Anybody remember this guy?

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C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 15, 2010 - 08:22pm PT

Hints:

1. Camp IV & El Portal in the early seventies, East Side after that.
2. Made the best pipes from deer antler....
3. Managed the ski shop in Pico Rivera in the sixties.

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 09:57pm PT

I am busy scanning the seventies and I have quite a few of Millis. Including Jtree in '74. I'll put them up.

Always had a soft spot for him, in 1972 he almost died on the Column when his swami (homebuilt) came apart rapping off the roof above Dinner Ledge. His upper body strength allowed him to reach and grab the rope, and then i lowered him to the ledge. I took pictures of him afterwards and I think he tossed them. I have one he took of me before we rapped off, with a 1000 yard stare....

Mimi

climber

Feb 15, 2010 - 10:09pm PT

Very sorry for the loss of your friend. What happened to him?

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 10:14pm PT

Thanks EKat! He was a very special human being, and I always thought the Bhuddist Monk was him.

Mimi

climber

Feb 15, 2010 - 10:15pm PT

No, eKat, never had the pleasure.

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 10:25pm PT

Millis in his environ....

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 10:41pm PT

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 10:43pm PT

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 10:44pm PT

I like the Copenhagen can....

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Feb 18, 2010 - 01:09pm PT

Here's more on Millis. I have some of his elk horn work, but I'll have to take some photos.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Feb 18, 2010 - 04:39pm PT

A bump for Millis

scuffy b

climber

Where only the cracks are dry

Feb 18, 2010 - 04:54pm PT

One of Millis' hopes was to assemble an anthology of non-climbing tales,
working title Horizontal World of Yosemite.
A lot of what has happened on SuperTopo the past couple years would have
absolutely delighted him. Backstories, nothing but backstories, that's
what he was after.

I saw him after nearly a 20-year gap. I said, "The last time I saw you,
you were climbing the last pitch of Great White Book, naked, dragging
your clothes behind you."

Millis: "Hmm, I wonder which time that was..."

hoipolloi

climber

A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi

Feb 18, 2010 - 05:37pm PT

did he fake his death and become an actor?

Paul Bauer

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Feb 18, 2010 - 06:07pm PT

That first picture is fabulous, and the way I'd like to remember him. It's hard to believe, but the last time I remember actually talking to Millis was on Washington's Birthday weekend in 1973 on the Coulterville Road near the start of The Void. I had just endured a very decisive failure on The Cleft, and Dennis was just warming up for a good day at the crags.

Thanks much for the post.

John

ron gomez

Trad climber

fallbrook,ca

Feb 18, 2010 - 08:10pm PT

GREAT post, thanks, I love the "old" shots from back when. Lauria if you can take some photos of his work and post that would be cool!
Peace

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Feb 20, 2010 - 03:14am PT

Millis's handiwork.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Feb 20, 2010 - 03:19am PT

Mimi,

Dennis was a victim of cancer.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Feb 20, 2010 - 04:52am PT

hey there c4/1971, and don and all, say, thank you so very kindly for sharing of your friend...

he did lovely work, too, as to the deer horns...
thank you again...
god bless...

:)

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Oct 10, 2011 - 04:23pm PT

Millis and a cast of climber gypsies were living at Tamarack during the big winter of 82-83...The owner had converted a cabin into a large raptor coop which contained among other species , an injured golden eagle..With all the characters , including tarbuster , Tamarack was a great place to work....Millis was worth having around for the entertainment value but a young USC grad , who was doing the Tamarack accounting , thought Dennis should be doing some chores to earn his keep...The SC girl told Millis to take the trash out to which Dennis replied...I've got some aids-tainted chocolate for you ....The young prepster didn't know what to say and ended up taking the trash herself...

nature

climber

back in Tuscon Aridzona....

Oct 10, 2011 - 04:28pm PT

pretty special the way this world can work sometimes, eh DMT?

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Oct 10, 2011 - 06:20pm PT

Great images of Millis, C$/1971, thanks tons.

Here is a photo of Tom Carter's. He and Millis are standing at the top of Tenaya Canyon (Cloud's Rest-ish). He has posted it before here on the Forum. I love it. It is usually presented with the accompanying tale that Millis would often say he could eat french fries without bothering to open his mouth.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Oct 10, 2011 - 07:33pm PT

And Tarbuster has posted this one in the past:

scuffy b

climber

dissected alluvial deposits, late Pleistocene

Oct 12, 2011 - 02:53pm PT

So, I worked for a short time in a ski shop (he got his pro deals and flew
the coop) with a guy who was telling stories about Jackson Hole, before I'd
ever gone there, and kept mentioning Dennis Miller, whom I had not seen for
10 years and whom I considered an East Side guy.
So I asked if this could possibly be the Dennis Miller of Yosemite and the
East Side.
The reply: "There is only one Dennis Miller."

lostinshanghai

Social climber

someplace

Oct 12, 2011 - 04:45pm PT

Incredible loveable man and at the same time a pain in the neck which were very few.

Cannot remember the year early/mid 70’s or later? But the gang would go down to Fresno to see a movie and place to eat. There was a smorgasbord restaurant on this side or just before entering Fresno. “All you can eat”.

Dennis would eat ,eat,eat like we all did but he would then go into the bathroom and throw up, come back and start over and eat again, back to the bathroom maybe two to three times.

