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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 19, 2015 - 08:17pm PT
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Guy on the right, the shy one, is that who I think it is?
Bewkshelf Johnnie was a climber from Tweekton End.
His specialty was chossy routes up Canadian chosspiles.
He wrote a book about his adventures.
It's called The Librarian.
It's not in the SJV Library System catalog.
I wonder if you've seen a copy, Gypsy.
Back to the topic.
Welcome back to Crag Fry!
I hope that you will drop by.
I don't care if it's on the fly.
You can fill in for Mr. Gnome,
Who has a computer virus and flown
From where he was on up to Nome.
We like to roast weenies here at the campfire.
The Doctor formerly known as f is like a phoenix
arisen from the ashes of his own discontent.
It's the old canvas job over in the corner of the site.
It got hotter than heck in the day and steamy in there at night.
Not a good environment for cacti.
Ah, the Main Topic, in honor of our semi-prodigal campfire acanthochronologist.
He may be semi-tropical, too.
He is a prodigious wheel in the science of noodling around with needles.
We need more liberal guidelines that allow re-entry into certain cactus-free zones were once upon a short time ago,
like sixty years, the various species of spinies abounded.
Patches of cactus mixed in with spinnies of oak in the time of which I speak.
And the place GOT TORCHED on a semi-regular basis, promoting health in the environment instead of RAPING MOTHER NATURE!
Have I got your attention, LAND POLLUTERS?
But I should let an expert speak on the topic.
Laura Cunnningham's take on the California scene as it was before the Spanish Incursion, which is what happened when they brought seeds of oats into the new lands.
Mules are the problem. They like oats and can't just forage like the hardy burro.
Laura, you have the mike.
Oops! We have someone special sitting here in the shadows at the campfire.
He'd like to deliver a message to the MAN WITH THE SIX PACK.
Otay! That was unexpected...
Laura, dear. Here's the mike. It's not a big mike, no, but adequate.
That was really well done for ex tempore lecturing.
Thanks, Laura C. (Applause ripples.)
The gentleman in the shadows wanted this image painted by Laura included.
It's just a gentle reminder from him that not all fire is BAD,
That some do a HELL OF A LOT OF GOOD!
This is reminiscent of the Big Drag Fry of '74.
It burned for days in the hills north of Hayfork up north before it got noticed.
What's up with that is a plane went down in the boonies.
It didn't exactly burst in to FLAMES, but sat and smouldered in the damp.
THEN it got going after the sun came out and dried out most of the rain.
What do you think was loaded in that plane?
A. Weed bound for Weed?
B. The crew?
C. Both the above?
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Ride that horse, Crag Fry!
All text from A State of Change.
As a courtesy to the limited space on our crowded front page,
I'm posting this story here in order not to lose it in the event of...whatever.
One of my first posts was a Hooblie Special.
Thanks, Mr. Hooblie.
First thread post.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1782746&msg=1782746#msg1782746
Agassiz Column Falls!
February 30, 2015
Mouse Frome Merced
Tard Climber
"The finger you lick
points at you, my friend..."
I was on my way to immortality.
Took the old Toppen woodies out for a run to Glacier Point.
It was a run, then walk, then run, then walk, doobie break, walk, stop for a water break and a pee, walk, walk, ski for half a mile, walk, jog, walk, ski down to the GP lot all the way from Washburn Point, then walk down to Union Point, lugging the nearly useless wooden cross. The poles worked out well, though, lots of help on the balancy sh#t.
I TOOK NO COMPASS, NO MAP, NO GUIDEBOOK.
I recalled thinking of Ram Dass' words while prepping for this run:
You are your own guru.
So, here I am, a picture of Jerry Coe in my new pack that I won in a Facelift raffle, with a half-rope only.
I'm hunting for the little-known obscurity called Agassiz Column. I have in mind an attempt at a solo FA. I got the camera and tripod.
I couldn't find a soul who was willing to put his reputation on the line with me to gain immortality by knocking off this virgin c o c k of a rock.
I got way more weight than a true adventurer like Honnold but less than than pack mule Jimmy Chin.
I think about another doob, but I figure a PBR is more better.
Lunch is done...two butterfingers, some Waverlys and jack cheese.
I lay the extras out and bring the tripod and camera, water and rope and a few biners. I take one old wired #4 Stopper for sillies and grins.
