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Conrad
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2007 - 11:21pm PT
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The following letter was written by Mugs to his mother Florence. He was close to his parents and three brothers. Both Warren and Florence are with Mugs, in the spiritual sense. Florence complied a bunch of his letters and thoughts into a small copy shop book titled "Remembering A Mountain Climber: Full Circle" This quote is from p. 36.
Yosemite October 1981
It’s snowing. All the climbers are huddling in the lodge or lingering as long as possible in the cafeteria over cups of coffee and tea. It is all so familiar to me. I’ve done so much spacing out in the past years at different places in the world, different mountain ranges waiting for the weather to clear, to go back up, to get out of the tent and start to climb. Or putting idle time in some café in Europe or somewhere else along the way. Waiting for the weather to break in the far north, to be flown into some vast glacier range. There have been so many times like this, my mind wandering, to past experiences in my life, to friends long since seen, to future climbs. My imagination is a gift for my life. The climbs to do are creations to understand, not to be surprised. Experience has been my teacher as I have studied the mountains intensely… I am so lucky to have such a life – to have such freedom - not the social and political but the freedom that is my spirit. I don’t know where it comes from - the life has been from you - but what is the spirit? There are many climbers as I look around this room – all different – some restless, some new at the “hang” in life. The drives are as different as the people. I am lucky to be able to sit in this room, in the fields, on the glaciers, on the wall. It’s empty and yet I’m full.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there... just thought this could use a bump....
just ran across it again, since it was up last aug 2007...
(edit, ooop, since dec 2007---seems i did not read far enough---as i was so impressed again, i posted before re-reading more)...
:)
seems it would be nice to have it up here again, as aug 2008, just passed about a month ago (since it was FIRST up)...
really something to look at his list of climbs...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there.. say, i really enjoyed the simple yet deep feelings of his letter, that is shown here... (to his mom, i think it said)...
very nice note...
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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If anyone has the in memorium peice that Steve Quinlan wrote for one of the climbing Mags, this would be a good time to scan it in.
edit; it was in Climbing # 151, 2002 'Dreamweavers' by Steve Quinlan
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there... bump for jaybro's request to get noticed...
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Emon
Trad climber
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I went down to Homer, Alaska once for the Kachemak Bay ski marathon and we crashed at the house of Mugs' widow. I didn't know her but my friends did. She was away and had left the place open for us. There were pictures of him and mountains around. I only knew of Mugs as legend so it was something to be so close to old photos and things from his world.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there emon.. say, i just popped in here to see if anyone was able to help-out jaybro...
say, i must share with you:
that was a very kind and special post, about seeing mug's old photos, etc, in the home that was his....
photos DO tell a very precious story... (i did not know the man)--you had treated to be at said-place at said-time...
one learns small little things the others never get to treasure this way--upon visitings ones "once" place of dwelling full of such reflections of ones life....
thanks for the share...
may we all be so blessed to have others enjoy what was precious to us, too... when our days are gone...
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deeski
Trad climber
North Carolina
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One of my best friends in Telluride, Mona, introduced me to Mugs in the late 80's. I had built a climbing wall in the Telluride High School and Mugs would come in and climb with the locals when he was in town. The Elementary School kids especially loved him as he encouraged them to give it their all on one very overhanging climb. They had no clue who he was and didn't get the "Mugs" name...so they just called him "Bugs" like the bunny. He just laughed and enjoyed himself and their love of climbing for the fun of it...and so did I....Thanks Mugs!
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Conrad
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 26, 2010 - 03:56pm PT
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"Hey man!"
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jul 26, 2010 - 05:59pm PT
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I seem to recall it was a Barstow photo, in a calendar. I'll have to check the inventory...
Conrad: streaked wall?
Nice shot.
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Paul Fitzgerald
Mountain climber
New Zealand
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Jul 26, 2010 - 06:22pm PT
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Mugs: about the best friend and climbing partner you could have
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Jul 26, 2010 - 06:23pm PT
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Wes, the pic I remember was on the Globe part of the LDS Church bldg...
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Tea
Trad climber
Behind the Zion Curtain
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Jul 26, 2010 - 06:42pm PT
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How big was Mugs? As in...height and weight?
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Conrad
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2010 - 04:02pm PT
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Thanks for the kind words. Paul - awesome to hear and see you here on SuperTopo. It's been a many years since we crossed paths. I still remember the fission tracking expedition to Denali. I have a picture of you and Mugs on the summit that I'll post up later.
Mountain Gear is putting together a calendar for the Mugs Stump Award and I was working with their team, looked for a thread here and decided it would be nice to bring it back up.
A woman from Germany who met Mugs met in 1980 sent me a great letter how she and her friend met Mugs at the Watchman Campground in Zion National Park. They hiked about and it was the highlight of her trip to the states. It is really quite touching how one meeting changed her life. She thought his name was Max Stomp (an easy enough mistake given the language) and never knew about the accident in '92 until about a month ago. I'm waiting for her permission to post it on this thread.
I'll scan the Mugs' diary his late mother Florence put together after his death. I'll contact his family to be sure they are OK with this. I'm hopeful we'll all enjoy the art work and letters. I think Mugs would be happy to see his legacy thriving. He had tons of motivation and this is a good way to share it.
