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gunsmoke
Mountain climber
Clackamas, Oregon
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Oct 30, 2017 - 08:10pm PT
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There just isn't any peakbagger in this part of the world to compare with Becky. The sheer number of FA's and the span of decades over which they occurred are unparalleled.
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Oct 30, 2017 - 08:48pm PT
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Unending drive. What a record he compiled! RIP Fred
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 30, 2017 - 08:52pm PT
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Respect.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Oct 30, 2017 - 09:26pm PT
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In a way, it seems appropriate that we lose Becky the same year that we lost Robbins. Rest in peace, Fred. We likely will never see your like again.
John
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Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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Oct 30, 2017 - 09:33pm PT
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A veritable 9.0–9.1 (Mw). All that my kids know is that I'm shook up. Thanks for your endless inspiration and everything else, Fred.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Oct 30, 2017 - 09:36pm PT
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An icon of mine for sure.
Climb on Fred.
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moacman
Trad climber
Montuckyian Via Canada Eh!
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Oct 30, 2017 - 09:44pm PT
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Got to hoist a few pints with Fred at the Calgary Climbers Festival in 88. What a good person. Beckey/Chouinard in the Bugs is still my all time favorite climb to this day.
RIP Fred....
Stevo
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Oct 30, 2017 - 09:51pm PT
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I pay my respects to him.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Oct 30, 2017 - 10:30pm PT
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When I was living in the Valley in the 70's I remember hanging out in the Yosemite Lodge one day while a fierce, April storm dumped buckets of snow. I headed over to the restroom next to the then Mountain Room Bar and when I went inside there was Fred doing pullups on the metal bar that formed the frame for the bathroom stall. Legend!
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msiddens
Trad climber
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Oct 30, 2017 - 10:45pm PT
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LEGEND indeed. RIP sir
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Yafer
Trad climber
Chatsworth, California
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Oct 30, 2017 - 10:49pm PT
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Looks like life was your way Fred! See you in the great beyond! I wish I had been able to tie in with you. I bet it would be something I would always remember. I think there is something of you in me... I can see that.
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 30, 2017 - 11:19pm PT
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Just got on line. Damn. Fred, I thought you would outlive me.
I feel that I must say something in his memory because all most all of us have memories of Fred.
September 1999
Joe,
About 4 weeks ago I was climbing with TM in Tuolumne. We had gotten a late 10:30 AM start and people were already on South Crack, so I insisted that we race up the Eunuch. We did. Back at the base in less than an hour and a half and seeing that the South Crack route was still jammed up with helmeted climbers with huge racks and brand new chalk bags, I convinced Herbert to run up that route just left of West Country. Before I could get TM moving from the car, a young climber with Asian features approached me and asked if I was looking for a climbing partner. I responded, Not really, despite appearances, I had a climbing partner ... see, there he is ... the one with the stupid looking hat. I added that he was not only my climbing partner, but that on occasion he passed as my father. The kid was looking askance at my 20 year old swami belt whose knot no longer had the appropriate length to gird my expanding waistline, and at my distinct lack of a chalk bag. Then I mentioned that HE, my partner, was the famous TM Herbert.
The kid was aghast and agape ... not THE TM Herbert! Yes, I replied, none other. He wanted to be introduced immediately and just casually remarked that he, too, was climbing with a legend. Fred Beckey! I said, Fred Beckey, where? Right there. In that car. I looked back and there, not more than ten feet away, seated in his car and absorbed in some written material in his lap, was Fred Beckey.
Fred, you old fart! How the hell are you?, as I approached the car, not knowing whether old Fred would even know who I was.
Lauria, what the hell are you doing here?
He recognized me. I was flattered. I'm climbing you old f*#ker, I'm climbing with TM. TM? Is he still coming up here?
Well, things settled down. TM came up. Fred got out of the car. We all shook hands. Fred was stooped and looked every year of his 80-some-odd. He had an injured foot and was limping which only added to the impression of his advancing age. We learned that, true to form, he had somehow convinced this young Asian to drive him down from Seattle to the Sierra so that they might go into the Palisades area to do some new secret Beckey route. But now, because of his injured foot, they had detoured to Tuolumne so that the kid might at least get in some climbing.
TM and I pried ourselves away from the ever loquacious Beckey and ran up our proposed route. We returned to the base to find South Crack open and again had to pull away from Fred to be next on the route. By 3:00 PM we were back at the car with Fred. Herbert was still insisting that Fred get an X-ray and Fred, who is more deaf than I am, was either ignoring the suggestion or the message was not getting through his faulty ear canals. In fact, the two of them, although apparently talking to each other, were by outward appearances carrying on two separate conversations. Neither of them was listening or maybe just not hearing the other.
TM and I finally excused ourselves and headed back to the Tuolumne store for a six pack which was subsequently downed in back of the Chevron station. After listening to Herbert expound on the necessity of x-rays in diagnostic medicine for over an hour, I managed to slip away and back to Bishop by 5:30 PM. So old Fred is still out there, but man, he's starting to look like a dirt bag.
Don
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James Garrett
Trad climber
slc, utah
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Oct 30, 2017 - 11:24pm PT
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We will all miss you Dad
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Oct 30, 2017 - 11:39pm PT
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Yes, life must have been Fred's way. Maybe that's what happens when you go with the flow and choose your belayers well... RIP!
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Oct 31, 2017 - 12:02am PT
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Remember seeing him presenting his book "Mountains of North America" quite a while ago. That book was a big inspiration for me, for many years.
Lauria, your story is pretty amusing. Did you and TM remove your tshirts and play a little hacky sack while having beers at the Chevron?
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Oct 31, 2017 - 12:48am PT
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Tonight the road to heaven is the obvious gulley. . . .only a 3 hour approach too.
RIP Beckey.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Oct 31, 2017 - 03:58am PT
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Oh no. I only met him once. Wish I could have climbed with him. May he rest in peace, belaying angels.
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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Oct 31, 2017 - 05:32am PT
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Squeezed the juices out of this life for sure.
Have to admire a person that marches to their own drum beat and stays true to themselves and their passion.
Thanks Fred for bearing the torch; the light from which we all benefited. Well said.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Oct 31, 2017 - 05:34am PT
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May he rest in peace, belaying angels.
Potter's already got the angels covered...
The head honcho was waiting for Fred.
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