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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 8, 2006 - 01:06pm PT
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Rick, good to hear that story. That plan must have been formulating right after you and Tobin did the FA of the Dru Couloir Direct… I had forgotten about Pete (that’s not a good thing) Seems like quite a few guys we met back then aren’t around anymore.
The gatherings at the Bar Nat’l in Chamonix in the evenings were good fun. Never too much bickering about the routes. Everyone was just happy to survive them. Although there was the occasional fist fight started from upstaging someone over some stupid parlor trick. And what about the Brits and their group sing-a-longs?
I’ll take the liberty to post a shot you took
Cool car when it ran. I’m holding some kind of broken part. Was Pete in his underwear or were those just swim trunks?
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Mike- My most vivid memory of the Bar Nationale in Chamonix was that it was like a wild west saloon, or maybe the bar from Star Wars. Do you remember the night two Brits started punching, got in a clinch, and lurched toward the table where you and I were sitting? We both saw what was coming and lifted our glasses of beer just in time before the two guys toppled over our table to the floor. We righted the table, set our beers down and resumed our conversation, as the Brits wrestled their way out the front door, with shouted encouragement from the crowd. Reminded me of scene from a John Wayne movie or at least a spaghetti western.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Yeah. And my Bar Nationalé incident of note was just after I had ordered a nice andouillette and chips, was sipping a nice beer, and the Bar gets a visit from a group of French gypsies, one of whom was doing a fire eating act for handouts. Huge maniac looking guy spitting flames. Naturally, I'm staring at this circus freak, and the guy charges up to our table obviously looking for a fight...
Now my French is for sh#t, but I can clearly make out that his pickup line is something like, "Wadya staring at, bud!" So I put on my best American tourist look, feign any knowledge of the language, and the guy's buddies pull him off since there'd be no fun in beating this foreign twerp. They then headed off to find some other roustabout for a good mash-up. Rough house on a Saturday night.
Most of the time, though, the Bar Nash was a pleasant café.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Rubidoux TR: Nice day in SoCal yesterday, some ground haze, but warm with bright sun. Decided to head to Rubidoux fully expecting to find some other climbers. (Even with a pad, it'd be nice to have a spot on the highballs.) By 09:30, the road was full of cars and was hard to even find a parking spot. There was even a SaR truck. Good omens.
Walked up the hill... Saw lots of families and "exercisers" out for a Saturday morning constitutional. The three SaR guys had strung about 15 cords off of the Black Block, but that was it. Not a single climber anywhere on the mountain! So what gives?
Granted, it's a weekend. And the first day of Spring Break for some, but still... Doesn't anyone boulder anymore? With 18,000,000 in this region, surely not all of them were at JT or Stoney Point were they? In the gym, instead?
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Baaaaahhhaaaahaaaaa. What a hoot. The banter between the SMs and bvb is down-right hilarious. As an impartial judge I would have to say bvb, eeks out into the lead. I'm hoping to be up at Rubidoux on Monday afternoon (4-10), then off to Bishop for the week.
You know bouldering has hit the mainstream --- when Disney's "California Adventure" Golden State Redwood Creek Challenge Trail has a bouldering traverse pit and the kids are lining up for it. 2 days of non-stop Disney/California Adventure with our little ones and I need a vacation . . .
RM-- They were all at the Golden State Creek Challenge Trail bouldering pit. I mean all of them!
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Klimmer said, "They were all at the...bouldering pit. I mean all of them!
OK. Gym or artificial walls, then. Sheesh... This younger generation! Mickey Mouse climbers, all. ;-)
(You, Klimmer, an "impartial judge"? We'll be the judge of that!)
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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come bouldering with us on saturday, rmuir, and you can extract your revenge, reclaim your honor, empty my wallet, drink all the booze, and oogle the flock of twenty-something hotties that follow me around like groupies at a led zepplin concert.
and if you beleive that, perhaps you'll buy this watch....!
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Woah, best you boys step back before you mess with BVB. As you can see, the man's got mad skilz...
Squamish 1988
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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THAT'S what the fukk I'M talking about. Who ya gonna call? I'm the go-to guy. bring it. i'm SWOLE.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Vanbelle said, "come bouldering with us on saturday..."
Man. Are you gonna go to Disneyland too! Bouldering pit, indeed. I wanna go on that ride, but I'm not sure I've got any E-tickets left!
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Apr 10, 2006 - 12:21am PT
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bvb-- Hey, I'll go to bat for all PMBs and San Diego home boys, but man you've got some splannin to do regarding that image 2 posts up. What the heck is that guy in red shirt doin?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 10, 2006 - 05:44pm PT
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klimmer -- that's my #1 chief subbie, giving me a scrub with a wet-nap after i thought i was gonna hit the ground after whippin' offa that squamish choss pile.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Apr 11, 2006 - 09:24am PT
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Weather doesn't look too promising for the coming weekend. Sigh. Maybe one more shot of sunny days might help:
Autopilot at Mt. Rubidoux.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Apr 12, 2006 - 08:07pm PT
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Come on, Ricky. Post up that sweet-sixteen photo of JL in PAs at Rubidoux "drinking" highballs years before the Paint Job! We're waiting...
