Yosemite 1967 Photo - Can you identify these climbers?

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 61 - 80 of total 90 in this topic

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

Roger Breedlove

climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Apr 29, 2009 - 01:22pm PT

Barry Wily Bates

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2009 - 01:24pm PT

jstan-

Saturday Review went out of business a long time ago. The person to deal with is Bruce Davidson of Magnum Agency. Roper mentioned that he wanted $100 for reproducing the photo in Roper's book, and since he couldn't identify most of the principles, Steve decided not to include it.

I agree that an article is just waiting to be written about Madsen.

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

Lake Oswego, Oregon

Apr 29, 2009 - 01:41pm PT

I have written to Bruce Davidson to see if he has any notes from the day. We'll see if he can help clear up this puzzle!

And Barry... I thought you were adamant these fellows were from the Confederate Army. Changing your opinion, are we?

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Apr 29, 2009 - 01:45pm PT

I happened to mention this photo to Robert Summers at a slideshow on Monday night. He was there at the time and remembers the whole thing. He knew about the Saturday Review article, and described the photo to me (including the "bookshelf" on lower right), and named himself, Mark Klemens and Steve Williams. Robert said he didn't think Frank Sacherer was in it. I sent him the URL of this thread so he could check out the people as I numbered them.

It was at Bridwell's site in Camp 4, late August or September 1967 (or possibly 1966).

This smooth-talking photographer shows up and wants to get a bunch of the climbers in a photograph. He promises them a nice 8 x 10 print if they participate. So they line up and he shoots it. Months pass; does the promised print ever get delivered? No. (Maybe it's time for Bruce Davidson to finally deliver on his promise?)

caption below from Robert Summers' email to me this morning:

1 Madsen
2 Schmitz
3
4 Dave Bierchieff(sp?)
5 someone else guessed Ton Kimbrough that's probable
6 Mark Klemens
7
8 Steve Williams
9 Robert Summers

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

Lake Oswego, Oregon

Apr 29, 2009 - 03:02pm PT

For what it is worth, here is the rest of the right side.

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 29, 2009 - 09:04pm PT

The non schlock of Camp 4 - 1967

Same photographer

Just so you know what we were supposed to be aiming for!

Dick Erb

climber

June Lake, CA

Apr 29, 2009 - 09:30pm PT

I think Bob Summers got it right.

1-Jim Madsen rarely seen without glasses was the undisputed top climber of his generation in Yosemite, athletic strong and driven. He was knocking off the biggest climbs in the fastest times. He thought El Cap would be good practice for bigger walls in Patagonia.

2-Kim Schmitz looks like he is at the beginning of a transition from an Oregon teenager to a California hippie. He and Madsen were the great team from the NW.

3-If we can find him will he remember?

4-Dave Bircheff one of Bridwell's boys at the time, became a good climber in his own right.

5-The always interesting Tom Kimbrough.

6-Mark Klemens: I'll take Bob's word for it.

7-My first impression was Larry Dalke. I know he was there that year. What do you think Pat?

8-Steve Williams: This is how he looked when he first came to the Valley. He appeared to be an entirely normal good looking Southern California high school graduate. How many of us have been changed by a few years in the Valley?

9-Bob Summers: At first I didn't recognize him. Even though we did the Diamond together that year, and also got hauled before the RMNP Commissioner together for illegal camping.

Barry Bates

Boulder climber

Smith River CA

Apr 29, 2009 - 11:48pm PT

Jan
Thanks for the non-schlock photo I'd forgotten what C4 could be like before it became a walk in campground . I spent the summer of 68 climbing with some English climbers. I still remember one of them commenting that he was surrounded by things that should be on the ocean and not on land. I assume he ment the trailers and RV's not the people. Makes me thankful that I've always been such a bad shot.
Thanks again for the post Barry

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Apr 30, 2009 - 02:32am PT

Check the trailer trash photo carefully:

The guy in the white tee shirt, on the left, sitting next to the trailer appears to be Roper on steroids. In the background, the guy with the hat is Harding, eyeing the "lady" in the classic trailer slouch position to his left. Oh yes, you have to love Camp 4 in all its aberrations and weirdness.

