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Rockin' Gal
Trad climber
Boulder
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Apr 23, 2008 - 11:05pm PT
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Steve,
Thanks for keeping it real.
Roy's going to post some photos.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Apr 23, 2008 - 11:13pm PT
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Always has a lot of respect for Alan and his climbing ability. We talked at length on the phone a number of times about the bolting wars in and around Boulder.
Cool guy who gain a great perspective on climbing and life in his latter years...hope that he didn't suffer.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 24, 2008 - 12:50am PT
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Sally gave me these slides of Alan to scan and post:
Vaya con Dios Al...
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Apr 24, 2008 - 01:05am PT
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Nice one Roy!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 24, 2008 - 11:37am PT
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Much thanks to Sally for the pictures.
Our tribe is slowly being diminished; but I think we can give great thanks for the richness passing through our collective fingers, there isn't much else we can do about it.
The thick glasses and white sailors hat was iconic for Al,
I gotta give him credit for a sense of humor blended with his somewhat maverick personal style,
Alan Nelson seemed to enjoy the ruse and I like the way he pulled it off, with that cheeky smile, that said as much as, "this is me, suck it if you don't like it, hey, let's go climbing!": definitely a complex character...
But how many of us had seen his bare face as in this shot on Solosby wall in Joshua Tree?
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Apr 24, 2008 - 12:44pm PT
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Hah, I was thinking just that Roy, no hat or glasses. Did Alan take to contacts later in life? Those things on his face that framed his view of the world were so much a part of his image it was remarkable to see him so naked.
Thanks for sharing the pictures Sally. I don't think your opinion was any more blunt or abrasive than Alan himself would be in discussing his death and place in the climbing world. I think you should consider the possibility that his embracing of outsider status pre-dated the nickname, rather than flowed from it. It's worth noting that Warren Harding was one of Alan's earliest role models.
Nicknames were all the rage back then, and if they didn't have an edge they didn't mean so much. The Kook was more benign than some, others in play were The Goon, The Alien, Mo-Ron, and the occasional Supertopo poster who was labeled Pee Bottle. Alan wasn't the only one to embrace his label, Kelly Vaught is still widely known as The Troll. Certainly none of these people were worthy of disparagement. Well, except for The Goon, he was all of that and more. I know nicknames can be wounding, certainly I still owe Ron Amick an apology for putting his derisive moniker in print in a guidebook 30 years ago, but I'm curious to know if Alan was actually pained by his?
One of Alan's first jobs, during high school, was working at Taco Bell in Pacific Beach. It was almost an afternoon ritual to go hang out down there when Alan was working. Most often we'd wind up paying for food, but sometimes we could cadge some free stuff from our buddy. Ahh for the days when inventory control was much more primitive. I often think of those days when I see some crew of kids hanging out and heckling their friend at work.
Thanks all for sharing pictures, stories, and feelings.
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FTOR
Sport climber
CA
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Apr 24, 2008 - 12:58pm PT
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Some reflections on Alan that I passed along to Richard, thought i might as well post them here as well...
Sad news of Alan's passing. Seems in character that we would just be learning of this, he was always one who held his cards close in hard times.
To tell you the truth, while we did a considerable amount of climbing together, I completely lost contact with Alan after he moved to Colorado. Every once in a while a mutual friend might mention they ran into him, but that was about it. I'd be curious to know a little about his life there. I'd heard that he had become a serious christian, and you mentioned in your post that he was married. Kids? Sounds like he as alone in the end, hope not.
We both were at Cal Berkeley as undergraduates. I was minoring in art (majoring in climbing) and Alan was in the school of architecture. Remember, this was at the time you actually had to climb on rock, and the reputation of Berkeley as a mecca for rock climbers in northern CA was well established. Indian rock was the place to be and that's probably where we hooked up, though it was long time ago now and I don't really remember when I first ran into Alan. The community of climbers was much smaller then, basically, you knew just about everyone who climbed in your area.
As you must well know having spent any time with him, Alan was always driven. It was always important that he be pushing something. Whether it be going up the boldest line or establishing a new one with his stamp on it. While pretty driven myself, frequently, I was just along for the ride. After graduation, I settled into the life of climbing bum, and Alan was my frequent partner. We were both working for a while with another climber friend as house painters in Berkeley, earning just enough to get by and living the life. I remember fridays rolling around and we'd be on our way to the meadows. This was during the Regan years, the economy sucked, but at least you could rent a $100 room in Berkeley, and stay in the meadows campground on the 'honor' system. This meant we would hold a campsite with a tent for the week and have a place to head for.
