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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 23, 2010 - 09:17pm PT
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This article appeared in Life Magazine's special "Endless Weekend" issue, Sept. 3, 1971.
There is some overlap on the images since Life magazine does not conveniently fit in my scanner and I am a lazy SOB.
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gonzo chemist
climber
a crucible
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Feb 23, 2010 - 10:10pm PT
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What an awesome article IHP! Thanks for post this up! I started climbing in the Gunks and John Stannard is one of my climbing heroes...
I have serious respect for the folks there that put up routes with strict ground-up style.
Mr. Stannard definitely comes off as thoughtful and well spoken in the article.
IHP, I don't know how you keep pulling these articles out of the woodwork, but please keep doing it.
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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Feb 23, 2010 - 10:18pm PT
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Stannard insisted that no good pictures be used in the Life Magazine article...true story. Heh. Still, I kind of like the pic of Suzie A.
Here's another pic of the same problem, with Mike Freeman giving me an attentive spot.
Curt
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Mimi
climber
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Feb 23, 2010 - 10:26pm PT
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haha! Pate. Don't quite see John answering that one.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Feb 23, 2010 - 11:41pm PT
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I just might have that article. . .
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MH2
climber
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Feb 23, 2010 - 11:43pm PT
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It turns out that my memory was wrong. I thought that jstan had been asked, "What do you feel like after a climb?" With the expectation that, like Beth, he might own to a degree of satisfaction, if not a sense of elation. And that he had answered, "I just feel like going and doing another climb."
Well, 38 years is a long time.
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jstan
climber
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Feb 23, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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Right now I could use some help from god.
No, I got a chance to talk with Marshall Frady. He told some wild stories about past writing assignments. If you think being a writer is boring, think again. A writer is under a lot of pressure on almost no notice to take something not at all interesting and turn it into something people will actually take the time to read. He being a person determined to do something really difficult, it was a given that he would figure out what climbing was. I was saddened to see he had died a few years ago.
Oh, and being insulted is a lot like being angry. Both are something that happen only when you allow them to happen. They are not involuntary or imposed states. Both also serve only to reduce one's effectiveness. If you have something you want to accomplish, neither should be engaged in.
I think it is probably constructive for old stuff like this sometimes to be dug up and hashed over. Steve Grossman's visitations to old times have been excellent examples. This particular episode did not really amount to much then and it should not amount to much now.
I don't know that that is what I said. But I do remember saying it. Climbing isn't about elation or beating someone or something. Climbing is nowhere near that inconsequential.
Climbing ranks right up there with taking a deep breath of cool fresh air.
You are going to live a little while longer.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Feb 24, 2010 - 12:04am PT
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Haha!!!! John is a legend. Give the dude his props. I always disagree with the old man, but he is wise and a legend amongst us.
F*#ker still goes at it too!
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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Feb 24, 2010 - 09:04am PT
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Myself, Gene Malone and Mike Burke had the pleasure of sharing dinner with John at Facelift '09 this past fall. What a blast. Awesome sense of humour. John, if you're out there lurking, it was great to spend some time with you in the valley this past fall.
Cheers,
Doug Pratt-Johnson
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Fish Finder
Social climber
THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART
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Feb 24, 2010 - 10:24am PT
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Hey Doug , John doesnt Lurk . He goes as jstan and has a post a few up from yours.
Nice article from the wayback machine. Good job plastic and great job John .
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Stolen from rockclimbing.com
"Certainly Doesn't Look Like Much (Rock and Ice Magazine 9/94)
John Stannard recounts the following story gleefully. He says, "I was walking down the roadway in Eldorado, sometime in the 'seventies. There were some climbers about one hundred feet away. I overheard one say to the other. 'See that guy? That's John Stannard.' There was a distinct pause. Then the other says. 'Certainly doesn't look like much.'" Stannard laughs heartily at the memory.
In fact, when you meet John Stannard-short-sleeved shirt en vogue with accountants and actuaries (torn at one or both shoulders); double knit pants (revealing six inches of white athletic socks); shoes reflecting his budget of $15 ("I never spend more.") -- you might be excused for mistaking one of the great climbers of all time, as, say, a physicist who researches gallium arsenide. Actually, Stannard is both. He wears the same outfit to the lab as the cliffs.
