Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
Feb 26, 2010 - 06:41pm PT
|
cool photos, Guid. Here they are with some retouching.
the first photo of Andy L. in a rope litter has I believe, the late and much beloved Bruce Cooke looking down at him. Bruce is wearing glasses and one of the austrian felt hats.
Cool that the second one has Weissner. I vaguely remember him and I think I climbed with his son Barry and nephew. Great kids.
|
|
guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
|
|
|
Feb 26, 2010 - 07:24pm PT
|
Hi Peter
Thanks for the retouch as always!
I don't think that is Bruce-believe it is Larry Williams?
I think Carl also had a cute young daughter?
cheers
joe
|
|
Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
Feb 26, 2010 - 10:31pm PT
|
Yeah you are right, Guid. I see the two images corroborate that. How cool it would be to see now a photo of Bruce Cooke. We have kind of elaborated his climbing presence here in the past. Great gentle guy, great friend of Higgins too.
|
|
FredC
Boulder climber
Santa Cruz, CA
|
|
|
Feb 27, 2010 - 12:23pm PT
|
That guy does look like Bruce. I have a couple of slides of him taken when he was sick. Amy and I visited him. He was always such a good guy and was very nice to me. I rode with him a couple of times, I remember doing a long ride through the Oakland hills. He was a fit guy before he got sick.
I-1 was the ledge system above the edge. Chimney up and traverse left.
I-2 was called the Eucalyptus Crack and I'm pretty sure it is what we know of as Beginners crack. Bev Blanks made the first ascent on May 1st, 1932.
I-3 was traversing across watercourse from the slab on the left. FA 3/27/32 by Dick Leonard, who wrote...
"“The Overhanging Ledge and Crack.” One of our finest climbs, requiring a good knowledge of the use of the holds available. Starting from under the overhang of the huge monolith a very difficult problem is had in solving the manner of getting on to the ledge imediately under the overhang. Once having gotten on the ledge by means of clever pressure holds, an excellent hand hold enables one to easily come out from under the overhang and go up the crack which looks to be far the most difficult part of the climb."
Fred
|
|
LongAgo
Trad climber
|
|
Peter, Fred,
I'll try to post a couple of pics of Bruce once a crashed computer gets revived and I scan them in. I see there is a new tab above this window as I write noting "photo." I'll try to use that once i have a jpg file. I have a couple of him at Indian Rock too, I think.
A search of "Cooke" will bring up some scattered remembrances and tributes on Supertopo, which someday might be brought together into a single thread. I gave a tribute to him on supertopo last year (I think on a Daff Dome thread). What the heck, here it is again complete with a link to one pic of him and me:
"The Bruce in question is Bruce Cooke. Indeed, he did one arms well into his 60's. He and I climbed quite a bit together. He had hip arthritis in later years and climbed very stiffly, but loved it so much he just went with the pain and immobility.
He served on front lines in WW2 hinted at but didn't dwell on some of the horror of horrors he witnessed. He was a blacksmith in Oakland shipyards. He liked to live a lean life. At one point, he gave away his big Oakland house to a young relative staring up her life and moved into a one room hovel holding a hot plate, bed and his super bike. I think he also gave away his car to another relative. Then he moved to a modest two bedroom house in Richmond where, nowadays at least, bullets probably whiz by in the night. He stopped drinking one day after driving up on a road median and cursing himself. Once he set his mind on something, he just did it, like the time he rode his bike from Oakland to Tuolumne Meadows with a load of camping gear. He liked women, but never married - I think he had very high ideals about love and came away from one relationship soured on certain relationship realities. Very painful cancer plagued him to his death, but he enjoyed visitors to the end. He didn't talk much about his condition, just asked how you were doing and liked to share listening to music.
Quite the man. I much loved him. He was best man at our wedding, such as it was - no friends or family, just Bruce with us there in our home. I have a picture of his holding our baby daughter in front of the fireplace. I think he liked the simplicity of how we did it. We were honored to have him there. His entire manner and being helped set us on our way, affirmed our belief in ourselves and our journey, now 30+ years in the making.
Bob Kamps also respected and liked Bruce and they climbed together too. We named a route after Bruce in the Meadows: the Cooke Book on Daff (yes, Cooke is correct spelling).
For a picture of Bruce and me sitting and talking about some route long ago (I think at Lovers Leap), go here:"
http://www.tomhiggins.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=20
Kinda says it.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
|
|
BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
|
|
Richard Leonard (oral history at the Bancroft Library) says the CCC was disbanded in November of 1932 to merge with the newly formed Sierra Club Rock Climbing Section. On the Mt. Starr King register some still signed in using CCC in June 1933, but none after that.
Here are a three images from the Starr King register with Bruce Cooke's entries. "Clutchrock"! It looks like he did the first ascent of the East Face, too.
|
|
guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
|
|
Tom and BBA
Nice addition!
Tom can you post a larger version of that photo of you and Bruce?
Lauria has several photos of Bruce and will chime in I hope. I still don't think that is a picture of Bruce I posted. First name Larry but maybe not Williams.
cheers
joe
|
|
FredC
Boulder climber
Santa Cruz, CA
|
|
Hi Randy,
Jim was one of the most graceful climbers I ever knew. He finally had to stop because his retina was detaching and falling became super dangerous for him.
Jim and Bruce were both amazing guys. They also both very generously befriended a 15 year old kid from Oakland.
