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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 29, 2008 - 11:39pm PT
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I lived in Truckee, CA. for a few years and I used to give slide shows at a local restaurant/bar. One night I walked in to set up and saw Harding there. He had previously walked out of one of my shows in Sacramento when I mentioned doing a lot of free climbing on the Nose and free climbing the East Face of WC.
I gave the show and he was sitting there drinking wine with my girlfriend at the time. I came over with my beer and he stood up, pointed a finger at me and pretty much yelled "Did you clip that bolt on the XX pitch? Because if you did then you didn't free climb the route because I placed that bolt on aid"!!! I said "Warren, it's not taking anything away from your vision that your routes are now free climbed, it's because of your vision that we are able to free climb them at all" I told him that he had taken giant steps in the evolution of climbing and we were merely taking more steps because of his foundation, that he was the role model for everyone else who had come afterwards and rebelled and who saw a different way of doing things. I told him that if he hadn't gone where he had gone, then we couldn't be going in the direction we were going. I bought him some wine and the evening ended with him crying on my shoulder telling me what a great guy I was.
True story.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 29, 2008 - 11:50pm PT
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It sounds like many contributors to this thread would agree with the sentiments of the famous quote usually attributed to Sir Isaac Newton: "Pigmaei gigantium humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident" (Latin, for Jello), or in English "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
The quote seems to actually date to the 12th century, when Bernard of Chartres said that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.
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Mimi
climber
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Jan 29, 2008 - 11:54pm PT
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That is great, Mark.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Jan 29, 2008 - 11:57pm PT
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Great Harding stories! In the mid-seventies I spent a night drinking with Warren at the Fairview Inn, in Talkeetna, Alaska. We both had eyes for a new route on the Moose's Tooth. I had already climbed eleven pitches of it, all free, and was forced down by a storm. I wanted to go back and try to free climb the whole thing. Late in the night Warren and I shook hands on an agreement to meet up again on a certain date two months in the future, and team up on the Tooth. We had come to a creative decision that he would lead his pitches with all the aid and bolts he wanted, and I could try to free-climb mine, and follow his free. So it was settled.
Two months later I'm back in Talkeetna and asking around for Harding, but nobody's seen him. A week goes by and still no Warren. I have no phone or address for him, so finally head into the mountains to climb something by myself. A year later I run into Warren back in the States and ask him why he never showed up. The quizzical look on his face told me he was telling the truth when he said: "I actually have absolutely no recollection of making any plans to do that thing with you." Who could be angry? I took my place at the table for another long night of wine and tall tales with an icon of the golden era of American wall climbing.
-JelloAlmostClimbedWithHarding
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2008 - 12:43am PT
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Great stories! A few more from the vault of Hugh Herr.
Fully in the Harding slot!
Getting loose on the Changing Corners pitch.
Beautiful steep face climbing dead ahead.
Hugh in the groove on top of the Column.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jan 30, 2008 - 01:38pm PT
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Good ones there Steve!
Your such a hold out and a tease.
You've had ample call to post those couple extras: are there more?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jan 30, 2008 - 01:47pm PT
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We don't see many shots of this route here on the Forum.
Here's another rare image, revealing Wonder Braun's secret success strategy:
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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Jan 30, 2008 - 01:51pm PT
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Those Harding stories are classic.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2008 - 01:57pm PT
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Sorry Tar- That's all that I took on this one! Too busy climbing.
A classic shot of Batso at work during the FA. From Roper's must own Camp 4.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jan 30, 2008 - 02:51pm PT
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Jello, Harding and I had a great evening together in Yosemite in the mid-later 1960s, where we made detailed, quite lucid-seeming plans for a new route on El Cap. What a warm, fun time and lots of conversation, but to my astonishment, when we met in the morning in the campground, he had no memory whatsoever of speaking with me the night before. I think on a regular basis he was reaching that state of alcohol consumption where you're awake but actually not and remember nothing later.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2008 - 11:07pm PT
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Walleye- you are correct on that one because Hugh has copies. Never happier than when that shot was taken. Big day for a sixteen year old phenom!
Hugh got to the base of the Harding slot with Hans his brother and thought the better of it. Hugh and I went up on another occasion and I did my level best to suck his scrawny ass through the belay bolt at the base of the Enduro Corner when I took a sizzler after pumping out trying to thread a fixed bong scrap just short of the rest holds. "The psyche has got to be there," said the stoic but badly jangled Hugh.
The next time was a dream and we flew up the route. The psyche was there, as Hugh's glowing face confirms.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 31, 2008 - 10:26pm PT
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These are some of the first pictures I can remember seeing of people actually climbing Astroman. I suppose there must be some in some old Mountain magazine or something, but none that I can remember. Rather cool.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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No kidding Anders,
Other than Rowell's photo essay on Kauk, there isn't much out there; some, but lean.
Merry Braun & Deanne Gray were filmed and that is pretty cool.
As Steve said, most of us were just too busy.
The Seals I guided were on jugs and they snapped a few pics, but I never saw any of the images.
You know the deal, they could have, but then they'd have had to...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Roger, you come and do it as a boulder problem and I'll spot you! promise!!
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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"I think on a regular basis he was reaching that state of alcohol consumption where you're awake but actually not and remember nothing later."
Of every description I had ever heard of Warren, I like this one the best.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Decks awash in the eternal present! Warren thinking that the Stomemasters had pushed him into the fire still makes me laugh! "John Long is a powderpuff!" LOL
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho
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Is there anyone here that *hasn't* boozed it up with Warren?
In my first season in the valley while on a swerve I bumped into Warren at the Mountain Room Bar. I stayed at his table the rest of the night bantering about this and that and covering the table with empty glasses.
I felt like I had received a gift to have graced his presence and that there was something special about that night.
When I told the tale around the campfires in C4 it seemed that everyone else had at least one tale of "I ran into Warren and drank...". Which didn't make any of my encounters with him any less special.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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It is a shame that the original Mountain Room Bar didn't survive long enough to make it on to the National Register of Historic Places while entwined with Camp 4! So many memories of sticking my head in to see who was in attendance and spotting Batso tucked away amongst the luminaries lost in animated chat. The raw number of great schemes, real or unfulfilled, that were hatched in that nest is absolutely staggering!
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WBraun
climber
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Yeah Steve Yeah
I second that.
One example; the night Slings decides to get naked and get on top of the bar and start dancing, hahahaha
After dark, things start to move over to that bar and take on another life .......
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