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rollingstone
Trad climber
Seattle
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Fritz, I can't believe you do not have all of your old issues of Off Belay!!! I thought those were priceless, ha, ha. I still have all of mine, from #1 through the last issue, somewhere in the basement. I have not had the heart yet to divest myself of all the magazines, etc. I bought from you in the 70s. I probably still have the blue RRs I bought from Kimes there too.
I remember calling Royal at the store in Modesto one afternoon from Pullman, inquiring how much he would charge to come to Pullman to give a slide show. It must have been just before you or Bruce brought him to Moscow, maybe it was spring '72 or that fall. I knew enough to know that Royal was big-time! I was really intimated that he actually answered the phone himself, and managed to mumble some question about how much it would cost us to show slides to the Alpine Club @ WSU. I think he said it was $200.00 plus his expenses. Of course, I had none of this worked out in advance, and $200.00 in the early 70's was almost one semester's tuition, or 6 and a half months rent in the place I was living in (it actually was a trailer, down by the river...). Anyway, I mumbled some lame thanks, and said I would be in touch, but of course never called back because I could not see how we could ever afford to bring RR to town...Oh, the foolishness of youth!
Mick
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2009 - 10:18pm PT
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Mick: Regarding having Royal Robbins "go to the sticks" to do a slide show in Pullman, WA.------you were truly "ahead of the curve."
I think Royal did the Moscow slide show fall 73 or maybe that winter, since Bruce Franks departed spring 74 to be the first ever Camp 7 representative.
I don't think we ever charged for one of those slide shows---it just didn't seem right.
Re: who is the "completest" Off Belay collector----I rose to the challenge and put my magazines back in chronological order. I have the first issue, but not the last--- and I am missing 3 between 1972 and 1981.
You win!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2009 - 08:18pm PT
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I find that Royal Robbins was listed as the U.S. distributor for the 1983 anthology of climbing stories: "Mirrors in The Cliffs."
This book was published, just when Royal and Liz were going entirely to selling clothing.
Maybe Royal agreed to distribute it: since he also wrote the Foreword. and has two stories in the book.
The Royal stories are: An Excursion in Scotland & Jack of Diamonds.
Yes! The book is a great read, and the many Sheridan Anderson cartoons are icing on the confectionaries.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Fun thread Fritz!
Ditto on Peter's comment on the wonderful and lively hospitality of Royal and Liz at their Modesto Home. In the fall of 71 I lived with them on Durant st and help set up the first Mountain Paraphernalia store. Along with Jack Miller they had been tearing down old barns in the Sierra foothills and salvaging the wood to "decorate"their new store.
My carpentry skills back then were on a par with my kayaking proficiency, ie. zilch. I remember making three attempts to repair a large window pane in an old corroded steel casement.The glass was not as forgiving as Royal. I had better luck with the old barnwood and we had a great time putting the place together.
Meanwhile Liz was able to maintain an active role in the project even near the end of her pregnancy. Royal was off on a buying trip in Europe while Tamara was born and I was the defacto male of the house. I remember one funny phone conversation that Liz had with Royal. Apparently he had fallen asleep on the train and way overshot his destination in Germany.
Royal had this theory that a wastebasket would hold way more paper if it was not crumpled so that was the rule of the day. Oh, but it is so much more fun to crumple and toss. Try breaking that habit.
They had a kitten named Beau Jangles and we had great fun sliding Beau across the kitchen floor at rapidly increasing speeds. Royal's discovery not mine! Have you ever peeled a banana and laid the skin across the back of a cat. They try to slink away by sliding out from underneath. Try it.
You know how you often relate a song to a time or a place. "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart for some reason always reminds me of the fall of 71 living in Modesto.
It was a fun era. I had just finished grad school and did not want a regular job so it all worked out for the short duration. After Modesto I headed back to Santa Cruz and ended up settling in for a long spell.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2009 - 11:18pm PT
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Guido: Thank you for posting up on this thread. Any other memories will be appreciated.
I do need to tell you: the nurses at "the old climbers home" are following this thread closely and look forward to meeting all those who "post up" memories of Royal Robbins.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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"Oh Dr, please help me I'm a hurtin......................"
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2009 - 06:11pm PT
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Received my E-Bay special $8.00 RR's today and of course had to test them------at the current 12 degrees F.
These shoes are stiff. No flex in the sole, and just a little bit of rocker to help you walk. The toes are narrow, so my duck feet felt a little compressed up front. I think I could walk a fair ways in them though.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Tarbuster may envy you both your footwear and your headwear!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2009 - 10:18pm PT
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Great Photo from "ROYAL ROBBINS, SPIRIT OF THE AGE." by Pat Ament
Warren Harding & Royal Robbins at a late 1980's or early 1990's Outdoor Retailer Show in Reno.
ROYAL ROBBINS exhibited at all the twice yearly Outdoor Retailer shows---now in Salt Lake City. Royal still shows up at most of the shows and enjoys seeing old friends.
It is a "small world" in the outdoor business.
