
Geneva
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I met Frank and Jan in 1970 in the company of the other members of the CERN group of climbers that John Cardy and Jean-Claude Bourigault refer to in their posts.
We knew nothing about Frank’s climbing skills and well established reputation in the Yosemite Valley, which by then had already had massive impact on the climbing community there. For whatever reasons, he neither talked about himself nor of his Yosemite experiences. Perhaps his modesty and obvious shyness were part of the barrier. It was difficult to get close to Frank. He remained a mystery. However within this small international group there was a natural camaraderie not encumbered by pre-conceived notions of his climbing skills or his personality.
I climbed with Frank a few times on the Salève sometimes with Jean-Claude. I recall the following incident, in response to Pat Ament’s last posting: “ and in fact there was indeed that side of Frank that honestly cared about his companions and the quality of their experience? I would love to hear about this side of Frank”.
It was his turn to lead on the crux pitch of Les Paturages, a classic on the Salève that I’d already done a few times. I innocently tried to give him some advice on how to overcome the hard moves (6A French grading), including the suggestion that he could use the low protection peg as a foot-hold. He said nothing and proceeded to climb it his way. He floated calmly across the moves. I remember clearly thinking at the time “He climbs in another dimension”. Watching him on this route, I realized that he was one of the truly great rock climbers. In hindsight and after reading this thread I know how utterly worthless, irritating and unwanted my advice was. I can only surmise that he may have been boiling inside. However, the “short fuse” didn’t go off, there were no hard words, no look of contempt, no acid joke, just fast precise action. This was true consideration for his partner taking into account my lesser skills in surroundings far from his home climbing scene in Yosemite. We finished the route happily.
During the summer of 1970 I shared the Carmichaël route on the Aiguille des Pèlerins with Frank and Jean-Claude. I’m adding two more photos to the ones that Jean-Claude posted: one showing Frank leading the cracks in the middle part of the route and the other on the summit block, which interestingly shows in the background (in line with Frank’s right shoulder) the upper part of the Frendo Spur on the N. face of the Aiguille du Midi, a route which Frank later did with John Rander. In 71 we were 3 ropes of two on the Ryan route on the Aiguille du Plan with Jean-Claude and Frank climbing together. Slow going with six forced us to make a cold and wet bivi on the descent in the dark a few hundred meters from the Refuge du Plan. Later on (cannot remember the year) we went to the Dolomites. Frank climbed with John Cardy and I climbed with Jean-Claude. I left CERN in 1974 and didn’t meet Frank again.
Finally, I would like to thank Jean-Claude for introducing me to this fantastic thread, Ed Hartouni for starting the whole thing, Jan for her beautifully written, lucid and erudite contributions, John Rander for his precise explanation of what likely happened on the descent from the Shroud and his excellent photos especially the one of Frank at the exit of the Frendo with the Grandes Jorasses in profile behind, and all you other climbers and friends of Frank, young and old, for making this such an interesting and informative adventure. It is great.
Frank Ekman
Summer 1970. Frank leading the cracks in the middle section of the Carmichael on the Aiguille des Pèlerins.
Summer 1970. Summit block Aiguille des Pèlerins. Aiguille du Midi behind. Frendo Spur exit in line with Frank's right shoulder.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 4, 2009 - 10:55am PT
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thank you, Frank, for sharing your story about climbing with Sacherer. This thread has exceeded my original expectations and filled out the climbing biography of a very important figure, however brief his presence was, in the US climbing scene.
What a wonder this has been...
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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The high quality of this thread continues to amaze me, with posts by so many who knew, climbed with and loved Frank.
Just when I think it can't get any more historical, or tender, or better......
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day
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A while back in this thread I asked if anybody had any knowledge of his alpine climbs while in Europe. The initial response was mostly the sound of crickets.
Many thanks are due to all the individuals who have filled in so many of the blanks.
This continues to be one of the more historically significant threads on climbing I've ever read.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Frank Ekman-
What a wonderful surprise to hear from you again! Well do I remember the climbs on the Saleve with Frank, Jean-Claude and yourself with an occasional glimpse of a Chamois on the cliffs above us. Also that wonderful week skiing in Zermatt and the climb up the Breithorn on skis and skins. I remember the first time Frank met you and came back all enthused that evening telling me about a guy in computing "who reads pages of binary like it was English, and sorted out my programming errors in no time - and he climbs too"!
