Any Jimmy Dunn stories?

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Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Jun 16, 2010 - 02:42pm PT

Jimmy is too busy with real life to do much in psyber-space.

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2010 - 05:54am PT

Jimmy called me last night. He hasn't read this thread yet, but I hope he chimes in here. I encouraged him to comment on the Earl Wiggins thread. They did some pretty crazy stuff together.
Jimmy told me that after he soloed the Cosmos, Royal Robbins wrote him a letter, congratulating him.

slabbo

Trad climber

fort garland, colo

Jun 17, 2010 - 11:06am PT

Whitehorse ledge -80's. Jimmy had just completed the second ascent of an Ed Webster line and we were gearing up for the third. I said 'it sure looks a bit thin", James -'there's more up there than you can see" !

pyro

Big Wall climber

Calabasas

Jun 17, 2010 - 11:57am PT

killer thread! love to read about wall climbers.

cowpoke

climber

Jun 17, 2010 - 01:26pm PT

James -'there's more up there than you can see" !

was there?!?

what climb was that, Slabbo?

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Jun 18, 2010 - 10:25am PT

Hi Peter-

Actually, the last 6 ptiches (5 new) were definitely not relatively easy, despite the grade they were given. We got caught in a huge storm, the second worst of my big wall career, right at the point in which the direct finish begins. My inclination was to set up the bivy right there, but it was in a pretty exposed spot. Jimmy insisted we climb to under a roof two pitches up. The next two pitches were incredibly challenging in a major sleetstorm with horrendous winds, but eventually, past dark, we made it under the roof and had a sheltered bivy. I think the next day was spent under that roof, while the storm continued. Jimmy was near hypothermic, with a soaked down bag.
The next day we progressed upward, and the next several pitches were a nightmare--the most rotten rock I have ever encountered in Yosemite. The cracks were wide, and Friends just did not work in them, because the insides of the crack were too crumbly and exfoliating. We only had one 2" piton, which I had to continually reuse for protection, lowering off super dicey equalized junk to retrieve it from time to time. It was a mix of semi-freeclimbing and semi-stepping on dicey cams.
Then we joined the last pitch of Excaliber, and all was well.
Jimmy was fairly crippled on top from the days of cold, and was barely able to walk.

slabbo

Trad climber

fort garland, colo

Jun 18, 2010 - 10:59am PT

POKE- it was revolt of the dike brigade 11a. It wasn't to bad, but I had never and HAVE again seen Jimmy on a slab ! A gimme NH 11 for sure.

England

Mountain climber

Colorado

Jun 18, 2010 - 08:35pm PT

I'm going to type this in as Jimmie Dunn dictates this to me, because he doesn't know how to turn a computer on(yet).
Deuce-good report on the Cosmos. Good adventure with you. What do you think about climbing the last pitch left of the Excaliber pitch. Do you remember that wide undercling? Hope you, and your family are well. I miss you.
Jimmie Dunn

Mike Bolte

Trad climber

Planet Earth

Jun 18, 2010 - 08:54pm PT

nice story Deuce!

England

Mountain climber

Colorado

Jun 18, 2010 - 10:19pm PT

As dictated by Jimmie Dunn:
Go-B, and Steve.A- Actually I only climbed Drumstick 31 times in one day including 15 to 20 laps on various other climbs. The 31 laps were in sets, and not in a row. Although, it would be nice to do 31 laps in a row without stopping. Hellen said, "He looked like a nice shade of lichen green".
Steve.A-You are correct, I recieved a very nice letter of congratulations from Royal Robbins after soloing the Cosmos. I felt bad for never replying to his letter. Maybe it's not to late.

dgrud

Social climber

Florida

Jun 19, 2010 - 03:58pm PT

That beaver that bit J.Dunn in the ass must have been a female.Jimmie has a magic way with animals.

survival

Big Wall climber

A Token of My Extreme

Jun 19, 2010 - 05:34pm PT

Yikes guys!

I'm glad I wasn't there for that direct finish...

I've had enough of my own rotten crack storms.
Great story, and welcome Jimmy!!