When Stannard free climbed the eight-foot wide Shawangunks roof on Foops in 1967, it changed climbers' perceptions about what was possible. It was five years before anyone else could repeat it. For many years, Foops was among the hardest climbs in this country, and a "destination climb" for foreign visitors. Through the mid seventies, Stannard continued creating some of the hardest climbs in the world, while introducing a revolutionary idea -- repeated falling. Jim Erickson, comments, "Stannard saw that if you could fall three or four times, you could fall twenty-five times." More than anyone, Stannard shaped the course of contemporary climbing.
But Stannard's greatest legacy to climbing is his humanism, expressed in his respect for the rock, the land, other climbers, and the climbing environment. It's hard to imagine a parallel in today's climbing. Along with Yvon Chouinard and Royal Robbins, Stannard was a major force in climbing's most fundamental change: the movement away from ecologically harmful pitons to natural protection. He was also responsible for many other conservation efforts in Yosemite, Seneca, the Mohonk Preserve and the Shawangunks.
Then there was the garbage: Here was one of the top climbers in the world, spending Sunday mornings walking the base of the cliff, plastic bag in hand, picking up trash. Russ Clune, a leading Gunks climber of the 'eighties, recalls, "It wasn't unusual for Stannard to collect climbers, give them plastic bags, and say, 'Let's pick up trash for an hour.'"
Uninterested in publicity or fame, by the early seventies, Stannard stopped reporting many of his first ascents, feeling "I had gotten more than my share." The last interview Stannard gave was in 1970.
.............
Nowadays, Stannard only climbs several times a year. He still doesn't place much pro, but it's bombproof and distinctive: sliding nuts, slings secured behind nubbins with friends, jammed knots in cracks. He still uses body belays and swamis, or ties directly into the rope. And he's still among the safest climbers leading or belaying.
Eventually, Stannard will retire to Joshua Tree, to a house overlooking the desert mountains, and maybe resume his college hobby of playing the bagpipes. He says, "When I want to feel warm about the past, I don't think about Foops or any routes, but what climbers did in the conservation area in the early seventies."
He recalls his most moving experience, on a beautiful spring day over twenty years ago, when he and two friends tried to move a thousand-pound boulder to build a trail. Stannard laughs, "I knew there wasn't a prayer in hell we could."
One of the toughest men you'll ever meet chokes up with emotion at the memory of what happened. "I started hearing climbers throwing their racks down. They were running over to help us. Pretty soon there wasn't any room around that rock. You couldn't get your fingers under it. And we all rolled that rock off the road."
He pauses, collecting himself. "That story has deep implications. It shows that when people cooperate, there's no limit."
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Found this more complete version on rc.com:
http://www.susanebschwartz.com/acclaim/index.html (doesn't work anymore)
which said...
John Stannard: Certainly Doesn't Look Like Much (Rock and Ice Magazine 9/94)
John Stannard recounts the following story gleefully. He says, "I was walking down the roadway in Eldorado, sometime in the 'seventies. There were some climbers about one hundred feet away. I overheard one say to the other. 'See that guy? That's John Stannard.' There was a distinct pause. Then the other says. 'Certainly doesn't look like much.'" Stannard laughs heartily at the memory.
In fact, when you meet John Stannard-short-sleeved shirt en vogue with accountants and actuaries (torn at one or both shoulders); double knit pants (revealing six inches of white athletic socks); shoes reflecting his budget of $15 ("I never spend more.") -- you might be excused for mistaking one of the great climbers of all time, as, say, a physicist who researches gallium arsenide. Actually, Stannard is both. He wears the same outfit to the lab as the cliffs.
When Stannard free climbed the eight-foot wide Shawangunks roof on Foops in 1967, it changed climbers' perceptions about what was possible. It was five years before anyone else could repeat it. For many years, Foops was among the hardest climbs in this country, and a "destination climb" for foreign visitors. Through the mid seventies, Stannard continued creating some of the hardest climbs in the world, while introducing a revolutionary idea -- repeated falling. Jim Erickson, comments, "Stannard saw that if you could fall three or four times, you could fall twenty-five times." More than anyone, Stannard shaped the course of contemporary climbing.
