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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 10, 2018 - 03:29pm PT
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I just found out through Geir Hundal that Chip Chace passed away last Saturday November 3 at his home near Boulder. Chip was a talented and very bold climber who became an adept healer as he moved forward in his chosen profession.
He spent some time climbing around Tucson which is where I met him and I had the pleasure of seeing him again at the Cochise Stronghold Granitica Festival in 2013.
Stepping right into our scene at the time wasn't easy but he did and established several very demanding routes in the Rockfellow Domes with Ray Ringle such as The Sound of One Hand Thrashing, Sensory Desuetude and Uncarved Block in the early 1980s.
Information about his situation and practice can be found here.
https://stillwaterhealthboulder.com/charles-site/
Plenty of great stories about Chip's climbing will be forthcoming but I wanted to let other folks know that we just lost a real gem of a man who led a consequential life and was a real pleasure to be around. I am glad to know that he is beyond suffering now and feel blessed to have crossed paths with him along the way.
My sincerest condolences to his family and loved ones who clearly rallied to his side when he needed them most.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 10, 2018 - 05:11pm PT
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Wow...I had no idea he was sick. Chip was exceptional in many ways. My thoughts go out to his loved ones.
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Nov 10, 2018 - 05:47pm PT
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9/87, ziji FA
respect for a man who did it with his socks on.
travel well, pioneer
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Scott McNamara
climber
Tucson, Arizona
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Nov 10, 2018 - 06:30pm PT
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Thanks, Steve.
Condolences to all. Pretty shocking!
Chip was simply an amazing climber. He will be missed. He had so much to offer the world.
I have nice memories of him. For example:
Many years ago at Campbell Cliff (Tucson) he tried to help me be a better climber.
Painter pants, EBs, standing on an impossibly small hold. Chip kept encouraging me to try to stand on it, too. I tried, I greased off. I tried, I greased off. I tried, I greased off.
While I was trying, Chip effortlessly soloed most of the routes out there. I was simply slack jawed.
Finally, he came back, watched a few minutes more, got bored, asked to try and started jumping up and down and matching feet on the friggin hold!
He could climb.
P.S. Reading his writings about his last days, he even continues to inspire in death.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Nov 10, 2018 - 06:56pm PT
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Chip treated me for a while with acupuncture for a hip problem. I always enjoyed working with him. Climbs like Fine Jade leave a lasting legacy! RIP!
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Nov 10, 2018 - 08:15pm PT
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From comments here, my life is poorer for having never known Chip Chase.
My condolences to his family & friends.
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johntp
Trad climber
Little Rock and Loving It
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Nov 10, 2018 - 08:15pm PT
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Remember hearing and reading about him, but never traveled in the same circles. Seems like a great person.
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rockgeir
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Nov 10, 2018 - 08:20pm PT
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Thanks for posting this up Steve!
I met Chip at the Granitica Festival Heart of Stone event in 2013. He was an inspiring man: his spirituality, climbing, humor, and clarity of thought stood out to me.
Chip, along with Ray Ringle, had established three stellar routes in the Stronghold, and I got a chance to talk with Chip about them during that weekend. It was a powerful experience to climb the routes and hear Chip's stories about the first ascents.
Chip's writing from the last few weeks of his life are profound and moving.
Sincere condolences to Chip's family and friends.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 11, 2018 - 01:00am PT
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hey there say, steve... thank you so kindly for sharing...
i did not know him, of course, but am thankful to learn of him...
my condolences to his family and loved ones...
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E
Ice climber
mogollon rim
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Nov 11, 2018 - 02:26am PT
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about 87 I ran into chip and layton kor on top of the captain after finishing up on zenyatta.
We descended together and ended up eating at the 4 seasons and hanging
together at the center of the universe listing to layton stories.
this was to be the only time that i got to hang with those fellas and i consider myself pretty lucky to of met them.
I think layton told me that he was 54 then and they had done a fast ascent of lurking fear
EE
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 11, 2018 - 03:49am PT
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Hey, "What neebee said there."
Cancer sucks.