Bob Palais

Trad climber

Jun 20, 2010 - 04:07pm PT

Great to read these stories, and see posts from lots of longtime friends.
I'm going to have to pull out and scan some oldies. I do still have
one mini-minolta slide from an EMS climbing school lesson I took with
Jim in 1973! Neither of us would have guessed after that not auspicious
start (trying to pull me up the squeeze chimney start of Cathedral Standard)
that I'd be working for him at the climbing school a few years later and climbing together almost 40 years later:
I also saw a slide show he gave the night before, on the second ascent of the Heart with Andy Embick and Roy Kligfield, and he also turned me on to
Pink Floyd and along with climbing, many other mind-body-life expanding adventures (and still does). He introduced me to the vegetarian diet, eastern philosophy and shared his books on the Tao Te Ching, showed me his collection of original Edward Curtis prints, rare minerals, and many other subjects that seemed esoteric at the time. His own photography has always been at the same high standard he reaches in anything he encounters, and he always shares his wisdom on whatever topic he is passionate about. I always found it curious that two college dropouts, James and Galen, are candidates for the smartest people I've ever known. The reverse was not true. There was a saying he had with yours truly in mind `You can be a genius and still not know what's going on in the world!' Fortunately he did his best to clue me in. (There was another saying that made it to a t-shirt, inspired by JD: `Climbing may be hard, but it's easier than growing up!' - Yogi Sklar-an-anda, a legendary optics guru who moved on to Los Alamos :-) I also remember the fair with the ladder on turnbuckles, and the guy running it could walk upright right up the middle! Actually one climber Did hit the buzzer at the top - Rich Goldstone who was up in N. Conway with Joe Bridges.

One big of many big contributions was the way Jimmie cross-pollinated the New England and Colorado Springs climbing communities (we will leave literal interpretations for another forum ;-) but another thing that reminds me of is it is because of Jimmie that I'm now a beekeeper. He did that and had amazing `Bees-Knees' honey from his hives. Ken Sims, Leonard (just Leonard suffices), Dan Maclure and many others came east, and Ed Webster, and many others went west lured by the pictures and tall walls and tales.
I've met so many great people through Jimmie, and one unforgettable one is Earl. The only time I succeeded on Anaconda was the time I was out there witb both Earl and Jimmie.

Well this is too long already and I have to go, but I will get back with more pictures and stories soon, and will leave with one favorite.

There's a climb on Cathedral called Youth Challenge, and most think it is just a challenge to the youth. But Jimmie had a VW bus he got that used to belong to, as was painted on the side, Youth Challenge Outreach, with a cross and the motto `One Way, One Job' (reminiscent of Tobin's helmet?)

Jimmie stopped to get gas at the station next to the old EMS, cleaned up after a lesson, looking somewhat like a hippie priest, and the attendant comes up wearing a huge cross, looks at the bus, looks in the back at me, Ajax Greene, and Ray Lassman quite scraggly in the back like we were right out of the homeless shelter, and says to Jimmie, `I see you're doing the right thing.' Jimmie nodded. As he paid him for the gas, Jimmie said `Have a nice day, my son.' The guy was beaming as we drove out.

I also remember Henry Barber's reaction to the beaver incident (they were going over to Zonked out that day I think) `You're complaining? I haven't been bitten by a beaver for months now...' It was on the ground outside of `Camp Climb' on Cathedral Ledge Drive...

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Topic Author's Reply - Jun 20, 2010 - 04:31pm PT

Bob
I'm about to become a grandfather. I know you have talked to my son Mark on occasion. He has a PHD from UPENN and just landed a great job with G.E., 2 miles from home. His wife is expecting in a few weeks and it is boy.
The last time I saw you was about 30 years ago, at the arches, , working out with Henry Barber.
I'm glad that I started this thread! Jimmy Dunn is the greatest and as I get older and smarter, I realize that one of the most important things in life is relationships you develop over time with people.
When I think back on it- climbing has been super important in my life.
I can't imagine another activity which has put me in touch with so many great people.
Hope your still climbing. I was up on Cathedral Ledge yesterday doing laps on Nutcracker. Boy, do I love climbing!
Best Steve

