Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Bob Palais
Trad climber
UT
|
|
|
Jun 23, 2010 - 02:10am PT
|
I thought that was Lichen Delight, barefoot, about to go around the corner, but perhaps the other? Either way, very good call. Then yes, Crack in the Woods, the start and the stem up high. The belayer - Walter Dembitsky if I got that right myself? Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Nice IDs. The boulder is Cloud Shadow at Flagstaff, I have to find some better Ute Pass pics. I think the motorcycle was Motoguzzi? Bimota? Other pictures were, upper pitches of VMC Direct-Direct, First pitch of the Beast 666, Jimmie and Mike Sciaca at Shelf Road, and the ice climb is Jimmie on Hully Gully, (Colorado Springs).
And I'm pretty sure she told me about doing Black Magic. Ali-o, I haven't heard that since probably before we first met in the 80s in the Gunks. I was telling a friend a couple of positive thinking climbing concepts that she taught me back then, I remember especially her lead of Comedy in Three Acts (or one of those). One was being `all dressed up', the dangly earings, etc, so that you just Had to climb well! She said she picked that up from Huey!
The other was `leeway', that the holds were good enough that even if you weren't using every one perfectly, you had leeway to still not fall...
|
|
Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
|
|
|
Jun 25, 2010 - 06:35am PT
|
Bob,
Thanks for the cool stories of inspiration, and partners still climbing together so many years later!
|
|
England
Mountain climber
Colorado
|
|
|
Jun 27, 2010 - 12:51pm PT
|
As dictated by Jimmie Dunn:
(Throwpie)-Thanks for the interesting story about my stolen, "Cosmos" gear. I always wondered what happen to that stuff. A Yosemite climbing friend Chris Vandurmer mentioned something about a liitle bit of the stuff being found. Sorry you never got your fifty bucks back. I never got the gear back either. Sometimes I think it would be kind of cool to see the lost arrows with flattend eyes, ripped hamock, broken hammer, etc... Anyway thaks for the story, it's appreciated.
Jimmie Dunn
|
|
GBrown
Trad climber
North Hollywood, California
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2010 - 03:52am PT
|
Hey Steve, good job throwing out this thread idea. Sure sparked some fun. Hope to see you at the Gunks when I get back Northeast in October. Best, Gary.
|
|
steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 29, 2010 - 10:31am PT
|
Hey Gary
Keep me posted when your going to be in the Gunks!
Best, Steve
|
|
throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2010 - 04:58pm PT
|
Hey England...tell Jimmy no sweat on the 50 bucks...I've got more than my moneys worth from how many times I've told the story. My brush with fame, you know....
I'll bet that gear is stashed away in some back corner at the ranger's office...I left it at the mountain shop and that was the last place I saw it.
|
|
meat
Trad climber
san diego
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2010 - 05:51pm PT
|
1988. I was a 20ish wanker then (now a 40ish wanker) and had just started climbing since moving West from NY. I was in Moab at Linn Ottinger's rock shop. Moab was a lot different then. Anyway, me and another guy whose name I can't remember (and whose bright yellow 10mm hand-knotted cordelettes I still have somewhere) wanted to go climbing. Linn knew Jimmy and we all went up to do North Chimney on Castelton. JD put in 2 pieces at the crux and soloed the rest of it. Fast. I was #3 guy with Jimmy leading the whole thing so I did not see him until the top. We walked down together to the cars with me getting regaled by Jimmy with horrific stories of his run-ins with our friend Johnnie Law in South Florida. Later on that day we went to Warren Hardings place in Moab. I remember Harding opening the fridge and it had beer in it. Only beer. Full size fridge to boot...
|
|
Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2010 - 06:17pm PT
|
Beer?
Warren??