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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Nov 11, 2018 - 04:22am PT
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Really sad to hear this. Climbed with him in Zion long ago and I was very impressed, not only his climbing talent but mostly what a great person he was to be around. Very humble and sincere. Cancer sucks.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Nov 11, 2018 - 08:03am PT
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Ugh.. I have so many 'Chip stories' I can't even begin. Such a fantastic guy, sooooo humble it was annoying. I was the chief renegade seamster at JRat in Boulder and at least one or 2 times a month he'd come in with the same dam job. He'd done some awful sounding nightmare tower in the desert and exploded his haulbag after throwing it from the summit. I always charged him the same price, a six pack of good beer or a 12 pack of shite.
Over the years, in between bouts of his desert nightmare binges, we'd hook up and climb some crazy unrepeated sport route. Cowboyagraphy 13c-Hueco Tanks, he got 2nd and I got 3rd. Wingless Victory, 13b- Eldorado Canyon, I got 3rd and he got 4th etc etc. More recently I've tried embracing desert climbing and have been humbled beyond belief at just how hard and terrifying a 5.10 crack can be. He was multi-talented beyond belief.
On the humanitarian side he was a saint. As much as I was breaking myself he was gladly helping with as much state of the art acupuncture treatments as it took to help ease whatever malady I had at the time. At his office he always had a wall of jars full of Eastern type roots, herbs, animals or whatever. If we ran into eachother in public I'd always ask him "how's business? Are you still selling freeze dried monkey dicks?" and he'd always smile real big and reply "oh yeah, and business is booming".
When he answered the phone his voice was always so soothing, calming and perfect. He should of had a business where you could pay him to be your businesses answering machine message. You'd never be so happy to get the answering machine instead of an actual person, unless that person was him.. I love you to the moon and back man and I'll see you soon if I'm lucky.
Caylor
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rockgeir
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
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Nov 11, 2018 - 10:02am PT
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Freeze dried monkey dicks - hahahahahahaha!!!!
Caylor thanks for sharing those great stories. I only got to know a small fraction Chip's medical knowledge, but I could tell he was amazing.
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Nov 11, 2018 - 06:42pm PT
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Chip was an exceptional person in many ways and the first word that always comes to mind when I think of him is Respect. Respect for his intellect, professional expertise, climbing ability etc etc. I am a richer person for having known him for over 3 decades. Whenever I spent time with him I always had a thought that I should try to be more like Chip... So sad he has left us so soon. RIP Chip.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Nov 11, 2018 - 09:03pm PT
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Chip Chace
I first became aware of Chip long before moving out to Colorado. Dating back into the 80s, there is an old picture somewhere, Climbing or Rock & Ice, of him stuffed into a squeeze chimney on some desert tower, maybe the Priest.
Back in the early 90s, when all of these nasty arm problems started cropping up for me, I sought his help. Practicing Chinese medicine, Chip gave it his best. A true believer in critical thinking, he conscientiously engaged a blend of both the Western and Eastern mindsets.
Chip had a great sense of humor. I first heard this from Dick Cilley, even before meeting Chip Chace. Dick said, in a loaded way, "Chip Chace is funny". I asked Dick, "Funny how, like funny ha ha, as in good sense of humor, or maybe you are saying he is weird?" To which Dick responded, "Just funny." He couldn't exactly elaborate, which kind of sums up Chip, at least regarding his sense of humor.
When Chip first started giving me treatments, he prescribed shark cartilage. Proffering the bottle across his desk, he said, after offering a fairly levelheaded disclaimer about drug use: "Okay, this is the good stuff, and I mean that in the way, like you know back in the day, when somebody would lay LSD on you and they'd say, 'Dude, really, this is the good stuff ... straight from Jesus.' I mean it like that …" I just nodded in three different directions at once.
Then he gave it his all in pursuit of my musculoskeletal health, as many practitioners have, to no avail. "You're a good patient. Sorry I haven't been able to help. I find I have better success with internal medicine. Climbers and climber injuries are particularly difficult. Well, Roy, I've stabbed, burned, and bled you. Not much left to try …"
He wasn't kidding about those procedures, either! One day before his treatments, he walked into his office while I lay on the table and I heard him mumble to his secretary, "exhaustion." He was talking about me. And he said it like he was pissed off. I'd been working myself to death in my sewing shop, loaded down with poor margins, hideous payout schedules, and lots of deadlines.