I know I won't get far. This is gonna be a project, no question. If no one else has been able to climb it, WTF will I be able to do? This is, at base, a farce, but a good excuse to take some pix to amaze all the guys on this site. So that's my motive for being here. I want to impress a bunch of puerile (and the female equivalent) old hacks and who knows who else is gonna be out there?
I almost fall a few times getting down the short distance from Union to the Column. But when I get to where it is supposed to be...
it's not there!
It pulled a Bob Dylan, I swear.
It has vanished in thin air.
I don't think anyone will care.
But I do.
The stump remains, and some fresh boulders lead downhill away from the stump, which is all of four feet high.
It seems it has toppled and following the laws of gravity has proceeded to clear a trail straight down the fall line.
Well! I sat and smoked that last doob, laughed my azz off, drank a beer, gathered my goodies and hiked back up to the gear, re-packed, and mostly ambled down to Southside Drive and over to the Lodge, where I took a nice dump, washed up in their SWEET RESTROOM, and un-froze my hands (poor circulation at age 66), chuckling over how that turd I just let loose looked EXACTLY LIKE AGASSIZ COLUMN!
Believe it or not! Pix--why bother?
Note to T Hocking, here.
I was wondering how long you've been hangin' out at the campfire.
Now I can sleep knowing I have some seniority.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 19, 2015 - 11:46pm PT
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wait a minute a # 4? I have to checkeslovakkian but that nut in it's straight sided old school form was á rarity ( maybe just back east, and only till '81 or so?)
Heavy front page indeed ![Click to View YouTube Video]
Kinda did our own fix to the box so I'm in less trouble here still no boo sum, but we kids threw water balloons around in the twenty below with wind chill on the hill,
Looking for good graces but that Boyd still waits in North Dakota!
Fly south
The sound of one hand ELCAPITAIN eklp ing!
Matterhorn!
The Ruth glaciers gorgeous, T R G G,
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 20, 2015 - 02:42am PT
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Hail California Finale de l'eponymouse symphonie par Camille Saint-Saens.
[Click to View YouTube Video]The French prodigy with perfect pitch composed a symphony in honor of the host of the International Exposition.
This finale is a combination of The Star-Espangled Banner et La Marseillaise,
itself written and composed in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
It is not the Alma K. Mater of U.C. Berkeley.
That's for zBrown to worry about, though.
It was last displayed publicly in 1915.
"Oooh la-la, Lola!"
"Henry C. Peterson was a big Swede who was a boatman the same as my father was.
He had a Peterson Launch and Tug Company....that was in business before the earthquake, from about the turn of the century.
About 1915, the Henry C. Peterson Company, Incorporated, was organized as a successor to Peterson Launch and Tug.
Henry C. Peterson had only a small in that company....
That was the company that was dominated by the Anglo Bank and the
Fleishhacker interests, and various and sundry people were active stockholders in it."
--from a contemporary of HCP
Dave Van Ronk/Pastures of Plenty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chQWunvvjSg
"Hail, it's Californy! What a [expletive deleted] crockershitt."
"There's the Battleship Oregon out the window, bub. If you'ns don't like it here, there's there."Oregon stuck around until the close of the International Exposition.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 20, 2015 - 03:08am PT
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You don't have to listen to this fluff...
It's just good music on the one, and Dorothea Lange on them both.[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]Blessed are the meek...
Stories from the Depression to warm old gypsy hearts on cold nights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw
Gypsy mentioned KPFA earlier.
A very good place to listen to a VARIETY!
It was not one of my personal raves, but I would have liked to listen to it on Randy's old stereo parked
up in the rafters of the warehouse on Fifth St. if it weren't for the fact that it was our "muzak" for
the same reason Tom used classical music up on Telly--background music creates amience.
This was all pre-Martha Stewart, Payne Stewart, and Stewie.
God knows I tried to keep that old dusty, cold warehouse building clean and attractive and ambient, but there was a huge roller door facing Fifth and it had one small "Judas" door (if that's the right term) that was heavy enough iron to really rock the roll-up screen.
Ka-blam...errr...err
It took a while to stop it's wavy motion and quiet down.
Made it hell on listening to the radio no matter what was on when it was really busy, like at the SECONDS BLOWOUTS.
Microdust from the past fell each time from the rafters, though it was unnoticed by others, I had to Hoover the floor daily and never bothered dusting much...pointless.
