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Rick Sylvester
Trad climber
Squaw Valley, California
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May 15, 2011 - 01:57am PT
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I just discovered a bunch of postings I hadn't seen before. There was a big space so I thought that was the end of them. but lo! Being obsessive compulsive -- that,by the way, is my main motivation, even more than ego and narcissism, not that they're not present too -- I feel the need to respond to all. But I've realized I have to do it in segments. A month ago I made an earth shaking discovery, free internet porn -- yeah, I know, the luddite thing. Pretty soon I realized I had a potential big problem due to my addictive nature, and I needed to be very very careful, exercise discipline and restraint. But that threat turned out to be nothing compared to the Super Topo Forum. The trans Sierra sit ski thing got posted there. But for my wanting to check that out I never would have discovered and gotten on Super Topo (so curse Wellman and Arnow, not me). I didn't know about the Forum; I thought Super Topo was just about route information. And -- yeah, the luddite thing again and being non-modern not to mention non young -- I've never been on any social network
Now, a brief word about porn before dealing with some postings replies. Some years ago one started encountering terms like "ski porn", "climbing porn", and "surfing porn" referring to the genre of documentary films filled with sensational sequences but lacking in any real plot, characterization and related. I wanted credit for that term! Ages ago I observed to someone that surfing films had something in common with pornography. The first 10 waves seemed the most exciting thing you've ever seen but then you found yourself yawning, fighting falling asleep, by the 11th. With porn I couldn't believe that this stuff had actually been filmed, almost clinically close up. But like the surfing films, all too soon it got boring, not even sexy... at least to me. Yeah, "all too soon", like sex with me. I know, too much information. The lack of or at best a very thin story line was apparently too much for the sex to overcome. Regarding the outdoor adventure films, I saw the analogy but I wasn't clever enough to have literally coined the terms "climbing porn" etc. Someone like Doug Robinson, amazing wordsmith that he is, could have, would have...or for all I know may have.
Another thing. The little sex porn I was exposed to bitd wasn't all that good. Actually the only film I ever paid to view, and with guilt, was "Deep Throat". I didn't go just for the titillation -- really! -- but for similar reasons as to why I went to "Avatar" -- because it seemed to transcend just going to see a film; it was an "event". Or maybe if anything it was a triumph of advertising/marketing event! You felt you had to see it. And like "Deep Throat", I didn't think "Avatar" was the greatest thing ever, at least as far as story line and the rest, nothing that sticks in your mind several days after the way really good films like "The King's Speech" do (and that's probably key to why it, "Avatar", didn't win the Academy Awards' "best picture") -- the essentially cowboys and indians, superior advanced technological culture wiping out a lesser one plot, black and white characters, good vs, evil and so on. As far as filmic state of the art technological 3D and other breakthroughs there's of course not much debate; it was brilliant (for many viewers this seems sufficient, all they care about. I've never understood this mentality. But then, everyone's not he same -- tolerance, tolerance). But ultimately disappointing, a letdown, not in the former department of something you could really sink your teeth into, relate to, common humanity, that sort of thing -- again, "The King's Speech".
But the porn I discovered last month was something else! Whether the photography is just so much better or the women better looking (Linda Lovelace was just average plus), many if not most undoubtedly due to increased, astronomical rates of body alteration -- or maybe just that I've become an old horn dog, I don't know. All the stuff about lack of plot line, character development and all just didn't seem to matter all that much. Lots of this modern stuff was super high octane. So it didn't take long to realize that there could be problems, married or single, and that I'd best be very careful. And then the Super Topo Forum reared its head, a more formidable threat as it turned out. I might never get outdoors again. Actually, there was another problem with the porn. The guys were such super studs, both endurance and size-wise, that I found myself getting totally emasculated.
