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Jigs
Trad climber
Dolores,Co
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Oh hell...I was emailing Mike over the winter...This is so sad. We spent innumerable days together...he shot video at our wedding in 1987,...then all the climbs...parties...music....we miss him..
Chris Lindell
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Therese Hankel
Social climber
Mammoth Lakes
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Hi Deb--I'm so sorry to learn of your loss. I was a friend of your brother's. We used to go climbing together years ago. I lived next to his studio...He was a very talented guy, with all that brings. I had not seen him for a long time. Do you know when services are in the Eastern Sierra? I imagaine that East Siders will at least have an Irish Wake for Mike. Thanks for any info you can provide. Therese
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greggyb
Trad climber
CA
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Tried to post a reply days ago.... Couldn't log in from the boonies here in Norway. I am here with Project Bandaloop and all of us who knew Mike are very sad and miss him greatly. Especially Heather Baer and Steve Schnieder who have also posted on Deb's blog: http://www.debracowan.com/mike/?p=4
I met Mikey in the 90's and worked with him at Range of Light for a couple of years. Of the group that worked together then, Randall Grandstaff and Mark McNally have both pierced the veil. I guess only Tommy Klienfelter is still around.
Deb and Family,
I am sorry for your loss.
Too many funny Mikey stories to tell.Like how he’d walk up to a perfectly good crack and climb the choss pile next to it. Or flying on tickets in Casa diablo and jump out of the van at 30 MPH like a skydiver…. Fighting windmills till the end.
“Fearless”
by Pink Floyd
You say the hill’s too steep to climb,
Climb it!
You say you’d like to see me try,
Climb it!
You pick the place and I’ll choose the time
And I’ll climb
The hill in my own way
just wait a while, for the right day
And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds
I look down hear the sound of the things you said today
Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling
Merciless, the magistrate turns ’round, frowning
and who’s the fool who wears the crown
Go down in your own way
And everyday is the right day
And as you rise above the fearlines in the frown
You look down
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd
That is about as Mikey as it gets.
Mikey mike is on a flight
in his Range of Light
Forever.
Love You Brotha!
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Biggar
Boulder climber
Alameda, CA
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Well, I suppose it's suiting that I follow Greg in my reply. I, too, worked with Mike at Range of Light around the same time and have many fond memories. It seems like such a short interaction in the span of our lives, yet the rest of my life would seem boring without the stories I gained from our time together.
I lost touch with Mike about 5 years ago but always felt curious to know what he was up to. Don't know if this has any spiritual significance, but I felt compelled to look him up a few days ago. I discovered a profile page he created 3 weeks ago on this web site: http://mtnfilmaker.imeem.com/ Just as I was sending him a message, I saw a comment made about his passing on one of his songs. Terrible timing on my part...
I hope to make it back to the place I still consider "home" for his wake. Rest in Peace, Good Buddy.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Greetings to my community. This bad news about Mike has finally brought me out from the shadows. I've been happy to lurk here -- as you seem to call it -- at random times over the years. I've enjoyed some of the spray and been surprisingly often moved by straight-up truth and inspired words.
I'm saddened by the news of Mike. But also not too surprised. He had been a Meth head for years. Not sure how much, but at times it seemed plenty. He talked openly and frankly about it the last time I saw him, quite by chance on the streets of Lone Pine. Must have been two years ago now. We talked for at least an hour and I left with a good warm feeling for my old friend.
Mike had always been incredibly positive, strong helpful person. Also straight shooter. call you right out on your stuff. And a bit on the edge underneath. Even frank about that though, with his demons and their dark roots.
His climbing record on the Eastside was amazing. And probably beyond. I too would like to see a FA list.
We worked intensely together for a year making the video Moving Over Stone. We could never have come out with it without each other's help, guidance, support. As we edited offline I lived most of the time for months with him in his creaky, prefab log cabin in Mammoth. It was hard but mostly incredibly positive. We helped each other, called out the other one's bad moves, backtracked, moved on. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Working shoulder to shoulder in a back room with rickety second-hand video decks. Mike was the operator, I didn't have a clue how to electronically make it happen. But I'll tell you, even on his first video he was a master. He pulled mirtacles out of laughable old Beta deck. That was the analog video standard of the day, but what we could afford would barely function. If you're editing to music, ya gotta come down on the beat. But the deck was mechanically half a second off. Mike would count frames, move it half a second, start it up, make the cut, check the sound, and have to start it over. Just to fail to get one cut to land on the beat of the music, the good sounds the great world-beat band Special Fun gave us for free. He sat there patiently making that hapen for hours, then finally we would run out of the house raving for pizza and beer. Come back and do it all over again deep into the night. That's the kind of devotion Mike Strassman poured into the making of the first-ever rock video to hit the streets. (Well, second-ever, actually. John Long beat us to the punch by a few weeks.)
