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rincon
Trad climber
SoCal
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Jul 31, 2010 - 10:39pm PT
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A proud Jeff Batten, atop Washinton Column, after soloing The Prow:
RIP Buddy.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jul 31, 2010 - 10:39pm PT
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Batten! Come back here. Don't listen to those Monsters, they're just taking you for a ride. Forget about the shifting plates and come and eat your dinner.
Or, maybe he just thought of something funny.
A sad day indeed, the slow, strange unfolding of his disappearance. Many good thoughts to his family and friends, missed he is.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Jul 31, 2010 - 10:50pm PT
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His presence will be missed. We've lost a family member.
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tonesfrommars
Trad climber
California
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Jul 31, 2010 - 11:13pm PT
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R.I.P.
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Jul 31, 2010 - 11:43pm PT
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The King is dead. Best to you in the next one, and best to yours in this one. RIP.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Sebastopol, CA
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Jul 31, 2010 - 11:57pm PT
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Wow what a bummer. I wrote something in jest the other day on the Earthquake!! thread, but it really doesn't seem so funny now. He seemed to live for those shakers, always the first to post. I was surprised he didn't respond.
Peace.
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Pewf
climber
nederland
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To troll so successfully requires a genius understanding of the psyche. I'm sorry that it came with such a dark side, evident in some of his over-the-edge trolls and also in the deeper things he shared here.
I thought of Jeff as a fixture, and this news comes as a shock. I am grateful for the 15 or so years of laughter that he added to my life despite my never having met him. Thank you, Jeff. I'm sorry that you are gone, and if anyone who was close to him reads this please accept my condolences.
Amanda
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Footloose
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe
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This is so sad. He was a major presence
here at the Taco. He leaves a hole. RIP, Jeff.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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There aren't words.
I never got to meet JDF, but I really enjoyed his online personality (personalities!) since the early rec.climbing days. I ache for the sadness he felt. I hope he knows how terribly he is missed here, and in all areas of his life.
sigh.
Condolences to his wife, family, and friends.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oh f*#k! Tell me this is some kind of bad joke.
This is not the thing to read after... F*#k...
And he was no troll. He was just way, way, ahead of most everybody else.
Through the window beside the desk where I sit right now the sun is setting. When it comes up tomorrow, it just won't be quite as bright as it should be.
D
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dark side indeed, Amanda.
Still waiting on COD.
Climbers are very driven by nature, but the cost is steep when the bill comes due.
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Slakkey
Big Wall climber
From Back to Big Wall Baby
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Sad Indeed, Jeff was truly one of a kind here
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Sad to hear about your passing, Jeff.
Rest In peace, we'll miss you.
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nita
Social climber
chica from chico, I don't claim to be a daisy
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Just got home....So incredibly sad to see this post..;-(
Rest in peace ...Condolences to Jeff's Wife , family ,friends and little doggies..
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, all.... the first supertopo thread i see, after having a happy birthday with my grandkids...
it is just about 20 minutes after midnight...
birthday, now, safely under the belt:
i am really sad and crying and missing you juan...
i love all my friends here... and i really loved you too...
and your wife and your home and your dogs...
i still do love you, juan...
god gave me all my friends and their family, for to make us
a huge quilt... i will really really miss you here...
i will be crying all night...
say---i hope you are now free and happy in ways that we can
not comprehend... i hope you see how much we all loved you...
this is very sad...
i hope your hard trails in life, somehow changed and took
you easy---but i wonder if we will ever know....
dear wife of juan, and friends, family, and kin,
my sincere deep condolences...
i did not know juan in person---only on here...
but---he commanded our attention here, in his own
unique way... and i learned of him, immediatly here
on supertopo my very day... and i always prayed for him...
always always... and i rejoiced with his victories...
and i will really really miss him... :(
may god bless in ways far above anything we can ever do,
to ease you pain through this hard time...
god bless....
my new year, in to my birthday, is to help birth
some good prayers to your family...
love in god's ways,
neebee...
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rincon
Trad climber
SoCal
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Some pics from his amateure seismologist website
Istanbul 2006
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Thanks for all the gee-whiz science stuff and the laughs. Would never have heard of Zomgits but for you.
I hope you're manging okay Mrs Juan. Best healing vibes to you!
I recognize that photo in josh. And I think I remember that day. We all met climbing, and Top roped somewhere, I think the Rusty wall. I remember talking with Larry Z. especially, and eating red licorice.
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Sorry, and a bit shocked to hear this. RIP JDF!
Sorry if this seems insensitive, but what happened?
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JOEY.F
Social climber
sebastopol
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I always liked how he signed as Wanda.
51 is too young.
Condolenses to his family and friends.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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So sorry to hear of Jeff's death. My sympathy for his family and friends.
He had been such a fixture, such an outrageous provocateur and for such a long time... and with the same group of people. He was looking for a pair of yellow jumars, I sold him mine, and he scored a stitch plate off of Russ... who knows what he was thinking, I am half worried that I helped supply parts of the machinery leading to his demise... we'll see...
His voice hadn't changed here on the net for so very long... here from a 1997 rec.climbing post:
Jeff Batten
For a rush I was thinking of going out to Stoney Point this afternoon, and taking a 40 foot fall off the front wall. The front wall is about 80 feet high. I figure I will anchor one end of the climbing rope with 40 feet of slack, and just jump off. It is a shear drop so I will not hit anything before the rope takes the load.
I have been using climbing gear for 20 years, so I have complete confidence in the gear.
Am I crazy for wanting to do this? Do you think it is safe?
Jeff
at the time he was posting from the seismo.gps.caltech.edu mail server, the thread gets off with a short 25 replies,.
In 2002 Dingus Milktoast wrote his eulogy in a thread titled "The Fisherman"
"Ya know, some folks can make a thousand casts, use illegal bait, sh#t, even use dynamite and still not catch a thing.
Others, they come back to the same fishing holes year after year, stick a juicy worm on a rusty old hook and drop it in a quiet pool and reel em in one after another. Cagier fish go scooting off, shouting warnings as they leave, and still these lunkers are hauled in. And it is quite clear from the tags, many of these trophies have been caught by the same angler in the same holes, over and over and over.
It would be funny if it weren't true. Hell, it IS funny and it IS true.
A ROCKSTAR of a fisherman.
Hats off to you my man.
DMT "
it is a melancholy journey back in time to read those old threads, still saved in apparent perpetuity now at http://groups.google.com/group/rec.climbing/
Here's to Jeff tonight...
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