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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 24, 2009 - 01:18pm PT
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Climbing in the 60's was concentrated around The Gunks, Boulder, the Valley, Tahquitz, JT, the Tetons and a few other places. The Valley, in particular, was considered the happening place for new techniques and for new standards in free climbing. Meanwhile, along the Wasatch Front and in, then obscure, places like The City of Rocks, Greg Lowe (Jello's brother) was putting up free climbs whose difficulty far exceeded what was being done elsewhere. Greg's exploits are one of the best kept secrets of American climbing. Here's hoping Jello jumps in and provides some more definitive info. on his brothers accomplishments.
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fluffy
Trad climber
boulder
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Aug 24, 2009 - 01:34pm PT
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yeah 12c in 1967 is unbelievable
i'd love to hear more
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 24, 2009 - 01:42pm PT
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True, besides being one of the most influential equipment designers of all time, Greg has pulled down a bit.
We need a little help from Yo enlightening us as to the Lowe pedigree,..
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Ed Bannister
Mountain climber
Riverside, CA
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Aug 24, 2009 - 04:26pm PT
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Greg Lowe,
world class designer.
has the 2 part necessity
1) ability to reconize not just the obvious needs, but the opportunity for refinement.
2) has the ability and willingness to solve the need
without respect for convention.
look at something as simple as a ladder lock,
Greg got tired of the usual creep in a shoulder strap,
and solved the problem with the Fast-loc buckle.
Most never notice the difference, but they never have to tug at a shoulder strap to get it back to where it was set.
Greg is no self celebrant, but he deserves great appreciation
as one of the best designers in the industry, or outside it.
Hi to Kim and Jeff as well, always a pleasure to be around the Lowe brothers and really miss our contact.
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GDavis
Trad climber
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Aug 24, 2009 - 04:49pm PT
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Lowes, Ripkins, Earnhardts, Mannings, some families just 'have it.'
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 24, 2009 - 05:01pm PT
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Cover of Climbing #11? Mahlan's. Maybe the hardest pure ice climb in the world at the time Greg climbed it?
Phenominal climber and innovater. Logrithmic spiral. What's he hold, about a gazillion patents?
His route legacy in Utah and Idaho is incredible. Infinite, Crack of Doom, Vicegrips, Macabre and too many more to mention (400 plus or so in the City of Rocks alone? Most unrecorded as they were just for practise? Wow...).
Careful shakin' hands with the man...(could crush ya).
Nice guy too.
-Brian in SLC
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Aug 24, 2009 - 05:16pm PT
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Just read where they can now sequence an individual's genome for like, $50k. Maybe climbers can pony up and sequence Greg, Jeff, and George. It may be that just splicing in a 'c' for a 't' or 'g' here and there would allow the rest of us to climb like the Lowes.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Aug 24, 2009 - 06:43pm PT
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Anyone have a picture of him bitd maybe mid 70's. Think I met him at a climbing event with Dan. lynne
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 24, 2009 - 09:43pm PT
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Is Greg the one who first led the first pitch of Jules Verne? I have a vivid memory
of somebody, I think it was him but didn't know Greg at the time, leading the start
of that pitch with no pro but a whole crew of spotters, running like a many-legged
beast below him as he traversed.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Aug 24, 2009 - 09:59pm PT
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I thought that was Wendell Nuss. ??????
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Aug 24, 2009 - 10:05pm PT
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Greg. . .aka eyonkee. . .you hit it on the head. . .
heck, I'd take a gene from any of them. . .uf course it'd be
a recessive one for me. . .
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Aug 24, 2009 - 10:25pm PT
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All around climber's climber...that's his design on the left...
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Ray-J
Social climber
east L.A. vato...
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Aug 25, 2009 - 12:22am PT
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This the guy invented internet?
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:04am PT
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Thanks for the thread, Jim. Always intended to tell Greg's story one day. He's a pretty unique individual. The full story would take a book, but I'll mention a few things, here:
Imagine growing up 18 months behind this dude. City marbles champion; state trampoline and tumbling champion; winner of gold ribbons in state art and science fairs; able to improvise at the piano ala Kieth Jarret. And so on and so on. I was always far behind in everything but skiing, where I was beating Greg in the races by the age of nine or ten.
