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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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bump
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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greg child told the 'angels' story in one of his books... from distant recollection it goes something like this:
charlie was cleaning one of his pitches high on his shield route. the weather was shitty and most other parties had bailed to the meadow to drink and listen to the grateful dead.
they peered up into the heights and noticed a lone soul up there where the steepness of the cliff outsmarts the falling precipitation.
as charlie was jugging and cleaning, the rope was bouncing over a sharp, mushroomed head of a piton high up. charlie saw this a ways above him and realized his plight.
he continued to jumar, knowing that every movement nudged him a little closer to the great transition.
he prayed and nothing changed and he thus denounced god.
he eventually made it above the damaged point and maybe it was then that he payed respects to his angels.
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Jonny D
Social climber
Lost Angelez, Kalifornia
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are you sure it's charlie porter greg child was referring to? for one thing, charlie did not solo the shield, so he had no reason to clean his own pitch. also, i remember hearing the same story about jim beyer soloing the shield. just wondering.
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
up Yonder (someplace else)
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Valley stories have a way of transmogrifying......
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matty
Big Wall climber
Valencia, CA
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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johnny i think you are correct. that story was about mr. beyer. all those stauch soloists blur together.
the greg child book is called mixed emotions - good short stories.
i wonder if jim beyer praised his angels at that moment?
.... so the porter / angel rendezvous remains a mystery??
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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My favorite shot of Charlie by Bruce Carson. Most pictures of him are back and shoulder climbing shots and the hat is all you get. It's funny...
Some shots of Horse Chute.
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snakefoot
climber
cali
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bump...an inspiration by all means...
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dogtown
climber
Where I once was,I think?
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Charlie Porter Valley God and king of Patagonia.
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marky
climber
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did he do any climbing in Patagonia? or just kayak
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dr. death
climber
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hey good old times: two friends and i did the 3d on the captain in sept of 72, charlie was the only other person on the wall other than the base climbs. those were the days. the next year we worked out mashies, bashies and gummies (all some type of aluminum block or even foil molded into-onto a crack or seam with a #1 copperhead behind the lump) on the back of the boulder in the arizona ave. camp in camp 4. all in the name of getting up without bolts. great guy, haven't seen him since. good to hear he 's out doing it.
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paul May
Mountain climber
mi
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this is an old post but I thought I'd chime in about my encounter with Charlie. I was 18 yrs. old and with a buddy we left Detroit Mi. and headed out to 'discover ourselves' and learn to ski mountaineer and ice climb in the Canadian Rockies. We were idealistic to say the least, but bolstered by strength and ambition we landed in Lake Louise with our gear and food for the winter. Not knowing where to go we ended up at the lake louise hostel and befriended a guy named Mel, who was in charge of the banff area hostels - we told him what we were up to and he offered to let us run the Hilda Creek hostel for the winter all we had to do was be there for any guests (which there were none). Temps were regularly 0 to 40 below F. but we were in heaven. After a week of being there one late night we heard voices and in walked 3 climbers just back from Mt. Kitchner, they introduced themselves as Adrian and Alan Burgess and Charlie Porter (we didn't know who the were). For the next 3 weeks we helped them ferry loads to the base of Kitchner where they had dug out an ice cave to use as a base for an attempt on the north face. The experience of shuffling these loads in was incredible, over the Athabasca river and up and over some very steep terrain, along cliff edges etc... all the time listening to their stories. The climb ran into difficulty with Alan dropping out because of an infected toenail and then near the top 1/3 of the climb Charlies ice ax broke on some black ice which forced them to abandon the effort. For our help Charlie took us out and taught us how to ice climb on a waterfall near the ice fields highway, I'm not sure of the name but it was past the ice fields on the right, we watched in what can be described as shock as he soloed the 90 degree ice without protection for a rope length, he then set up a belay and coached us on the finer points climbing ice. While Charlie was a powerful influence on me as a kid, the Burgess twins were even more so they were always laughing and telling stories asking for tea and just joking it up non stop. Charlie on the other hand seemed to be happy only when he was climbing. We stayed up there until spring and then moved on to the Sierra's, Cascades and the Winds, the whole trip lasted 1.5 yrs. and I am so glad we did it. It was years later that we found out just who we had met in the Canadian Rockies. Just wanted to share. Paul
Just wanted to share.
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RDB
Trad climber
Iss WA
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Great story OD! What on rock couldn't he do? Then Polar Circus and a solo of the Cassin?
No question one of my early heros. I use to style a white golf hat as a sincere form of CP flattery :)
Hey Paul did we happen to meet at the base of Louise Falls that winter? I played with some Terros that belonged to either the Burgess Twins or Porter that the hostel hosts had been loaned. Sounds like you?!
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paul May
Mountain climber
mi
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Dane I think we did, I emailed you..
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Responding to Mighty Hiker's (Anders') really excellent and central question, " I wonder if anyone else had seriously considered it as a line? Were climbers in the Valley even talking about it as a possible route?"
Well I think this question is the real subject of the thread.
The rest of us had not a clue about the line! We all could have climbed the route of course, and did later, but the real contribution quite honestly is the fantastic creation Charlie gave us all right out of thin air. It really was absolutely masterful. And as others have said upthread here, he was a really great guy.
I think that photo of Russ McLean's is wonderful too. It might be the best shot of Charlie from those years. Russ and Charlie were close for a number of years. In fact I think they were on the same construction site in SLC (73, as O.D. ponders).
Charlie was like Kroger and Davis and Kor, outsiders who danced all over our Camp Four hegemony big time. A good thing. If you stayed in Camp Four regularly most of us got a little unproductive compared to those that rushed in for specific goals and then had to leave. We all were good, but some of us had gotten lazy.
best, ph.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Yo Peter, too bad we can't get McClinsky on here as he has a wealth of Charlie Porter stories. They were good friends for years, climbed in Yosemite, Alaska and lived together in Salt Lake City for a spell. Russ also carried his Pentex Spotmatic, (camera of choice for many of us for years), with him everywhere he went so there probably exists a vast resource of photo memorabilia just waiting to post.
cheers
joe
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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"Early this year, Charlie was discovered alive and well, living with a tribe of Patagonian Indians (and a common law Indian wife)on Tierra Del Fuego."
Still livin' large . . .
JL
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dogtown
climber
Cheyenne,Wyoming
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Bump,Charlie is for sure one of a kind.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Like the energizer bunny...
[url="http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~chrisd/mdds08/" target="new"]Madre de Dios Speleo 2008[/url] - Records of Past Climate from the Remote Island Caves of Southern Chile / A University of Oxford approved expedition
(Look under the 'Personnel' link...)
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