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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Jul 23, 2010 - 12:47pm PT
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Happy Birthday Jim! You have certainly picked a great place to settle back and enjoy these later life birthdays....oops! I don't think you have "settled back" much at all yet.
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edejom
Boulder climber
Butte, America
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Jul 23, 2010 - 01:18pm PT
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Butte Bertday "Blues" to you, Sir Donini!
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jul 23, 2010 - 01:30pm PT
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Again, Jim, Happy Birthday.
Give our best to Jello while you're at the
reunion!!!!!
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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Jul 23, 2010 - 01:33pm PT
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Happy Birthday Jim. Keep on truckin....!!!!! Alan
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jul 23, 2010 - 02:26pm PT
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Pilgrims, Jim is busy right now; can't come to the party. You see, he is at the World Sushi Summit debating Maestri beforehand in a special session:
We are lucky he is ever available; all those years in Calcutta in a vow of chastity working with the poor:
In recent years after his stint with the AAC, he ushered in the world-class Usain Bolte as our new president. Here they are at the base of Klemens' test piece, "Overhanging Banzai Crack of Death".
But those of us who knew him back in the day, remember the carefree and perhaps even naive, nature boy that in his heart of hearts was Jim Donini:
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Jul 23, 2010 - 07:06pm PT
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When I first met Jim Donini, up in Idylwild, I was a 17 year old loud-mouthed punk. Still in high school, I took the Greyhound Bus to Yosemite, hiked my backpack full of junk over to Camp 4 and immediately ran into Donini. He said, Toss your sh#t over there, and sleep over there, and he pointed to a patch of dirt. Then he walked me over to a muscular guy smoking a Camel at a picnic table and said, The kid's name is Largo and he thinks he's hot sh#t and he wants to go climbing. You two figure it out.
The muscular guy asked me what I wanted to climb and I said, Left Side of Reed's Pinnacle, because my hero, Suicide Rock ace Bud Couch, had failed on the route the previous week, and I needed to get a leg up on Bud because I was like that. Ever climbed any off-width cracks, asked the muscular guy. Miles of them, I lied - and I got some smokes, too. Get your sh#t, said the muscular guy. Half hour later, Jim Bridwell and I chugging up Reed's Left.
Central Pillar, Nose In a Day, Watkins, Angel Falls, Borneo and a hundred other adventures with "The Bird" all followed from that first introduction in Camp 4.
Thanks Mr. Donini.
JL
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F10
Trad climber
e350 / Bishop
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Jul 23, 2010 - 07:15pm PT
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Happy Birthday, enjoy your day
When do you want to go do some more low angle dummy domes in JT
My blue Camalot is ready
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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Jul 23, 2010 - 07:48pm PT
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Happy Birthday Jim! I've never met you, but have always been amazed by your climbing. Enjoy that reunion with the Latok boyz.
Largo, that was an awesome story of your arrival in camp 4, told by one of the best storytellers ever. Thanks for that, and also your reading at facelift last fall.
Cheers,
Doug
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Mimi
climber
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Jul 23, 2010 - 08:03pm PT
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"ST forum should refrain from non cimbing posts for 24 hours in honor." Jennie
Agree totally.
Largo, that was such a good read.
Happy Birthday Jim!
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maldaly
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Jul 23, 2010 - 08:18pm PT
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Sorry I'm missing the reunion but life is crazy here. Say hi to George, Jeff, Michael and Ron. Any anyone else who might be scamming around.
Happy birthday Jim
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Mimi
climber
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Jul 23, 2010 - 10:55pm PT
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maldaly, rich portrait. And the story behind it? And the mask?
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Jul 23, 2010 - 11:49pm PT
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Have a great time at the reunion, Jim - thanks for the memories of your adventures with Dad at Indian Creek 2 years ago - meant a lot to me.
Happy birthday, keep the climbing spirit - you certainly represent.
