Teton Tea Recipe?

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Messages 21 - 36 of total 36 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
jogill

climber
Colorado
Sep 28, 2010 - 10:22pm PT
Tom, yes, it was Ortenburger who died in the fire. Irene (of Irene's arete in the Tetons) wasn't killed. Orrin was a lawyer and past president of the AAC.I think he lived in Houston at the time.

Jan and Herb Conn built the "Conncave" on a slab in the forest outside Custer, SD, back in the late 40s or early 50s. They built a semi-circular rock enclosure that fits the curvature of the natural rock, with a bed ledge upon which they placed a mattress. There was a door opening onto a natural rock patio, and one or two windows. Later, they worked a deal with the forest service for a trailer which they placed on their property. I knew them in the late 50s and early 60s, and don't know if they eventually moved into more spacious quarters.
mark miller

Social climber
Reno
Sep 28, 2010 - 10:40pm PT
I always thought Teton Tea was a redneck pissing into a bottle of "Jack".
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 28, 2010 - 10:51pm PT
John- Were Herb and Jan the first full time "climbing bums" that you were aware of? Climbers dedicated to minimal work and maximal climbing, as they professed to be early on, were the exception especially as a couple. Any thoughts on that distinction, historically?
TomCochrane

Trad climber
I've lost track...
Sep 29, 2010 - 02:20am PT
Mark Powell may have been the first full-time rock climber in the country, as I don't think High School students count. However Gary Hemming might be a candidate. Margaret Young also qualifies, although she inherited wealth and chose to spend most of her time climbing. Perhaps her Cessna 180 on ski wheels and her two big ranch houses in downtown Palo Alto disqualify her as a climbing bum; but she did look and act the part!...LOL

"Charlie Brown" and Bill Briggs were key players as tea meisters in the early Teton Tea parties.

Bill's history as a pioneering extreme skier and a Jackson Hole ski instructor is well known. In fact his vivid description in Ski Magazine of how to carve turns had a significant effect on my skiing style.

Can anyone fill in details about "Charlie Brown"?

(I was a climbing-obsessed teenager at the time and didn't pay much attention to anyone less obsessed...)
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 29, 2010 - 02:40am PT
Interesting you mention the independently wealthy climbing bum.

had a discussion with someone at one point about the trustafarai.

would the climbing community disown them if they found out?

not like it's something that anyone spouts about. but it seems like a bigger sacrifice to be a poor climber and still give your life to the pursuit, than someone that has means.

I was neither. Am neither? meh student loans kept me climbing thru school. Now I pay. don't regret it really.


whoa, late night sangria thread drift...
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 29, 2010 - 10:42am PT
Independently wealthy isn't part of the "climbing bum" lifestyle that I was referring to.
jogill

climber
Colorado
Sep 29, 2010 - 09:38pm PT
Were Herb and Jan the first full time "climbing bums" that you were aware of? Climbers dedicated to minimal work and maximal climbing, as they professed to be early on, were the exception especially as a couple. Any thoughts on that distinction, historically?

I think Chouinard and several of his friends (i.e., Ken Weeks) may have been the first I encountered. I met the Conns later. But Yvon, although living the CB lifestyle apparently, was clearly destined for greater accomplishments. Then there was Royal - but he drove a Mercedes to the campground. Many of the CBs I knew about in the late 50s were students, so that's not quite the same.

I must admit that I was not unbiased with regard to CB lifestyles, when my own efforts were directed toward a more balanced life, with climbing an avocation and not an all-consuming passion. But the Conns were special, and I would not call them CBs. They settled in the Needles and did serious work mapping Jewel Cave and cleaning up Mt Rushmore. Plus music lessons. Herb was an electrical engineer who had worked for the Dept of the Navy, and he continued to conduct experiments as a hobby in the Conncave.

Hey Kerwin, you must have something to contribute about this topic!
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Sep 29, 2010 - 09:53pm PT
guido
That is nearly correct. Leigh was visiting Al Baxter and his wife. Al Baxter suffered terrible burns but survived. His wife died in the fire. Leigh also died in the fire.

See AAJ Volume 34, In Memoriam

Glen Denny created a wonderful exhibit of Leigh's photos at Stanford last year.