Anyway, on to a couple of more mundane things, or at least less sexy. Hi, Tom Kimbrough. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you're not sexy. I don't want any beef with Barb. Great to see your name. Maybe a lot of people don't know but Tom has a son Paul who's a superstar in the world of telemark skiing. He wins or consistently places near the top in extreme tele competitions including the annual one at neighboring Alpine Meadows resort. He's featured in at least one ski magazine ad, free heel hucking some sick cliff. Way to go, Tom! And Paul of course. Barb too I guess had something to do with it. Barb of course was part of the first female duo to climb the Nose. Quite an accomplished family. Too bad they're not just about the nicest most centered people you could ever hope to meet.
Then there was a mention of Gary Hopkins who some years ago moved from Reno -- yes, a roofer -- to Alaska (and makes the effort to sporadically call, keep in touch -- thanks, Gary) -- yes, another unforgettable partner and person (and of course with the great perspective of great age that's what it's all about and that's what ultimately the Forum is about and why it and all of you are so great and special) even if not necessarily a world class climber like the rest of us -- oh yeah, sure. A really generous kind person, also a lady killer, albeit with some excesses. And I thought I liked meat (an interesting City of Rocks trip -- solid hardcore protein for breakfast as well as dinner -- whatever happened to carbs?). And some people think Chris Fredericks looks or looked like Jesus; Chris has nothing on Gary. For a while Gary and Terry -- I'm forgetting her former last name -- dated. She's been married to climber/skier Dave Adams in South Lake Tahoe for some time. I learned from Jon Arnow during the sit ski traverse that Dave and he partnered, climbing and High Sierra ski tours/traverses, over the years. I was at the wedding reception that took place at Squaw's High Camp. Hey, so was Gene Drake, one of the almost daily, conditions permitting, regulars along with Victor Marcus et al. late afternoons after work at the Truckee post office, at Donner Summit, especially Snowshed Wall, specifically the "Office Cracks". How's he doing (cancer) -- anyone know? You hope for the best and fear learning of the worst. Tried contacting him a while back but the number I had was non-operative. I think I heard that he'd left the Tahoe area, si?
Terry was the most talented female distance runner in Nevada and Northern California. I was in some 10 k races with her -- beautiful legs (she, not I); never was within a couple of minutes of her. A 2:36 or so marathoner she should have capped, and wanted to, her career by competing in the Barcelona Olympics on the Swiss women's marathon team. Like Gabrielle Anderson-Schiess (sp?). the Swiss-American -- dual citizenship like Terry -- woman (longtime alpine ski instructor at Sun Valley, also an amazing nordic ski competitor, age records both in running and nordic) who upon entering the stadium in the final bit of the women's marathon at the second Los Angeles hosted summer Olympics ('80 or '84) walked around the track severely listing to one side, on the verge of being pulled from the race -- yet still recorded something like a 2:48 (try that, critics, and there were many), a very infamous event. Terry thought she could qualify for one of the 3 slots on the Swiss team. But an incorrectly diagnosed case of plantar fasciatis (sp? ) ruined her chances, a huge shame. Some injuries you can run -- no pun intended -- through being careful but not others, not that one. Last I heard she was the cross country and/or track coach as South Lake Tahoe Community College.
Climbing was not her forte. Gary tried to get her into it and you couldn't have witnessed a more perfect example of the old saw, "Don't try to instruct relatives, love interests, people you're in relationships with (there are exceptions), One time Gary and I were climbing in Owens River Gorge, at Negress Wall, I believe. I'd noticed Bachar who was descending near and just ahead of us from the Central Gorge parking area, then lost sight and thought of him. Terry was going for a run along the rim. Afterwards she joined Gary and me. Our attention was on the rock; I didn't know John was free soloing Darshan I believe, a .12a across the Gorge's from us. But Terry had been observing him high above the ground, sans cord. I never forgot her remark, "I felt like puking". The sentiment was understandable. But John was so good...and his ending, despite the risk, so incomprehensible. Like Madsen he seemed stronger than anything, even gravity.