DrDeeg

Mountain climber

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Apr 30, 2009 - 11:52am PT

Erb's summary is likely correct.

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 30, 2009 - 07:34pm PT

I was interested that Dick Erb thought # 7 could be Larry Dalke. That was my impression too but then I thought it couldn't be him - I didn't know he was in the Valley at that time, and I never saw him with his hair that long. I concur with Dick though, that we need Pat's opinion.

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

Lake Oswego, Oregon

Apr 30, 2009 - 07:58pm PT

I wasn't expecting any helpful news from Layton Kor as this was a bit past his time in the Valley. He wrote to say he did not recognize anyone.

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber

Fruita, Colorado

May 10, 2009 - 01:38am PT

Sorry for tuning in late. I have been busy.

That is definitely not Larry Dalke. He was there
in 1967, with me, but soon after he went into a
kind of detached phase, relating to some heavy-
duty girlfriend issues. I don't remember him being
in the Valley much at all in 1968.
I would have climbed with Larry, had he been there,
as we were still best friends then, but I was with
Higgins and Royal and Pratt most of the time, and
a few others. Let's see, now that I
think about it, he might have cruised out for a brief
stay at one point, because I recall him tagging along
one day when Pratt and I were climbing a bunch of
cracks on Reed Pinnacle. Larry didn't go along on those
but waited and greeted us when we came down. I think
that was in 1968 when I did Sentinel with Pratt, but
Dalke, if there, was only there for a few days.
I can't remember when he and Madsen made an ascent of
the Robbins-McCracken route on Upper Yosemite Falls. That
could have been during that stay in 1968. Dick Erb: Dalke
was very strong like Madsen, even a better free climber
though, while Madsen was in a better state of mind and
ready to climb all the time. Dalke was really slowed by
those mental issues, women, and so forth, a tough time
for him...
In any case, I know and remember Larry well enough to easily say
that's not him in this photo.

I strongly disagree that Mark Klemens is in any of these
photos. That doesn't look like the Mark I knew, or
anything like him. Mark's hair, as I recall, was dark and
rich.

I still say that could be Kim Schmitz, as it really has
his demeanor, if such can be captured largely in silhouetted,
but again, Madsen...
it's possibly him, probably because we think of those two
as always being together, but I never saw Jim once without
his glasses... Jim... what a great fellow. I remember arriving
in the Valley and he came up to me and greeted me with a
welcoming gift of a bag of reefer! We'd never met before,
but he instantly became a friend (not because of the reefer,
because I had already given all that stuff up completely)...

Dick, the comment about Madsen being the strongest
of that generation. I always wanted to be more specific,
in terms of people's talents. Everyone had his or her
strengths and weaknesses and gifts. Jim wasn't a great
free climber at all, not even in a remote league with, say,
Peter Haan, and not the delicate foot work kind of guy of
a Higgins or Kamps, and no special crack climber, like Pratt.
There were plenty around who could climb much harder. His gift
was raw energy and speed, mad desire, like Kor, a voracious
appetite for the rock, for moving up it... He fits your
description, in terms of that brief era and the big walls,
I think, specifically.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

May 18, 2014 - 12:02am PT

simply put, that is not Klemens at #6.

Jan

Mountain climber

Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa

Topic Author's Reply - May 18, 2014 - 12:30am PT

I had forgotten about this fun thread.

Meanwhile, I'm going to contradict Pat and say I think # 7 is Larry Dalke.

It's hard to identify people sometimes and Pat and I have an ongoing dispute about another photo that Frank for sure was in, with Pat saying Bridwell is in the background and me saying it was Layton. When I asked Layton, he affirmed it was him.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Feb 20, 2015 - 06:04pm PT

3-If we can find him will he remember?

He remembers.

It's the Reverend Jeff Mathis fast asleep.

He insists that it is he, and he never lies!

Number five we never were sure of who he was.

And the LAST GUY?

That depends.

Take his dime and call someone who gives a fawk.

[Click to View YouTube Video]He had this huge mattress, too, usually in an old canvas tent.