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pyro
Trad climber
stoney point,ca
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Apr 12, 2006 - 10:04pm PT
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I guess my being born in 78' makes for me, the "spectator who wished I could of witnessed it but didn't".
that okay- I'll shut my mouth then read and ask questions later.
I'm proud to be a Stoney Point climber.
I'm honored to live near Yosemite and humbled to climb it's rock.
I most realy respect drinking coffee at Ahwanee.
The old timers are the best, because they made it a safe climbing habit so, my friends and I may play.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Apr 13, 2006 - 11:11am PT
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OK, Rick. I'll lead this pitch... (It looks a bit dicey and somewhat exposed. I don't know, man... Posting a shot of the Big Guy while he's still wearing diapers is risky at best.) Keep a tight rope there, bud! Ready? On belay? Watch me now! Stepping out...
Largo in PAs. The solution is Teflon (or, after careful inspection of the chalked holds, possibly a variation of In the Picture) at Mt. Rubidoux circa 1971-'72 maybe? Certainly before they started painting over the graffitti. (Photo courtesy of the Accomazzo Collection.)
Juxtapose this with the earlier photo, and you get the full perspective... All in all, a pretty classy piece of stone.
OK, Ricky. Off belay. Now it's your turn...
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HighGravity
climber
Riverside, CA
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Apr 13, 2006 - 05:21pm PT
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rmuir wrote: Doesn't anyone boulder anymore? With 18,000,000 in this region, surely not all of them were at JT or Stoney Point were they? In the gym, instead?
In fact I'm headed up there today. I live a stones throw from Rubidoux and I'm up there (with the other young pups) climbing at least once a week. You should come out and show us noodle arms up.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Apr 18, 2006 - 04:29pm PT
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One more from the Accomazzo Collection™... JB proving, once again, that high fashion in the climbing world is timeless!
On Diamondman at Pirate's Cove, Corona del Mar.
(And, see... The JT Reunion really WAS a costume ball--white socks and jeans.)
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Gunnar Swanson
climber
Greenville, NC
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May 17, 2006 - 12:24pm PT
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Rob—My attorneys inform me that the answer to your question is your salvation. If I did the drawings when we were in Berkeley together then it was December of 1974. That means that I would have needed to include a copyright notice to protect against your infringement so my dream of owning a nice house with giant avocado trees is dashed at least for now.
I was surprised to see the images. I hadn’t remembered that I did anything so derivative of Rick Griffin’s “Murph the Surf” that late in life. Griffin was one of the greats of the San Francisco psychedelic poster but before that he was the cartoonist for Surfer magazine. It was funny seeing my old scribbles because I had just designed a card about Griffin a few weeks ago.
I might as well join the nostalgia fest here. The napkin scribble trip started with my drive from Santa Monica to Concord (breaking the land speed record for an Opel Cadet) where I picked Robs up at his parents’ house. We wandered over to Berzerkley and visited my sister and looked at Indian Rocks. (I didn’t even know such a thing existed when I lived in Berkeley a few years earlier.) Then we headed to Tahoe to Jim Bridwell’s (?) house to celebrate New Years Eve. Armed with one quarter’s worth of Swedish classes, I taught everyone to chant “My health, your health, all the pretty girls’ health” while downing freezing cold aqua vit. (Who says a UCLA education doesn’t teach you anything?)
Then our lives were saved by German engineering. Someone had it bad for a local barmaid and wanted to move the party to a bar. We probably weren’t fit to walk but everyone insisted we go. Rob insisted that he was fit to drive after I declared myself totally f*#ked up. One of us reached for some dashboard control and managed to turn on the emergency blinkers while breaking the switch. Neither of us could figure out which fuse corresponded to the blinkers so we pulled the main fuse. leaned the seats back, and fell asleep in the car.
We headed into a new year by driving to Mammoth Mountain. On the way we went cross-country skiing. It was the first time I’d skied when it was cold enough for special green wax. (Since then I’ve lived in northern Minnesota during a cold spell so I used artic wax when special green was too sticky.) We had planned to stay at Ski Mart’s condo there but Rob forgot to bring the key so we camped in the garage.
On our first local bit of ice climbing we ran into Mike Graber and _ (Damn, I’m blanked on Black’s first name) and we invited them back to the garage and teamed up for a couple of days ice climbing. Graber woke us up in the morning with escalating hints that it was time to go climbing. The question “Does anybody know what time it is?” became the song by the same name, followed by a series of opening and slamming the garage door to exclamations of “What a great morning.” (Does anyone know what Mr. Noir is up to? He was heading off to med school at Tulane last time I knew. Last time I saw Graber was 25 years ago; he had come in ahead of me at the Mammoth Marathon; He was on his telemark rig.)
One day we went off to June Lake where the waterfall by the power plant was frozen solid. The middle pitch was all 85+ degrees. Except for a few feet of hollow, brittle stuff, it was perfect plastic and solid.
The trip’s Swedish theme continued when we sneaked into the sauna and hot tub at the condo complex next door. There was a Swedish girl and her American friend who had lived with her in Sweden who shared the hot tub. We told them I was taking Swedish in school. They started talking to each other in Swedish. I don’t know if they we talking about me or about all of us. The only thing I could understand is the Swedish girl saying that her friend should be careful what she said because I might understand and her friend replied that I didn’t understand a word they were saying.
I don’t remember if that was befrore or after the condo people came and asked us to put clothes on.
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