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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Mar 25, 2018 - 02:49pm PT
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Respect.
Condolences to us all.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Mar 25, 2018 - 04:53pm PT
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“Jim [donini] said: Can't agree with you on this one. I've seen the Pirate and, to me, pin scars on otherwise pristine granite stand out like a sore thumb and are an unfortunate permanent reminder of the piton placing era of climbing of which I was a part."
Indeed. Pin scars are a reminder of days gone by when they were in use to the destruction of the rock, and on Serenity first free ascent I did wonder "what the heck" as I used the scars to move along and tried to imagine how it all would have gone (or not) without the scars. An odd and very mixed experience. Thank heavens nuts and cams came along as soon as they did.
As for early 5.11s around the time of Chingadera, I remember vaguely a FFA at JT on Intersection Rock I did way back when, maybe in the general period under discussion which now they say was 5.11, but really, who’s counting at this stage. For me, it's all a cloudy but glowing and deeply satisfying time I recall on the sharp and golden flakes of Tahquitz, bantering with my best climbing partner and lifelong friend Bob Kamps. I'd give back all my "achievements" there for an evening with him now if we could get him back from his ashes, some of which a few years ago I cast under a boulder he and I loved at Stoney Point and which I visit every time I'm in LA.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1292260&msg=1906895#msg1906895
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Michael Irwin
Trad climber
San Leandro
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Mar 27, 2018 - 01:15pm PT
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Bump
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Michael Irwin
Trad climber
San Leandro
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Mar 29, 2018 - 05:13pm PT
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Memorial service was today.
More to follow.
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AMB
climber
CA
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Mar 29, 2018 - 05:23pm PT
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I never met the man, but I was certainly influenced by him, as was every young climber in the 70's who ventured up onto an unclimbed face with a hammer and 1/4" drill. Working up through the grades at Tahquitz, his testpieces Blanketty-Blank and Jonah were required tickoffs. There were others as well. Mark Powell's and Bob Kamps' Chingadera was way ahead of its time, and at Suicide Rock the early developers like Charlie Raymond, Pat Callis and Ivan "Bud" Couch were showing that you could put up multi-pitch routes that were almost entirely bolted, drilled on lead and on stances. But it was in Tuolumne Meadows that Higgins' brilliance shined the brightest. When I started doing new routes there in the late 70's I was following in his footsteps, whether I knew it or not. Although sometimes his routes wandered in a curious way (Nerve Wrack Point, The Way We Were), most of his lines were excellent, especially on Medlicott and Fairview Domes, which surely rank as two of the finest crags in the U.S. Getting the second ascent of Piece De Resistance with Randy Vogel in 1980 remains one of the highpoints of my climbing career. Some people may have been put off by his written sermons about purity and ethics, but I wasn't. I embraced them as long as I could before the tide of rap-bolting, power drilling and bigger bolts washed over everything in the late 80's and early 90's. R.I.P. brother.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 29, 2018 - 08:30pm PT
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Thanks for posting that, Anders.
Tom was more than 'just' a climber.
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Mar 30, 2018 - 12:55am PT
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The second ascent of Piece de Resistance was climbed by Bob Harrington and Dale Bard in 1977. Third was Nick Badyrka 1977. Fourth was Vern Clevinger and Steve Moyles in 1977.
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Scoop
Mountain climber
Truckee, CA
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When I was a kid, I read and reread Never Wrack Point until I damn near had it memorized. I never met Tom Higgins, but he was the catalyst for me becoming a climber.
He always seemed to me the coolest climber in the world. RIP.
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Old5Ten
Trad climber
Berkeley and Sunny Slopes, CA
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i didn't know tom very well, but gained an quick appreciation of the man as a climber when i rebolted piece de resistance a number of years ago. what an awesome looking line! rip tom.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Cascade Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Very much enjoyed climbing with him. Very sorry to see him gone
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
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Tom Higgins was the most influential climber in my world. His views shaped my early vision of climbing, and coaxed me to aspire to a certain set of ethics that were all but "out dated" long before the time I first set foot to stone. His writings, treasures of wisdom, through their subtle tones and hidden meaning, have steered my aspirations, and in times brought about my own humility along my journey on the stone.
Toms article "The Last Sandwich" ( http://www.tomhiggins.net/index.php/climb-histories/20-the-last-sandwich ) changed my direction on the stone forever. Because it put into words what I've always known was my path, and truly defined who I am as a climber.
Here's to sticking to, and following the path less traveled...!
Thank you Tom Higging. You will always be remembered.
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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I will always be grateful to Tom and Pat for "opening up" Nerve Wrack Point in particular.
As a young climber finding myself lost on that particular sea of granite not knowing where the next bolt was but knowing it was out there somewhere, I just trusted (that it being a Higgins/Ament route) I was in good hands.
To this day I still can feel the texture, the uncertainty, and smell the pines.
