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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 27, 2009 - 01:47am PT
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Everybody remembers their first time at something … whether is was the first time you had sex, first time you went to kindergarten, etc.
I don’t remember doing my first climb … but I was told it went something like this:
Staring at the obstacle in front of me, it was only 10 feet high. I gingerly put my hands on the first holds, feet followed and before I knew it … I had summited the problem. I was so pleased and excited with myself that I couldn’t say any words. With the joy of self-achievement I looked down to a surprised audience.
It was my mum in the backyard of our house. She had a look of concern on her face because I was fourteen months old and I had just scampered my way up a stepladder leaning up against the house to the roof. To my mom’s startled discovery I toddled out unnoticed and bagged that first ascent. I guess climbing starts when you are young and for me that was April 1964.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 27, 2009 - 01:51am PT
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Cliff drive, kansas city Mo
"The open book 5.7"
Located in the ghetto, with full on bullets whizzin by your head on the petrified mud wall.
Man it was cool seeing the cops chase down a gunman whilst rappelling!
Mucci
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 01:53am PT
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A toperope somewhere near Hedley BC. I was terrified
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:05am PT
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Chinchen, are you a Flagstaffonian?
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:07am PT
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Oh, I should change that....I wish I was. Right now Im living in Anacortes, Wa. Will be back down that way this winter.
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:11am PT
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Chinchen, I was just quering your place label. I am a transplated Flagstaffonian ... Why am I living in WA? Just curious on my part ... peace on!
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Chinchen
climber
Flagstaff?
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:12am PT
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Where there are boats, there is money....
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:15am PT
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Chinchen may be a former Outward Bounder.
My first climb - with rope - was at Lighthouse Park, near Vancouver. Which is where most everyone around here started climbing.
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Enumclaw, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 27, 2009 - 02:15am PT
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That's cool ... I understand the Orcas Island thing ... for sure. My dad had a Cataline 41 which I sailed a few times on and had a great time as a tweenager. I am sure you are living the life. Nice to meet you. RB
PS - Do you know any Flag climbers?
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Rudder
Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:59am PT
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Angel's Fright at Tahquitz...
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martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:04am PT
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sunnyside bench jamcrack, first pitch. Led with pins, put a quarter inch bolt at the belay to rap......believe there was a pin, but no bolts. 72.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:15am PT
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^^^^ Nice!
Man that must have been a sharp crack back in the day huh?
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Iron Mtn.
Trad climber
Corona, Ca.
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:27am PT
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The Trough-Big Rock
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hooblie
climber
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:42am PT
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in '64, some jr. hi buddies were being treated to some caving trips by a fellow a couple of years older. i missed out on those but they shared the knowledge, breaker bars, swami and leg loops etc. on trips to castle rock where one mom would drop us off and another would pick us up, we were left to our own to crawl all over that thing. rarely saw anyone else. the most vivid memories of rope work involved the rap off the overhang at goat rock. shakey knees at the lip, then rushing back up for repeats.
got the RCS checkout at 16 and tuned up a couple of things but we weren't too misguided as kids
edit: RCS is rock climbing section of the sierra club. that's a duh, right?
now that i'm thinking about it these weren't my first climbing partners. i can't think of a bus stop that didn't have a crow's nest atop a tree that one could give first alert from starting with first grade. also the 50' oak trees were still polished from our preteen arborial life last time i checked.
a cool way to avoid being "tagged" was to leap to another branch and hog the landing zone, foiling the guy who was "it."
does this give a clue about the role casual parenting played in the formative years of a climber?
the only fear mongering i recall was the questionable effectiveness of nuclear duck and cover
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Aug 27, 2009 - 03:59am PT
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1970, and I was with my brother Dave, and we equipped ourselves with 70 feet of army surplus webbing and proceeded to top rope a route at Mission Gorge in San Diego, by running the web around a tree at the top...Lucky we survived...(Natural selection and all...)
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:41am PT
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19th nervous breakdown - vedauwu 5.9+...
oddly enough, i was across the way and staring at this very route all day sunday, while manny dragged me up another 5.9...ten years later and i still can't climb ;-)
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rick d
climber
tucson, az
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:46am PT
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RB-
not "the RB" by any chance?
does the phrase "I pulled a Donnelly" along with Queen Creek ring any bells?
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noshoesnoshirt
climber
Arkansas, I suppose
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Aug 27, 2009 - 09:51am PT
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Climbed a bunch of stuff solo before I knew what I was doing, then graduated to a clothes-line hand-held toprope belay on some local bluffs.
First real lead (with gear and a rope, natch) Moonlight Stroll, 5.7 at Mt. Magazine, Arkansas.
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