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Scole
Trad climber
Zapopan
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Aug 10, 2017 - 10:46am PT
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No grain pile left unclimbed! Al's FA list is enormous. He's da man
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Aug 10, 2017 - 01:04pm PT
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Somewhere back in the 70s, the members of the Buff Climbing Club had dispersed from Santa Monica and some of them, namely Alan Bartlett and Rob Dellinger, found themselves working at the Whiskey Creek Restaurant in Bishop, California - Rob as the manager and Big Al as the chef.
Back then, before the imminent by-pass, I consumed more than my share of prime rib. Whiskey Creek was known for it's prime rib. On our frequent excursions to the Sierra, Debbie Winters and I always dined at the Creek.
With Big Al in the kitchen and Rob behind the bar, we were always treated well. The code words when ordering prime rib was "climbers cut". The result was always a huge, thick slice of bone-in prime rib roast.
I owe ya, Al.
There's more to this story, but it must wait ... a memorable evening at the Creek.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Aug 10, 2017 - 01:33pm PT
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Big Al is one hell of a guy. Photobucket seems to have blanked it out, but there was a photo posted up-thread of Al playing the drums with Zildjian cymbals up front. Nothing but the best.
I have a good collection of guidebooks. There are a precious few that I won't loan out, you have to pay me a visit to fondle them. One is the Sierra East Side book Al did with Erret Allen. To put this in context, another book I treasure equally is the 1953 Climber's Guide to the High Sierra by Hervey Voge.
I spent some memorable days climbing obscurities with Al as he compiled one of his Josh guides. At some point he prompted me to lead some obscure Johnny Woodward rig out behind the stamp mill. If I knew what I was getting into I would have thought better of the idea.
Always good times with Al.
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jonnywoodward
climber
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Oct 17, 2017 - 06:26pm PT
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A few years back Darrell Hensel and I spent some days in the Whitney Portal, one of Al's E Side stomping grounds. We'd do a new route here and there when the past masters had left some space. Off to our right a Gary Slate route... we had four bolts in ours by the time Gary had two in his. To the left an Al Bartlett route... only one in that one. Al did some substantial leads back in the day and some of those routes were cutting edge both in terms of difficulty and commitment. I backed off one of them! Al - you are the real deal.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Oct 17, 2017 - 07:57pm PT
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Al playing the drums with Zildjian cymbals up front. Nothing but the best.
Ksolem
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