After third or fourth time going to this place over a couple of months the owner finally caught on. Can’t recall ethnicity but not American. He yelled at Dennis “Get out” you” Get out”, “Get out of here” “Out of my place now”

Would love to remember what he said to the guy but it was a classic Millis statement. He and we stayed for another half hour would finish eating and then left.

Recall after his death and my girlfriends family and friends had three tents at Curry, I went behind a tree near the river and could not hold back the emotions. My girlfriend was trying to find me and did and said “What’s wrong” Said to her just remembering and saying goodbye to a friend.

Need to find when he borrowed my camera on one of the “East side Party” and had transferred them to a CD. He kept bugging me to send it but too late. Also need to transfer 35mm into format of my own. So hang loose.

Pipe was used for tobacco of course.

mastadon

Trad climber

crack addict

Oct 12, 2011 - 05:05pm PT

Dennis at a Camp 4 reunion

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Oct 12, 2011 - 05:31pm PT

I have been told that after Dennis passed on, friends found thousands of pounds of horn in his work area, waiting for transformation.

Chris Vandiver likes to tell the story of Dennis on a rescue. The rescue was completed (maybe the Prow?) and there was a bonfire party on top, everything was going well and Dennis needed a drink of water, grabbed a water bottle and true-to-form, full-speed-ahead gusto, guzzled a bunch of it before he found it was white gasoline. He spits it out without hesitation right into the fire, creating a huge torch. I gather no one was hurt.

Largo

Sport climber

The Big Wide Open Face

Oct 12, 2011 - 09:15pm PT

Millis was a Camp 4 social director during the early 70s. He'd go around and collect dollar bills from everyone and a week later we would have a keg party down by Sentinel Bridge - and many, a story hangs on that one.

Better yet, he used to direct me to girls, the ones he thought were "right" for me (breathing). Crazy thing is he was right most of the time, and I ended up, over the years, with the Indian girls because they were the only ones as stubborn and unconventional as I was. "Man, you guys deserve each other," he'd say. Several are still dear friends.

Millis is another of those unique characters I count myself lucky to have met. I really never knew his backstory. Millis was pretty muich just present tense, not so much a mere person, rather an event.

JL

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Oct 12, 2011 - 11:30pm PT

Peter...I heard that story about drinking the white gas and thought Dennis said it was on the Prow rescue of Sorenson and Graham..?

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Oct 12, 2011 - 11:44pm PT

Uno mas...An older friend , Tommy , was in high school band with Millis..Tommy played flute... Dennis would imitate Tommy by puckering his lips sending Tommy into hysterics and sabotaging any chance of Tommy being able to play along with his classmates...It was obvious that 40 years later Millis was still inside Tommy's head...

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Apr 14, 2012 - 05:44pm PT

Gosh, fellas, how gauche. I've missed Millis' obsequies? I knew he'd die, but he'll be around as long as an orange peel. I knew him well, and recall his drunken rage one evening in the parking lot behind the maids dorms in the spring of 1969. He was drinking Red Mtn. The bike rental shop was where he was employed by YPCC. I was lodging in a tent-cabin that was at the edge of Leidig Meadow. The same night I was introduced to Led Zeppelin by our neighbors from Fresno, some weekenders. Dillis was really amped and not making much sense. We had Panamanian and he was in pandemonium. I never got to know him until Easter week of 1970 when Jeff Mathis and I ran into him and he and Jeff went up the Lost Arrow. The three of us got together that fall and the climbing activity ratcheted up considerably. Millis and I staggered back from the Leaning Tower after accomplishing the dubious goal of doing a grade V with two quarts of water and rolaids. Well, rolaids were all we had left on day 3. We were so slow, but never more grateful for water than when we rapped the Tower Chimney licking leakage.

Another great epic was our ascent of the Chouinard/Pratt on MCR just before I began my job in the Mtn. Chop in Yosemite Village. We figured it was dangerous to haul our bag thru the U-shaped bowl, so we left it there and I went back later with Annie Rizzi and dumped it off, where Mr. Pratt, of all folks, was farting around and could've been killed by it, for all I know. He gathered our sh#t and put it back in the bag, which had come apart, leaking gear. Pratt later did the same for me and Doug Ross on a similar climb, the 3-D.
---
The good part of climbing with Millis, for me and Mathis, both, is that we lived to tell about the climbs.
---
Don Lauria has a copy of "Millis Gets His Rocks Off" which I wrote, and if you are capable, DL, you post it. I don't have a copy now, I'm sure. If it's the story about Elephant Rock, it's by god mostly true. I remember talking with you, DL, at the last Camp $ reunion I attended (don't we wish it was Camp Dollars?). I had a very good time. Millis was there and it was the last I saw of him before he became an orange peel.

Is it any wonder that I write and say things I do having been so exposed to MILLIS? I'm just glad I never stepped in, you know.

The best Millis sh#t joke happened to him on the trail from Tamarack to El Cap when we were employed by CBS to pack their gear up so they could cover Harding and Caldwell as they summited the Yawn Wall. DM stopped to take a BM. He shat there on the log, started to rise and fell back on his stool. We didn't get it on film. Damn! All that expensive camera gear, and no evidence.

There are more Millis stories later on.