Erik
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 23, 2010 - 11:54pm PT
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Gratulerer med dagen!!!666111
Just to be clear, happy 67th birthday!
After you collect your pension cheque, go clip some bolts, eh? And don't forget to post a report to your FaceBook page. :-)
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maldaly
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Jul 24, 2010 - 12:51am PT
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mimi - in the mid-90s we ran an ad campaign called "Trad and Proud of It". In an effort to counter the raging sport climbing fad, we featured well know trad climbers telling their trad stories.
The first ad was a shot of Wilford standing beside the Isuzu Trooper he had rolled a few times and had shot even more. He was pointing at the bullet holes and told the story about how one drunk afternoon they ran some tests to see if standing behind a car when being shot at was good cover or not. It wasn't.
We go a lot of hate mail on that one. The usual stuff: Climbing and drinking, drinking and shooting, shooting and climbing.
Our next ad was that photo of Donini. The accompanying story was his starvation trip to Patagonia in the early 70's when the had to poach some sheep in order to fill out their calorie deficit. His description of looking into the pleading eyes of the sheep as he tried to cut its throat was priceless.
Everyone sent us hate mail on that one. PETA, Access Funders, vegetarians and, most notably, John Sherman.
The third ad was a photo of Will Gadd in his paraglider helmet and the story about landing in a cocaine field in Colombia and getting surrounded by campesinos with machetes followed by sharing cigars and bloody steaks with the drug lord.
The hate mail that came in on that one was from South American climbers and ACLU types.
The final one was the best and we never got to run it. Annie Whitehouse told her story doing "it" at 28,000' on the West Ridge of Everest, just to see if it could be done. As told, it smelled, it was dirty, but it worked so she held the altitude record for doing "it" for a while. Then Chantal came along.
Never got any hate mail from that one because her then (now ex) husband wouldn't stand for it.
Hope that explains the devil mask. BTW, the mask was a studio prop that was sitting in the corner. When Jim picked it up during a break for a closer inspection we noticed the similarities and decided to shoot him with it.
mal
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Jul 24, 2010 - 02:27am PT
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You're a bad man, Pate . . .
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jul 24, 2010 - 03:23am PT
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Jesus christ - 67! I'm just turning 58 and that's tough to hear I'm being out gunned by a guy that much older than me just when I'm starting to feel old.
I'm giving it all she's got Captain!
And it still demands more. Oh well, back to the grind stone. I can tell this is going to be a last man standing sort of deal over the next couple of decades...
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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Jul 24, 2010 - 11:57am PT
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Happy Birthday Jim!
I've burned a bunch of Grateful Dead CD's for your listening pleasure, it is time for you to tune in, turn on and drop out . . . oh wait, you already did that. I also have a Lance Armstrong poster for your visual pleasure . . .
Seriously though, thanks for setting a good example for us all.
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Jul 24, 2010 - 12:26pm PT
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Happy Birthday Jim. The posts on this thread are hilarious.
Remember, the older we get, the better we used to be.
Don't let the truth interfere with a good story.
And, from Toby Keith: "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good, once, as I ever was."
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jul 24, 2010 - 11:11pm PT
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hey there say, donini.... wow happy supertopo birthday to you....
i was late... had grandkids over... :))
god bless!
:)
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:58pm PT
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Actually the birthday boy was spotted among a herd of dinosaurs yesterday up in the mountains of central Utah where ST's own EX-poster CHIP Jody Langford was patrolling WAAAAAAAAY out of his jurisdiction and managed to snap a shot for Ripley's Believe IT Or Not!
Joining Team Latok is a bearded Greg Lowe whom I first collaberated with 35 years ago (and then got to experiment with some of his amazing prototype cams) and some guy who happened to wander into camp (unexpected by all but a few conspirators.)
It was pretty funny saturday night when Jeff felt a little crowded in the dark by somebody.
He turned to see who it was and saw a belt buckle.
Took him a few moments to make out who it was, but then in a few seconds everybody realized too.
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