But Stannard's greatest legacy to climbing is his humanism, expressed in his respect for the rock, the land, other climbers, and the climbing environment. It's hard to imagine a parallel in today's climbing. Along with Yvon Chouinard and Royal Robbins, Stannard was a major force in climbing's most fundamental change: the movement away from ecologically harmful pitons to natural protection. He was also responsible for many other conservation efforts in Yosemite, Seneca, the Mohonk Preserve and the Shawangunks.
Then there was the garbage: Here was one of the top climbers in the world, spending Sunday mornings walking the base of the cliff, plastic bag in hand, picking up trash. Russ Clune, a leading Gunks climber of the 'eighties, recalls, "It wasn't unusual for Stannard to collect climbers, give them plastic bags, and say, 'Let's pick up trash for an hour.'"
Uninterested in publicity or fame, by the early seventies, Stannard stopped reporting many of his first ascents, feeling "I had gotten more than my share." The last interview Stannard gave was in 1970.
From the beginning, Stannard was bred tough and smart, traits that define his climbing. He grew up on a farm in rural upstate New York, where his mother taught high school math and his father was a physics professor at Syracuse University. Stannard recalls fondly a childhood where he birthed calves, slaughtered goats, milked cows, cleaned ditches, operated tractors, dynamited for local farmers, plowed and dragged fields, and nearly died several times in farm accidents. He can still identify the make of tractor by sound, or its function at a glance. The Stannard family house was unheated, and in winter, snow drifted through window cracks onto the beds as the family slept.
"The farm generated a lot of good experience in dealing with real things that happen outdoors and in climbing," he says. It also generated fierce self-reliance. Stannard can be shy, even reclusive. Several younger Gunks personalities who climbed with him in the 'eighties recalled he didn't speak all day. One mused, "I wondered if he was mad at me. Then I figured out he just didn't talk."
Yet in other situations, the 55-year-old Stannard is witty and outgoing, with a rare ability to laugh at himself and a scathing sense of the absurd. He laughs recalling his aborted attempt on the Nose. "For food, I brought six roasted chickens. One per day." he explains, ever logically. "We had to come down because we were a couple of chickens short."
All three Stannard brothers studied physics, including John, who received his B.S. in 1958 and PhD. in 1967 from Syracuse University. Afterwards he joined the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., to research solar energy for satellites. He was inspired to rock climb after snow shoeing and hiking in the Adirondacks with his younger brother. Climbing was an instant fit. Stannard loved the outdoors, the fringe community of social misfits, and the outlet for self-exploration.
After only two years of climbing, he did a new route: Foops, first aid climbed in 1955 by Jim McCarthy. Even in a mecca of roofs, Foops seemed a preposterous free climbing undertaking.
In part, Stannard pushed technical standards because he had discovered a new strategy: falling. On Foops, it took five separate trips, reaching the lip nine times, before he successfully pulled through. He'd go up, place several pieces at the crux, back off, maybe fall, maybe downclimb, then try again, in a process Gunks climbers called, "siege tactics." Without modern gear, this was a serious business. Henry Barber says, "Think about swinging off on a swami belt. You're hanging in space off tape."
However, Stannard's falling might have been overplayed. For starters, his falls were short by today's standards, rarely exceeding eight feet, usually shorter. And he made sure they were safe, often placing three pieces at a crux.
Stannard was helped by his protection, which several climbers called "the best ever." In the Gunks, the higher the grade, the smaller the pro. Stannard's protection on 5.11 and 5.12 often consisted of small nuts, none individually good, but as a unit could hold a fall.
From the start, Stannard followed self-defined rules. No previewing, resting on the rope, or toproping before leading. You started from the ground; if you fell, you started over, pulling the rope down. Rich Goldstone says, "Stannard failed on Foops many times because he never noticed there's a hold to the right of the lip. If he had, he would have done it the first time he got out there. But to go up to look was considered cheating."
