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L
climber
Rebel L rides again
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2009 - 03:01pm PT
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I'll second that! Awesome photo, brotherbbock.
"Little Chiloe" doens't look so little anymore...;-)
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Sep 15, 2009 - 12:29am PT
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Yeah, the photo brother BB posted is one of my all-time favorites too. What a
high moment that was, watching the sun going down over Wonderland.
"Little Chiloe" doesn't look so little anymore...;-)
Not hardly :-)
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lucander
Trad climber
New England
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Sep 15, 2009 - 07:32am PT
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Chiloe: a gentleman and a scholar indeed - a true role model for his quiet dignified life, climbing safely for a long time, and boldness.
/Users/lucander/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/1996/Gunks/DSC06591.JPG
Chiloe on Simple Suff (Summer 2009), his first Gunks 5.10 at the ripe old age of fifty something.
Hamilton routes at Red Rock are among the best of their grade and character: Solar Slab, Triassic Sands, Varnishing Point...and then there's that whole thing of applying Yosemite big wall standards to the untested medium of soft sandstone - bold!
D. Lucander
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lucander
Trad climber
New England
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Sep 15, 2009 - 07:32am PT
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Okay, I'm new to the forum (signed up to toast Larry) but I swear that there's a picture of him on the above mentioned route!
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lucander
Trad climber
New England
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Sep 15, 2009 - 07:40am PT
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A few golden moments with Chiloe
1. As a brand new climber, he finds me on rc.com. I'm a little green, very eager, and have almost no gear. I'm climbing very easy bolted lines at Rumney, my "quickdraws" are 30 foot long tubular webbing used for toproping in Massachusetts, folded over each other innumerable time, with biners on the ends of these thick "draws." Chiloe allows me to borrow several draws to tide me over for a while.
2. Last fall, Chiloe and I set out for Atlantis (.10b) on Whitehorse Ledge in New Hampshire. I've never done the route, it's been on my list for a while, and I'm driving 4 hours for it. Over dinner the night before (a cookie sheet of nachos prepared by the vixen in many of his pictures) I discuss how brilliant the crux third pitch looks: a flaring slot to a thirty foot traverse under a roof and a finger crack exit. Chiloe informs me that he's really looking forward to leading it. Dismayed, I argue that he's been on it before, I'm young and strong, and an entitled to the lead. He counters with brilliant logic that the first two pitches are equally good (they are), he has not climbed in months and needs the pitch, and that I get to keep his old rope after. I eagerly agree and a fine time is had by all.
3. This summer I climb my 300th Gunks route, Ambien Knights (.9+). As I do on every route at the Gunks with a "+" in the grade, I unceremoniously fall onto a nest of shallow brass nuts just ten feet off the ground. His belay is spot on. I finish the pitch, he follows in good style, and we hike out in a torrential downpour.
D. Lucander
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perswig
climber
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Sep 15, 2009 - 08:38am PT
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From #2, it's apparent that negotiation skills are part of the Chiloe package.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Sep 15, 2009 - 09:00am PT
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"Comparing his photo with ours, you’ll see a great drop in the level of Lake Isabelle."
Yeah, I noticed that too, along with the substantial difference in snow cover. But my picture (taken close to fifty years ago) was shot, I think, in late June, which would account for some of the differences.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Sep 16, 2009 - 01:58am PT
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I discuss how brilliant the crux third pitch looks: a flaring slot to a thirty foot
traverse under a roof and a finger crack exit. Chiloe informs me that he's really
looking forward to leading it. Dismayed, I argue that he's been on it before, I'm
young and strong, and am entitled to the lead. He counters with brilliant logic that
the first two pitches are equally good (they are), he has not climbed in months
and needs the pitch, and that I get to keep his old rope after.
Here's Lucander at the finger crack exit after (gracefully) losing that argument.
It was a good day.
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cowpoke
climber
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Sep 16, 2009 - 10:32am PT
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I love the pictures from the Chiloe-Lucander adventures!
Lucander, I frequently remember your wallet epic when we nearly met up in Wyo...bet you haven't forgetten either...perhaps Larry can pull together a Chiloe-Lucander-Cowpoke climb or two some day?
Until then, Lucander's specifics on Larry's Red Rock times reminded me of this TR I posted elsewhere a few years back...more appropriate here:
While I slotted my left hand and pulled, I jumped my left foot up into the crack, grabbed the two-knuckle scoop with my right hand and looked up. Although a beautiful pitch, this one had added value. Joe Herbst and Larry Hamilton were watching me lead Joe’s route Nadia’s Nine at Red Rocks.
**
“He knows the climbers who did the stunts in Cliff Hanger.” With this endorsement, my dissertation advisor introduced me to the sociologist and statistician, Lawrence Hamilton. Across my five years of graduate school, Larry helped center me on the important things in life and provided weekly trips to Cathedral, Whitehorse, and Rumney as well as occasional excursions west to the desert. I spent much of the traveling time quizzing him on his first ascents that spread across the deserts of Nevada and Utah, up the canyons and high country of Colorado, and throughout the wooded crags of New Hampshire.
On this trip, the plan was relatively straightforward: (1) climb Epinephrine and (2) hang out with Joe Herbst. While Larry and I perused guidebooks on the flight from New Hampshire to Vegas, however, anxiety set in. Scared less of chimneys and contrived walk-offs (in part, because Larry was going to lead every chimney pitch and I just had to manage the face pitches), my nervous system was firing in anticipation of being in the company of Larry and Joe, together again.
