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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jan 20, 2010 - 03:32pm PT
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Nice job Ed!
Those pictures are terrifically innocent and the whole aura appropriately unpolished.
I can see the photographs coming right out of one of those old albums with the sticky backing board and clear sheet.
Not quite old enough for corner tabs...
I love the contrast of Hudon's picture: the period "pro" outfit, the clean & sparse line of slung nuts dangling neat from gear sling.
And you either remember the license plate number on your split window micro bus or you keep excellent records.
I'm guessing it's the former.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 20, 2010 - 10:13pm PT
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ZOT580 was the first car I owned... and it was a partnership ownership with Debbie...
In our senior year a Berkeley we responded to an ad in some local paper were two such vehicles were available for sale as a package. One was sorta working, the other was good for parts. They were both vans with split windshield, and the wrap around window in the rear corners.
This van was the melding of the two. We had the transmission rebuilt in Berkeley. And then drove it to Los Angeles on our way to New York City, in which we fit our worldly possessions including one cat, Wolf Cat, who hid the entire trip.
At some point I think I probably handled every piece on that vehicle...
...lots of good road trips, and lots of memories.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 20, 2010 - 11:17pm PT
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HOooo Mahn... I just moved...
No net conneck yet (working off the local library right now and they block photobucket requests.0
I'll post up some old pic's when I can get them scanned.
~~~~~~~~~~
'79 If my memory serves me, was the summer that that amazing young Californian named Peter Mayfield blew through town with Leonard Coyne and set the place on fire, freeing the direct finish to 'Women in Love' among other things.
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I wanted to mention...
Re: Mark Hudon and Steve Larson going to High school together...
Ok so you had all these unreal talented climbers in North Cornflake area at the time.
There was to mention a few.
Mark Ritchie
Mike Hartrich
Rick Wilcox
Bragg (now and again)
Jimmy Dunn
Ed (photo by) Webster
A lot of names just don't come to mind with out the aid of text references but there were a few 'Lesser sung heroes like Kurt Winkler and Jim Tierney etc etc.
But let's talk unsung hero from the Manchester N.H area:
Paul Boissenault (last name sp?) or more affectionately known as 'Base'.
Base is one of my all time heroes. Not just from North Conway climbing but from the Valley as well. I really got to know Base when I did my first season in the Valley. He and Chris Larson had done a road trip through the Wind River, mount Hooker comes to mind? Then they finished their season together by doing somewhere around the 12th or 13th ascent of the P.O Wall.
This is getting far afield from North Conway TR's I realize. However I have many times thought of starting a 'Base' appreciation thread but refrained figuring there would not be much response.
The first time I met Base I was hanging out at Chris Noonan's chalet at the base of the crag. It was about 9pm and there was a blizzard on. There must have been almost a dozen people at the chalet, most were well known N. Conway climbers. This car pulls up outside and everybody is pondering who would be out and about in this weather when someone blurts out "Far out, it's Base" (In his Plymouth, Fury-3 dubbed the "Battle star"). Much to my surprise the place erupts into praise and good words about Base as he is getting his stuff out of the car.
By now I am expecting some super human, super arian, Adonis to step into the chalet. Quite the opposite, this goofy looking/acting guy with a little hunch to his shoulders and a crooked nose enters to the Joy of his friends that were by no means expecting him to come up on a Friday night in that weather.
As I say I didn't really get to know Base until fall '78 in Camp-4. After Chris Larson left for the East Coast Base took me in and dragged me around and even taught me a thing or two. It was with Base that I did my first simul climbing. I had never heard of the term or even thought about it other than on an ice field or glacier.
We roped up at the base of the East Butt of Middle Cathedral Rock, for that I was really glad. Base had this huge rack of tube chocks and said if the East Butt had traffic we'd just do (name escapes me) this offwidth right near by. There was no traffic but we went and looked at the offwidth any way. It was this hideous, .10d, mossy flare from Hell. Thank God there was no Traffic on the East Butt.
Base took the first lead and as he passed the little tree a shortly up the first pitch he looked back down at me and said "When the rope runs out just start climbing, if the rope goes up then yer on." I climbed, and climbed thinking he had one huge arse rope length. Finally I pull over an edge and there is Base sitting at the bottom of the .10c bolt ladder pitch. As I came up he snapped a shot with his 35mm and with a smile and a nod towards the bolt ladder said something like "looks like I did the grunt so you can get all the fun, batter up!"