Belying his mild mannered, bespectacled appearance, Stannard developed a reputation for extreme boldness. Yet Stannard says he rarely stuck his neck out, a claim supported by virtually everyone who knows him well. Fellow physicist Curt Shannon, who has climbed with Stannard for ten years, theorizes, "John is the most thoroughly analytical person I've ever met. He figures out all the possibilities and risks before every move, so in a way, if he decides to do it, there's no longer any risk. And he's not embarrassed to back off." Rich Goldstone concurs, "'Crazy' never applied to Stannard. I never saw him take an uncalculated fall."
It should be noted that Stannard, in nearly 30 years of climbing, never had even a minor climbing injury.
Why was Stannard so good? John Bragg comments, "He wasn't a natural climber. He didn't look particularly strong or muscular. But he had incredibly strong hands, endurance and control." Stannard cites his short fingers -- less leverage -- and his "+six ape index" -- unusually long arms -- as his greatest climbing physical assets.
In an era when climbers rarely trained systematically, Stannard stood out with his disciplined weekday routine of running, bouldering and fingertip pull-ups. Stories about how he built training machines duplicating climbing problems were apocryphal, possibly inspired by his lab regimen: He practiced hand jams and foot work on a wooden door jam at work, hung off the end of his desk, and drummed his fingers against the lab's cinderblock walls to develop the calluses he considered essential. He says, "I needed a blood test, and the nurse couldn't get the needle through my calluses. She pushed, and pushed, and pushed! Couldn't get it in! She finally gave up and tried somewhere else."
Stannard's dogged persistence has overshadowed other elements of his talent. An early expert in dynamic moves, Stannard displayed remarkable footwork and edging ability. John Bragg recalls he led Never Never Land 5.10, a delicate, balance climb on polished rock, in pouring rain. Stannard still moves with cool and control twenty feet out from protection on 5.11, placing no pro -- essentially soloing -- on 5.6.
After Foops, Stannard continued banging out new routes at the top of climbing standards. In 1969, came the turning point: Persistent. The name is self-explanatory. Stannard decided it wasn't worth working harder on a climb. He says, "At the last move on Persistent, I stopped and looked down, to savor the moment. I knew I wasn't going to do this any more. If I hadn't gotten into the conservation activity, I probably would have quit climbing completely in sixty-nine."
By 1970, as more climbers entered the sport, Stannard worried the greater numbers would exacerbate land and rock erosion, and undermine the quality of the climbing experience. Aid climbing particularly concerned him, because of its greater wear on rock.
In his campaign to free climb the remaining aid routes, Stannard enlisted the help of the next generation of Gunks stars: Wunsch, Bragg, and Barber. Kindred spirits with the requisite physical talents, under Stannard's influence, they began to chance more falls and push into higher grades.
Their efforts were wildly successful, producing many of the enduring hard Shawangunks classics. Of 33 aid routes existing in 1972, two years later, they had free climbed all but two. Russ Clune, who freed the last, Twilight Zone, earlier this year, sums up Stannard's success. "He persuaded people that free climbing was the hip thing to do."
In tribute, the other admiring Gunks climbers dubbed Stannard and company, "The Front Four." Rich Romano says, "Everything they did made news. We considered them the "A Team" and we were the "B Team." When other climbers repeated the Front Four routes several years later, they joked they made, "The First Human Ascents."
Concerned about land erosion, Stannard organized climbers to build trails to the cliff base. Instead of cutting formal steps, they placed rocks and tree branches. "So you'd end up climbing up rocks, without even knowing there's a trail." he explains.
Of his garbage collecting, he says, "I wasn't the first to do it, but I wasn't naive. I realized if people saw me doing it, so much the better. Eventually, anytime someone saw a cigarette butt, they'd pick it up. As far as I was concerned, it was a real fine way to spend Sunday mornings."
Stannard's impact was extraordinary. Almost single-handedly, he created a revolution in Eastern climbing. By 1972, years ahead of Yosemite, no one in the Gunks still climbed with pitons. No one removed his fixed pro, much of which is still in use. Everyone at the Shawangunks, hikers and climbers, unknowingly uses the trails he built.
