The View From Deadhorse Point - Article from 1970

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Roger Breedlove

climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Feb 27, 2009 - 02:00pm PT

Nice picture, Joe. Is that around mid-60s?

crunch

Social climber

Feb 27, 2009 - 02:26pm PT

Hey Guido, I tried to restore some of the color in the faded but excellent photo; hope that’s okay?

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Feb 27, 2009 - 05:16pm PT

Roger/Crunch

Not sure date, probably Jackson Hole in 64-5????????????

Thanks Crunch-have yet to deal with the learning curve of color restoration, etc.

cheers

joe

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Feb 27, 2009 - 05:27pm PT

Pratt- East Face of Washington Column 1959

J. Werlin

climber

Cedaredge

Feb 27, 2009 - 08:38pm PT

One of the finest pieces of climbing lit out there.
The sum is magically greater than its parts.
Thanks for posting and the Fish bump.

Sweat, blood, revision, editing--the pieces that read the cleanest,
I suspect have taken the most work.

I read a story about Borges emerging in an elated state from his study after
a long day at the writing desk: "I wrote a good sentence today!"

Hear tell that Graham Greene could just rip the pros off, meet his daily
word count and be at the club before noon.

Largo

Sport climber

Venice, Ca

Feb 27, 2009 - 08:48pm PT

There was a recent article in Rock and Ice (can't remember the author's name), about climbing in and around Grand Junction, that had the same kind of tone and droll humor Chuck had in the Deadhorse and Watkins stories. The reluctant hardman stuff. Anti-hero, Byronic characters. Wonderful shite withal.

One of the things that made Chuck's stories so lasting is that the writing is not self-conscious or self-absorbed; and you never sensed CP was writing a veiled infomercial on himself. Just so many casual musings but, as Pat pointed out, he slaved over these pieces to attain such economy, simplicity and vivid anecdotal yield.

Too bad there's not more.

JL

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Feb 28, 2009 - 12:50am PT

I think that first picture of Pratt I posted was probably tqken by Hennek. It was a beautiful 8x10 that hung on a 4x14 rough fir beam in our house in Santa Cruz for years. We have been trying to decipher when and where. He considers it one of his fav photos of all time.

Here is a shot of Hennek, the beautiful Mavis Jukes, and Pratt sharing a jar of well seasoned olives. We think this was taken on Black Tail Butte, near Jackson Hole in 1965 ish???? Normally it would have been a jar of Kimchee, the great American classic, but it was probably in short supply that summer.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 28, 2009 - 01:44am PT

hard to pull out the details in that picture... but a beautiful one

Tom

Big Wall climber

San Luis Obispo CA

Feb 28, 2009 - 03:08am PT

Charles "Marshall" Pratt was God's second son.

Warren Harding told me Pratt was the best he'd ever seen . . . Warren said he coulda been a nuclear engineer, or anything.

And, I only talked with Warren for a few minutes, before running away, scared.

10b4me

Ice climber

Middle-of-Nowhere, Arizona

Jul 21, 2013 - 06:10pm PT

Show of hands, how many here have partaken of the view from Deadhorse point?

I did in October, 1999.

10b4me

Ice climber

Middle-of-Nowhere, Arizona

Jul 21, 2013 - 07:48pm PT

Imo, The View from Dead Horse Point is one of the top five pieces of climbing literature.

crunch

Social climber

Jul 21, 2013 - 08:48pm PT

I think it is THE best.

You read his essays (about three or four of them, in total?) and the Deadhore Point one just exceeds any expectations one could have based on earlier work.

There is a Gold Wall essay and the Watkins piece: straightforward climbing tales, told with a view to relate how their ascent went. The Gold Wall piece does has one or two flashes of clever wit and insight, the documenting function is paramount.

The Watkins piece is more substantial. Here, he breathes some life into his partners. The characters and their motivations, their various personalities, are becoming as important as the climb.

But there's no warning of the grand achievement of the Deadhorse Point essay. It's a climbing story, for sure, but the climbing as such has been left behind; Pratt has no more need of it; he's taken the climbing as far as it will take him. In the story, he uses those brilliantly vivid climbing-related vignettes as a springboard to lure the reader in and then gently guide the reader somewhere else entirely.

I'm not surprised he never wrote any more. What more could he possibly add?

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Jul 21, 2013 - 10:35pm PT

Nice take Crunch!

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Feb 22, 2019 - 11:01am PT

"Some climbers loathe snow and ice. Chuck Pratt is one such person..."

This is a "Yours truly is, as well" bump.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 22, 2019 - 11:38am PT

i-b-goB

Social climber

Nutty

Feb 22, 2019 - 01:27pm PT

Bump, Thanks Chuck!

This needs more pics;

Bonus:

http://faculty.ucr.edu/~currie/donald-wilson.htm

For some reason you have to copy and paste to see this?