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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Apr 26, 2006 - 12:10pm PT
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Dave Pagel is the Minnesotan. That thing is classic, as is his story of the epic drive back to Minneapolis fron Boulder. It has many good lines: about the stereo playing so loud "it sets up a standing wave in my brain"; "I am probably clinically dead",the Boulder ideal of how the body is a temple, to be nourished only with macrobiotic foods, and then filled with all the mind-altering substances I can afford. An all-timer.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 26, 2006 - 01:07pm PT
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Tar-
maybe you missed this:
[url="http://home.comcast.net/~e.hartouni/doc/greatest_climber.txt"]The Greatest Climber In The World by Bernard Amy[/url]
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elcap-pics
climber
Crestline CA
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Apr 26, 2006 - 01:16pm PT
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Yo.... John Longs "Rats" about the old Yosemite wall climbers... I still get all teary whenever I read it, which is fairly often ... Nice John!!!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 26, 2006 - 01:20pm PT
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Thanks Ed H!
(greatest climber)
Now BVB does not have to fax it to me!
What we really need is to do links to everyone of these great suggestions, or burn them to cd a la bachar/werner video.
I'm not volunteering!
(carry on...)
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Roger Breedlove
Trad climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Apr 26, 2006 - 03:19pm PT
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I don't think that either of my two favorites has been mentioned: Kroger’s report on the first ascent of the 'Heart Route’ and Robbins account of ‘Tis-sa-ack.’ I think both were originally published in ‘Ascent.’
‘Tis-sa-ack’ stands out, in hindsight for me, as mirroring the ending of the ‘Golden Age’ of Yosemite climbing. The first few paragraphs have a tone of wistfulness about the ‘regulars,’ notably Pratt, not getting together to climb the new route. Then the whole tone of the article changes as Robbins and Patterson start climbing and in the process define the divide between the old generation and the new.
Although I did not know Patterson, and was new, it seems to me that the story and the story telling summed up the end of the era, the loosening of the bonds that held the old group together, and the incomprehensibleness of the new guys.
Robbins’ concept for telling the story—he writes in the first person for each of the players—is stellar. It really is if each person were telling his side of the story, in a private, no holds barred late night conversation.
Robbins nails himself and also nails some of the personal characteristics of Roper and Pratt, guys he had know and climbed with for years. The article also captures the tensions created mostly by the 60’s climbers growing up and the attendant complications—some of the same tensions I saw first hand play out a few years later.
Kroger, on the other hand, poke fun at the whole idea of the heroes of the day, both old and new. The images he portrays were hilarious in their conjuring up images of Bridwell and Schmitz as barbarians—“Let’s call them ‘Jim’ and ‘Kim’”--and in capturing everyone’s silly awe of Robbins with their description of desperate racing around on the top of El Cap looking for him when they topped out. They were sure that he would have come to meet them—they only climbed it so that Robbins would like them!!! Ha.
On a personal note, some of my best memories are hanging out at Roper’s in Berkeley. Pratt had a little enclosed porch for a room and I lived a few blocks away. The place was almost always full of the climbing literary types. The behind the scenes look at Steve and Chuck editing ‘Ascent’ was priceless, whether it was sitting in the living room with piles of paper strewn about or arguing writing style into the late afternoon over bottles of wine, after the waiters had left, and someone was already mopping the floor. Steve and Chuck would take stuff that was just a notch above random words delivered in a sack with a proposed title and work them into what the ‘author’ would have loved to be able to say if only he had the talent. Those massive edits jobs always sounded as if they were written in the ‘author’s’ voice and never sounded like Steve or Chuck--absolute masters at word-smithing.
I think both stories are in Roper's "Ordeal by Piton" collection.
Edit: It looks like I went a little overboard on the 'why' part of the question. Sorry. Further edit: I checked some of my facts.
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John Vawter
Social climber
San Diego
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Apr 26, 2006 - 03:20pm PT
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Another vote for Dorworth's "Night Driving" in Mountain Gazette. Read it many times BITD because it really evoked the sense of adventure that began with the drive in those days. With two lane roads instead of interstates for most of the way, getting there was a much bigger part of the fun than it is now.
Another fine one, a tad more obscure, was "Smiley's Last Climb" by Robin Smith in an early Mountain, about a climb in the Alps. He had a wry, spare style that left you wanting more.