"My really gung-ho climbing ended in 1974." he explains. That year, Stannard came down with Menard's Disease, a virus that attacks the inner ear, causing dizziness and weakness. The worst bouts lasted for eighteen months. Eventually, he recovered, but he never regained his previous conditioning. Then in 1978, his daughter Christy was born. He felt it was time to move on.
In 1983, reeling from a wrenching divorce, growing impatience with theoretical research, and needing a change, he moved to California, where he joined the Santa Barbara Research Company to research infra red imaging systems for combat missions.
Nowadays, Stannard only climbs several times a year. He still doesn't place much pro, but it's bombproof and distinctive: sliding nuts, slings secured behind nubbins with friends, jammed knots in cracks. He still uses body belays and swamis, or ties directly into the rope. And he's still among the safest climbers leading or belaying.
Eventually, Stannard will retire to Joshua Tree, to a house overlooking the desert mountains, and maybe resume his college hobby of playing the bagpipes. He says, "When I want to feel warm about the past, I don't think about Foops or any routes, but what climbers did in the conservation area in the early seventies."
He recalls his most moving experience, on a beautiful spring day over twenty years ago, when he and two friends tried to move a thousand-pound boulder to build a trail. Stannard laughs, "I knew there wasn't a prayer in hell we could."
One of the toughest men you'll ever meet chokes up with emotion at the memory of what happened. "I started hearing climbers throwing their racks down. They were running over to help us. Pretty soon there wasn't any room around that rock. You couldn't get your fingers under it. And we all rolled that rock off the road."
He pauses, collecting himself. "That story has deep implications. It shows that when people cooperate, there's no limit.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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(jstan blushes...)
John is very good company, hard working, and patient. Plus fun to climb with, which we've done once, in JTNP.
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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Wow, I still remember being interviewed by Susan for that article--almost 20 years ago. And, I'll still stand by my comments related to Stannard.
Curt
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jstan
climber
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Got to get this thread drifted.
Bercaw: Truly excellent climber. Always in control, always upbeat. Reminded me a lot of Goldstone.
Climbing always fun.
McGowan: Years ago John broke an ankle falling off a solo at Carderock. A day later I walk up to the base of the same route to find John sitting there with a cast that now is also broken. Complaining bitterly, "There is just no quality control in the medical profession now." You blokes can't possibly understand how much fun Carderock was BITD. But then maybe it is just as good.
Curt: On the way back from a JT route they had just done Curt says to the guys who were wondering how hard the route was, "Yes, on a scale of one to ten that route was pretty hard."
These are the kinds of stories we all like to hear.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Bump for some good people, Jstan, Bercaw, and McGowan!!!
I'm better for knowing them.
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pschwa
Social climber
The 9th Circle
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jstan wrote:
You blokes can't possibly understand how much fun Carderock was BITD. But then maybe it is just as good.
The holds are all glassy and greased up, holds on a lot of lines have broken off over the years, some people complain about the grades on everything being terribly sandbagged...
...but on a summer evening, after a working day when the temperature reached the mid 90s and the humidity was about the same number, being at Carderock, under the shade, by the still waters of the Potomac where it threads its way through the Vaso Island and the Maryland shore, with the chirping and buzzing of the insects and frogs filling the air, trying to squeeze out one last climb before the last of the twilight recedes...
...it's still pretty fun.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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nice to see mike freeman here--i interviewed him once by telephone when one of the magazines had given me an assigment(early 90s) to write an article about blacks in mountaineering--an article which they never published.
how's mike doing, anyone know? still climbing? does he lurk here? he had been featured in a calendar of black athletes, hanging in the air on a spectacular one-arm grab.
the other two african-american climbers were friends--virgil shields and leroy russ--both still climbing--a rare and talented bunch.
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jstan
climber
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Mike Freeman has a very solid head on his shoulders. He laughs when he says.
"I am the token black."
He is a very clear signpost pointing out where it is we all have to go.
Once we are there, no one will have a clue as to why it took so long.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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The following are some words about John I recently posted on gunks.com, where they are buried in an obscure argument about what I thought was a particularly unfortunate anchor. As the discussion widened, these words seemed relevant there, but they are also just as relevant here.