Doesn't sound like Warren and Alice's fridge to me,..
|
|
Benn
Sport climber
Jersey
|
|
|
Jul 22, 2010 - 01:58pm PT
|
Hi, to All, and thanks for a great read. This thread is fun! Jimmy Dunn is certainly an accomplished teacher, climber, miner and father, and I give him homage for all those. But I think that what people love about him is the kind of person he is. He's a one-of-a-kind, noble and special guy - you gotta love him! There are very few I've met that give like he gives. Or that have his verve for life, his energy, and his humility. I am privileged to have known him. I'm not really a climber, but for 5 or 10 years I got to do it in my own small way and felt the fun of getting to the top, and the splendor of the desert and the forest, mostly thanks to Jimmy. He showed me some great hikes and beautiful country. He helped me get in shape with multiple climbs in the Garden and on Turkey Rock and later introduced me to Moab, Arches, Fisher Towers, Castleton and many more, mostly walls & towers. And he also introduced me to dozens of his friends - it seemed like every time we hung out together we'd cross paths with climbers that knew him, usually from long ago or far away. He told me once (was he just joking?) that climbing was just an excuse to go off with your friends to spectacular outdoor settings. And I'll always remember Jimmy's amused admonition, shouted up to me on the cliff face: "Gravity's comin' to get you!" It was a wonderful period in the wonderful world of climbers. Magical times with some of the world's greatest people!
Thanks, Jimmy!
|
|
England
Mountain climber
Colorado
|
|
As dictated by Jimmie Dunn:
This in response to my good friend Leonard Coyne's article in Robbie William's Black Canyon of the Gunnison's guide book. Leonard says, "James also beat the offending offwidth of Air Voyage into submisson by hammering in several tube chocks, rendering the crack relatively harmless". I should not, and cannot accept credit for the dangerous, and strenuous rap down North Chasm View Wall, I was 2000 miles away in New Hampshire(1978ish). When the modest Leonard Coyne did the hard work of rapping down the North Chasm View Wall, and hammered in 5 or 6 tube chocks while Kenny Simms patiently wait on the rim, most likely wondering if Leonard was safe. I climbed this offwide pitch the easy way, from the ground up. In 1974 Dean Tsappatt, and I did the FA of the Eighth Voyage. Late on the second day with low water rations, and very thirsty, I climbed the 5" to 7" offwidth pitch. After climbing about 60 feet from the belay, I placed our only tube chock, a 6". Slithering past the dicey tube seemed dangerous, I though my left knee would knock it loose, so I pounded it down to make it safe. Then I pulled past it holding on to the green sling. I almost free climbed this pitch, but did not get it. This pitch is now rated 5.11+ or 5.12A. In 1980 Leonard Coyne, and myself free climbed the Eighth Voyage in about 9 1/2 hours using his pounded in tube chocks. The day before our ascent, I rapped down, and placed a gallon of water, and a bag of M&M's which made our ascent much more feasible. I always regretted bringing the climb down a notch, and not bringing us up a notch, but the climb still was not easy.
Jimmie Dunn setting the record straight
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
Ever look back and see times in your life when history knocked, but you told it you were busy?
Spring 1972, Joe & I hit the Valley psyched for the Salathe. We'd just done the FA of Triassic Sands, then almost got killed attempting Rainbow; after that, we wanted some safe classic granite. Climbed the Harding route on Liberty Cap as our warmup, maybe about the 3rd ascent?
Anyway, ran into Jimmy soon afterward. He'd tried Cosmos once or twice already with partners, most recently Doug Snively but they came down with Doug's thumb broken, I think, due to some fall he took following a traverse. Jimmy desperately wanted to get back and finish his route, and tried to talk Joe and me into joining him. No thanks, we said, sounds too doubtful, we're gonna climb a sure thing like we planned.
So Joe and I headed up the Salathe. Looking down from somewhere high on the route, perhaps El Cap Spire, we saw Jimmy soloing Cosmos.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
FA Candlestick Tower, 1974:
Jimmy Dunn, Doug Snively, John Byrd, Larry Hamilton
|
|
slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
|
|
Was the quote from Cosmos- " Like following the path of a madman" ? Or perhaps more properly - a "man possessed"
|
|
The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
|
|
I took an upside down fall on Sienic Cruise in the dark and lost my head lamp and hat. My partner didn't have a head lamp so we had our first unplanned bivi. I was a long night and we topped out the next day. 24 hours car to car.