Bob Palais

Trad climber

Jun 20, 2010 - 08:59pm PT

Hey Steve, Thanks for the followup and that's really where I meant to start this - I met all of these people to begin with through my sister Julie who worked at EMS N Conway and the Touring center in Jackson. She's now been to Antarctica about 23 times as director of polar programs at NSF and I met you through her too. I've told her that I was in touch with you and Mark, and I'm glad Mark has been passing it along, he's sent some nice pics of your land and what you've been building. I remember hearing you tell the story of you and John Bouchard getting hit by lightning at the top of the Walker Spur, and well all the dream climbs you developed when I felt like a latecomer to climbing, in NH and the Boston area, Hammond. I need to get on some climbs with you, Al, Sam Streibert too, been way too long. If my remaining brain cells are right, I climbed with Al and Jimmie in the Valley on Bircheff-Williams before I left Cali...? I miss Sweet New England in the autumn! I did dig out some old prints that I'll take up to school and scan tomorrow, then look for some other ones. Here are a couple more from a couple of Memorial Day's ago:

Bob Palais

Trad climber

Jun 22, 2010 - 02:00am PT

OK, a couple of climbing stories, and some random photo collages to make the scanning a little quicker. Some better pics when I get to go through some other albums.

One of the most impressive bits of climbing I saw in the 70s was when Jimmie did the first ascent of Black Magic on Cathedral Ledge. I don't think it has seen many repeats? On top of involving steep hard 5.11 to the crux fist crack over a roof on loose rock (some major torpedoes came down so we onlookers all cleared far out of the fall line), there were huge spiders webs inhabited by huge spiders that were defending the roof. Every time one of them crawled onto him he let out a wail. Some he managed to flick off to the ground, but a couple were caught in his hair and were not so lucky. All he could use to protect the route were big hexentrics behind
the loose flakes in the crack, since this was shortly before Friends were available. Jimmie persevered and when he got to the mud and moss covered
shelf where the crack ended, he dug his arms in up to his elbows and pulled his body over the edge! I do have a picture somewhere of his legs hanging out precariously over the ledge with his upper body sprawled trying to hang on to the dirt and small bushes! We yelled up to see if he was ok, and we heard him say `Now I know what my [climbing school] clients feel like! This is 5.2 and I can't even move!'. In a couple of minutes he did regroup and set up a belay.

There's been mention of some incidents with ropes mysteriously becoming untied. I remember Jimmie telling me about an ascent of Anaconda (maybe the FFA) in which Jimmie arrived at the belay and Earl asked him about the knot on his swami belt, at which point he realized there was no knot! Well one day Jimmie was trying a new route on Maverick Buttress above Potash Road with Betsy McKittrick and my. There was a crazy flared sandy off-width through a bulge, the kind of thing he usually floats up quickly but this seemed to require all of attention, and we could hear him breathing pretty hard. The outcome seemed in doubt to the very end with an occasional slip of the hand or foot, or a chunk of sandstone exploding off, but finally he pulled over into the alcove above. His reaction was pretty unusual however. As he placed a piece of gear, he said loudly for us to hear, `I don't believe it! I don't *** believe it!!' `What?! What?!' we both yelled up. After clipping the rope through the piece and carefully holding the strand leading down in one hand, he dramatically took the rope leading to his harness in the other, and pulled it gently free. The whole time he hadn't been tied in at all. He called the climb Boot Hill... 5.12b.

slabbo

Trad climber

fort garland, colo

Jun 22, 2010 - 11:31am PT

Bob- no pix from Camber ??? I HOPE Black magic has never been repeated ! I know that certainly never wanted to do it

Bob Palais

Trad climber

Jun 22, 2010 - 03:36pm PT

I'll check for Camber pics. I do have one from the lookout I think. I think Alison Osius did Black Magic! BTW, the motorcycle pic is in the N. Carolina days, early 80s. The bouldering shot is in Colorado. The one on top is on Cathedral, the middle two are on a Kancamagus classic...

Here are a few more, three NH, two CO