Some thoughts on climber's interest in preserving cliff resources.
(1) BITD, almost all climbers came to the activity through a progression of other outdoor pursuits. In other words, climbers were all outdoorsman (there doesn't seem to be an appropriate gender-neutral term for this; I am not excluding women climbers here) first and then climbers. This meant that, in general, climbers were attuned to and appreciative of the outdoor environment and inclined to protect it when impacts manifested themselves. The Sierra Club, for example, was started by climbers.
Nowadays, the many new paths to climbing that do not involve any kind of outdoor connection have changed the nature of the climbing population significantly.
(2) Thinking about the specifics of climber concern for the environment in the Gunks, it is clear in retrospect the John Stannard was a colossal influence, really a paradigm shift. I think the general climbing population was ready for to hear what he had to say because of the conditions mentioned in Item 1, but the fact is that no one really thought in terms of concrete action until Stannard took it upon himself to try to awake the environmental sensibilities climbers shared.
Stannard's first actions were simple: he rose early and picked up garbage. He didn't say anything to anyone about it, and there was no internet bully pulpit available. He just did it. People noticed, and soon there was a bunch of people doing the same thing. Stannard's quiet integrity had more force than all the combined hot air the rest of us have expended on the internet since then. He did the right thing. People saw is was the right thing. And they chose to do it too.
No doubt, Stannard's position as the leading Eastern climber of the day helped, and comments he has made suggest that he understood that. He used his fifteen minutes of fame, not to burnish his image or establish some legacy in the annals of climbing, not to enhance his income or support his climbing, but rather to help people realize their own better instincts, to the benefit of the crags he loved.
Many people know that Stannard went on to try to halt the the piton destruction of cracks in the Gunks and, in the process, became one of the preeminent national figures in the move to clean climbing. Once again, in his favor---in the Nation's favor---was the fact that most climbers were then outdoorsman and so primed to hear a message of conservation. But Stannard did something unique: he fabricated his own internet. He published and distributed for free a newsletter, The Eastern Trade, promoting discussion and the idea and desirability of clean climbing. I recall that this cost him a few thousand dollars, which he absorbed as part of the price of protecting a resource he saw as both precious and threatened. In an astonishlingy short time, and rather ahead of the rest of the country, East coast climbers mothballed their pitons and hammers and set sail for the adventures of the modern era.
Soon, these events will be forty years ago. The majority of those who were around then have moved on to other things, including an afterlife, if there is one, and the remaining few witnesses who are still climbing are, with luck, on their last decade. The influence of Stannard's vision has surely been diluted, first because neither his contemporaries or those who came later had anything like his ability to project unquestionable integrity and a profound concern for the climbing environment---sadly, we dropped the baton when he left---and secondly because the audience of climbers is nowhere near as receptive to the messages he so successfully promoted years ago.
I am not suggesting that all has been lost; I used the term "diluted" advisedly. Climbing has entire new genres that didn't exist forty years ago, and with such a diverse population the kind of unanimity achievable in Stannard's time is probably permanently out of reach, and may perhaps no longer be desirable. The old farts may be on their last lap, but there are plenty of young climbers who still believe in Chouinard's original vision: that on every climb, climbers are entitled to experience, as much as possible, the thrills, challenges---and yes, the risks---of discovery that drew the first ascenders to the sport and to the route they established.
Long live the spirt of Stannard!
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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As one of the "surviving witnesses" that Rich mentions, I, too, want to acknowledge the incredible influence that John's environmental concern and activities (and his climbing)had on our generation in the Gunks and elsewhere. However, I don't fully share Rich's generally negative views of the current situation. Sure there are many people now involved in climbing who do not come from the outdoors background that was typical of our generation, and a number of those folks demonstrate varying degrees of "denseness" regarding environmental issues (while others are paragons of "environmental correctness"), but overall I think that the climbing community as a whole is environmentally aware and more often than not trying to "do the right thing" in this respect. Organizations such as the AAC and the Access Fund have taken the lead with events such as Adopt-a-Crag days and other environmental and conservation initiatives, and local organizations and individual climbers have followed suit with their own activities. Everytime I go to the Gunks I'm amazed how clean the area of the cliffs and the carriage road always is despite the amazingly intense use the area receives (contrasted with the roads below), Are we perfect--of course not, can we improve--always, but it is wrong to say that we have "dropped the ball" since the '70s.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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nice post rich.
i also appreciated the schwartz piece, which i hadn't seen before
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jstan
climber
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I much appreciate the good thoughts. But the truth is we seldom, if ever, succeed in giving credit to all the people who have richly earned it.