I was interested in your story of Les Paturages which in the American system is rated 5.10b. It's interesting that Frank was doing that standard again after not climbing anything above 5.8 between spring 1965 and spring 1971. Regarding his tolerance of your advice to step on a piton, and the fact that he never lost his cool with me while climbing on the Saleve, (as happened every time we ever climbed together in Yosemite), it's as though he had begun a new life in Geneva and left the past behind.
Only in 1976 did he begin pushing his personal limits again when he started doing first free ascents on the Saleve with John Cardy and took up ice climbing with Joe Weiss and John Rander. At that time according to John, he again began expressing strong feelings about proper climbing ethics. So far though, I haven't heard any stories of his temper even from that time.
And finally, thanks for correcting me about which mountains are in the background of the Frendo Spur photograph. John Rander has also just confirmed my mistake. Evidently the camera was facing west toward the Grandes Jorasses and not north toward the Tacul as I surmised. It looks so near and different from that side compared to the usual straight-on views. So much for my erudation!
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Jan,
I think it is a sign of wisdom and assurance when we finally can hold contradictory emotions and thoughts within ourselves about our climbing days and companions (well, all our days and companions, friends and lovers), and then sigh, laugh and go on with zest to our next chapters, always unknown to us. You say you feel both sadness and anger at Frank, going up perhaps without having checked long range weather reports, or perhaps having but discounting them, and not thinking about tomorrow’s opportunities risked by their final venture. Bravo. Exactly what the human heart and brain do in the face of such an enormity, as I’ve called it. The key insight is yours: none of these poles, as you say, are “right.” They simply are. And then there is the final wisdom you also came to: even with all its horror and sadness, how beautiful is the mountain which took Frank, apt symbol of dichotomous life itself, and how superbly sane in the face of such a realization is your desire to climb the very peak, to immerse yourself in it in spite of everything. Bravo again.
Yes, who can forget Jim Madsen going to his death on relatively dry and very solid rock of El Capitan, as you remind us, that young face still so easily retrieved by pulling Roper’s Camp 4 from the shelf. Very quickly the same split feelings arise: how noble to go off to the aid of his climbing friends, but how the hell did he rappel off the end of his rope, passing a knot which, what, wasn’t adequate? With no jumar or prussick backup? And on we go again, second guessing death, essentially trying to steal away its power. I will not say here how many dead and/or injured friends in and outside of climbing I have held before me and gone off on a similar track, wondering if this one had only done this instead of that. Gradually, of course, it dawned on me I too had done stupid thing while driving, climbing, cycling, or cleaning a roof or trimming a tree, but had been fortunate enough to skirt death and injury (not all injury, certainly) and we all go along to some degree by luck, now and then the danger and death tiptoed around with a small gasp, then forgotten, as they should be, but knowing there will be next times. The same realization pertains: best to be good to ourselves in spite of life’s contradictions, go ahead and climb the peak, do our best to be safe, be glad when best is enough, and take our hat off to death, give it its due but don’t dwell.
Perhaps you will go up the Grandes Jorasses someday from the Italian side as you say, perhaps even visit Frank’s grave, that humble but pronounced stone pictured on the thread, and see friends in Geneva if they are still there. The important thing is you hold out the climbing thought to yourself, and the full range of thought and emotion around Frank’s life and death, and love the mountains still. Thereby, perhaps your post has given readers as much as they have given you in their recollections.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Mar 15, 2009 - 12:16pm PT
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I don't know if anyone else will be interested but I am posting a brief chronology of Frank's life below to try to organize in my mind at least, the order in which the various events described in this thread took place.
Franklin James Sacherer
1940 - Born San Francisco March 22, 1940 to Frank and Verna Sacherer.
1958 – Graduated from St. Ignatius High School, a private Jesuit institution.
1959 – 1962 – Attended University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit Institution.
1960 – 1964 – Yosemite rock climbing. Between 1961 and early summer 1965, he did 22 first ascents and 14 first free ascents. His best year was 1964 with 5 first ascents and 9 first free ascents but also one day climbs of the Steck-Salathe route on Sentinel, and the Lost Arrow Chimney. A comprehensive list is found at: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=268647&tn=0
1965 – Quit climbing and concentrated on graduate school. Came to the Valley only on weekends. Married Janice Marie Baker in Yosemite Nov. 6.