That microdust affected me and I constantly used decongestants. Five years plus of that plus smoking. Plus the general pollution of that part of town.
It's gentrified now and trees line the center of San Pablo Avenue. But there was a rendering plant for cowskins a block away and other sources of pollution like the highway, sure 'nuf I-80.
As for seconds and irregulars and clearance items, for the weekend blowouts starting at eight on Saturdays, roughly when we had stock to move, which was motive enough to spend the bucks on the Chron. About twice a year I'd have to scrounge a big weekend crew, up to eight one time. And we would bring Tom Applegate's register down for Saturday morning and the rush.
We'd advertise exactly about four days or five days ahead of the 'events,' and always in the same place--the Chronicle's Sporting Green. Whole-page ads for four days, but the telephone went daffy when folks saw the ads.
They wanted a certain-sized or colored item and we'd be glad to set one aside. I forgot how that worked out later, but at first it was just me and I was really into the whole thing...a new job, pretty much my own boss, but a weekender, if that, at best.
We respect Richard O. Moore and his creation, the first public-supported radio station in the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_O._Moore
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Feb 20, 2015 - 07:22am PT
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As far as all the endpoints go, I'm inclining more toward a "your last post" complilation though I 'spose that someone else would have to do the compling if it's done here. Maybe Dr. Organick could pull it off using FORTRAN and some NSA files.
Oops, sorry, he's gone. RIP Doc.
To make it easier on the ST historian, I would like to recommend that you include the tag "MY LAST POST" in the text of your last post. You should include a hash coded numerical identifier based upon you ST "name" so that you can be validated.
While we're here, the appropriate retort to:
"you're history dude"?
"What, and you're not"?
EDIT:
It was pointed out to me that someone might inadvertently or unknowingly make his/her last post to the ST forum. This throws a new wrinkle into the scheme. I'll have to get back to ya on this one.
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feralfae
Boulder climber
in the midst of a metaphysical mystery
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Feb 20, 2015 - 07:24am PT
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Gypsy,
All your photography seems beautifully inspired. I hope you will post a bit more narrative sometimes, as it helps those like me who were not around back then, but who appreciate the historical color and flavor of this climbing tribe.
Thank you for hauling out the old photos and sharing them.
feralfae
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Feb 20, 2015 - 07:59am PT
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Menlo Place, Berkeley
2600 Block of Le Conte - 1910
In the wild, seeing the “eyes” of the tiger signifies death, because right before a tiger attacks, it turns its ears forward so that the spot on the back of each ear faces nearer its prey.
The “eye spots” on the back of tigers’ ears serve to confuse predators and reduce the risk of attack from behind. Hence, once someone sees these “eyes”, the tiger is about to attack. It means being ready for anything. Even for possible backstabs
The Eyes of the Badger likewise I'm sure.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Feb 20, 2015 - 08:34am PT
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It was a toss up between "Bridges" and "Flames", but I was already here (sorry DMT). What is that device at :26 -> :28, a street light?
[Click to View YouTube Video]
It's Alright Ma, Only the eyes of the Tiger
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Gypsy
Social climber
Usually behind the camera
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Feb 20, 2015 - 10:02am PT
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Randy and I spent about three months in England in about 1973. We had met Brian Wyvil and Ben Campbell-Kelly in Yosemite. Mike White and Randy were on Half Dome and so were Ben and Brian (on different routes). They were caught in a bad storm. I think it was Bill Bonebrake who walked up to Half dome and shouted up to them (or down to them?) if they needed a rescue. They shouted back "no" that they would make it back down themselves. Brian told me later that he and Ben were comfortable playing "battleships".
We worked in Berkeley for about nine months. Me at Herrick Hospital and Randy at The North Face on Telegraph Ave. After we quit our jobs we had some money in the bank and so we decided to hitchhike across the U.S. and then fly from New York to London. I think Mouse and Dolores gave us a ride to the California border. (Correct me if I am wrong there, Mr. Mouse). And then we spent several days making our way across the U.S. via our thumb. Somewhere in Utah out on the highway, we got picked up by "Charlie Brown". He had been a climber in Yosemite at some point and I think was friends with Chuck Pratt. He invited us to camp on his land. He lived in a school bus somewhere in the mountains outside of Salt Lake. What a lovely night under the stars that was.