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Keeter
Mountain climber
Durango, CO
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:08pm PT
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Hey Fritz
good to see you again last week and thanks for starting this thread. I'll contribute what I can remember from the 70's and 80's with Royal and Liz. I don't have them digitized yet, but I have all of the catalogs from 75-84 I think. I laid out most of those and participated in the writing and photography along with Lito and Royal.
We had lots of fun in those days with the climbing schools in California and Telluride, developing the Tele boots with Galibier and adding the apparel products to our importing of Galibier, Edelrid, Salewa, Ultimate, LaPrade, Lakeland Knitwear, Clarkes' Craghoppers, Hope Cookware, Evernew, Clog, etc.
There was a little climbing in Red Rocks, a lot in Colorado and some in Yosemite in those days. Chris Vandiver, John Long and Lynn Hill were part of our climbing school crew and we developed our business with reps around the country and distributors in Canada and Japan.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2010 - 03:42pm PT
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Keeter: Welcome! I am so glad we bumped into each other at the Outdoor Retailer Show.
Since I last posted on this thread: I have read the first installment in Royal's autobiography: "To Be Brave".
The book reads well, and I liked it a lot. In Royal's introduction, he mentions he plans on 7 books in the series titled "My Life." The last will deal with his years in business.
So-----post up Pilgrims! It appears we will be waiting at least 6 more years for Royal's own tales of the history of "Mountain Paraphernalia & Robbins Mountaingear."
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:45pm PT
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This is a great thread.
The history of the outdoor industry is really under-studied. With the exception of Harvey Manning's house history of REI, we don't have good work on any of the important moments for North America-- although we do now have memoirs from some of the folks involved.
Business history tends to be really difficult, since businesses that go away don't pass on their archives, and businesses that do, frequently won't allow outside researchers in. One of my students did a dissertation on the rise of the sportswear industry in California, but it isn't out yet, and what we think of as "outdoor industry" wasn't really a part of it.
Great to hear that their is a Robbins archive still functional in the family. In a perfect world, it'd be amazing to have archives from all the big players collected in a single, well-run public archive.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jan 26, 2010 - 04:03pm PT
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I think I went through only two pair of RR’s although back in the early seventies RR’s were not bad at all for offwidth and wall climbing. And when they were not totally worn out they could edge like crazy especially if you came out of the sixties and were used to most all climbing shoes being board-lasted, stiff, and with major heel counters and actual tread. I think the rubber was slightly stickier than PA’s, my chosen freeclimbing shoe. The huge-ass toe-box on RR boots was unbelievably inapropriate for the thin crack climbing that was coming up however
Just a minor comment: The version of the blue and white PA I bought in about 1959 was, I think, superior to the version appearing on the market in the 1970s. It was lighter, had a thinner flat sole, and a better profile, and did not have the boxy toe alluded to here. It was really an excellent shoe and would have rivaled modern footwear had sticky rubber been available then.
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Keeter
Mountain climber
Durango, CO
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Jan 26, 2010 - 04:50pm PT
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There were continuing changes in the PA throughout its production. Early to mid-70's models were black with red leather trim. Mid to late 70's changed rubber compounds and were green with pale grey leather. This was during the time that the RR Varappe was introduced with different midsole and lasting from the PA. I still have a pair of "Super" RR Varappes in all leather construction.
One of the design points often overlooked in retrospect is that we felt climbers would still be standing in etriers in these shoes, so the midsoles still were hollowed out for small shanks to this end. As aid climbing separated further from free climbing, this was less necessary and later shoes such as EB and Boreal acheived a more sensitive feel by eliminating this shank feature.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Jan 26, 2010 - 07:27pm PT
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The RR Verappe was my favorite shoe prior to the appearance of Mariachers. Even tho' they didn't have "sticky rubber" they were great friction shoes on the Apron. Have great memories of Grack Marginal, Point Beyond, and many other now-classic routes in them.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2010 - 11:04pm PT
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Thank you for "posting up" your thoughts, or memories!
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Keeter
Mountain climber
Durango, CO
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Jan 27, 2010 - 11:44pm PT
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In addition to illustrations for the climbing mags and his "Curtis Creek Manifesto", Sheridan Anderson painted custom billboards in Vegas. I remember having dinner with Royal, Sheridan and Sheridan's mother in Vegas. Royal asked why she liked it there, and she replied that nothing closed in Vegas. If she wanted to go to the grocery store at 3 am, they were all open. The world has changed.
Sheridan made one-off billboards around the convention center and the airport for trade shows. Since these would be up for one week and only one location, it wasn't worth printing them at the time. Companies would give him a sketch and a couple of days and he'd create it as he painted.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2010 - 12:11am PT
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Stein Sitzmark at Kane Lake in Idaho's Pioneer Range with his RR's in 1980.
12 mile round trip. He danced in them back in the early 70's!
The "hippie chicks" fell for dudes in "Blue Suede Shoes."
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sowr
Trad climber
CA
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May 22, 2010 - 05:16pm PT
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What's with the brochure shots? Don't you guys own a pair of Super Guides?
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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May 23, 2010 - 09:14pm PT
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Chris - I'll see your Galibier boots and raise you some nuts I bought from Fritz in 1973. ;-)
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