Thanks guys for allowing me to dig deeper than I thought I was able to.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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sometimes on a burly day you gather it up
and march to the scene of a thrown gauntlet.
but from what i mostly inferred based on a smile and his way,
that day felt more like an unlocking, like a letter from a friend
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ArmandoWyo
climber
Wyoming
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I missed this sad news. I now live apart from the always connected-worldwide web.
Tom was yet another good climbing friend with whom I’d lost contact. Price we pay for our peripatetic lives.
Tom was a valued friend, climbing partner, and eventual adversary. Maybe I met Tom in early 70s. At least we started bouldering occasionally after 1975 when I bought a house in Berkeley to be within walking distance of Indian Rocks.
Climbing with Tom was simply fun. Also a challenge, since as with any partner you wanted to keep up, do your share. At Indian Rocks, we would stop to watch whenever Tom tried to solve a new problem. He had the best footwork of any climber I ever knew. Tom’s beta rarely helped, since most of us couldn’t repeat or retain his minimal stances.
Like others, my best memories of climbing with Tom where in the Meadows. I too was sandbagged on Nerve Wreak Point as a newbie. Revenge took couple of decades. Don’t hold me to route names, but I think we were on Big Boys Don’t Cry. Tom’s lead. Last pitch went right. I proposed we finish straight up. I’ve done it (true). It has pro (1 impossible to find bolt). Dubious, Tom headed up into the sea of licen-covered granite. Where’s a bolt? Where’d it go? Pissed at me, he came down, and said you do it. I cruised up as though I was Tom Higgins.
As our community divided over ethics and sport climbing, Tom and I were on different sides. He was passionate and committed but never rude. He was always a gentleman. It was an argument among friends. He’d argue and publish his beliefs without attacking his opponents, or their motive and values. Can’t claim I held to the same civil standards.
I was reminded of our arguments just last year when I was being interviewed about the conflicts in the climbing community at the time. I was asked about any hostile or violent encounters with trad climbers. I remembered our many emphatic yet good-natured discussions back then, and said, no, in fact I had more stormy scenes with young sport climbers.
I knew his ethics and spirit were right I thought I was being strategic. Bureaucrats shouldn’t decide the style, techniques, and equipment of climbing. The choice on whether and where to drill or run it out for climbers alone.
Focusing on our values benefited both sides. Tom was one of the noble ones who kept his eyes on the prize.
We were privileged to share a special person and were made better, and happier, for it.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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My first encounter with this famous spot. I was with two who knew Tom well and I soaked up their stories.
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Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
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When I would boulder at Indian Rock and he was around, I always felt i was witnessing some kind of magic, a shaman, a blurring of physicss watching Tom climb. He was such a cool guy, too!
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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My one romp on Indian Rock on a long-ago summer day was a slippery and slimy disaster. Worse than Devils Lake. Kudos to you who have practiced there!
Somewhere I have a photo of Tom leading the FA of the End Pin in the Black Hills. I'll try to find it. Such poise and mastery.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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28 August 1978 I was standing at the side of the road just uphill from Pywiack Dome with a dog-eared photocopy of a Mountain Magazine (#60) article in my hands, trying to work out where to walk up to a crag - Phobos and Deimos perhaps, I don't remember. An old VW campervan drew up behind me and a couple of guys got out and came over to ask if they could help. I told them what I was looking for and added something like '... but I've only got this useless article from Mountain... ' The two of them roared with laughter and eventually one of them cocked a thumb at the other and said 'It was Tom who wrote it! I'm Bob, by the way.'
That evening was spent with Bob and Bonnie at the campsite in Tuolumne - Tom had gone home. I did Lucky Streaks the next day with Bob and over the next four years was privileged to climb other routes with him and spend time with him and Bonnie at their home in LA. I never met Tom again but I remember that nanosecond meeting in Tuolumne very clearly.
From time to time I'd come across Tom's articles and essays which of course were superb, but none so beautifully written as 'In thanks':
Hey Kamps,
Bob, the years I've spent climbing in Tuolumne were pure nourishment to me. How about you? The Meadows always made the regular, flat world bearable, and the flat world made the meadows a sanctuary. It was the pull between the two which nourished. School and work without the mountains would have been deadly. The mountains without the nervous struggling down below would have been limbo, not heaven.
(... )
Well, man, as if you didn't know, you were like a father to me for those summers, modeling a conniving, effortless style, clever protection, and witty love for those soaring virgin walls. So, I'II say thanks and thanks also to Tuolumne for holding us like a mother might between deep blue and granite folds in the warmth of the Meadows sun....
Tom
Here's the whole thing: http://www.tomhiggins.net/index.php/climb-histories/27-in-thanks
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cornel
climber
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
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Thanks Tom for your vision, your dedication to excellence, and your eloquence. Your climbs made me dig deep ( incredible climbing in lug soles) and your eloquence gave me reason for pause and reflection. Sincere condolences to Bonnie, family and friends
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