The next week my partner went back with Jimmie and they shaved 20 hours off of our time. He had about 4 or 5 pieces of gear for the whole route. When they got back Jimmie was telling me about what a great time they had and that he even stopped to pet a lizard and then he was like oh yeah here's your hat. I found it stuck to the wall.
|
|
The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
|
|
Larry Hamilton was telling me about when him and his buddies were heading out to do the 6th ascent of the Titan that Jimmie (who just started climbing) begged them to come along. He ended up leading the whole thing.
|
|
The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
|
|
England, Thanks for the channelling. I doubt Jimmie remembers me but tell him Pagan Larry says hi.
|
|
Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
|
|
LOL Jimmy just answered his phone in the middle of a solo.
Said he thought Coyne had gone down under.
Phone and email no good, anybody know?
|
|
TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
|
|
Bob Palais
a Kancamagus classic...
'A Crack In the Woods'?
~~~~~~~~~~
As kid that learned to climb at Cathedral in the mid/late 70's...
Jimmie Dunn is a God!
My first time discovering the North End Practise slabs was after getting myself almost killed on 'Fun House' and looking for something to top rope. Jimmie and Martha were there teaching a class. Martha was awesome. Long story short she noticed 'Goofy knots' on some of my nuts. (I untied some double fisherman but couldn't re tie them so I ad libbed). She took the time to sit me down and go over knots until I had them wired. All this (free instruction) while Jimmie was teaching an E.M.S school class.
I remember the split windshield bus
The crack machine in the attic of E.M.S
The helmets he painted to look like amanita mushroom
My first trip out west I developed a penchant for the taste and ease of preparation of Mexican food. One day Tom Callaghan and I were at Jimmie's house on West Side road. We had told Jimmie that we were going to go back to the woods and make an early dinner (Mex). He told us to just bust out our grub and use his kitchen, which we did.
When Jimmie saw us pull out a jar of crappy, commercial salsa he about spazzed. He refused to let us even open the bottle. He started bellowing stuff about fake food and kicked us out of the kitchen. About 4 minutes later he had a half a blender full of the most awesome, homemade salsa. Rosarita salsa was just never the same after that!
We finished eating and all of sudden Jimmie gets all wound up again. He told us he had something awesome to show us and 'Follow me'. He ran at high speed over to the neighbors house and squatted down next to the foundation slab. There he pointed to a small cone like depression in the ground next to the slab. He was all excited, we were not, untill... He grabbed an ant or some insect and dropped into the inverted cone shape in the dirt and... Something, in a flash reached out, grabbed the insect and disappeared back into the sand in the blink of an eye. "Whoa WTF was that Jimmie?". He laughed and said something like isn't that cool that is an Ant Lion.
We feed that Ant Lion until it was apparently sated because it stopped grabbing the prey we were sending it's way.
He dragged me up Camber one day ;)
Those were good times in N.H
some of the Gods:
Jimmie, Bouchard, Webster, Aughton, Kane, Hurley, Doug Madara, Mark Ritchie, Alain Comeau, Kenny Sims, Kurt Winkler, Jim Tierney, Base, Steve on and on...
Oh yeah how can I forget my red necked, good ole boy God, Bob Rotert!
Some of the mortals:
T.Callaghan, J.Strand, J.Mallory...
Looking back I miss those times. Camping/bivi under the roof, swimming in the river between morning and afternoon sessions at the crag, Working out in the attic at E.M.S or playing foosball at I.M.E on rainy days. North Conway annual 'Mud bowl'. Pirating shows at the 'Oxen Yoke Inn'.
|
|
cintune
climber
the Moon and Antarctica
|
|
Just finished reading a story by him on the Diagonal, 1975, Black Canyon, with Earl Wiggins in this month's R&I, "Bad Trip" p.25-28. Good historic read. "I lobbed a #9 hex into the right-leaning parallel crack...."
|
|
slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
|
|
Ah yes the - jimmie- naysium. I could never do ANY of the crack machine or the famous 4 X 4 palm board. (Do pull ups off a 4x4)
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!