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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Wow, thanks for that, Anders! That totally makes my day. I can picture Mike so clearly as a 17 year old in Yosemite Valley. Such a nice kid, quiet, like Rob.
Below is a painting that Clean Dan always had hanging prominently in his bedroom. It had always moved me, and is the one thing that I asked for after his death. I can stare at this for long periods of time. Been here and gone -- Danny, George, Sean, Dave and so many others.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Just to remind the reader of one of many connections between Clean Dan and one Mike Tschipper.
Mar 7, 2006 - 06:52am PT -- Leroy wrote.
Danny discovered u could pry open the display window of the 4seasons restaurant.Inside was a bunch of climbing gear.One night ,drunk,danny some Poway mountain boys???? and canadian rifraf ??? stole it all and got cold busted driving around the loop.Spent the weekend in jail.got off with time served.Pretty lucky.
To which I wrote.
Incarcerated in the Yosemite jail by order of Judge Pitts circa 1978:
"Clean Dan" Grandusky (ambassador of good will - ringleader)
Tom Gibson (poway mountain boy - was at the wrong place at the wrong time)
Mike Tschipper, George Manson (canadian riff-raff).
If not for Mike Tschipper throwing one of the stolen boots out of the getaway car (onto the street and leaving the matching one in the car), they might have gotten away. Driving the wrong way on the one-way loop, perhaps, also lead to their ultimate capture.
One can't help but think that the world would have been safer if these hooligans had gotten longer sentences.
Those were more innocent times, like Gilligan's Island or something.
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Dickbob
climber
Westminster Colorado
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Oct 28, 2018 - 07:03am PT
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Here is Dan's memorial bench in Eldo and the view you have from it.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 28, 2018 - 08:32am PT
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Okay, who remembers that Dan could recite at will, from memory, some rather long passages from the work of James Joyce?
I'd like to know specifically, was it from Jabberwocky? Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, or perhaps the introduction from Ulysses?
I'd like to be able to cite that specifically for a small piece I'm writing.
 Been Here and Gone! It's been a long time since I've thought of that artwork.
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Crump
Social climber
Canyon Lake, Texas
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Oct 28, 2018 - 10:07am PT
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I first met Clean Dan on the upper meadow of T2 in Eldo. Mike Head and I had just done Vertigo Direct and were walking off to the raps and we ran into Dan and his gang. It quickly turned into a party with me breaking out some Texas out of the zipper pocket on my chalk bag.
It felt like magic and the making of friends for life. We hung out for more than an hour chatting and hangin up on the wall.
RIP Clean Dan.
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Todd Eastman
Social climber
Putney, VT
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Oct 28, 2018 - 11:51am PT
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I met Dan in the 1970s when he would hitch up to the Adirondacks for winter hiking and rock climbing. He was learning the sport and had that tremendous energy we all remember him with.
I later let him stay at my house when he arrived in Boulder in 1979. He got settled in at Maple St. on the Hill in a huge top floor of an apartment building. He then started accumulating stuff upon stuff, each object worthy of its own story.
Dan began to climb better and better and made many friends in the area with his charisma and dedication to climbing and living life as large as possible.
I moved back East for a decade and when I returned to Boulder in the early-90s, Dan was climbing really well and living at that monster palace on Stage Coach Rd. We got together occasionally but the dope he enjoyed made me uncomfortable and we drifted different directions.
I have great memories of Dan and his huge energy. He remained that same kid from Buffalo with the world at his fingertips...
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Dickbob
climber
Westminster Colorado
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Oct 28, 2018 - 06:53pm PT
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Gnome. No sweat. Not easy getting to that bench. Perfect spot for reflection.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Oct 28, 2018 - 07:45pm PT
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1994-ish, Alan Lester and I were almost out of Boulder to go try and repeat the Southern Belle on Halfdome. On our way out of town we ran into Dan at a coffee shop, gave him a short version of what our plan was and he screamed and ran to his car. He returns with a #3 Lowe Ballnut and swears we "have to have it and it'll save our life"..
We get there and do everything necessary to give the climb a whirl. On the 8th pitch I ran it out 80' to a dike and could only manage to find a small flake for exactly a #3 Lowe Ballnut and some kind of small TCU. 40' later I took the whipper of my life, 80'-90' and if either of those pieces had popped I would have fallen another 160' of vertical slidey bouncey down Halfdome and straight onto the belay.. The 2 pieces were so close together they were on a single sling, Dan's Ballnut was the intitial piece. Loved that crazy man.
Caylor
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Oct 28, 2018 - 10:44pm PT
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hey there say dickbob... wow, i had not see this...
will read and learn about him...
thank you for sharing...
and, how very special-- his own bench...
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JTBach
Social climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 23, 2018 - 08:51pm PT
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I was a housemate (in Buffalo and Boulder) and climbing partner with Dan mostly in the late 70s and 1980. He introduced me to the Ontario and Lake Placid crews of the late 70s. On visits to Colorado after that I’d always drop in on him and spend time. Living in the same house and climbing with him led to some memorable times, sometimes good, sometimes not so much. And on these occasions we were equally culpable.
The first time I remember the latter happening was when I was studying for an exam in our house in Buffalo. Dan had a huge record (real vinyl) collection; just about the biggest I’ve ever seen. And he played them often, including when I studied. On this occasion I asked him to turn it down some, but he kept putting me off and putting me off and kept on listening to it loud, and I got more and more frustrated. So I ran into his room jumped as high as I could so I could land as hard as possible on his wood floor. I got to listen to the needle of his turntable bounce across the record. He looked at me with his mouth open, said I was insane, but then he finally turned down his stereo.