1968 – Finished his Ph.D. in physics & his job at the Lawrence Radiation Lab in Dec.
1969 – Left for Europe in early January. Lived in Volkswagen Bus with Jan from
January – October. Toured Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, England, and Switzerland.
Applied for a job at CERN (Centre European de Recherche Nuclear) in Geneva, Switzerland, in late October and was hired a day later.
1970 - Frank & Jan ski in the winter and climb the Matterhorn and Mt. Blanc in the summer and fall months. They also rock climb on the Saleve mountain in France just over the border from Geneva.
1971 – Jan left Geneva in early January and returned to San Francisco. Jan & Frank’s divorce finalized on Sept. 30. Frank begins relationship with Maria Mercedes Martinez from Columbia, South America, which lasts until his death.
1971 - Summer. Frank Climbs a series of pinnacles called the Aiguilles, on the north face of Mt. Blanc with Jean-Claude Bourigault.
Aiguille du Plan; Ryan Ridge
Aiguille de l'M; Ménégaud route
Aiguille du Midi; Rébuffat Route,
Frank climbs with Jean-Claude and also Frank Ekman on
Aiguille des Pèlerins; Carmichael route
1971 – Spring and fall. Frank Climbs on the Saleve with John Cardy, including the West face of the Saleve, the most difficult route at the time.
1971-72 – Frank climbs on the Saleve with Frank Ekman, John Cardy, Jean-Claude Bourigault, including Les Paturages rated at 5.10b
Frank Climbs several Grade VIs in the Dolomites with John Cardy including the
Civetta: Philip-Flamm Route. Frank Ekman and Jean-Claude Bourigault formed a separate team for the same climbs.
1973 - Franks visits Berkeley in March for a Physics conference and has dinner with Jan. He tells her that he is still doing moderate rock climbing and promises to stay away from dangerous ice climbs.
1974 – Frank Ekman departs CERN . Frank begins climbing with John Rander.
1977 – Frank attends a conference in New York and takes Flemming Pedersen from CERN to the Catskill Mountains, probably the Schwangunks, where he teaches Flemming the basics of climbing and takes him climbing for the first time.
1976-77: Did first free ascents with John Cardy on the limestone cliffs known as the Saleve.
1977-78: Did Alpine routes with John Rander and Joe Weiss and increasingly difficult ice routes.
1979
Early Summer.
First ascent of the middle of Aureille-Feutren ice couloir on the Chardonnet with John Rander and Joe Weiss.
Aug. 18-19. Traveled to the island of Corsica with Flemming Pedersen in Flemming’s light plane.
August 25. Did the moderate Frendo spur, Aiguille du Midi, with John Rander.
August 29. Begins climb of Le Linceul (The Shroud), on the Grandes Jorasses, with Joe Weis, bivouacking at the top of the steep ice field.
August 30. Frank and Joe Weiss fail to return and Joe’s wife Klara, alerts John Rander who calls the Chamonix rescue service. There are high winds, lightning, thunder and snow.
August 31. A rescue helicopter does a fly-by identification. They ascertain that both Frank and Joe have died descending the Hirondelles Ridge after climbing the Shroud.
Sept 4. The weather finally permits a retrieval of the bodies. More than a dozen climbers die during the storm which lasts ten days.
Sept 8. Frank and Joe Weiss have a joint funeral in the Chamonix Chapel near the central SNCF train station. They are buried side by side in a single grave in the Climber’s Section of the new part of the cemetery.
1970 – 1979 Frank worked at CERN and published at least 23 papers on particle physics, some under Sacherer, Frank James and some under Sacherer, F.J. They are listed at:
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/.
1982 – Simon van der Meer wins the Nobel Prize in physics and cites Frank’s theoretical contributions in both his Nobel lecture and his Nobel autobiography.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1984/meer-autobio.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1984/meer-lecture.html
2006-2009 – Franks friends and climbing companions contribute their memories to a forum organized by physicist-climber Ed Hartouni on the website Supertopo.com
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 15, 2009 - 04:24pm PT
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Jan- A long overdue welcome.