Jaybro, whoever you are, you've got a great memory. Keeping with the running theme -- I thought this was supposed to be primarily a climbing site -- the book was supposed to be about my first 100 -- nice charismatic number -- sub 3 hour marathons, and the title was to be "The Marathon as Odyssey -- My First 100 blah blah blah". It never happened, never reached the goal (marathon c.v.: 116 completions, something like 85 sub3s, 4 drop outs). By the way, it wasn't always fun trying to climb on a decent level and getting in the running mileage. Sh*t happened. I -- and some other Squaw Valleyites -- got sued, wrongfully, for $75 million for opposing a multimillion dollar development, The Resort at Squaw Creek. It was part of an intimation strategy, called SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation), going against the grain of First Amendment free speech rights -- against the project's opponents. You kindly asked me, Royal, in an email some years back, for details about what happened. Sorry I was too busy and/or disorganized to get back to you. I hope this fills in the gap a bit. But defending oneself against a major lawsuit even if it is bs -- essentially I was sued for breach of contract of a contract I never signed, one with a provision about "not opposing or encouraging other opposition" to the project --is a drain not just financially but on time and energy. Both my climbing and running suffered. And of course the aging thing...along with some physical ailments. My intention was to run a total of 153 -- there's a story behind that OF COURSE! -- of the 26.2 milers along with at least 100 of them being sub3. So there was no good happy ending for the book. I was disappointed. I still have hopes of writing a story about the whole crazy obsession (so obvious now via perfect 20/20 hindsight), maybe one of the 13 chapters, in something I've had in mind for eons, "Thirteen Misadventures". And, as always, the best part, the main and real reason for doing so, is some of the great characters I met along the way: Jay Helgerson, the first person to run a marathon a week for a year (and almost all under 3 hours, now living in Portland,Oregon); Don Marathon - he legally changed his name to that - who when I met him was on his fifth hearse (a great car to camp out in as certain climbers had also discovered as well as cheap to acquire as people started trading in gas guzzlers after the first energy crisis of the early Seventies). He was a publicity addict, but a harmless soul, just another crazed experiential junkie -- too bad we don't have any of those in the climbing world -- who claimed he was going to run 2000 marathons by the year 2000...and then the inevitable injuries started creeping in.
And a lot of others -- take Ed Jerome, famous for almost always racing with his little dog Shelly (sp?). People hated that dog; during the initial miles it would be all over the place, tripping runners, before it finally settled down and stuck next to Ed, who could have been type cast in the role of the quintessential "loneliness of the long distance" runner-- torn singlet, little running cap (not unlike Yabo's omnipresent cycling cap). He was also the first "collector" I met. And he gave me the best running tip I ever got. It occurred early in my third marathon, in Sonoma, a real positive ion day, a beautiful fresh sunny morning following a drizzly Halloween when it was just so good to be alive, vital, active. We ended up side by side in the early miles and he said, "Stick with me and we'll break 3 hours. 34 minutes per each 5 miles, and you have a little safety margin." I didn't know who the hell he was, if he knew what he was talking about. I asked if he'd run a marathon before. He said, "Yes", I asked how many. He replied, "110". "What!? In how many years?" He replied something like 10. So I mentally figured and deduced that he'd been averaging around one a month and for 10 years or so. He was a much better runner than I, not just collecting but often winning his age group. He'd done the best, Boston, several times.
