Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
|
|
|
Mar 18, 2012 - 10:39pm PT
|
Go Mongo, go!
|
|
lucander
Trad climber
Shawangunks, New York
|
|
|
Mar 19, 2012 - 05:44am PT
|
Two unsung legends of the cliff, both have been around here for decades. Chances are you've met these fellas if you've been to the Gunks - I'd estimate that 18% of the climbers in America have crossed their path at some time.
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 8, 2012 - 11:04pm PT
|
feeling nostalgic...
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 11, 2012 - 04:25pm PT
|
bump this
|
|
Whitehorse Jeff
Trad climber
Fairfield, CT
|
|
|
Sep 11, 2012 - 04:56pm PT
|
Rich Ross-- I remember the baked goods well and that day at Skytop with Bruce, Geoff and you-- I think Casey Newman may have been there as well--I didn't follow you on Amazon--I could tell she was too much for me! Jeff Lea
|
|
richross
Trad climber
|
|
|
Sep 11, 2012 - 10:31pm PT
|
Hi Jeff. I wonder if it was you who took the photo? I forgot who I gave the camera to. Those were fun times.
Amazon
Here's a couple of me on Amazon from 1980 or 81. Photos by Geoff Ohland
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 11, 2012 - 11:28pm PT
|
Rich, very nice POV for the over-view and the follow-up close-up sequence. Easily one of the best in this thread, IMO.
I want to remember Andy Cox (RIP), Wally Shamonist (sp?), Jon Waterman--I am assuming it's the same man, and George Meyers who I n00bily thought of as ex-pats from the Gunks.
They all got their crack-climbing education, as they intended by coming to YV. And wouldn't you know, one died and his story came to be a legend of sorts (AC), one went on to fame as the author of the Yosemite Valley Climbers' Guide (GM), and another has gone on to write nine books on the subjects we like to read about in Tacoville (JW). The Wall, as I privately referred to him, has faded into the mist, but not before he climbed the EB of El Cap and led the Knobbly Wall. He was so thrilled to find good face climbing so high above the ground, you could tell he was Gunkie to the core.
YV owes lots to the Gunkies and Vulgarians.
I have said it before, but I watched Jstan do the Lunatic Fringe. So controlled, so deliberate, yet powerful. That was the day Ike and Throwpie and I were climbing with Pettigrew, Luke, Werner, and a few others up at the Reeds Pinnacle area, early 70s.
|
|
Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 09:30am PT
|
Hello Mouse..., I'm pretty sure that the "Jon" Waterman who was in the Valley in the early '70s with folks like Andy Cox, Wally, (and myself) etc was the late Johnny Waterman of subsequent Mt. Hunter fame, not the still living author Jon Waterman. Both were New Englanders and contemporaries who later became very connected with Alaska but I don't believe that Jon (who is very tall) climbed much (if at all)in Yosemite, while Johnny (short and muscular) did climb there during that period.
|
|
Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 10:03am PT
|
Great thread! Currently in the air using the onboard wifi, about 2 hours out of denver. I hope to get my 16 yo daughter and 10 yo son up casa emilio columbus day weekend. Who knows, maybe my 13 yo daughter and fearful wife will want to come along? Hell, we will turn a 2 pitch 5.2 into a grade IV adventure. So, stay away unless you want to get behind the slowest, loudest Gunkie Gang ever.
|
|
richross
Trad climber
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 10:21am PT
|
I met Johnny Waterman the first time I went climbing on the carriage road in 1968. I was off to do a climb with John Weichsel. Johnny stood out because he was about the same age as me (I was 14 years old at the time) . It seems everytime I climbed in the late sixties (maybe 10 times) I'd run into him. He was usually with his family. In the summer of 1970 I got to know him a little better and would run into him by himself before I moved to California for four years. When I came back in 1974 he had already left the Gunks. I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with him. I did get to smoke a joint with him once.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 10:36am PT
|
Alan, glad to hear from you. Thanks to you, as well, Rich...
I wasn't sure about which J Waterman was the one who died, I kinda took a chance, but also knew someone would correct me (99% probablity rate of that happening here on the Taco).
Short he was, definitely. Strong, as well. He accompanied Wally on the EB of El Cap. He had relatives in Monterey where we spent the night on a road trip from YV to the Jass Feztival in 1971. So I credit him with introducing me to author James Branch Cabell, whose works were leatherbound in the library of that house in Monterey.
"J. Waterman" was ready-made to be a trademark!!!
|
|
Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 10:51am PT
|
Sure Mouse---a "99%" likelihood of being corrected on the Taco, but being "correctly corrected" that's another story!!! Anyway, it definitely sounds like you met Johnny not Jon. Johnny, Andy, Wally, I guess I was as well, were all part of an informal "Vulgarian cover group" known as the Degenerates so it would be likely that they would be climbing together in the Valley.What year was your encounter with them? I climbed some with Johnny in "the Ditch" in the fall of '70.
|
|
steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 11:00am PT
|
Fun thread to stumble upon.
I spent many weekends in the Gunks in the late 60's. Even climbed a few routes with the "Classic" Vulgarians, of the likes of Dave Craft and Dick Whilliams and even a whole week with Art Gran. That was an experience- I the Noobie and expert dish washer.
Unforgetable memories.
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 12:58pm PT
|
John was strong. After he got back from one of his trips to Alaska, he asked me to take about 40# of rosy Alaskan granite down to DC. He had carried it out from one of his mountains as a present for his mom.
We all have known really esteemable people who did not make it for some reason. In quieter moments we wonder how it is we failed to help. This may be the flip side of the Werner Braun rule.
"You got to let people be who they are."
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:02pm PT
|
A Shawangunk memory:
Someone quoting Tom Patey: "Any fool can monkey about on rock overhangs, but it takes craft and cunning to beat the Brenva."
Denny Merritt: "I didn't know Craft had been to the Alps. Who's Cunning?"
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:04pm PT
|
So very good of you, Jstan, to say that.
That was a brief moment of silence to remember those gone Gunkies and others.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:20pm PT
|
MH2 so funny, but did you know there are lots of Cunning bastards; most families have several thru the generations.
And the family has trademarked the family crest, the cunning SOBs.
The crest bears a Latin phrase for "The power to rule is the same as justice," very loosely translated).
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Sep 21, 2012 - 05:33pm PT
|
Alan, sorry, been trippin.
I met them in 1971, as I had the DORF, which we used to go over to the Jazz Festival that summer, with a pit stop in Merced.
Degenerates in my mother's house? Nothing new there!!!
We polluted the pool and left, trailing sweet smoke.
Merced is still rocking & reeling. I mean, like, some things never change...Except in our memories!
|
|
wilbeer
Mountain climber
honeoye falls,ny,sawdust does not work like chalk
|
|
|
Sep 21, 2012 - 11:04pm PT
|
great thread ed.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!