Anyway we finally arrived in New York City and made our way to the airport at about 2 a.m. Somehow I had imagined that it would be a bustling busy place. It was not. Quiet and deserted; but there was a man working at the Pan Am desk.
We approached and said "We want to go to England".
HIs reply was, "Do you have reservations?"
"No"
Well there was a flight leaving at ten the next morning and he booked us on it at a student fare. $220.00 round trip per person. Then he led us to a lounge, brought us blankets, magazines and sodas and said to make ourselves comfortable. Later when the last flight came in from Puerto Rico he brought us dinner.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 20, 2015 - 05:56pm PT
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TYou all are Sanna,
sanna
The name for the most awesome person ever. It is impossible to fit so much awesomeness into any one/other person.
awesome!
 "Hi. What's your name?"
https://taiwandiscovery.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/mount-hua-华山-the-most-dangerous-hike-in-the-world/
Man I freed up a good verse but lost it all in my excitement, As always so much that paints scenes on the back wall of my mind and forces me to look up long lost memories.
zb this is the same place ?! , but there are 3 or 4 others like it incuding a Japanese one that I am not yet able to find.
Prickly pears for miles east of the megalopolises Rancho cuco munga now then it was
The lands not to be left turn burn to get to fine stone
NO LEFT TURN UN STONED ,the Shablet ofte Diabse often resets if I go all capzinyrazz
Try and sing it with me
Itsee bitsee spider ran ho Quo co manga, magma catholic Fire was all caught in its web.
It's ee bitsee Firesign was burning up the canyon the loath boys got hooked and never would be the sane,
Again,
It was to be all in in Reno just to watch him die. My buddy was Jonny Rothshot him in the eye.
As window men befriended me not osmic see it was too but Clean Dan, he wanted me to
ware a divers weights to hang in on Denver's windy gales it was a righot, offered and won
ritetious party all the time but He did not survive and took the setting Son way out followed
years later by his protégé Flyin in Vagas needed avigaxzz. Not main line starting up the nose?
The rain is in the plainz and best is in Shakerhieghts were my gold is from I am so lucky that that lottery I won
Do not go there but I just the last weak, sauce in politards village sack cloth shirt, (can't beat the auto correct on that one) and the
procreation Vs. Let's everybody's must get laid, why for do animals enjoy like women and men , I had tried to pose that like months ago
and better stone, is all under five ten an there is nothing wrong with that!!
any way it is keeping as not taught by nuns but by Buuhda auto correct sucks that is not how G.O.D. Spells Yhway God Budha nope not and I will correct that at least!
With The Golden Mean. Sadly wthzz Ben doing been ca't be led astray to read it again
So I push the save
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 20, 2015 - 07:39pm PT
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Sausalito News
July 4, 1914
INTREPID AVIATOR FLIES OVER MOUNT WHITNEY
Silas Christofferson Sets New Altitude Record of 15,728 Feet
Bishop.
Silas Christofferson successfully crossed the summit of Mt. Whitney, America's highest peak.
He topped the peak at an altitude of 15,728 feet on his second try, establishing by his great flight a new American record for altitude.
His time from leaving the valley and returning and attaining this altitude,
covering a distance for forty-five miles, was fifty-six minutes.
He left Lone Pine on his successful flight at 8:21, rounded the mountain at 9:05 and landed at 9:17.
This Christofferson was the pilot of the first SF to LA flight as well as pioneering aviation in Oregon.
Silas Christofferson
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=19878062
Bouquet, Beachy, Christofferson
http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/5aviators.htm
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 20, 2015 - 09:03pm PT
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Alternate history-makers.President Lincoln.
President McCarthy.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Feb 20, 2015 - 11:45pm PT
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hey there say, gypsy... wow, great scanning job!
hey there to ferralfae... and all...
thanks mouse, mice stuff here in the ol' pics...
and--say, tobia... where are you... :)
would say, where are ya', as in regular talk-lingo, but it
sounds so rude, on type... :)
well, where you, meaning, there is lots of NEAT mule photos here...
hope you stop by to see them... check back a page, too... :)
happy good eve, all... just being busy, but things will toney down a bit, after this month...