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scuffy b
climber
S Cruz
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Apr 26, 2006 - 06:11pm PT
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Yeah, Robin Smith! I can't remember the title But I really
dug the only thing of his I read. Maybe "The Bat and the Wicked"
The account of the 1st ascent of the Heart that stuck with me
is the one from Vulgarian Digest. Comic book format.
"Great hairy giants" chasing them away from the Dawn Wall.
One of my all-time favorites is The Conquest of Tillie's Lookout
which was republished in Ascent 1969(?)
Originally published in Mad with illustrations but I don't remember the author.
It had a nice glossary. Rumpage is the only technical term I recall right now.
I guess it was inspired by The Ascent of Rum Doodle.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 26, 2006 - 06:51pm PT
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OK, someone's got to transcribe Dorworth's "Night Driving" from Mountain Gazette 'cause I could only find fragments and it does seem worth the read....
...please someone do it!!
also, I'll work on some of these other gems.
And thanks for going overboard Roger, it is all too easy to sit back and read the magazines and anthologies without appreciating the hell the editors go through to make something really good. When you have superlative climbers AND surpelative editors and writers puttting together a magazine editions you get something like Ascent and Mountain which shine brighter with age. It is what is lacking from most of the current magazine literature.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 26, 2006 - 07:53pm PT
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y'all should learn to search the Forum, but this was posted on a previous thread:
[url="http://home.comcast.net/~e.hartouni/doc/Justification.txt"]Justification for an elitist attitude by Mark Twight[/url]
but you can avoid the shitstorm that erupted over "copyright" issues....
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James
Social climber
My Subconcious
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Apr 26, 2006 - 07:56pm PT
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Robbins account of Tis-sack is well written. The way he pokes fun of himself is excellent. Twight has written some good stuff, although his stories sometimes sound like the arrogant musings of an angst ridden alpinist. Pete Takeda wrote a story about driving across the bridges in Yosemite backwards at night. The story left vivid images in my mind and whenever I walk across Swinging Bridge I chuckle. I like John's stories about Yabo, Tobin, et al.
Excellent thread.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 26, 2006 - 08:26pm PT
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jclimb - I looked at the Table of Contents and Coyote Song by Dorworth is included but I didn't see Night Driving
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Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Apr 26, 2006 - 10:12pm PT
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My old MGs are in Tucson, but I'm in Reno. They'd be hard to OCR, even if they were here.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 26, 2006 - 11:22pm PT
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yeah and "night driving" was a pretty damn long article.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Apr 26, 2006 - 11:33pm PT
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This was from one of Russ's writings...I forget exactly what...
(but it still cracks me up...)
"The combo of chalk and sweat and humidity made a really cool mayo like substance all over my hands and forearms. It was decided later that to call the vile substance mayo was to do it an injustice. From now on it will be known as Miracle Whip, as in it is a miracle if you don't whip with this stuff on your hands."
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 27, 2006 - 02:49am PT
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hey bvb, you've been holding out on us! I found this while looking for something else last night... love hardcopy browsing:
[url="http://home.comcast.net/~e.hartouni/doc/Premium_Miniatures.txt"]Premium Minatures by Bob Van Belle[/url]
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jeff leads
Sport climber
ca
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Apr 27, 2006 - 10:56am PT
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Fish's "Miles Glorious" was some of the funniest reading ever! Bring it back.
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John Vawter
Social climber
San Diego
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Apr 27, 2006 - 06:05pm PT
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That's a well written piece BVB. I'd heard of that article, of course, but this was my first read. Wish I could see the pics. (broad hint) One correction, I'm pretty sure it was Tom Compare who hatched the GWBC idea in 1972(?) and who did most of the organization for that seminal contest in which Werner was a participant. But Werner pulled that wagon for the better part of the next ten or so years, and deserves much credit for that largely thankless task.
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Apr 27, 2006 - 06:21pm PT
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I've had a snippet of some Mountain Gazette piece stuck in my head for thirty some years:
"These men were hard men. They liked their women hard hearted and their eggs hard boiled. They didn't wear underwear, they wore hardware. These men were hard to believe."
I'm pretty sure it's up in the rafters in some dusty box waiting for me to finish my library wall project...
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