One of our housemates in Buffalo worked in a hospital and somehow he was able to obtain an industrial size tank of nitrous oxide. When that got opened I really learned about Dan’s taste for altering his consciousness. Without telling anybody about the tank or inviting anyone over we ended up with a houseful of people every night until the tank was empty. Dan would imbibe by filling a garbage bag full of nitrous and then putting his head into the bag and just kept breathing the contents. Once when he kept his head in the bag a bit too long he collapsed, bounced his head off the coffee table and fell to the floor. In a minute or so he regained consciousness and asked, “Why does my head hurt”.
On one trip to the Gunks we climbed together and progressively got more and more frustrated at each other’s behavior. One the last climb of the day, CCK, this finally led to a screaming match before the third pitch over who would climb the crux. It got so loud that his girl friend at the time heard us going at it down on the carriage road and left because she couldn’t take it anymore.
On my first trip to the Adirondacks with Dan and some other friends we came out of the mountains on New Year’s Eve. We decided to celebrate at a bar that was located in an old barn. There was a lot of milling around at the door, but suddenly a small group of guys pushed their way through the door. Upon seeing this we attached ourselves to the back of this group and walked right in. Turned out they were the band coming back from break, so we made it in without paying a cover. The cover included free champagne for the night, but instead of waiting at the bar for a glass, Dan hung out by the door to the storage room and pulled bottles out of the cases that the staff were bringing to the bar. We had all the champagne we wanted.
During one visit to Boulder I wanted to climb the South Face of the Petit Grepon. Dan was willing, but wanted to drive up to the park late in the night before. I had never been in this part of the park before, but Dan said he was tired and insisted that I drive his pickup. I ended up taking a number of wrong turns and we ended up at the parking area at about 2 AM. To avoid rangers, we slept beneath a plywood slab that lay on top of the wheel wells in the back of the truck. Between the frustration of getting lost on the drive, the claustrophobia of sleeping in a space about 18-24” high, and anticipation of the climb ahead I got no sleep. About halfway up the route we started arguing. First it was about his clearing the ledges of loose rocks by just pushing them off, then it was arguing who would climb which pitches. We finally calmed down on the raps off the summit and the hike back to the truck, but I think that was the last time I climbed with him.
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hacky47
Trad climber
goldhill
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Dec 23, 2018 - 10:07pm PT
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Love these stories.... thanks everyone
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 24, 2018 - 11:32am PT
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JTBach!
This is classic Clean Dan stuff you've trotted out.
It's a testament to the zany, loving nature of Dan Grandusky that people such as yourself, all these years on now, are still logging on to this forum, in your case for the first time, with such great stories of our fallen comrade. Thanks for your candor. Nothing but the unedited, unvarnished truth really does the man justice.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 24, 2018 - 11:40am PT
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Okay, so Jabberwocky is Lewis Carroll, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is Coleridge, Ulysses was James Joyce.
I'm sure Dan knew them all well. He had a fabulous book collection. But asking once more, I'm pretty sure he knew some James Joyce by heart and could recite it.
I think it was the opening to Finnegan’s Wake.
Can anyone please confirm this for me?
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JTBach
Social climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 24, 2018 - 05:56pm PT
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Yes, Dan could recite Joyce by heart. Usually Not whole books, but much more than many of his friends and house mates in Buffalo really wanted to hear. I think Ulysses was his favorite. As a previous poster mentioned he took part in, and may have actually organized, a marathon reading of Ulysses on campus. Don't remember his knowledge of Caroll. He also spouted passages from Melville regularly, especially Mobey Dick.
Another part of Dan that has been mentioned before was his generosity. One of these ways was allowing friends to crash at his house for extended periods of time. By the time I finished school in Buffalo Dan had already moved to Boulder and was living on Pennsylvania Ave. on the hill. It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do after leaving Buffalo, but eventually made my way to Boulder. He let me crash there for about two months until Steve Dieckhoff moved out, at which point I rented Steve's old room. I think some of Dan's peculiarities just rubbed Steve the wrong way. While I was there many climbers from near and far also crashed in the house. Four or five of the Ontario crew stayed a couple weeks. Buck Tilley was also a regular at the house when he was between gigs.
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capseeboy
Social climber
portland, oregon
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Dec 24, 2018 - 08:02pm PT
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What a great gift. Thank you Santa!
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Faulensee
Social climber
Toronto
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Hi Everyone, I just wanted to respond to some comments about Mike Tschipper, my brother. He's still alive and living in a group home within walking distance of historic Newmarket. Our parents tragically died in a car accident June 2003 so my sister and I have been making sure he's well taken care of, take him out to lunch and have him over for holiday meals etc. A year and a half ago we made a trip out to B.C. and Alberta with Mike, as well as with my youngest brother who lives in Saanich, and Mike enjoyed going down memory lane. He has a phenomenal memory and can recite the year and month of each climb and all the details. If anyone wants to drop him a line his email is chipperdip@hotmail.com. He'd be thrilled to reminisce about his brief but glorious climbing days.
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Dear Faulensee:
Your dear Brother has a simple, honest and transparent way of explaining what climbing means to him. Somehow, I was touched by how sweet, grateful and open he is. I really enjoyed reading his post and found it inspiring in a subtle way.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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May 10, 2019 - 08:39am PT
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Hey thanks for the email address, Faulensee! I'll be writing him.
Greg Cameron
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