Shelly and he died within a month of each other. It caused me to think of marriages where that happens, where it was hard not to believe that the surviving spouse had literally given up the ghost, had no more reason to continue living, and died. Coincidence seemed too pat an explanation. And Ed and Shelly were definitely a couple, an odd couple. Viva the eccentrics, the freaks, the ones who embodied Kerouac's and al the others' wild zest for living and experiences! Shelly had, as usual, not heeded him, run out of a restaurant, I think, into traffic. Rob MacKenzie was an acquaintance of his; they both lived in the same general area, -- Rod in San Jose and Ed in Silicon Valley (at least he worked there, something to do with air traffic control technology). A month before his death, as it turned out, Rod called me. They were in a restaurant together. He put Ed on the line. I asked him how many marathons he was up to. 153. I'd done around 50 then and realized I'd just kept pace with him. And then he was gone. Another weird death. I guess you didn't have to climb to suffer bizarre ends. For some reason he lost his job, ended up in Lancaster. Was riding his bike -- yes, he did that too -- along a highway when a woman in her eighties who had lumber sticking sideways out of her car window hit him, the lumber that is. Claimed to have never even seen him. She had all her windshield duct taped but for a few inches above the dash; claimed the glare bothered her. Ed's parents were outraged, wanted to sue...but against someone so old? I never heard if they did. And turned out that Rod who never achieved the success he sought at climbing (did any of us really, did any of us find ultimate fulfillment, leave it and a lot of other pursuits without a regret or backward glance?) got into running and was able to break 3 hours which most people can't do. A marathon was tough but it didn't have climbing's fear factor. Crazy zany characters that help make life such a rich tapestry. Oops! Cliche alert! Cliche alert!
Yes, the "The Spy Who Loved Me" Bond stunt -- except it originated as an outdoors adventure that almost 10 years later got adapted into a film stunt as a result of the Bond people getting the idea to use it for the film opening from seeing a Canadian Club magazine ad I'd done. That ad campaign was built around an adventure motif, a predecessor of Mountain Dew and Red Bull and a host of others. Now you can't turn on the telly or open a magazine without coming across climbing being used as a metaphor of achievement or whatever to sell some product. Well, climbers et al. get nice paydays. My big mouth -- I prefer honesty and candor -- killed the Canadian Club ad series when I revealed to a newspaper writer what really happened up at Baffin. Due to a series of complications the ad ended up being faked but of course that's a whole 'nother story. Since you brought it up, yeah, it was expensive, reputedly the highest paid stunt in the history of film up to then. My fee's number was not $50,000, more like three-fifths of that figure -- and part of that was supposed to be for expenses, my overhead (gear, getting back into skydiving including some instruction, other stuff). By the way, I always had mixed feelings about jumping out of aircraft and over cliffs..and not just due to the risk. Even though it's been so much a part of the scene of late for climbers and skiers to search out more thrills, specifically BASE and skiBASE jumping, call me old school but I still think it's hard to top climbing and powder skiing. I'll readily grant there is that thing about fast vs. slow twitch, high intensity/short duration vs. low intensity/long duration (the marathon!) types. And these change throughout the course of a life, hopefully a long lived life. End of soap box. Anyway, from what I'd heard the cost of the total stunt based upon crew expenses, transportation, chopper, gear, my fee, costly Panavision camera rentals (can be only rented, not owned) was something like $200,000, not half a million. The original budget for the film was something like -- memory, memory! -- $13 million. I heard a rumor it went over budget, up to $21 million, a minescule fraction of current budgets for that type of film. Nevertheless, the cost of that one stunt still represented a significant perhaps unprecedented portion of the film's total budget.
So here's where the interesting parts of the story come in, at least to me. The stunt was going to be eliminated from the film; it was deemed too expensive. But reputedly due only to "spectacular" footage of my standing on the edge of Asgard in a bright red duvet (too pretentious? -- substitute "parka". I once got criticized by someone from the backbiting element of our climbing community[sic] for writing "etriers" rather than "aid slings" -- hey, I heard that term first, from Haston and Whillans --never forget an insult), filmed from a circling chopper, it was last minute-ish decided to keep it in the script. And here's the other thing. Everyone's(sic) heard about scenes that end up on the cutting room floor. How about ones that never even get into the camera, get even filmed? Asgard looms as one of the most spectacular formations on the planet, especially from angles where one of the twin towers is hidden behind the other. But nothing but tight-ish shots were filmed of it, nothing far enough off to really portray it in all its glory. It wouldn't have made sense script-wise, Bond being atop a tiny summit in view of the fact that when he exits the cabin a long-ish ski chase ensues. It had to be somewhere where the chase culminates in his skiing over a cliff, not off a pinnacle. It could have been a location like back from the Valley rim -- except there are no cabins above Yosemite (Snow Creek hut? -- sort of), just occasional hidden pot plots (well, at lower elevations). Sure, try getting a permit. Lots of locations in the Alps, where it was implied to have been, like Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen valley near the Eiger, sufficed and made sense. As almost a filmmaking axiom the idea, the goal, is to seek to capture the most spectacular footage, and few things rival Asgard in that respect. So it seemed such a shame, such a lost opportunity. Still bothers me.