Back then Bachar was king of the meadows, his bold routes were the target of anyone looking to make a name. For whatever reason, Alan made it his mission to share in the glory and go after those routes, as well as do some of his own. But the truth is, let's face it, he just wasn't as gifted a climber as John, few were. While neither was I, I was pretty good at the time, and probably a little better than Alan as well. So 'In the path of the master' never quite set right with me. He never ran it by me before it was published.
While we failed in our attempt of the BY, I came back in a couple years and sent in fine style. Cos had done it the week or two prior and gave me the belay, gladly getting a top rope. I believe these were in the range of 7th and 8th ascents overall. After hearing Alan and I had the audacity to have a go on it, Schneider was inspired and went up and claimed the coveted 2nd. I'm pretty sure Alan also came back and finally sent it too. I know there was talk of him replacing the old 1/4" taper bolts, and messing with the belay at the top of the 1st. Alan was never one to avoid a little controversy.
Oh, but good times. Certainly the best I've ever had. I really don't know what's going on these days in the elite climbing world, but at that time, it was all about pushing the 'mental' limits of climbing. The old adage, when in doubt run it out, was very real, and when you bothered to put a rope on at all, protection was at best scarce and the consequences of falling were real. Leads were done to impossible stances where you'd prey you get the bolt in before coming off, and hand drilled 1/4" were the norm. Besides the Bachar routes, we worked our way through most all the big routes up there, especially on Fairview, many of which have had no more than a few assents even to this day.
Of the firsts that I remember doing with Alan was an obscure offwidth up on Mariuolumne called Missing Link. Who else would seek out an 11.c offwidth in the meadows? I remember struggling up the thing just to be bouted by a move passing through a roof, then I found the 'missing link', only to be too spent to pull it off. I could sense the glee as I turned the lead over, Alan gladly bagged the first.
I also remember Alan having this beater ford pinto back then. Of note was the fact that he just couldn't keep windows in the thing. Some bear adopted his car and made it part of his nightly routine to rip out the windows whether he had anything in it or not. He finally just kept the windows down but it would still go for the 'crawl through' just for good measure. Maybe he was just into f*#king with Alan's head... many were.
The biggest route I did with Alan was Mescalito on El Cap. I wasn't much of a big wall climber and was constantly given sh#t by those guys. My counter was that anyone could do aid, so when Alan was up for this route one of the bigger nail-ups going, I gladly accepted the challenge. I think we were both a little naive about this at the time, but this never stopped us before. Certain we were at the start on our first day of fixing, Alan was up there pounding hooks into dicy rivets... hmm. Hey Alan, isn't this supposed to be pretty much a trade route? Turns out we were on the chopped Wall of The Early Morning Light. Alan had somehow gotten up most of that first pitch before it sunk in something wasn't quite right. (As an aside, does anything ever really change? I mean the issues surrounding that route are the same as that 1600+ post topic on the forum today.) Anyway, not to be deterred, we found the start and successfully did the route after five days of toiling. My only and last big wall. The climbing went without incident except for the last day. I woke to the sound of Alan moaning and retching, he was clearly sick as hell and in no shape to climb. But since we were just 3 or 4 pitches short of the summit, i really wanted to top out. Come on Alan, can you just clean? i'll do all the leading and hauling. He agreed to give it a go. I remember him miserable and slumped over in the slings all day, but he toughed it out and we made it. That was just the kind of guy he was...
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scuffy b
climber
up the coast from Woodson
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Apr 24, 2008 - 01:13pm PT
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Thanks for posting those stories, Rob.
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Richard M. Wright
climber
Lakewood, Colorado
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Apr 24, 2008 - 02:51pm PT
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I don't know if anyone else wants or needs to read about how Alan's cancer evolved. I wanted to know because it connected me to Alan near the end, and I can imagine that his other close friends may want to know as well. It speaks to Alan's character in a very personal and profound fashion.
