Trip Report
A Short Walk with Dingus McGee

by mike m
Friday November 19, 2010 11:38am
top left corner top right corner
Dingus McGee(Dennis Horning), Andrew Busse, Andrew Burr, and C...
Dingus McGee(Dennis Horning), Andrew Busse, Andrew Burr, and Chris Pelczarski
Credit: mike m
bottom left corner bottom right corner
Thought I would lnk this to ST too lazy to redo here. http://www.summitpost.org/a-short-walk-with-dingus/679827

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mike m 		About the Author
mike m is a trad climber from black hills.

Comments
Mike Bolte

Trad climber
Planet Earth
  Nov 19, 2010 - 11:54am PT
What a fabulous looking place!
TKingsbury

Trad climber
MT
  Nov 19, 2010 - 12:01pm PT
Nice Mike! Some really cool looking stuff to be sure!
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
Author's Reply  Nov 19, 2010 - 12:43pm PT
Dennis was a really interesting guy to talk to. We came around a corner into this secluded little meadow and he said that when they were climbing on day he came across a hobbled mountain goat that had a fetus half birthed. The fetus was obviosly dead and they bassically performed a goat abortion for it so the mom could live. It sonded like quite a nasty chore that included tying his bootlaces to the fetus and a stick and had to pull very hard to get it to come out. He said once it was expelled the goat walked off. If anyone else has some good Dingus stories I would love to hear them.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
  Nov 20, 2010 - 12:19am PT
ol' Dingus McGee is quite a character... fun to read your story...

didn't look like no via ferratas on your travels though!
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
  Nov 20, 2010 - 01:20am PT
Also you didn't identify Lute, the one on all fours, in that photo.

The needles was a formative place for me in my climbing youth. We spent a couple of weeks there the year after I graduated from High School. I learned a lot about boldness in climbing there, on routes like Tricouni Nail. And there was rumor of this Dingus guy...
at the end of the trip we climbed Devil's Tower, were there was yet more Dingus spoor.

The summer after that found me working in gillette ( I was an undergrad @ UW, majoring in vedauwoo) and climbing every weekend in either the Needles or at Deto. That was the summer i first met both Dingus, and the Colonel, and life has never been the same, since.

It wasn't until '79 that I really got to climb extensively with those guys. in the spring of that year I went to the valley with Frank and we did WFLT, LA Direct, and The Prow.

My father's death in Ca that summer precipitated an extended stay in Ca and another time out from College. That fall I ran into Dingus and Hollis while buying gas in Oakdale. We convoyed up to the Meadows were Dingus dragged me along to revisit, for him, but all new to me; West Crack, South Crack, Crescent arch, NW crack of Lembert Dome, and Lucky Streaks.

Also he introduced me to Dr Bronners.

Cool stuff ! But as it was getting frosty in those October/November mornings so we moved down to the valley, where he he introduced me to Vanishing point, The thief, The Nabisco wall (I followed butterballs, onsight, with one fall, in Ebs!) and joined Kevin Bein and Barbara Devine on Crimson Cringe-a little over my head at the time ;-)

Over the ensuing years I climbed five El cap routes with Frank, and had various adventures in vedauwoo, the Tower and later Maple Canyon with Dingus. The Colonel and I did Figures on a Landscape on a very rasta new years day in maybe '87..

I got out of touch with those guys for most of a decade, then in '08? climbed with Dingus, Ed, Freddie, and Capt America at Dingus' new playground 'four stories' in the Snowy Range, 40 miles west of Laramie. Dennis at 60 was putting up 5.12 bolted alpine sport climbs on 'unsettled' rock at ten thousand feet!

The next year we went to another place, in the Laramie range North of Medicine Bow, where Dingus had another new area rife with hard climbs in the .10-.12 range.

I missed him this summer, but I know he has more new adventure climbs for me to experience than I will ever get to.

And I've still never even been to Reese Mtn!
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
  Nov 20, 2010 - 03:20am PT
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
Author's Reply  Nov 20, 2010 - 11:05am PT
Sounds like we both need to goto Reese. He gave me his number and the invite to go next summer.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
  Nov 23, 2010 - 12:25am PT
Yeah, let's do that!
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