just had lots of catching up, on house stuff here... :)
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 21, 2015 - 01:49am PT
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The many many climbers, I have heard about and the one or two + that I knew well persons dear to many too have died on that choss pile, Kevin Bien! He was the greatest nee bee go read the "mayor of the Gunks Appreciation thread he was so much to so many here but to his sweety he was of course the entire world, when she came home with out Kevin it was worse for the climbing world than even to ins death no disrespect but Kevin was super safe all top rope since sizeures from a bad fall in '69?? I think oh please do not flame me on this it all always tears us up but I tell it true the world stopped when Tobin and Kevin died
Nee bees bless you!! Zb too,I know that it iz a painters dream of lite, white ,blue rocks mica reflect ing light and ice ,snow a peak of ultimate desire, it has kilt to many even a great lady climber for me to love that one peak among the thousands that I can look at that one I hate to look upon,
I told mouse and every one here back pages Why , such a personal share it would drive many a Man to despair and cause the unretreatable, climb, a step to oblivion, but my soul is missing a chip
No shame in it for me in the Tower of London to die there at an early age not that I hve not lived torturous medical procedures later in life some times it is nice to share un cryptically
Thanx mouse keep it between us please but bar that in '62 a plane blew up from dynamite its tail blowing off mid flight, and took a famous tailor who was flying I think to Kansas city??
Argh the Shablet has a freak out point and diaper what's been tapped down it is its cut and paste function that always lets me down and produces in me a ache, but looks a though I have a head injury, some contend I must
Ever been hit by lightning? That is a thread I should start - fishing for the Stanley Smigel
Who climbed Evry where but the ditch as far as I know, could never figure out why?
Seems that fair weather friends are the curse of you and I, I love real and true too easy and have been hurt so many times I now only have animal become human friends who I spoil till the cry uncle and the vet tells us no, none table scraps
Pancreatic attacks. From proteins, and fats, no more table srcaps for the unconditional love of my life she is fifteen!!
Tonight right now on the Telly a dog is being saved by CPR ohh my what a save!!
Aric, a doggy malidie a hart condition, in DOGZ! Have you ever seen the tv show
Whaddyado!
It is an up all night or up inthe wee hours show it is after four am here now, and they just keep playin fascinating stuff
Thirty chest compressions to two life breaths and like all cpr keep at it and pray!
The ARVC is the hart malady auto correct is a major pain in the but the Shablet share ugh!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 21, 2015 - 02:12am PT
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"That's no ordinary kitty...that's the most foul-tempered and nasty creature..."--Monty Python
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 21, 2015 - 02:35am PT
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This is a different Maureen from the one who married my climbing pard.
They had an epic together at the top of Royal Arches in the seventies.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 21, 2015 - 02:42am PT
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 21, 2015 - 04:38am PT
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Burst'Pipe
'too fuzzy in the cold the camera
says
"could not correct Image"
It does get a little easier the higher that you climb, this was far more hazordous than it might appear,. Each single finger pad, sized edge was coated with a thin veneer of ice.
It was -8 yes eight below zero without accounting for wind chill.'
Pray for me to STOP !
Toast, drink n' 'more, to my memory, name a climb after me
Over looking New York City on the Pallisades rising from the banks OfThe
Hudson River the home ofthe Gnome Ofthe Diabase
Speak of the passion of the climbers who left us in 2011 & 2014!
Say cheers and give a toast & Puff to
my name when the last rays of the sun are setting on a day of great sends
I desever some cheers as I was saved by rock and roll, climbing never did me in
Climb safe and prosper, it is the best nothing we can do!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 21, 2015 - 05:48am PT
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Let it rest.
RIP.
Let it be.
Can't you see?
We have all been here before.
With you Big Jim could mop the floor.
And this is not Bitch Central, as I interjected.
The places you mention are protected.
From the likes of them who can and them who rant.
Who are we to believe?
This is NOT the place to create dissent, unrest, and clamor.
It is a bower, not a bastion.
We are not at war.
Especially with iconic names.
Come to an Oakdale Fest without a mask
Introduce yourself and take "them" to task.
But don't do it here in my sandbox-not-a-soapbox.
I get to rant, not you.
I'm the decider.
I have spoken.
Thank you for listening.
Also, thanks for sharing the passion.
But I'm just too fawk'n tired and have no fight left in me.
Moderate, Goderate. Sheesh!
This has nothing to do with anything just said.It's just a nice old photo from my favorite resident of Foresta, Miss Sargent.
Just like this one.
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