This is when I was living on couscous and carrying water to my un-plumbed live-in shop in 5 gallon jugs strapped to my back, ferrying them several miles out of Eldorado Springs on my bicycle, in the winter. I discussed with Chip that a lot of my trouble was no doubt attributable to my vocation, so he sat down with me and started to brainstorm on that. We thought I might seek a transition and just take a part-time job packing Chinese herb prescriptions for him. It was a job usually filled by students of Chinese medicine, and the preparations were complicated. He took me out to lunch with his wife, Monica, for what was something like a job interview. For people who know Boulder, the three of us broke bread at a restaurant that's been there forever called Carrelli's. It's actually a nice little place. How many people do this for a prospective employee on a low level, part-time job interview: take them out to a nice restaurant?
Chip was way into movies and good scotch. When I was still living in Boulder, I'd run into him from time to time. The last encounter I had with him was a chance meeting out in front of one of his favorite haunts, The Video Station. He shared some great stories from one of his recent trips to the Wind River Range. With typical climber glee, he reported rope soloing an FA, involving some runouts and a sketchy, flared, 5.10 hand crack. Of course he relished it – both the experience, and sharing it with a fellow climber.
Some of us have really held up over the years, where musculoskeletal health and climbing pursuits converge, and he was certainly one of those people. I'd heard from my wife a little over a month ago that he was going down from stage IV pancreatic cancer. She told me that just prior, he'd returned from a trip to Baffin Island, where he'd learned his cache had been stolen. Oh yeah, he'd been soloing a route on Mount Aasgard the previous year, and made a successful solo ascent of Mount Freya.
Read more on that here:
http://www.dailycamera.com/recreation/ci_31276802/chris-weidner-chip-chace-alone-baffin-island-and
For Chip's personal write up on his final struggles with cancer, this is well worth a read, because you'll appreciate what a hard-core guy he was, and what kind of courage we can summon when staring down both barrels of death. Here is his main page for Stillwater Health. Read the four links, Chip's Saga, Chip's Update #2, Chip's Update #3, and Chip's Final Update.
https://stillwaterhealthboulder.com/charles-site/
Berg heil, Chip!
Roy McClenahan
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wbw
Trad climber
'cross the great divide
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Nov 12, 2018 - 10:57am PT
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I never knew Chip too well, but between having mutual friends, crossing paths many times over the years and hearing of some of his adventures, I considered him to be a friend and person I greatly admired. He was a very accomplished climber, and well respected professionally. I had heard about a month ago that he had pancreatic cancer. Having spent the last 8 days of my grandmother's life as she passed away from the same illness, I thought that he probably didn't have a lot of time. Still to hear when he actually passed, while not a shock makes me very sad.
Once while climbing Wolfs Head with a couple of friends in the Cirque of the Towers, I ran into Chip who was soloing it. He had attempted a solo ascent of Hooker, bailed and walked down range and ran into us by happenstance. When offered a rope he took it commenting, "better to be a husband than a hero."
I invited him to camp with us. It turned out he had been eating only Powerbars for more than a week. He had wanted to see if he could live on them, but told me that he was feeling pretty
weak. When I shared my noodles with him for dinner, it seemed he was eating a a fine meal. I guess living on Powerbars for that long would make anything taste pretty good.
I was headed back to Boulder, so Chip and I hiked out together. We had talked about climbing Black Elk on the way out, but I wanted to get back home. I always wished we had done that climb, which would have been a breeze for Chip, even with my meager rack. (Chip had left his gear stashed at the base of Hooker.)
Given his level of accomplishment at multiple disciplines, Chip's humility always stood out. My sincerest condolences to his family and close friends.
Brad White
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 14, 2018 - 06:37pm PT
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Bump for a subtle warrior...
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Nov 14, 2018 - 08:04pm PT
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RIP Chip, I had the good fortune of meeting you in the North Rim campground of the Black Canyon. I was aware of your climbing legacy but that never came up in conversation. You were a very comfortable person to be around and talk to . . . an impression I recall even 20 years later. I think you were going to solo "High and Dry" but your itinerary was not sprayed upon your companions. You were simply being in the moment, the here and now, with those around you. Thank you for your powerful example.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Nov 15, 2018 - 02:59pm PT
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Awesome stuff Tar and the gang! Bump for just a fantastic dude. Pretty sure there are no negative Chip Chace stories in existence, he was one of those dudes.
~Caylor
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