Back to Teton Tea.
I'm sure the ancient typewritten recipe is the correct one. How could it have been anything else?
TomCochrane

Trad climber
I've lost track...
Sep 29, 2010 - 11:42pm PT
Chouinard was one of the first CB people I met. We shared a camp one summer in the Tetons in the CCC incinerator; spending rainy days brewing tea and dehydrated soups. We camped in the incinerator because neither of us could afford a tent. That's also the time period when I started learning from John Gill and Royal. Not sure about what happened to Ken Weeks (awol). Several of us made a trip together into the southern Wind Rivers; Chouinard, Fred Becky, Art Gran, John Hudson and me.

Royal was definitely a full-time climber. We climbed together in the Tetons and the two of us later shared a camp in the boulders above Camp 4 at the base of the Wine Boulder. Liz became a regular in camp and on some of our climbs. I was much younger than the big boys and sort of a convenient climbing partner when grown ups weren't available.

We were all climbing with a variety of partners. The picnic table there below the Wine Boulder overhang was a regular scene for planning climbs with Pratt, Chouinard, Frost, Colliver, Frederics, Sacherer, Kor, Wally Reed, Glen Denny, Bob Kamps, Mark Powell, and others. When not going solo, I mainly climbed with Royal, Colliver, Sacherer, and Kor. Glen Denny and I were fooling around with difficult aid techniques. In later years I was also climbing with Kim Schmitz and Pat Ament.

The Mercedes came from Liz's parents when they agreed to accept Royal into the family following some formal visits to their home in Modesto. It was some years later that Royal moved into being a businessman.

I ran out of parental support and wasn't into stealing food at the lodge; so hitched a ride with a group going to Berkley to a house that included Mort Hemple and his girl friend and Gary Hemming's girl friend. I didn't like the drug scene and went with Doug Tompkins and his wife to their apartment in San Francisco and was hired as perhaps his first paid employee, book keeper, ski mounter, and demo climber for The North Face.

Whatever happened to Ken Weeks?

And Mort Hemple?

Jim Mays?

Joe Faint?
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Sep 30, 2010 - 12:10am PT
Joe passed away in Montana a while back, Mort lives in Boulder I believe.

TomCochrane

Trad climber
I've lost track...
Sep 30, 2010 - 12:13am PT
guido, i'm still amazed that we didn't know each other back then; but i wasn't paying much attention to anyone that wasn't my climbing partner...
(none)

Social climber
Woodland, California
Jul 22, 2016 - 07:34pm PT
hi y'all -- i never been to the Tetons but i met both Bill Briggs and Charlie (Brown) Artman in December of 1960 at the first Teton Tea party in Berkeley, California -- under Charlie Brown's influence and fervor we held Teton Tea parties every single Saturday night from 11 p.m. till dawn, at Charlie Brown's house, in his tipi, and at many people's homes and apartments from January 1961 till the early 1980s when attendance started to drop off -- we continued having them monthly or sporadically until some time in the 1990s -- but while different singers made the Teton Tea there was no rigid procedure -- the recipe was tea, wine, lemons (including peel) and raspberries and however you mixed it was however you mixed it -- i suspect that the climbers in the Tetons made more of a ritual of it -- but those parties were the best singing and folksinging that i have experienced in my life -- the songs were the reason for being there, not the instrument playing nor talking about songs -- people who wanted to talk were sent to the kitchen so as not to bother the singing -- some of the best singing if not the best were unaccompanied ballads and story songs in which many people harmonized spontaneously and wonderfully -- i'll never forget those parties and Charlie Brown -- miriam berg


ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
Jul 22, 2016 - 08:42pm PT


johnkelley

climber
Anchorage Alaska
Jul 22, 2016 - 08:49pm PT
Ritter Walling taught me how to make it at the Climbers Ranch in the mid 90's. The cheapest red and white wine and tea but not Liptons because is to damn bitter...
johnkelley

climber
Anchorage Alaska
Jul 22, 2016 - 08:54pm PT
Oh lemons too. Boil the tea, take it off of the heat, let it cool a bit, and dump in the wine
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Jul 22, 2016 - 08:59pm PT
Thanks to all for posting such fun climbing history!

More please!
Messages 21 - 36 of total 36 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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