Cliff Hudson passed away March 5, 2010 at age 84. He always called Mugs "Two Ton" for all the gear he would haul in to the range. Cliff always flew with Sparky, his tiny poodle, on his lap. Talked to the poodle he would. Kind of his co-pilot. Mugs had a stack of respect for Cliff and the whole Hudson family.
Jeff - glaciology is moving along at (pardon the pun) a glacial pace. Working with James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/ we installed 5 cameras in the Khumbu this past May. We also are working with historical repeat photography from Barry Bishop's first ascent of Ama Dablam. Needless to point out, the glaciers are shrinking.
If you are on facebook there is Mugs page. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117004481654631&ref=search
Why not?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 27, 2010 - 08:44pm PT
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Mugs was dating a good friend of mine, Robin Waxman, who worked at the Little Cottonwood police/avalanche control station, a station unlike any other. I had run into Mugs several times in Yosemite where he strangely never seemed to fit very well. Mugs came limping into the HQ and raised up his shirt to show a clearly displaced vertebrae. It had popped out while climbing down canyon that day.
Mugs was a bear of a man having played semi-pro football along the way so I figured that he was pretty durable. My diminutive gal at the time used to walk my back with a bit of direction and support and pop every joint.
"Can you do anything?" he asked with a wince. I suggested that this method might do the trick and he was willing to submit to just about anything. A bit of massage to loosen up his linebacker's frame and a couple of chairs to turn me into a ninety pound Japanese woman and we were in business! At the end of every exhale a little hop and POP. When I got to the crux disk, the POP turned Mugs into groaning Jello and I stepped off.
I got to pull a thorn from the lion's paw!
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jul 27, 2010 - 09:01pm PT
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A bit of massage to loosen up his linebacker's frame and a couple of chairs to turn me into a ninety pound Japanese woman and we were in business!
Sorry, Steve, but, ahh, you know, this story shoulda just been between you and Mugs.
TMI?
Ha ha!
-Brian in SLC
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 31, 2010 - 01:04pm PT
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Mongo Straight---Bump!
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Conrad
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2010 - 08:35am PT
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Hey Mugs - a belated thank you from two people you met and changed their perspective on life. Hanging in your van and looking at tiny slides with the help of the dome light. How classic.
Dear Mr. Anker,
I write you from Germany, because I found your article about Mugs Stump from May 2008 in the internet and I think, you are a good friend of him. And at first please excuse my bad English, but I haven´t spoken it for a long time with the exception of learning English vocabulary with our sons.
I am very sad and also a little bit shocked to hear, that Mugs isn´t still alive. I met him in October 1980 in the Zion National Park, when I made a tour through some National Parks of the Southwest, together with my girlfriend Marianne. We were 21 and 22 years old, had finished our studies of agriculture in Germany and had an invitation to San Francisco and Los Angeles by some American students that spent a year in Germany. We rent a little car, drove to Yosemite and then to the Bryce Canyon und spent a wonderful time by hiking there. On the way to the Zion Park it started snowing and we arrived there late in the evening, because we needed hours togo there, for our car only had summer wheels. The visitor center was closed and the camping ground empty except an old van, standing in one edge. At first, we discussed to search a motel, but what happens, if we would stick with the car in the snow? So we decided to stay there and tried to build up our tent, but it doesn´t work, because the ground was frozen. Suddenly a man came out of the van and was rather surprised to find two young women and immediately helped us to build up the tent. The next morning he had a cup of coffee for us and invited us to make a little tour with him to have a wonderful overview over the park. This tour was one of the best things, we did in our life, although we were totally exhausted and could hardly follow him because we weren´t trained enough. He noticed this and offered to carry our backpacks, too. We were unable to speak and crawled on hands and knees uphill behind Mugs, who walked without any strain with three backpacks and told us a lot of his sight of nature. When we finally reached the top, I saw only golden and red rings and my breast was hurting, but then, the overview was overwhelming. One evening Mugs made tortillas for us und showed us slides of rocks, especially of the “Moothes Tooth” and told us a lot about it, but we couldn´t see very much, for the slides were little and the light bad.
This tour and all that Mugs told us about nature and being outside, I never forgot in my life and very often I notice, that he was right and that his sight had influenced me. I´m working for an organization for nature (so my husband do) and don´t like big cities at all and our sons like being outside and are very interested in nature and Marianne lives on a farm and has 5 children. Since we met Mugs,we had the wish to thank him for his inspiration and to tell him, what we are doing now and that he would like it. But unfortunately we thought, that his name is written like “Max Stomp” (like the German “Max and Moritz”) and since I have internet, I looked nearly every year for him and searched by Google and couldn´t found him.
Now we are planning the same tour after 30 years, before we are too old. This time I wrote “Stomp” at first in my laptop and Google proposes the right name and now I´m very sad to see what happens to Mugs. But it helps a little to write this mail to you. Meeting and spending some time with Mugs was a great luck.
Thank you for reading my mail and with the best wishes,
Eva M. Hugenbusch
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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That is one sweet letter. Thanks for posting, Conrad.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Bump for two greats.
Mugs & Conrad. WOW!
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