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JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Apr 18, 2013 - 06:10pm PT

Chris was one of my early climbing heroes at Indian Rock, along with Ben Borson and, of course, Peter. At the time, Chris used to wear black work pants available at J.C. Penney. I quickly adopted them as my garment of choice. Then I heard him say what Steve (Scuffy) mentioned: that he liked to climb off-widths in shorts as a matter of pride and to enforce using proper technique. At that point, my secret emulation ceased.

John

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Jun 1, 2014 - 12:15pm PT

Local Hero Bump...

rmuir

Social climber

From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.

Jun 2, 2014 - 11:45am PT

Chris was one of my early climbing heroes at Indian Rock, along with Ben Borson and, of course, Peter.

Yeah, that was quite a wonderful time to boulder at Indian Rock. I won't forget Chris turning me down when I innocently asked, at the tender age of sixteen, if I could try on his PAs. As I recall, he brought them to the Rock still in their box from The Ski Hut. Really, I just wanted to see how much better they were than my Pivetta Cortinas…

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Jun 2, 2014 - 12:25pm PT

I won't forget Chris turning me down when I innocently asked, at the tender age of sixteen, if I could try on his PAs.

Rob, I have to admit that my first pair of PA's were a real revelation. I came to Berkeley in 1969, shod in RR's. Although the PA's sole appeared to be of the same material, the fit and feel gave such tremendous confidence edging that it seemed almost like cheating. I remember the same feeling when I switched to EB's, and again with Fire's.

Who says shoes don't make the climber?

;-)

John