I wound up driving all the way back too New Hampshire from the Valley with Base. We stopped in Josh, Prescott, Boulder and then home.
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I apologize for 'Jack'n this thread but come on...
Slabbo, Hudon, Al Rubin and so many more that are reg's here at the taco...
Let's hear it for the inimitable grace and personality that Base brought to the crags of N.H during the late 70's and 80's
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murcy
climber
sanfrancisco
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Jan 21, 2010 - 12:18am PT
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Once more, Ed comes through with the Premiere content. Plus, who knew he used to have a face?! Wait, maybe you didn't . . . are any of those you?
Thanks, Ed.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2010 - 12:49am PT
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ok, I'm blessed by climbing partners who have better things to do than take pics of me,
but Mike must have taken this one...
I'm in Orange and Black, Richie is on the right. I'm 25 years old there... more than half a lifetime away
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Jan 21, 2010 - 08:57am PT
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I;m on a Base thread. The Battle star , everything.
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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Jan 21, 2010 - 09:56am PT
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Trundle..., Slabbo---I, too, was thinking of posting up on Base, and Gene Vallee, when the subject of the amazing southern New Hampshire climbers from the '70s came up on this thread. Don't forget, if it hasn't been posted earlier, that Jimmy Dunn was also originally from that area, though he began to climb after moving west.While folks like Hudon and Larson moved on, Base and Gene remained centered in Manchester for many years, Base still remaining, climbing and exploring in southern as well as northern New Hampshire and pretty much anywhere else there is rock in a highly capable but always low-key, non-competitive style. I first met them, and climbed on their routes, at Joe English Hill, starting many years of enjoyable companionship and climbing adventures. You shouldn't refer to Base in the past tense, as he is still very much with us, maybe not climbing quite as much as in the past but still working for the Post Office and still showing up at the usual haunts and still very much himself. Gene, I believe, is still living and teaching and, I hope, climbing in Salt Lake, as he has been for the past 15 years or so. There are so many "unsung" amazing climbers of that generation from this part of the country--Mike Hartrich and Steve Arsenault, to mention just two more. I have long realized that it is the people in the climbing community as much, if not more, than the activity itself, that have kept me so involved for so many years.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 21, 2010 - 06:17pm PT
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Ahhh John, Al...
Thankz for chiming in.
This is a total thread jack so we should leave it to Mr. Hartouni.
I'm going to start a Base appreciation thread.
Here's a shot of my first friction soled shoes, looking down sliding board route.
Red canvas R.R friction soles. I wanted to buy EB's but the R.R were less expensive. Silly economics I had to buy E.B's any way as the R.R frictions were no match for the E.B's
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jan 21, 2010 - 06:21pm PT
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Ed:
I love that pic from the top of the crags. Looks like Cranmore ski area across the valley.
Neither here nor there but my dad contends that the Cranmore 'Ski mobile' was the first commercial ski lift built in the US.
Cranmore Ski Mobile article
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 21, 2010 - 06:27pm PT
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I don't mind if you hijack this thread... but it would be great for you to start an independent thread with a title that expands beyond a TR...
The history is wonderful a la the Stonemaster thread...
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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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Jan 23, 2010 - 10:35am PT
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Ok,in this recent photograph,the "Whitehorse" is plain to see.
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Jan 23, 2010 - 10:46am PT
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I think I even see Paul Ross !!!!!!!
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tenesmus
Trad climber
slc
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Jan 23, 2010 - 12:49pm PT
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Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
Ed, you are truly committed to that beard and with justification as its, well, luxurious.
I'm curious, have you been without in a while? What's under that thing?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 23, 2010 - 01:11pm PT
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since I could grow a beard (junior in high school) I have been without it only one 3 month period during a stint with the California Division of Forestry (CDF) where I served as a Firefighter the summer after high school (1972) before going off to college... I was assigned to the headquarters station in downtown Orange, CA. The CDF was the fire protection for the town, and we had to be ready to fight structure fires as well as brush fires. That meant I needed to be able to wear a respirator, which didn't seal against a beard.
I did have a mustache during that time...
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