Bruce and I worked out a concept that never seemed to catch on. You always heard about people being "benighted" on climbs, sometimes this was an excuse for not finishing the climb. I remember he and I coming up the idea of being "bedayed". Somewhere there is a slide of me downclimbing the beginning of Nerve Wrack Point. I was totally bedayed.
Tom,
I followed the link to your page. That sure is Bruce, but who is the young hippie looking guy talking to him? Wow, what a shirt! I also read a bunch of your stories there. Very cool times.
Fred
|
|
BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
|
|
Rankin also climbed the peak in 1957 and gave his affiliation as the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club which is out of Sacramento. In all probability it's the same person who got Harding into the game.
|
|
LongAgo
Trad climber
|
|
Guido,
I've pulled the old photo (5X7) and will try a scan once computer difficulties are solved. But even in the small pic, note the lats on Bruce popping through his shirt. He could do one-arms.
Fred,
It would be so fun to hear of various "bedayed" climbs from whoever would weigh in. We all are quick to tell of feats and successes, but failures are equally interesting and instructive. Yes, Jim Crooks was a wonderful climber and subtle wit, especially when mixed up with Bruce. I climbed with them both at Pinnacles many times, and had little prayer of matching their ribs and jibs, as I was way too impressed with myself when young and dumb and they found all the chinks in my armor. Jim's wife Afton still lives in Berkeley and we are seeing her for dinner soon.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
|
|
storer
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
|
|
|
Mar 10, 2010 - 10:15pm PT
|
Indeed that's Jack Rankin of the Mother Lode RCS who introduced to climbing. Adolf Baur (DAV: Deutscher Alpen Verein) went on numerous trips and I believe died climbing in the Alps.
I wrote the following in the thread "Warren Harding's Letter to the AAC..."
As I recall, he (Harding) came to several "dynamic belay practice" sessions Jack (Rankin) held at some property he had down in the Sacramento river bottoms. We'd hoist a 200 lb concrete block up a tree using rope wrapped around a washing machine agitator bolted to Jack's car wheel. The belayer would request slack be let out (say, 20 feet of white Columbia) and the block would be dropped. The belayer used a hip belay with a leather butt patch and gloves. Smoke was produced, the belayer most often upended, and the lesson, in those days, was "the leader must not fall!" Times have certainly changed!
The pics show Jack during belay practice:
By the way, Jack passed away recently:
(Rankin obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=131730225);
|
|
Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
Mar 10, 2010 - 10:55pm PT
|
I have said it before here but Jim Crooks was a wonderful cagey friend and climber. He actually even knew my artist Uncle, Jack Stangl(e) up in Seattle. Jim was in the copywriting profession for ad agencies and was bright as hell but way subtle too. For example, he would do copy for Scientific American, I recall. He must have been almost 50 years my senior. One day he, Bruce Cooke, myself and a young friend even did Machete Ridge in Pinnacles Nat Mo. even, a venture away from Indian Rock. I loved these older mentors and always looked forwards to seeing them on the weekends at Indian R. Great to hear that Afton is STILL alive, wow, TH. Who would have thought.
best to all, p.
|
|
oldguy
climber
Bronx, NY
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:00pm PT
|
I seem to get into these threads when they are almost as old as I am. However, I will claim to know the real story about RR and I 12. I was living in SF in 1960 (in the Army), and when RR visited me after he escaped from El Paso I took him to Indian Rock. We did a few things and then I mentioned that there was this overhanging climb, quite hard, that people did with a top rope. By the way, it used to be somewhat easier until somebody pulled off a few crucial flakes, but that was a little earlier than this story. A little later in the day, I noticed RR out at the start of I12, just having a look, I thought. Then he makes the first traversing move and, to my astonishment, keeps going. At the top he shakes out and looks down and says, "Nice climb." He then starts climbing down, harder to do because the overhang tends to obscure the footholds. When he gets to the traverse, instead of going right back to the notch, he goes left and proceeds to climb I13. (I can't remember anyone climbing I13.) The reader's own reaction to this, especially if he/she has climbed I12, will probably be a fair imitation of my own on that day. As far as I know, RR never fell off anything when drunk, although we both did some climbs when we had been drinking, as did everyone except Frost. My own experience was that it tended to focus the mind since the odds of falling seemed to increase.
|
|
tarek
climber
berkeley
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:04pm PT
|
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:09pm PT
|
My God, is this Cragmont? . . . I'll go take a pic when I can.
Just do it when I'm not there-- I sometimes solo those things (DM), and I wouldn't want to add to your risk.
Heh
|
|
tarek
climber
berkeley
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:15pm PT
|
klk, ditto, and one time had a couple with a toprope muttering that I was going to "kill myself" on that slab, BUT
you're a historian I gather, did you read the friggin' amazing post above??!
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:21pm PT
|
Ah, those driving questions that make climbing lore so special!
Did Ervine and Mallory climb Everest?
Did Maestri climb Cerro Torre?
Did Robbins fall on 1-12?
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 02:27pm PT
|
back off donini, we live at sea level four hours from the closest mountains. don't diss our love for the local choss.
and tarek: yeah, cool thread-- the pix are great.
i-rock and cragmont do actually have a place in climbing history since it's where the body belay was systematically developed back in the 1930s. chris jones's mountaineering in north america has a great photo of david brower on part of the low traverse. almost every time i do that move i think of brower.
|
|
tarek
climber
berkeley
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 09:04pm PT
|
Randy, I never tried I-13. What are the details?
|
|
richross
Trad climber
|
|
|
Mar 11, 2010 - 09:26pm PT
|
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!