We grew up together, with me occasionally presuming to test his supremecy in some area, and almost immediately being slapped down by a human with greater gifts - and greater aggression - for as a young boy Greg carried a chip on his shoulder. That might be part of the reason that I adopted the view at an early age that climbing is a non-competitive art form, rather than a head-to-head test.
When I was 12 and Greg was 14, we really got into climbing, and went out onto the cliffs behind our house and up Ogden Canyon for 72 consecutive days. It was the real beginning of my serious climbing, but Greg was already free climbing at a high standard. Over years from 1964 to 1968, among many, many others, Greg climbed the following routes around Ogden:
Double Indemnity - 5.10 R/X steep slab
The BB Route - 5.11 R/X steep slab
Tree Crack - 5.11a finger crack
Pass or Flail - 5.11d finger crack
Drop Zone - 5.11+ R overhanging face to roof crack
Macabre Wall Roof - 5.12c R overhanging face
No falls, on-sights of all the above.
In Little Cottonwood Canyon he free-climbed all but the initial pendulum into the S-Crack, at 5.11+.
In City of Rocks he climbed all the routes mentioned by Brian, as well as more difficult ones which I'll divulge for the first time in my book (got to keep something in reserve!). But, for comparison, Infinite was solid 5.11c R, and still is if you know which retro-bolts not to clip. Vice Grips is 11+, Dolphin Dihedral is 5.11, etc. Greg only fell (twice - 50 footers) on Infinite trying to place the lonely 1/4" bolt that eventually "protected" the 35-foot crux run-out.
I made early ascents of many of his climbs, but at that time, he had rated them mostly 5.9+, giving one or two a tentative "5.10?". Because I had such a hard time on the ones I could do, I just assumed I was lacking skill as a free climber.
Greg did longer climbs, too, but I'm tired. I'll try to sketch out some more fragments later, including some unknown Valley climbs but got to get some sleep, now. I'll leave you with a few photos:
Double Indemnity above left and the BB Route down and right.
Drop Zone follows the right-hand of the two shadowed flake line to about half-way up the cliff, then moves right along horizontal strata, then goes straight up through the splitter crack in the roof.
Oh, and by the way Ray-J, Greg missed out on the invention of the internet. Hell, he doesn't even know how to use a computer - truth...
-Jello
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dogtown
climber
Cheyenne,Wyoming
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:12am PT
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Tri- Cams? See Paisano Thread .
Dogtown.
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:14am PT
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Bravo for Greg!
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2009 - 11:09am PT
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Bump for a real climber. Jello has filled in some details.
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fluffy
Trad climber
boulder
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Aug 25, 2009 - 11:12am PT
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'city marbles champion'
ahahaha
thanks jello
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 25, 2009 - 01:51pm PT
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Pleasure spending some time with RKM and Bruce at RKM's place and hearing them tell of climbing with Greg and his exploits back in the day (60's at the City of Rocks). The "rope thief spire" story is pretty funny. Etc etc.
Great stuff, Jeff!
Yeah, the guy has crazy hand strength...I really think he could break a normal climber's hand in a handshake if he bore down...
Told me a few years ago that he'd stopped soloing at the City at such a high level...maybe RKM might take a lesson there? Ha ha...
I remember in Bozeman, on ice routes, that for awhile in the early eighties, folks where climbing just about anything they wanted with a pair of short Lowe Hummingbird hammers with tube picks. Worked great 'till the tube snapped (which they eventually would, since they were exceptionally hard to clear from some of us poor technicians!).
Great to see Greg and Jeff at the first Ogden climbfest, and, to peruse Greg's goody bag of climbing stuff he'd brought. Really neat. Wish I'd had a record of that....
-Brian in SLC
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Double D
climber
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:40pm PT
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He was definitely in a league of his own especially for the time. I’ve always admired his achievements both on and off the rock.