There is far more interest in the enigmatic Frank than you can imagine and this thread has been monumental in providing so many rare and insightful perspectives. Thanks to everyone contributing.
To risk a gross metaphysical simplification, great climbers possess and develop a power of spiritual will that evolves and grows alongside a powerful intellect. Both forces may compel a personality like Frank's to great creativity and accomplishment.
I picture Frank in the stayed world of academia having to do battle in armor on horseback and throwing all that off with a grin while immersed in the far more immediate and gratifying world of climbing.
Seen through the lens of orderly reason, Frank's oddly calculated boldness and sometimes untempered emotion do not seem to jibe with his brilliant intellect. This fiery aspect of Frank's climbing legacy is the most difficult to personalize in seeking to understand or emulate his style.
Seen through the lens of spirit, Frank's contribution shines unambiguosly. He so clearly let his talents and energy flow into his climbs and was a fine, if occasionally nerve-wracking, partner. Mark Powell had high praise for his climbing. The more I learn about his life the easier it becomes to not hold him at a distance unknowingly.
Just a few reflections to add to the wondrous assortment!
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Mar 18, 2009 - 03:49pm PT
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Do we know how Frank came to begin climbing? I never asked him, and wonder if Jan or anyone else was told what drew him to the "sport" and what his first endeavors were.
I was also looking at old letters written to Guido in the early 1960's when I was in the army, and I referred to Frank as "Fearless Frank", a not too oblique reference to Fearless Fosdick, one of my favorite Dick Tracy characters. Fearless Fosdick went always all out, guns ablazing. He kept going even when shot full of holes.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Mar 18, 2009 - 04:24pm PT
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Jan,
That timeline looks good. I noticed one thing:
L’Ensuille
should be
Le Linceul
I think.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Mar 19, 2009 - 01:11am PT
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Clint-
You have a really good eye for detail! If I ever need a copy editor, I think it should be you. I just consulted my Petit Larousse dictionary and discovered that linceul is the word for shroud, but the verb to enshroud someone is ensevelier. Somehow I mixed the two which is not uncommon for me, since I learned most of my French by ear rather than in school. I left all our alpine guidebooks in Geneva with Frank, so no way to look things up before the internet. Meanwhile, do feel free to provide future corrections as well!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Mar 19, 2009 - 01:50am PT
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BBA-
I can't remember exactly how Frank started climbing but I think it was through a slide show he saw and then joined a Sierra Club hiking group. He had a hiking partner for awhile named Chela Kunasz and they did quite a lot of peak scrambling in the Sierras together. It might even be that Chela introduced him to the Sierra Club. I know she got him interested in Eastern religion and philosophy. I did meet her eventually in the office of the UC hiking club. By that time she was going out with Paul ? and later married him and they moved to Boulder where Frank and I visited them one summer.
As for rock climbing, John Morton has written in this thread that Frank learned the Sierra Club techniques of rock climbing and participated in teaching other beginners. I remember that he took me up to Indian Rock in Berkeley and pointed out some of his first climbs there. He also mentioned that after his first trip to the Valley he never looked back. He always hated the Bay Area fog and loved sunshine. From the number of photos of him shirtless in Colorado and Yosemite, you could even say he was a sun worshipper.
We both suffered a lot during the long gray winters in Europe. We had skied together a few times at Badger Pass in Yosemite but really got into it in Geneva since the cloud cover in Europe hovers about 50' off the ground up to 2,500' for months on end. However, once you go above that elevation on a ski lift you are back in the sunshine above a beautiful sea of puffy white clouds. I did laugh at someone's recollection of Frank loving to scare people by skidding over a patch of ice on the way to Yosemite. This practice stood him in good stead on the way to Badger Pass one night when we hit black ice and the car skidded badly out of control. I woke up just in time to see us flying backward and to hear Frank very calmly saying, "we've had it now". Fortunately he got the car under control just as we came within inches of crashing into a huge tree.
He would have loved your image of Fearless Fosdick by the way, charging ahead though riddled with bullet holes!
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Mar 19, 2009 - 06:43pm PT
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"Bottom line is if people demand more climbing sh#t, they'll bump it."
bump
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!