I spoke at length with Alan just prior to his second round of chemotherapy. At the time he sounded like Alan: upbeat, jazzed to show me some new rock in the Pouder Canyon and around Virginia Dale. He had just finished two sets of Ride The Rockies - brutal bike rides. He knew that he was in for a huge challenge with the second treatment and the recovery he was going to face. His cancer was of neuro-endocrine origin, but gastrointestinal in location. It had wrapped around and invaded much of his intestinal track. Following the second treatment at the end of September, surgery was performed to remove as much cancer as possible. The double hit had left him very weak and loosing weight rapidly.
In the middle of October his father passed away, also from cancer. It had been a huge issue in Alan's life to reconcile himself with his father and long standing difficulties that had separated them, and this had finally come about some time prior to his diagnosis. It can well be imagined that this was a major moment in his life. Being Alan, and with no regard to his severly weakened state, he flew to SanDiego to attend his father's funeral. That and the return trip took a huge toll on what little he had left to fight the cancer. The cancer grew in stunningly short time from tennis ball size to grapefruit size to basketball size and had begun to invade his liver. More surgery was performed, even dissecting off a piece of the liver in the hopes that the tumor would follow it and not invade the rest. In the end this was more than even Alan could overcome.
Even doped up on drugs, this was an enormously painful and arduous process. What seems heroic to me is Alan's resolute confrontation with the disease, his willingness to extend himself for his father's sake without regard to the consequences for himself, and to do this all without complaint and in the same upbeat fashion that he had always lived his life.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Apr 27, 2008 - 03:46am PT
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Bump.
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E
Social climber
Tujunga CA.
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Apr 27, 2008 - 10:25am PT
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I just wanted to relate a little story here . I was with Al at the top of the Zodiac the day of the haulbag incident. We had just finished up the route and were preparing to boot the haulbags.
We were a team of four(Mike Lechlinski and Dag Kolstrud)
So Alan carries a massively loaded bag out to the edge. We were all going to be shooting pictures of the bag getting launched.
So he lifts it over his head and hucks it off-immediately one of the straps hooks his neck and slaps him to the lip of the cliff-I mean right on the edge,so there he is, glasses hanging off his head , bag dangling still from his neck. I swear that he first reset his glases before flicking the bag strap off. I turned around and looked at my friends expressions-priceless. Then the bag hits the deck-Boom!-and Alan starts shaking-we were flying on mushrooms which Al had brought for us -whoa!
I've told that story many times thru the years
See ya in the next world Alan
Erik E.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 27, 2008 - 11:38am PT
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More photos from Sally,
Alan leading Tuneup in the Meadows:
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Apr 27, 2008 - 04:32pm PT
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Sally and Tarbuster,
thanks for taking the time to post those cool
pics of our departed friend...
it's really appreciated.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 27, 2008 - 10:42pm PT
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Apr 27, 2008 - 11:13pm PT
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I remembered that I did have a group shot that included Alan, taken at Suicide in the late seventies.
It is not a pleasant memory, but I was with Alan when we witnessed a terrible tragedy in 1978. He and Karl Mueller were approaching El Cap to fix the start of the Nose. Dick Shockley and I were with them on our way to start the Salathe. About 150 yards from the base, I stopped to point out to Dick three climbers on the rappel route of the Nose about a 1000 feet up. We had resumed walking when a loud wooshing noise, like a rock fall, made us all involuntarily step back from the wall. I looked back up to see that the three were gone, with only a jacket wafting down where the climbers had been. The enormity of what had occurred almost brought me to my knees: three people had died right in front of us. I am sure Alan, like the rest of us, never forgot that day.
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Richard M. Wright
climber
Lakewood, Colorado
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Hi Sally ! Thanks for posting Alan's photos. I sent an obituary to Matt Samet (Climbing) and was hoping that you could post something there as well. I have some photos from the wedding, but nothing great of him climbing. Yours might be more appropriate. - Richard
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Sally's picture of Alan on Long's Peak summit:
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Buggs
Trad climber
Eagle River, Alaska
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Never knew the man but that last picture is a nice tribute to him. Thank you.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Geat pics!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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hey mike, wassup?
yeah, great pics. is that lynn hill leaning down to look at a rattlesnake in rick a's pic from suicide?
i like the lone gallencamp scat peeking in on the lower left of the frame. sandbag shoe for the ages.
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