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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Aug 26, 2009 - 10:24am PT
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Nuff said.
Well not really, as climber and engineer I have a lot of admiration for Greg's talents on and off the rock.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 26, 2009 - 10:54am PT
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Three cheers for Greg!!!
Brilliance on all fronts as a climber...Just a taste as a gear designer from 1972! Figure it out and refine it...
Greg on Mahlen's Peak Waterfall. Lance Wilcox photo.
Was this the first article that Greg had published???
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Ray-J
Social climber
east L.A. vato...
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Aug 26, 2009 - 11:00am PT
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Jello, - was just kidding...
Actually spent some time w/ Greg
And you talking pack trends @ Gary's
Shop in the 90's...
Cool thread.
More old gear invention pics now please :)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 26, 2009 - 01:55pm PT
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I love the upside down front points for the really overhanging stuff! I would love to hear some stories about field testing those pups and the rest of this futuristic assortment.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Aug 26, 2009 - 03:04pm PT
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That Grippling Hook looks a hell of a lot like the Ice Fifis and "figure of one" that the eastern block climbers use today?
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 26, 2009 - 04:42pm PT
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...gold mining
Yeah, that stuff is really interesting...
(looks over his shoulder...)...
Cheers,
-Brian in SLC
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from a crimp and crying for my mama.
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Aug 26, 2009 - 04:55pm PT
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Yes, Greg Lowe is remarkable! You should hear the story about Greg's "special shoes." He decided to scrap them because they made climbing "too easy!"
In fact the whole Lowe family is incredible; this includes the girls who unlike their famous brothers chose less public forms of accomplishments. I have a feeling that the Lowe family will be major players in whatever they choose to do for many years to come.
Smiles,
AF
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LccMonkey
Trad climber
utah
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Aug 26, 2009 - 05:07pm PT
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...gold mining
Yeah, that stuff is really interesting...
(looks over his shoulder...)...
Cheers,
-Brian in SLC
Yup veary interesting but that's enough about that.
This thread needs more pics of greg's old prototypes.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 26, 2009 - 06:21pm PT
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...thought I just mighta heard someone pull the hammer back on a .45 colt commander...
hee hee...
-Brian in SLC
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Aug 26, 2009 - 06:53pm PT
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Jello,
I take it Greg won't show up on this thread since he doesn't do computers?
Anyway, just a few questions and comments:
1) So there is a book in the works about your brother's and your climbing related achievements (which are many)?
2) Hope you ellaborate on your brothers many inventions. It is incredible to think about what he was able to do also before most anyone else climbing wise, 5.12c in '68 or before? And all the climbing related gizmos he invented or improved upon. A spring-loaded camming device way before Friends came along etc.
3) So the Lowe backpacks and the great designs can be attributed to your brother Greg? Darn good packs. They last a lifetime. I have always purchased Lowe packs for that reason, not to mention the camera bag line. Awesome products all.
The Lowe family, definately "the Camelot" of the US climbing world.
4) So what is this about Gold Mining? Family and friends investing embarrassment, or the real McCoy? Sounds interesting. Sounds secret.
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yo
climber
a tied-off Tomahawk™
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Aug 26, 2009 - 07:08pm PT
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One of the all-time superstuds. No joke. And this dude must fly farther under the radar than anybody -- you can be talking to the guy and he won't even tell you he's Rob's brother!
More stories, por favor.
Stir the pot edit:
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yo
climber
a tied-off Tomahawk™
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Aug 26, 2009 - 11:26pm PT
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One of Greg's secret admirers who can't figure out the Interwebs sent me these shots of some old school beauties. Good for 25 swings each before they snapped, if not 30!
(wrist loop sold separately)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 29, 2009 - 12:04am PT
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Tubular Bump!
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Oct 29, 2009 - 03:26am PT
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I will chime in for my friend Greg, with whom I spent a couple
of great days recently. We speak of one of the finest
spirits in the world of rock climbing and in the whole wide
world, for that matter.
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