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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Dec 15, 2011 - 11:39am PT
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I've done both routes too and I'd give the edge to Bonnies, even with the aid point.
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Powder
Trad climber
SF Bay Area
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Dec 15, 2011 - 11:45am PT
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Thanks for sharing! This is my first time hearing anything about her.
Bonnie's Roof - looks so impressive and FUN!! Imagine doing the FA... whoa...
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Dec 15, 2011 - 12:17pm PT
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A nice shot of Bonnie's Roof by Ivan Rezucha. I'm just about to reach the spot where Bonnie used a point of aid, and as I said earlier, I think there is already some 5.8 at this point.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2011 - 12:20pm PT
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Well - so far I have followed Bonnies Roof twice and each time, at that section, I sure used a point(or several) of aid! hahah Maybe next year I'll get it(and then wonder when I will be able to try for it on lead).
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bevka
Trad climber
kelly, wyo
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Dec 15, 2011 - 12:27pm PT
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bonnie prudden's name is well-known to me and to the others of my gunks climbing circle. it was especially nice to know there had been a hard-leading woman, but i think she also showed us that she wasn't a good woman climber, but a good climber, and that leading was where it was at. we tried to follow suit. thanks bonnie.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Dec 15, 2011 - 12:34pm PT
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Thanks for sharing the stories. An extraordinary person, Bonnie Prudden.
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Gene
climber
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Dec 15, 2011 - 07:12pm PT
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Bonnie Bump! A Pioneer in so many ways.
g
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Dec 15, 2011 - 08:05pm PT
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I was wondering whether 8 was the median number of pullups (and so characteristic of the "average student,")
I don't recall. I read this statistic in a book entitled SUPER ATHLETES by Willoughby, I think.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Dec 16, 2011 - 12:49am PT
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THANKS HAPPI FOR THIS THREAD!!!!!
Esp when the thread with the titty-producing young female fool has 1000+posts.
THIS IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR FOR US WOMEN!!!!!
bump for the real climbing babes of ST, who stick with the sport and these discussions in spite of a frequent lack of collegiality from the men. i, for one, appreciate your being here.
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FRUMY
Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
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Dec 19, 2011 - 12:47pm PT
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TFPU
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Jim Herrington
Mountain climber
New York, NY
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Dec 19, 2011 - 01:09pm PT
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Bonnie and I earlier this year in Arizona. She was still very lucid, energetic and definitely full of humor... RIP, Bonnie.
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Seth
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Dec 19, 2011 - 01:50pm PT
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Nice that the Times published an obit but they seem to have missed her climbing significance! They note that she climbed in the Gunks with Kraus but don't seem to have realized that considered on her own she was one of the elite climbers of her day, male or female.
I think Bonnie's Roof is an incredible accomplishment for her era. If you haven't climbed the route, it may not be obvious just how intimidating it is to approach the overhang at which she placed one point of aid. It is somewhat unusual, in that you leave the security of a crack in a less-than-vertical corner, and then step left onto the other wall, into a reachy, overhanging position beneath the roof. This is just the move to get under the roof, and it would be hard enough even if the route ended there at a set of chains. When you add in the roof itself it of course becomes still more challenging, but I'm really impressed she even got there. The idea of doing this move to get under the roof in a pair of Keds gives me the chills.
Bonnie was the real deal.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Dec 20, 2011 - 01:36am PT
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from Climbing in North America by Chris Jones
ISBN 0-520-03637-9
pp 214-215
'During these immediate postwar years the numbers of dedicated Shawangunk climbers remaind small, perhaps twenty, almost wholly within the Appalachian Mountain Club. Although they welcomed newcomers, their social net was limited. One of their prime concerns when the climbing season got under way in the spring was who, if any, of last year's recruits would stick with them for another year. One who did was Bonnie Prudden, a climber of considerable skill who became Kraus's regular partner and was later known for her writing on physical education. Prudden was one of the few women of the day who performed, and survived, in what was then an almost exclusively male preserve. As such, she engaged the interest of her fellow club members; a favorite story concerns the naming of the climb Boston.
After they had completed a new route, Prudden and partner Dick Hirschland sat at the top of the cliff relaxing and taking in the view. She was explaining the whereabouts of a friend's summer place. With her thighs as an improvised map she pointed out the geography of the region and remarked that the place was situated between Providence and Taunton, Massachusetts. Hirschland broke in, "I wish I was in Boston."'
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Dec 20, 2011 - 02:25am PT
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from Williams "Red Guide"
1946
The Brat 5.4 FA Bonnie Prudden
Something Interesting 5.8 FA Hans Kraus, Ken Prestrud, Bonnie Prudden, FFA Art Gran
1947
Andrew 5.4 FA Hans Kraus, Fritz Wiessner, Bonnie Prudden
Blue Stink 5.3 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, Ken Prestrud
Grand Central 5.9 FA Bonnie Prudden, Hans Kraus, Dick Hirschland, FFA (1963) Jim McCarthy
1948
"48" 5.2 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
1949
50-50 5.5 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
"49" 5.2 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Oblique Twique 5.8 FA Ken Prestrud, Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, Lucien Warner
Bonnie's Household 5.4 FA Bonnie Prudden, Hans Kraus
Three Buzzards 5.4 FA Hans Kraus, Ken Prestrud, Bonnie Prudden, Dick Hirschland
1950
Easy Keyhole 5.2 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Boston 5.4 FA Dick Hirschland, Bonnie Prudden
Rusty Trifle 5.3 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Arrivato 5.6 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Petie 5.2 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
1951
Hans' Puss 5.7 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Never Again 5.10 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, FFA (1968) John Stannard
1952
Bonnie's Roof 5.9 FA Bonnie Prudden, Hans Kraus, FFA (1961) Dick Williams, Jim McCarthy
Emilietta 5.3 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
1953
Wrist 5.6 FA Bonnie Prudden, Hans Kraus
Arch 5.5 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Ribs 5.4 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Asphodel 5.5 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
Casa Emilio 5.2 FA Bonnie Prudden, Norton Smithe
1954
Bitchy Virgin 5.6 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden
V-3 5.7 FA Hans Kraus, Ken Prestrud, Bonnie Prudden
Triangle 5.9 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, Ken Prestrud, FFA (1960) Art Gran, Al DeMaria
Dick's Prick 5.6 FA Hans Kraus, Dick Hirschland, Bonnie Prudden
1955
Dry Martini 5.8 FA Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, Lucien Warner
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 20, 2011 - 02:49pm PT
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Thanks for all the information and tales - good to remember one of our own.
The lack of mention of climbing in the NYT obituary reminds me of the obituary they did for David Brower. Almost a full page, hardly a mention of his climbing - which is how he came to be an environmentalist in the first place.
Interesting that one of her partners was named Prestrud - so was Amundsen's lieutenant, on the South Pole expedition. Kristian Prestrud led a side trip from Framheim to the east, making landfall on the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf. Then they trundled boulders.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Dec 20, 2011 - 08:18pm PT
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..........I'd rather be in Boston..........
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