Willie Crowther, my first teacher, was actively cleaning the public roads below the cliff sometime in the 50's. I followed his lead. At first I concentrated on the public roads because climbers are only one part of the population whose welfare is adversely affected. We climbers are not an island. At Facelift I have concentrated on Route 120 for the same reason. The experience gained in Yosemite by our good citizens is materially lifted if, while driving in, they see ten groups of people gathering trash. The good inclinations of all those people are reinforced. When climbers joined in on the roads at the Gunks we got the same multiplication that Ken Yager has so brilliantly achieved. It was not all sacrifice. The squeal of tires at the hairpin gave us many memorable moments those Sundays.
Fifteen years ago Bob Fenischel was out to JT. He said to me, "Did you know we are still picking up cigarette butts on the carriage road?" I suspected they would be. What I saw in the early 70's had convinced me people were entirely agreed as to how the Gunks should be cared for. In the final analysis I think Dan Smiley and the Preserve should be at the head of the line on that one.
Edit:
Damn! I vaguely remember not picking up some change on the road. Must have been with Steve that day. My memory is shot all to H....
Anders:
It was an investment. An outstanding one.
I can't resist.
Two scots simultaneously spotted a penny on the road way. It was at that point that copper wire was invented and Maxwell's Theory of Electromagnetism was made possible.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Not only did Jstan lead the way in cleaning up the roads and clean climbing, he got dirtbags doing it because he'd drop change along the road and we poorboys would pick it up for beers later after the trash was picked!!!!
Yay for Jstan!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Trying hard to imagine jstan throwing away money... Not succeeding.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Ah Peter, I would have thought you'd av done a wee bit on his bagpipes and all..............Perhaps a clan meeting in Camp 4 bitd?
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wivanoff
Trad climber
CT
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I remember that Life magazine article! Saw it in a doctor's office. I stole the magazine and took it home. Read it over and over.
That article was the reason I got into climbing later that year. Thank you, Mr. Stannard.
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jstan
climber
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Well thank you Wivanoff. So I did finally do something constructive.
Everyone be forewarned. There will be no humor when it comes to the pipes!
Joe, you owe us five Hail Marys.
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MisterE
Social climber
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I can personally vouch for John's continuing clean-up talents as of last year - he is a machine and obviously was taught well by a master.
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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Ah, the bagpipes...
Curt
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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the man plays bagpipes? can he cook a haggis?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 11, 2012 - 06:41pm PT
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The reference in the inserted quote about Life Magazine prompts distinct memories of "researching" "sensory awareness"--the new age thing about LSD and experiencing things others don't dare--as my project for the fall sem. Psych 1A course at Monterey Peninsula College.
The MPC library yielded a Life article which included a photo of the partners in the GPIW, YC and TF. They were seen as protagonists in the death-defying but life-affirming practice of our sport.
The gurus say and the acolytes absorb.
I must compiment JS on his refined style as I watched him onsight the Lunatic Fringe, then was "sent" himself by the two monkey boys, Werwolf and LukeyLuke running up and down the Fringe like they wrote it, if monkeys could write.
John thought nothing of it, I imagine. The way he climbed, you could tell he was likely as unflappable in "real" life. At least it's good to think this of gents we've only met twice. In fact, I never saw him after that again until Facelift, where he's still the inspiring guy we see here.
I am sorry as sorry to have not watched more of him on other testers, as I am that I just now split an infinitive.,.
Love ya, JS! Next Facelift, I hope.
I have been seeking that Life article, should anyone know of it or how to retrieve it free at no charge, like the Free University we started at MPC that same fall. Cheap-ass hippie bums...