Gotta cut this off and make breakfast for my kids, but I'll be back. Like I started out here, I'm thrilled and honored to join my community. About time, though it sucks that it took Mike checking out to jar me off the sidelines.
Peace to you, Mike.
Doug
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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ever since I saw this below route name, I wondered where the name came from... sorry the knowledge had to come at this price.
"Mumbles the Guzzler" 10c* (r)
FA Mike Strassman, Scott Ayers (ground up)
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b.p.
climber
bishop
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I cannot admit to any history,
any affiliation, any origin.
All history is another history
even my own history.
There are so many missing threads
in every web, in every weave
that they make an all together different fabric
in another space.
The same for all things.
Any which one can be replaced by another:
a flower by a hammer,
a day by a night,
one love for another love.
And all of men's actions
are like empty birds
who can at any moment
fill themselves with images
and fly off in whatever direction.
"Eleventh Vertical Poem"
Roberto Juarroz
(translated from Spanish)
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sister mercy
Trad climber
Eastside
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Thanks, Doug, for the honest and moving words on Mike Strassman. Though I didn't know him personally, I've climbed many of his excellent routes in his honor. There are always a little run out, almost like, as you put it, his life.
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Mike Strassman's Sister
climber
Massachusetts
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Wow! It's been really great to read all these comments. We have a blog at http://www.debracowan.com/mike/ where folks can also post memories and comments. We will also post on this blog our plans for a Mike Memorial when they are finalised and any other news that would be of public interest.
Someone earlier asked about a list of Mike's First Ascents. I would love to have that information as well.
Doug R: glad to see you (read you?) again after some 20 years or so and thanks for the tribute to Mike. I recall meeting you on a trip to Mammoth back in the 80's. We went bouldering with you and Mike (and your son?) and my ex-husband and I played traditional South American folk music while you guys climbed :-)
Again, if anyone wants to contact me directly you can do so through my website at http://www.debracowan.com/contact.html
Again, thanks to all for your love and support in an extremely difficult time.
In peace and love,
Debra Cowan
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Mike's other sister
climber
Sandpoint, Idaho
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This is Judy York, Mike's other sister. Mike and I are barely two years apart and spent most of our childhood as playmates. We were very close. We even lived together in Tucson during college for a time. Then we both left around 1983, me to Idaho and he to UCLA first, then to the Eastern Sierra. There was a time when Mike was torn between living in Arizona and the Sierra, but ultimately, the Sierra was the place he loved best (you can thank our Dad for instigating that with childhood trips into the area).
Yes, Mike had some troubled times in the last few years, and our family struggled with how best to help him. How ironic that he should leave us just as he was seeing better times. My last conversation with him was a good one, and I felt as though I was connecting with Mike like I hadn't in a while. Thank you everyone for remembering the best in Mike, as well as all the kind words and funny stories. We hope to have an announcement about where and when a memorial will be held--current thoughts are early August, somewhere over there near Mammoth or Lone Pine. Please stay tuned.
And here's another Pink Floyd tune with significance in our family..."How I wish, how I wish you were here..."
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Mike Strassman's Sister
climber
Massachusetts
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Jul 11, 2007 - 09:41pm PT
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We have posted an obituary written by my brother Neil Strassman.
It can be observed on the blog at http://www.debracowan.com/mike/
We will let folks know the date and location of the Memorial for Mike.
Thanks again for all of your wonderful thoughts and memories.
Debra Cowan
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Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
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Jul 11, 2007 - 10:32pm PT
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Very, very sorry to hear this news. Mike's book about how to climb big walls in the early 90's got us up the Nose. I loved his interjected stories of losing a contact [lens] and using frozen water bottles to keep the beer cold. We carried a roasted chicken in a foil wrap up to Heart Ledges while on the Salathe because of Mike's stories.
BTW, his partner 'Sprague' on the Nose [in the big walls book]... was that a 'pen name' derived from 'Sprague Road' that is seen on the way to the valley on RT120 or is that a real name? I always wondered.
I wish that I had met him.
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mary colombo
Social climber
san francisco, california
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Jul 22, 2007 - 03:05pm PT
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Mike was a strong spirit, and his spirit lives on in the BIG WALLS he loved................peace,love & light--mary
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