Willy Bogner who was responsible for and credited with filming every skis scene in every Bond film didn't film Asgard. Six months later, in the Alps, he did film the chase that precedes the skiBASE jump. He was on the program at Telluride's MountainFilm festival a few years ago. I attended his presentation. I always wanted to meet him, but somehow missed making contact. Until that afternoon I didn't realize how impressive his resume, this son of the famous ski clothing manufacturer, was. I knew he'd been ranked 10th in the world in downhill and hence had the ability to film, supposedly skiing backwards as fast as 40 mph. What I didn't know until that show, probably should have figured out, was that he was the inventor of twin tip skis, years before they got popular. That's what enabled him to do the above. Up to then if anything I had a somewhat negative opinion of him, viewing him as basically responsible for Buddy Werner's, and a top European female ski racer's, deaths. It was his filming project, for an ad, when they were killed in an avalanche. Despite Europe -- in fact, most of the rest of the world -- having a far more laissez faire liability culture, with attendant far less litigation, than the U.S., there was supposedly clear negligence and a high profile trial was held. Werner, of Steamboat Springs, was America's greatest ski male racer up to then, the only one to make an impact internationally, sort of skiing's Prefontaine. But until Telluride I had no idea of his c.v., the size and variety of his work and the firsts and innovations of his contribution and creativity. One helluva filmmaker obviously!
It was remarked that our little 11 man second unit was more like a third unit, a little independent production crew of its own. It was headed up by a real mensch, Rene Dupont, a guy I have a lot of love and respect for. He went on to co-produce one of the all time great films, always part of any top ten list of Christmas films, "A Christmas Story". You know it, the comedy with so many great scenes and roles about the little bespectacled kid who yearns for a Red Ryder bb gun.
As far as mandatory run outs on SoH -- f*ck, I'm resorting to abbreviations. First "bitd" and now this; I'm compromising all my highest principles (the sad truth is that this is really messing me up due to the obsessive compulsive disorder thing which manifests itself in various silly ways) -- it just doesn't make sense. I was always way too chicken. Oh, I've done my share, still do (uh oh, the ol' "There are old climbers and bold climbers but no old bold climbers"). But I have no memory of such on SoH. Love to take credit as having exhibited that type of daring up there but I doubt it. So, I just don't know what's being referred to. On the other hand, the chimneys more or less had to go mandatory free. Due to their tight flared nature, when I tried aiding, after reaching way in to place bongs and attaching the etriers -- zounds, I quickly learned I couldn't get my shoes higher than the lowest etrier rungs...and the etriers were in more of a horizontal than vertical attitude.. Thus, each aid placement would have resulted in something like no more than a foot of progress. I'd still be up there...exfoliating. The chimneys were fun but you know what they say about too much of a good thing.
That's it...for today. You have to understand that except for the morning -- ok, I was still in bed -- the weather wasn't all that great today at Tahoe. I had to do something. And now it's begun snowing and odds are that the Amgen bicycle race slated to begin in just a few hours tomorrow is seriously seriously screwed. I hate to gloat but I called this two months ago after one of my daily 5 hours shoveling stints. And you know, homo sapiens reputedly being social beings, I've got to reach out and communicate with somebody; my wife just scowls (gee, I wonder why). Please tone down the criticism. No one's forcing you to read if you don't want to. And it's not like this is causing the destruction of any trees (I know, more likely it would have been forests). But if you're really really bored, got nothing better to do Iike me today...or a masochist, a glutton for punishment....
