Chuck Kroger

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 61 - 75 of total 75 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Reilly

Mountain climber

Monrovia, CA

Jan 27, 2009 - 01:31am PT

Steve, et al,
We were the AAC Exchange team in '78: Ben Read, Carlos Buehler, Steve Hackett, Rick Sylvester, and our non-plussed fearless leader Chuck. He did not wear the mantle comfortably although he did it justice. The joke was he got picked, by whom we didn't know, because he was tallest and oldest and, no doubt, the wisest. The funny thing is it was a near run thing that he even made it as he had been working as some kind of jefe on a shrimp processing plant in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, and only just got it done enough to leave. I guess manana wasn't good enough but I don't think Chuck would have used the manana card.

I guess part of the reason Chuck and I hit it off was that although he was el supremo jefelisimo I was the only one who could capisce with the commissars. It got to be sort of a Laurel & Hardy "Who's on first" thing. The commissars would tell us something, usually not to our likeing. The poor 'official' translator, who I liked but was not in an enviable position, would tell Chuck his take on the 'pronouncement'. He usually sugar-coated it and left out about 3/4. I couldn't blame him; how many ways can you translate nyet? Then we would huddle up and I'd call bullpucky and we would make a counter-offer like "We're tired of Auntie Tamara's Old Country-Style Vulcanized Chicken, how's about an edible meal?"

That's kind of how it went (ok, we didn't really bitch about the food) for 6 weeks but we had a great time doing it. The Russkies, naturally, had to have a leader to deal with but Chuck took great joy in jerking their chains by putting most everything to a vote. Of course the commissars repeatedly told us about the extremely high voter turnout in the good ol' USSR but at least our votes counted. If the truth be told I am sure we would have been happy with whatever Chuck decided, he was wise beyond his years.

This is the best I could come up with on short notice. Ben, Carlos, and Chuck in Paris waiting for Steve and Rick to arrive.

#310

Social climber

Telluride, CO

Jan 27, 2009 - 11:32pm PT

Reilly,

Glad know you are around and to hear a few 78 AAC/USSR stories. I think there are a lot more stories to be told - many very funny and about the cultural clash and lack of funds for the Soviets to really entertain the American climbers. Stories like being parked on glacier for a week after all the climibng was done, out of food and having to eat the trash from earlier in the trip; the base camp Oylmpic Games; Sylvester's flag on the Summit of Peak Communism; seeing Gengis Kahn and why 3 of the 6 climbers (all unamaried) got married within 3 months of their return to the US. Maybe there should be a new thread about all three of the ACC exchange trips to the USSR. Chuck was very proud that your 1978 was the only one without a fatility or serious injury.

Chuck's wife - Kathy

Reilly

Mountain climber

Monrovia, CA

Jan 28, 2009 - 12:25am PT

Kathy,
Being Irish I had to turn off the loquacious switch and stay on topic. I have a goodly number of stories and a few slides that weren't among the 22 rolls that Kodak ruined! I'll start scanning now that I know there is some interest. There won't be a lot of climbing stories but maybe we can maintain interest with an explanation of how during that week on starvation rations we applied the Yosemite Decimal System to rating previously discarded edible garbage for resurrection, so to speak.

yours,
Reilly

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Jan 28, 2009 - 01:05am PT

I really miss that Chuck. What a spirit. The days I had climbing with him are gold. I always imagined there would be many more. It's still hard to believe he's not running around the mountains at this very moment, coming back with yet another wild story.

Best to you, Kathy-Hope to come to Telluride and visit sometime again in the not too distant future.
--john m.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 28, 2009 - 01:08am PT

Thanks, John - a lovely photo. I take it that it's Chuck and Kathy.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Feb 2, 2009 - 11:44pm PT

You bet. Nice shot of Kathy and Chuck, John!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Feb 4, 2009 - 12:28am PT

While Reilly is around! Rick Sylvester's 1979 account of the third Soviet climbing exchange from the AAJ.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Feb 6, 2009 - 10:52am PT

Reilly Bump!

Reilly

Mountain climber

Monrovia, CA

Feb 6, 2009 - 11:13am PT

Steve,
I'm coming, but it might be a little while; my slides are in a frightful mess.

Doug Robinson

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Feb 18, 2009 - 10:04pm PT

Kathy,

Just read your comment over on the Norman Clyde thread.

We met very briefly when Chuck was still well, at a Memorial Service for my brother-in-law Alan Jacobsen, one summer up on the Mesa (?) above town, by a small pond. I hadn't seen him in over 30 years, but he immediately invited me over, and not taking that offer before we left town was my biggest regret of the weekend. You always think there will be time. Alan's family was healing old ruptures thru his death, and I stayed with that.

I opened this thread many times, read and was warmed by it, and put it silently away. I just didn't know what to say. Yes, he could be aloof, but it never felt unkind. More like that big old sense of irony -- the cosmic fool -- was just grinning away waiting for you to fill the void with light and laughter. I'm sure we did, but damn if it hasn't vanished cleanly without a trace. And that's it's own testamonial, and such a good one, but so Zen-clean there aren't many bones left to scratch around in and build a good story. Not much left but a giant sense of respect for Chuck holding a huge open space, surrounded by a bubble of irony and mischief, its core open to anything, kind and twinkly and not judging.

I'm so glad you found the Norman Clyde thread and are digging in. Yeah, so why didn't you guys come to the Eastside? No mystery, when you chose the Rocky Mountain high. Feeble joke, but no telling, really, why we choose anything: place, partner, profession. I got to look around Telluride many times with Alan, watched Climax avalanches fall, and once above Yankee-Boy Basin he took me onto the scariest talus of my life.

You see, I knew Chuck for only that summer or two we guided together at the Palisades School of Mountaineering in the early Seventies. We did one big climb together, but it was a doozie, Barefoot Bynum on the Dark Star Buttress of Temple Crag (V, 5.10b). It was the only time I ever spent a night in a hammock, so when I see that famous shot of Chuck in his on El Cap, I just have to grin all over again. Pushed it free onsight, which felt pretty good. No epics, just fun in the alpine zone.

Anyway, no more struggling to express Chuck, for now. Just big-grin appreciation. I'm so glad I got to see him that one last time and to meet you.

Peace,

Doug Robinson

Dickbob

climber

Colorado

Jul 24, 2011 - 03:07pm PT

I did his ferrata in Telluride last weekend. It was a lot of fun.

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Jul 24, 2011 - 04:54pm PT

I never knew Chuck or Kathy but have become friends with Curt and Bernadette Chadwick through a mutual acquaintance. I met Curt just a week before he and Bernadette went to Chuck's memorial.
A couple of other notable ascents by Chuck.
Chuck, Curt and Norm Weeden put up the first Grade VI (5.9 A4) in the Sierra backcountry on the South Face of Tehipite Dome in 1970. I believe it's seldom done due to the tedious approach.

In 1972 Chuck, Curt, Rick Boyce and Dwight Olsen made I think the 2nd ascent of Denali via the Pioneer Ridge. I believe they took a different route from the first ascent. Another tedious approach and descent.

Fred Glover

climber

Jul 24, 2011 - 07:36pm PT

...as far as I can tell, the route has not been repeated. In 1997, one of his 4" sheet steel bongs was found sitting on the ledge at the base of the upper part of their route.

- ec, upthread