As they began their regular jaunts from the valley to Vegas in the early 70’s, Red Rocks might as well have been Mars, except that most other climbers had heard of Mars. By the time Larry finished graduate school and moved to New Hampshire, he and Joe had pioneered several classics including Triassic Sands, the Aeolian Wall, the Original Route of Rainbow Wall, and Solar Slab (with Tom Kaufman). Joe stayed in Vegas and there are now only a select few pages in Red Rocks guide books that don’t repeat the mantra “FA: Herbst et al.” If you would like to follow the timing and locales of Larry’s academic career, flip through climbing guides for Eldo, RMNP, and, in turn, the White Mountains of New Hampshire (and a few other areas such as Canyonlands that were within driving distance of Boulder and, in turn, Durham, NH).
On the plane to Vegas, I became certain that once Larry and Joe were in the same room, Larry would realize the error in his wasting time with me; Joe, well, I didn’t know what Joe would do. I’d read in a climbing magazine that he was a recluse who had disappeared from climbing.
As for Epinephrine, Larry has already provided most of the details (http://pubpages.unh.edu/~lch/climb_05.htm). The event he left out? After finishing the chimneys on top-rope, I scrambled up my first lead of the day only to carelessly knock off a loose block that cut Larry’s brand new rope nearly in two, oops (you know, Larry, I never did pay you back as promised, double-oops!). Thoroughly embarrassed, I wondered if that would be the story that Joe and Larry would roast me over the next day. “…and then, Joe, after I dragged his sorry ass up the crux pitches, the little twerp nearly killed me!”
In a slow drizzle the next day, I learned two things: (1) Joe had not disappeared and (2) he was not the rough recluse I’d imagined. Instead, he has simply moved on to other adventures such as competitive skydiving and exploring the desert on horseback, and he is a warm, gregarious man. Over beers and meals (and Joe’s guitar playing), Larry and Joe relived tales of exploring untouched stone. I listened. Fortunately, the rope-cutting incident never came up.
For our last morning in Vegas before returning to work and school, Joe recommended we try the relatively unknown Nadia’s Nine (9+). Joe explained that when he completed the first ascent, both the climbing world and the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci were ready for a new grade, 10. With Joe hiking out to the route to watch us, Larry took on the more difficult first pitch. The first 20 feet of the climb is varnished and the climbing is devious, but Larry was soon at the belay and pulling up rope. On a whim, I asked Joe if he’d like to borrow my harness and give the route a go. He said yes.
After more than a decade off, Joe smeared up the pitch in his sneakers and I snapped pictures with Larry’s camera. I couldn’t see Joe and Larry at the belay, but I imagined handshakes and smiles as I listened to their laughter bouncing off the rocks and back towards the loop road. Later, I learned it was laughter over Joe’s exhaustion.
Joe was lowered and I took my turn. Once at the belay, Larry pointed up toward a terrible looking choss pile as my lead. Fortunately, this wasn’t the correct pitch and Joe redirected us towards one of the more aesthetic lines I’ve climbed in Red Rocks. About 30 feet up the pitch, pausing to look up, my nerves were now firing over the impending climbing and not the company.
The crack curved out over my head, forming a “no way that’s 5.9” overhang. I jammed and edged my way up (as usual, placing enough gear to challenge records for the amount of pro placed in a single pitch). Palms up, I slid my hands along the lip of the crack that was now near horizontal. Liebacking with several positive footholds on the left face, I high-stepped around the lip of the overhang, pulled onto the belay ledge, and exhaled with a yelp. Then, I knew what the Olympic judges knew: Nadia was perfect.
Thanks, Larry (and Joe).
Joe on Nadia's Nine:
Larry, I think you have a pic of the two of you (bagels in hand) that I took as well...it's in one of the guides, but would be fun to see here too. AND, the Candlestick Tower pic was an effort to get a FA story out of you. Anything worth sharing about that day??
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Sep 16, 2009 - 10:52am PT
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Pinned here between two beers,
Chiloe, a man clearly endowed with unimpeachable integrity and characteristic modesty, ... likewise a master of the understated tell:
"You should've seen the one that got away ... it was THIS BIG ... really !!!"
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Tom Gries
Trad climber
Olympia Washington
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Sep 20, 2009 - 01:15am PT
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A very fitting tribute to a truly unique guy. Hope we can hook up again in the next six months. I'll need some sunshine and real rock.
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L
climber
Training for the Blue Tape Route on Half Dome
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 1, 2010 - 07:32pm PT
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Well, the She's My Hero thread got me thinking about some of my favorite threads on the Taco...which lead me to this one.
So, keeping it all in the family, cheers to one of the best things about the Taco: the other half of She's My Hero.
Happy and safe long weekend to you all,
L
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Jim E
climber
away
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bump cuz I don't want to lose this thread before I can dig up more photos to post.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Beware, Jim, I've still got your lycra daze!
You know what trouble came the last time those surfaced.
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Jim E
climber
away
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LOL!
Never fear, Larry, you never went there. You're safe... relatively.
edit: yes I remember. The scars are still healing.
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Jim E
climber
away
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bump
Fiddler on the Roof
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L
climber
Training for the Blue Tape Route on Half Dome
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 5, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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A man willing to admit he wears Multi-Sport Personal Protective Gear--and gives us the photo to prove it-- afraid of a little pictorial Lycra reminiscing??? Tell me it ain't so, Jim! ;-)
(C'mon Larry...finely aged Lycra photos are worth alotta dough on this forum...heh-heh-heh...)
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Naw, I can't do that to a friend. I posted one lycra photo some years ago and those
ruffians in North Conway gave Jim a hard time. Even though they all dressed just as
funny, back in the day.
I recall Brad White asking, "Does anybody know where I could buy a lycra shirt?"
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cowpoke
climber
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Chiloe = a man who'll buy you a nice Italian dinner when conveniently "forget" your wallet. Not that I would ever do that.
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bobinc
Trad climber
Portland, Or
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The Red Rocks routes notwithstanding, the guy actually knows stata!
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