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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May 15, 2011 - 03:22am PT
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Neat! Well, not quite the right word, but...
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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May 15, 2011 - 12:20pm PT
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Rick-Burnt the toast, killed the eggs and the coffee is cold, but just finished your last post. Impossible for me to stop reading so had to give the breakfast a pass. Why do I have visions of Kerouac pounding away on his typewriter with an almost endless roll of paper when he wrote "On The Road"? Wonderful, give us some more but first I need to take a break and cook breakfast, again.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 15, 2011 - 01:00pm PT
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Oh, impulsive Guido, I'm not gonna risk breakfast. I'm saving it for my 'quiet time' tonight.
I know it'll be worth it.
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Rick Sylvester
Trad climber
Squaw Valley, California
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May 15, 2011 - 09:03pm PT
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Yeah, breakfast. I had mine around 3 pm today in view of when I hit the sack last night. This Forum is ruining me, once again but for new reasons. I should soon burn out, or mess up climbing due to the lack of sleep.
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TomKimbrough
Social climber
Salt Lake City
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May 15, 2011 - 09:36pm PT
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Rick - I love it. You sound just like you do right there on the other side of the campfire!
I'm heading up for an early season stint in the Tetons. I guess I better take the skis. Paul is up there now but there's no keeping up with him. Snow today in Tahoe I see. Enough to cancel the T of C stage. I'll bet you were going to watch.
We want more of your discourses but don't forget to go outside also.
Cheers, Kimbrough
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Rick Sylvester
Trad climber
Squaw Valley, California
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May 16, 2011 - 04:36am PT
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Great to hear from you ,Tom. Have fun in that pornographic range where you used to do ranger-ing.
Say hi to Paul. I'm sure you can beat him on skinny skis. Wish I could join you.
Yeah, I considered spectating if there'd been anything to spectate about. But considering what time I got to bed after ODing on that post it was not in the cards. Anyway, as you know I missed nothing. My big wonder is if there'll be a race tomorrow (technically datewise, today). And whether there's any more snow coming in tonight or manana (sky is pretty calm right now). Just took the trash out and the road, one block from Squaw's main one as you probably remember, would be pretty scary on skinny tires -- at least for a nonprofessional rider like myself. I just don't know how well the highways can be plowed and buffed. They'll sure try; they really want to put this on. It could a debacle. I wonder if they'll ever risk coming back here again. Lots of people are pretty disappointed. There'd been quite a big build up.
All the best!
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Rick Sylvester
Trad climber
Squaw Valley, California
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May 16, 2011 - 04:45am PT
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Mr. the Dood, Not a bad analogy to Kerouac's typewriter roll. I likw it I learned about that only a couple of years ago.
Also around a couple of years ago I picked up "Dharma Bums" for the first time in maybe 40 or whatever years. My memory was that the "Mt. Matterhorn" passages were pretty brief. What a surprise -- just about the whole book is that (really, as you know, California's Matterhorn Peak) and Berkeley. I was blown away. My understanding was that Kerouac was never on it, that he based what he wrote on tales that Gary Snyder related of his scrambles on it -- hard to believe considering how evocative and true his prose is. Maybe that's what it means to be a great writer. All the best.
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Allen Hill
Social climber
CO.
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May 28, 2011 - 02:57am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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May 17, 2012 - 04:12am PT
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Quite a TR on the X-ST. It was quite good. I quite liked your Trak skis. I cannot quite quit writing quite quite yet. That's on the QT, Rick. Keep it quiet.
Mouse says yodely-oh to Wellman & Arnoly-ow. Waitago!
Real men sit-ski.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Bump for a story about Rick's route on Shiprock with Chuck Kroger...
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Bump for the gold standard
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!