The Warren Harding I Remember!

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Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Nov 17, 2009 - 08:48pm PT

This classic Sheridan Anderson cartoon definitely belongs on this thread!

Roger Breedlove

climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Nov 18, 2009 - 09:45am PT

I thought Red Mountain used screw tops?

Interestting that it is not signed.

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Nov 20, 2009 - 07:57am PT

Here's what fellow climber Chuck Pratt had to say about Warren during an interview with Jim Hartz, former co host with Barbara Walters of the NBC-TV's Today Show.

http://www.yosemiteclimbing.org/content/chuck-pratt-past-50-and-no-falls

Jim:

"Chuck warmly acknowledged that Warren Harding had been the most immediate influence in that particular group of people when he started climbing".

Chuck:

"We were considered outlaws in Yosemite in those days (the late 50s) ‑‑ in the company of the Hell's Angels and groups like that," Chuck said, "because we were different.

"He (Harding) was an extreme individual even in a collection of individuals.

"It was hard for any of the other climbers to even relate to what he was trying to do. It was such an extreme step, to climb the Nose of El Cap back then in 1957‑58 when I was just getting started.

"He had incredible drive. He was an extreme individual. I admired that at the time, and I still do.”

Park Rat

Social climber

CA, UT,CT,FL

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 20, 2009 - 11:33am PT

Jan,

Thanks for the up date. Harding was such a wonderful, colorful character,
a real “one off.”

I almost didn't write about him, I still worry, I will displease someone!
I can almost hear him saying to me “go get them Kid!”
I hope to fine the right words, to do justice to his larger than life spirit.

In 1972. I would have said how much I enjoyed talking with him,
I can now appreciate him much more fully than I did back in the day.
I hope to give a more complete picture of him, not the caricature so many see today.

If I can do that, I will have at last repaid him for all the kindness he showed
to this “big kid.” I owe him that, & will give it my best effort.

I see all of the early climbers as the “barnstormers” of their day, each unique & special, it’s a privileged to have know even one of them.

Have you read the posts of oldguy, Joe Fitschen, lost Arrow Trip report, 9/19/09.

It’s a great read, & it is a perfect lead up to a story I plan to write, about Warren & the Lost Arrow.

Take Care,

Park Rat

couchmaster

climber

pdx

Nov 20, 2009 - 12:47pm PT

Ditto on the thanks! Seriously, thank you so much for sharing that personal note!

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Nov 20, 2009 - 02:54pm PT

I'm definitely looking forward to heaing about Warren and the Lost Arrow.

Crag

Trad climber

Pennsyltuckey

Nov 20, 2009 - 03:44pm PT

a wonderful read.

Gobee

Trad climber

Los Angeles

Dec 19, 2009 - 07:03pm PT

Alpinist illustrator Sean McCabe died on the morning of November 7 from undifferentiated anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid. He was 46. Sean was a family man, teacher, artist, skier and climber; the bold brush strokes he painted on canvas and through his life will be profoundly missed.

Sean's illustrations—unmistakable expressionistic paintings of climbers, skiers and landscapes in which color and motion catch not just the moment but the life of the experience—appeared regularly in Alpinist and in Cross Country Skier, Climbing and the American Alpine Journal, among others. He was an artist who expressed his joys, many of them athletic endeavors in the wild, with lucid color.

Beyond his art, Sean's greatest talent may have been his ability to teach. The recipient of two Teacher of the Year awards, the Catalyst Award and the Milkin Family Foundation National Educator Award, Sean spent nearly 20 years sharing his joy of life with countless students in Utah and Washington.

Sean is survived by his wife Laura and daughters Novie (7) and Dashe (3).

The Alpinist family is deeply saddened by Sean's passing. With his family's permission, we have run a selection of the work Sean published with us over the years. More of Sean's art can be viewed and purchased at seanmccabestudio.com.
Batso At Rest By Sean McCabe from Alpinist 22

Dodo

Trad climber

Spain/UK

Dec 20, 2009 - 07:48am PT

Brilliant story Park Rat, I have copied it to a UK climbing site, hope you don't mind.
Al

Park Rat

Social climber

CA, UT,CT,FL

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2009 - 12:04pm PT

Dodo,
Feel free to use anything I write about Warren.

Park Rat

Social climber

CA, UT,CT,FL

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 30, 2009 - 10:39pm PT

I will be posting a long bio. of Warren in Jan of 2010 I realized a lot of what I want to say, does not fit in my stories, so I am writing a long description of what he was like in person.

Park Rat

Social climber

CA, UT,CT,FL

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2011 - 11:21pm PT

I thought it was time to rewrite my first post about Warren Harding.

I've added a new material and tried to make it a little more readable.

I hope you enjoy my story.

Park Rat

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Aug 16, 2011 - 11:28pm PT

Susie has added some photos of herself in about 1970, when she met Warren. Check them out.

Norton

Social climber

the Wastelands

Aug 17, 2011 - 12:24am PT

Thanks for the new little gems and the great pictures of you in 1970, Susie!

Sheets

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Aug 17, 2011 - 01:39am PT

Great story, missed this thread the first time around.

And I need a time machine to go back to 1970, a mere nine years before I was born!

S.Leeper

Sport climber

Pflugerville, Texas

Aug 17, 2011 - 01:40am PT

Really cool to hear another side of the highpriest of El CAP.

Thanks for sharing.

Captain...or Skully

climber

or some such

Aug 17, 2011 - 01:44am PT

I knew the Warren that told us he was old & washed out but we loved him all the same. Just stoked to have met him, really.
No way that he & Pat Sullivan should be in the same car without a specified driver. Terrifying. Truly.

Sierra Ledge Rat

Social climber

Retired to Appalachia

Oct 27, 2011 - 02:57pm PT

We dug this out from the deep recesses of the closet and dusted off the cobwebs.

We got this business card from Ms. Alice Flomp at Warren Harding's 69th birthday party at a secret meeting of the L.S.E.D.F.S. in 1993. Sadly, Ms. Flomp died in an automobile accident in 2008 at the age of 79.

My brother got a copy of The Vertical World of Yosemite signed by Warren Harding at the party. I got a tequila hangover with Batso.

More than a decade before this, I did a winter solo of Warren Harding's West Face of the Leaning Tower in the later winter of 1980. The day I topped out on the Leaning Tower, David Kays (soloing the Nose) froze to death in a winter storm 250 feet from the summit of El Capitan. I had dropped my bivi gear 2 nights before and was lucky to get off the Tower when I did, or I would havae frozen to death, too. After two freezing nights in nothing but a cagoule in a hammock, I was anxious to get my ass to the top.

The next morning after my epic solo, in the snowy Yosemite Lodge parking lot, I ran into Warren Harding walking a dog. I'll never forget that face - how could you? He was wearing his BATSO T-shirt.

What a coincidence, huh?