The Passing Of A Dear Friend......Brutus Of Wyde

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 341 - 360 of total 485 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Jun 22, 2009 - 02:33pm PT

Brutus was eyeing this route over a year ago. This weekend, Dingus and Scuffy really had the Spirit of Brutus with them in pushing the line half way up. It was hard! Really nice job guys. Bruce wouldn't have had it any other way.

Scuffy doing the wide with pride onsight...

We toasted him many times with the Gatoritas and beer we brought out this last weekend. We ate like kings as Brutus would oft do in the backcountry.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and did something fun.

bobinc

Trad climber

Portland, Or

Jun 22, 2009 - 02:56pm PT

Well done, guys. Proud line and perfectly chosen.

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, Ca.

Jun 22, 2009 - 04:24pm PT

Holy!!!

That thing is W I D E....nice job and a fitting tribute!

Fletcher

Trad climber

the end of the world as we know it, & I feel fine.

Jun 22, 2009 - 04:30pm PT

Man, that thing is so wide you could probably ski it in the winter!

Nice tribute alright!

Eric

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Jun 22, 2009 - 04:41pm PT

There was just no holding that guy back!

BlueDragon

climber

Bay Area, CA

Jun 22, 2009 - 05:46pm PT

I only met Bruce a couple of times, but I sure remember the first meeting (~1994). It was at a Rock Rendezvous meeting in Berkeley, at the house of Max Moehs et al. RR meetings are always potlucks, and while most climbers are very generous about sharing their remaining 1/2 power bar, he had this huge delicious spread of sushi -- so many people have mentioned this specialty of his. He was the first one to clue me in to the Tokyo Fish Market on San Pablo. So anyway I was kind of a newbie and didn't know very many people at this meeting. He comes up to talk to me, and he was so warm and friendly and engaging (and wanting me to try his sushi) I can remember thinking ... does he think I am someone else? have I met him and I forgot? is he also new and just looking for someone to chat with? did one of the few people I know feel sorry for me and tell him to come on over and chat with the new girl? No and no and no and no. He was just like that, as I subsequently learned from some mutual friends, and is obvious from all these posts. Very warm and open to everyone, very giving of his time and resources.

Thanks to all who have posted so many stories, photos and anecdotes. I have enjoyed reading them and getting to touch in some way what you all have shared with him.

My deepest condolences to Em, his family, and friends.

Ellen Sentovich

mh001

Mountain climber

Beijing, China

Jun 26, 2009 - 06:18am PT

It has been more than a year since I last read rec.climbing, and this news was what I get!

I have never met Brutus. I started out climbing and reading rec.climbing about 15 years ago. Brutus was one of the posters who has shaped the way I appreciate climbing, humor, and people.

In the last few years five or six climbers who I have climbed with, or who I could regard as friends, have died. Every time it happened I felt a bit of me had been taken away. Affinity between climbing friends is real. Now I know it is even real between climbers you have never met.

Brutus' passing away is like a lamp going out in my own little world. But somehow the light of the lamp still shines. A cruffy old climbing man is till someone I aspire to become when I have aged enough. Younger climbers have picked up from me certain ways to appreciate climbing, humor, and people. Although they probably will never know I have picked some of them up from a Brutus of Wyde, the light is passed on.

Bye bye Brutus. Take care Em, Dingus and all other who appreciate Brutus' life.

Maohai Huang

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Jun 26, 2009 - 08:38am PT

Nice Dingus

Brutus was like that. You had to underestimate him since he was so humble it was unreasonable to expect anyone to have so many talents.

He might start flapping his arms and actually fly around and smile at you and say "what's the matter, never seen anybody fly before? I'm not really very good at it"

Peace

Karl

Miwok

Trad climber

Jun 26, 2009 - 11:48am PT

Heart of Sierra will now be renamed - The Bindner Dome.

Good seeing you last weekend brother. Like old friends, we just pick up where we left off.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Jun 26, 2009 - 01:10pm PT

He might start flapping his arms and actually fly around and smile at you and say "what's the matter, never seen anybody fly before? I'm not really very good at it"

yep, that's it.

I asked Brutus about the Castle Rock Spire on email and said something like "ok about the ticks and snakes and PO, but is there really an approach? are we going to get lost?" heheh

and Brutus' reply was like 'eh, Munge, I've put up a couple routes down there... but come to think of it we may still get lost.'

spot on Karl

J. Werlin

climber

Cedaredge

Jun 26, 2009 - 01:24pm PT

Brutus really came to life for in this forum.

His sense of humor, humping tasty food to the top of the Sentinel, his Sierra sushi roll--
all these little things and many more clued me in in to what a special person he was.

A life well lived is too small a cliche. Deepest condolences to those closest to him.

-Jeremy

Miwok

Trad climber

Mi Wuk Village

Jun 26, 2009 - 01:29pm PT

WWBD!

I'll be in touch Craig.

14re3

Boulder climber

Twin Peaks ,CA

Jun 26, 2009 - 03:36pm PT

Bruce teaching Cas to Levitate

14re3

Boulder climber

Twin Peaks ,CA

Jun 26, 2009 - 03:40pm PT

Brutus showing how much he levitated off the floor with Cas's help
(levitating works better than flying)
Thank you bruce

mtdoc

Trad climber

Port Angles,WA

Jun 26, 2009 - 04:38pm PT

A few days ago I returned from a 2 week road trip to hear this sad news.

He was a friend and I am privileged to have climbed with Brutus just a bit. I thought I'd share some photos from a skiing/climbing trip to the Ruth Gorge with him and Em in May 2004.

Goofing on the plane flight in.

The Brutus of Wyde camp essentials.

Bruce and Em on the Ruth Glacier.

A climbing deity ready to ascend from 747 Pass to the alpine heavens of Mt. Dickey.

Brutus flashing roped tele turns below Pittock Pass.

The rugged old Norsemen spoke of death as Heimgang-"home-going." So the snow-flowers go home when they melt and flow to the sea, and the rock-ferns, after unrolling their fronds to the light and beautifying the rocks, roll them up close again in the autumn and blend with the soil. Myriads of rejoicing living creatures, daily, hourly, perhaps every moment sink into death’s arms, dust to dust, spirit to spirit-waited on, watched over, noticed only by their Maker, each arriving at its own Heaven-dealt destiny. All the merry dwellers of the trees and streams, and the myriad swarms of the air, called into life by the sunbeam of a summer morning, go home through death, wings folded perhaps in the last red rays of sunset of the day they were first tried. Trees towering in the sky, braving storms of centuries, flowers turning faces to the light for a single day or hour, having enjoyed their share of life’s feast-all alike pass on and away under the law of death and love. Yet all are our brothers and they enjoy life as we do, share Heaven’s blessings with us, die and are buried in hallowed ground, come with us out of eternity and return into eternity. "Our lives are rounded with a sleep."

John Muir