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zBrown
Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
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Nov 11, 2012 - 06:49pm PT
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Hey hey hey (that's the tres heys) mouse - i ran into a similar situation with a magazine article I was trying to track down. I can't retrace it right now, but there is a way, I will get back to you.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 11, 2012 - 07:15pm PT
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I love the song that JS recalled his buds singing:
5.10
5.10
We're off to do 5.10, etc.
It is the perfect never-ending song title.
5.15
5.15
We're lookin' to do some 5.15, etc.
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Jennie
Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
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Nov 11, 2012 - 07:24pm PT
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Very worthwhile thread...
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Berc
climber
SLC, UT
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Oct 15, 2017 - 12:02pm PT
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Hi John,
I saw my name by chance in this post and wanted to say hi. I laughed out loud at another post of yours where you describe Greg and Mel skipping down the Trapps road singing "5.10, 5.10." Such memories.
A couple of years ago I gave Bob Palais all my copies of the Eastern Trade and your clean climbing pamphlet for safe keeping. Hopefully they'll end up in the John Stannard library at some point.
Hope you're doing well.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Oct 15, 2017 - 07:19pm PT
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The redoubtable jstan, at the Facelift in 2007. A true friend, who rather lives up to the aphorism "The unexamined life is not worth living".
Here he is with Tom Frost and Royal Robbins, the first time they'd met in person.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Oct 15, 2017 - 07:25pm PT
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Bump for Jstan!
He's someone to emulate!
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Oct 16, 2017 - 06:14am PT
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great Bump!
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jstan
climber
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Oct 22, 2017 - 04:39am PT
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Wilber describes the litter experience very well. In my case my truck is more widely recognized than am I. A coworker volunteered she wants my truck after I am dead. If I will her Christine, they should get along very nicely.
The way Facelift as an experience has flourished shows we have all manner of opportunities for expanding the interest base. Need to get a Go Pro. Even a cartoon life history of a poor persecuted coke can might work.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Oct 22, 2017 - 07:27am PT
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Wilber came upon a fine idea for his exercise. Got to keep that one in mind. Thanks, Anders.
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Oct 22, 2017 - 11:37am PT
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Bump for some good people, Jstan, Bercaw, and McGowan!!!
I'm better for knowing them.
ditto for the 3 Johns (sometimes, in the Gunks, they were the 4 Johns when John Bragg joined in)
now that Berc has made a rare ST apperaance (3rd post in 11 years!!!) I'll throw in a little McGowan to round it out...
John mugging it up for the camera, when he and Carol came down for a visit a few years ago
John and my son. McGowan kept him in stitches the whole time. My son didn't quite know what to make of John, but he certainly was entertained
they was like peas and carrots
hope you other Johns enjoy
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Oct 22, 2017 - 08:32pm PT
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Well, gosh. I know all three of them. Haven't seen
John B since, maybe 1976? And McGowan, prolly 1978. I was lucky to
climb with both. (Jstan was way ABOVE my level, still is)!
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jstan
climber
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Oct 22, 2017 - 10:40pm PT
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We all were incredibly lucky to have a chance to spend time at Carderock.
At work I was building as system based on DEC's 11/34 running Fortran. Fortran was retarded when it came to string handling, something I needed. The lab let me hire McGowan to solve the problem. I knew he was going to succeed one day when, out of frustration, he slammed the teletype saying, "I will not let a box defeat me!"
I think we need an anthology of all the Carderock stories
Edit:
In truth we all are "who we are." But I was privileged to encounter John who, I have to say, was the most primal character I had ever encountered. To stay at his terminal living on only peanut butter till the EMT' took him to the hospital, that's f*#king primal. Through the people we know we learn about ourselves. That's a real gift.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Oct 23, 2017 - 08:11am PT
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Mike Warburton was living in Washington, D.C. when an Army (or was it Navy) rappelling demonstration inspired him to start climbing. Carderock was where he began. He wouldn't have been old enough to drive there. His family moved to California and Mike adapted.
Mike on the right:
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LilaBiene
Trad climber
Technically...the spawning grounds of Yosemite
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I think we need an anthology of all the Carderock stories
Yes, YES, we do!!! :)
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