| Messages 1 - 15 of total 15 in this topic |
karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Dec 20, 2009 - 01:00pm PT
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Thanks for the post. The more I learn about pratt, the more I respect him. I just got on midterm in yosemite recently, and knowing that pratt onsighted it for it's first ascent was super motivating. I still fell off, and had to toprope it. He was a bad ass climber.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2009 - 01:06pm PT
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Midterm is a fun little testpiece!
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BBA
Social climber
West Linn OR
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Dec 20, 2009 - 05:28pm PT
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I climbed a few items with Chuck, and that is as true an interview as I think one could get from him. I felt the same way about bolts - too much work.
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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Dec 20, 2009 - 05:43pm PT
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Aside from loving the crap out of all the routes of his, all I know is this. Doug Robinson told me that Chuck was the finest human being he's ever known.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Dec 20, 2009 - 05:45pm PT
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That photo shows Chuck jumaring, but didn't jumars come out in 64?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Dec 20, 2009 - 05:53pm PT
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You know who reminds me the most of Pratt, these days? That Scuffyb....
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2009 - 05:59pm PT
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I looked closely at the photo of Chuck on the Salathé and in my opinion he is following an aid pitch while being belayed from above. There is no rope below him and he sure is not on jugs or prussiks.
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John Morton
climber
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Dec 21, 2009 - 09:42am PT
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What an excellent article! Sally lets us hear him talking. I love that comment about popularity and glamor: "it just couldn't happen to a decent, hardworking, blue-collared sport like climbing". I think most climbers felt that way - it was too much work and too scary to gain a following like a real sport.
John
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Dec 21, 2009 - 10:37am PT
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ihateplastic, yes, that's what they used to do in the late 1950s; the cleaning climber would be belayed from above, and use pitons, then remove them. Sounds awkward. Jumars were only introduced to the US in 1962, so they were not around for the Salathe.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 21, 2009 - 11:07am PT
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Agreed, Crunch. Simon, the business of cleaning on prussik or jumars was a later development and at first slightly suspect. That meant that if you were swinging leads, "you only climbed half the wall", or if you were a dedicated second, you "never climbed the wall". We more or less got over it though and with communal benediction, jumars and their like populated the world.
I agree, nice article, Simon, thanks. Pratt in his best mood there, in great form.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Dec 21, 2009 - 11:16am PT
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There's old school 5.9 and then there is Pratt 5.9
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 21, 2009 - 07:48pm PT
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Thanks!
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Dec 21, 2009 - 09:10pm PT
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I really like Pratt's directness and uncluttered thinking.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Dec 22, 2009 - 11:44am PT
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Yes, Pratt was simply the best. The climbs I did with Chuck
remain among my most cherished experiences. However stupid I might
have been in those days he never viewed me with even the slightest
grain of contempt. He knew the tortures of young people trying to
sort through life. He simply held to the good, and he believed. Any
time I sought his opinion, he gave it. I once wondered aloud if I
would be good enough to do the Salathe Wall. He turned calmly to me
and said, "You would have no trouble up there." I was amazed by those
words. I will never forget the first time he wrote and told me to
get to the Valley so that we could climb. And a day I spent with him
at his apartment in Berkeley, as I watched him work on a Volkswagon,
how he verbalized everything I did, as I listened, at a time
when he began repairing them, or that same time in Berkeley when he
told me how much he liked my piece about him in Swaramandal. He asked
me to sign his copy. That meant more than if the best writer in the
world were to have given me their endorsement. Thanks, Doug, for
sharing your thoughts about Chuck. Thanks every and anyone who keeps
his name and beauty of spirit alive.
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| Messages 1 - 15 of total 15 in this topic |
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