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Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 30, 2007 - 05:01pm PT

These are from some of Richard Leonard's RCS notebooks. Members had to pass the exam before they could lead a group.

There is plenty more if you are interested.

Ken

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jan 30, 2007 - 05:17pm PT

Chimes very well with my copy of "Belaying the Leader". I wonder how many of us would meet their criteria, and at what level? I mean, using the equipment and techniques they had available?

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

Jan 30, 2007 - 05:18pm PT

Ken, that stuff is great.

Are there any exams?

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, Ca.

Jan 30, 2007 - 05:22pm PT

We're interested, keep it coming. Interesting stuff.

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2007 - 05:30pm PT

This is for Crowley.

That is the best I can do for now.

Ken

Maysho

climber

Truckee, CA

Jan 30, 2007 - 05:39pm PT

Great Ken!

The testing system lasted into the 70's, I think I was the youngest ever to pass at barely 14, though Scott Burke may have done the same a couple of years later. The belaying the leader test was brutal. A 120lb weight was dropped with about 15 feet on goldline rope and you caught it with a hip belay. I got pulled off the ground and landed back on my head, but held the thing with the grim determination of an eager 90lb weakling. We stored the RCS ropes at Dick Leonards house, half a block up from Pinnacle Rock (Remillard Park) and I lived nearby so usually took the chore of returning them and enjoyed getting to chat with old Dick for a bit each Sunday afternoon after the session.

Peter

P.S. Crowley, I would like to connect with Goldman as well! Maybe next Easter at Cashners I will introduce you to his daughter Amanda, who he hasn't seen since she was a few months old, and who I ended up foster parenting for a couple of years. I wonder if he even knows about that!

climber

The City of Lost Angels

Jan 30, 2007 - 06:07pm PT

Oh man CS, I love climbing history--and especially Sierra Club Ultra-Top-Secret-We'll-Kill-Ya-If-Ya-Talk climbing history! When's the next installment?

Robb

Social climber

Under a Big Sky

Jan 30, 2007 - 06:10pm PT

Whatever happened to Chuck anyway?

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2007 - 06:13pm PT

Last I heard he had moved to LA and was driving trucks.

Ken

couchmaster

climber

Jan 30, 2007 - 06:53pm PT

Wow, great stuff Ken.

Jack Rieglehuth passed away about 4 years ago. It would have been good to have been able to gently prod and rib him about being a 3rd class climber!:-)

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

one pass away from the big ditch

Jan 30, 2007 - 07:00pm PT

Wow, if those are 2nd and 3rd class climbers, I must be like a 2000th class climber.

lol

Maysho

climber

Truckee, CA

Jan 30, 2007 - 07:53pm PT

hmm, kind of a thread hijack as Chuck was no Sierra Clubber!

Sorry Mathew, I do now remember that you know the whole saga. Like you I am psyched and honored to have gotten the invite from Chelsea! See ya there!

Goldman's truck route used to take him to Emeryville to deliver fruit pulp for juice and he would look me up. That was 1998 however. I hope he is well.

I still feel bad that the Sierra Club stopped offering rock climbing in 1989. The RCS was a great resource for kids like me. Ironically, I was an expert witness, defending the Sierra Club from the lawsuit that shut them down. I was going up against John Dill on the other side, then the Club settled on the eve of the trial and ended a great tradition of free climbing instruction.

Peter

Roman

Trad climber

3 hrs. from Seneca

Jan 30, 2007 - 09:42pm PT

That's pretty fascinating!

I wonder if my local climbing assoc. (PATC) has stuff like that around...

Maysho

climber

Truckee, CA

Jan 30, 2007 - 10:05pm PT

No, it would'nt have really been duking it out, it was just the way the lawyers played it. We could have easily switched roles, the plaintiff had attended the old "alpencraft seminar" at YMS when I was chief guide, and I was supposed to testify that he had been taught that he (and all climbers) should take responsibility for checking anchors, and Dill was going to testify about what a bad anchor it was that failed. I am sure John had nothing against the Sierra Club, and cross examined I would have agreed that the anchor was horrible. It was a case of a bunch of equally inexperienced climbers top roping as a sub-group, listing their gathering in the local club newsletter. There was no instruction or expertise implied. A shame that an old tradition was squelched over it.
Peter

jstan

climber

Jan 30, 2007 - 10:30pm PT

I must say I have long wondered what ever happened to John Dill. He used to climb with MITOC ARC. I went through ARC training about the same time as John. MIT had a flavor all its own. You act smart. You get admonished," Be careful now. You too can be replaced by a nonlinear servomechanism."

Cheers,