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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 17, 2010 - 12:24pm PT
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This is a history project including years 1931-1982 in the peak registers.
Signers of the registers include many well know names in climbing, e.g., Dolt, Wilts, Sacherer, Brower, Harris, and some who currently post on Supertopo, e.g. Boche (who also did first ascents on Starr King).
Go to www.amborncpa.com to see the draft Starr King book. If I transcribed something wrong or added something to which you object, please let me know and I will address it.
When it's done it's a freebie to all. In fact, it is now.
Bill Amborn
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 17, 2010 - 01:37pm PT
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Calling all Starr Kings!
Enter and chime in please!
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nita
Social climber
chica from chico.. I shall call you..mini moo.
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Oct 17, 2010 - 03:42pm PT
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Somewhere durning the first two miles, i stepped on a ground hornets nest and the little bastards stung me in a couple of places...Ouch.... The rest of the trip was fun.
Loved the remote feeling... we ran into no one. Reid took me up the easy route.. gorgeous views.. fire burning in the distance..beautiful moon. Oh.. the sweet memories..(-;
edit..Crimpie, I was changing the edit at the same time you posted ...
here's the star king link. link.
http://www.amborncpa.com/starrking/The-Mt-Starr-King-Registers-1931-82.pdf
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Oct 17, 2010 - 03:43pm PT
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Cool stuff. Nita, yours also has Mark Blanchard's name on it too! Very neat stuff.
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nita
Social climber
chica from chico.. I shall call you..mini moo.
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Oct 17, 2010 - 03:48pm PT
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Ekat,
Lots of cool stories in the Starr King file..
ps..Thanks for the help....
Edit. BBA, Thank you!!!!
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 17, 2010 - 04:34pm PT
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Excellent work, BBA! Sorry I haven't met you yet. I passed by your town twice this past summer. If only I'd known... Guido and I are good buds, as you may know.
I've got a new scanning protocol thanks to P. Haan, but it takes a bit longer to get the pix archived as TIFFs, then posted as JPEGs. I'll work on the Starr King slides now.
EKat: So nice to read that you enjoyed the West Face!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Oct 17, 2010 - 04:39pm PT
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Super! BBA
Rare rainy day in Santa Cruz so I will endeavor to dive into the book and the SK Register. Now that this project is completed how will you spend your spare time?
cheers Joe
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 17, 2010 - 06:36pm PT
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I'll take photos, stories, even for failed attempts! (I have to because mine was a failed attempt - see page 159). Or stories by people who climbed it after the registers were removed.
Bill Amborn
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 17, 2010 - 08:02pm PT
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Summit registers are the most elegantly simple historical record imaginable! Always fun to see an intact old one!
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 17, 2010 - 09:52pm PT
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What follows is a TR on the FA of the SW face of Mt. Starr King which I did with Tim Harrison on 6/14/72.
Photo of RegisterI was actually surprised to see the route was named “The Clean Machine” in the register because when Tim and I talked about the route name, we had decided to call it “Nuts & Bolts,” since it was done during the transition to clean climbing, and we wanted to do it clean. I remember writing up the route as “Nuts & Bolts,” but now I wonder how it is named in subsequent guides. However, I noticed on the Welcome to Ken Boche thread where Roger lists my FAs, that this climb is not included. Ironic that someone just posted a “Statute of Limitations” thread, and I even posted on it about there being none, IMHO.
Did this climb make it into subsequent guidebooks?
As documented in the summit register and in this thread, I’d already done two other FA’s on Starr King earlier. I have more and better photos of this climb than I do of the other two, so I wanted to post this one first.
I like the approach from Mono Meadows since it is a fairly straight forward route with relatively little up-hill humping of stuff.
Tim & I started in one afternoon and made a pleasant walk into the base of the SW face where we camped in the Jeffery Pine forest near the base of the SW face.
I distinctly remember the soft afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees and taking a couple of portraits of him, tho the high contrasts of sunlight and shade made photography difficult.
In the afternoon light, we settled on a route that begins just left of the large overhang immediately left of the SW gully. The route goes directly over a small overhang and more or less up for 4 pitches of roped climbing, up to 5.8 difficulty.
After that, the climbing eased off enough so that Tim and I felt comfortable simul-climbing unroped. It was mostly easy class 4-5 which accounts for the “700 ft of 3RD <- ? ! ?,” in the register.
Unroped climbing
We got to the summit and enjoyed spectacular views all around. Lovely day!
I did take several more excellent photos of Tim that day, but I can’t find them now, and I’ll post them up when I do.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 17, 2010 - 10:11pm PT
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The Taco Stand is not allowing me to complete this TR in the above post, so I am going to try to continue it here.
After we unroped, we had many hundreds of feet of lovely face and friction climbing.
We got to the summit and enjoyed spectacular views all around. Lovely day!
I did take several more excellent photos of Tim that day, but I can’t find them now, and I’ll post them up when I do.
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Bob Harrington
climber
Bishop, California
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Oct 18, 2010 - 12:21am PT
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Wow, that goes back a ways, eh Kath? Bill, this is really a fun project. Wonderful stuff from the old days - moccasins soaked in turpentine for better friction? Yikes!
The evolution of climbing culture from crazy UC college students out for the summer and RCS groups to urban children of the sixties and seventies moving to the mountains is so evident. There are so many people in there that I know or have met.
Corrections/information:
The google earth image is most likely an air photo, not "from space."
Schweize should be Schweizer
"Claudius Maximus Erectus" has got to be Claude Fiddler. I recognize the handwriting, and the style is unmistakably the ever-bashful Claude.
I know a Michael Campana who is a well known (among water resources people) and respected professor of hydrology and water resources. He's up at Oregon State now, but taught at U. of Nevada-Reno in the mid-seventies to late-eighties. Might be the same guy.
Great work Bill!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 12:42am PT
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Thanks for the TR, Ken. Your route is listed in the FA list in the back of the 1987 Meyers and Reid and the 1994 Reid guidebooks (as Nuts and Bolts, with the wrong year, 1971).
For some reason the regular Yosemite guidebooks since the Roper guide do not include descriptions for Starr King.
It is included in Spencer's Southern Yosemite guidebook, with a text description and the correct year, perhaps for this reason.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 18, 2010 - 01:28am PT
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Thanks, Clint!! It's interesting that Starr King is included in the S. Yosemite guidebooks now, even though its latitude is about the same as the rim of the Valley from Taft Point to Old Inspiration Point, and it's most accessible from YV or the Mono Meadows trail. Go figure!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 03:54am PT
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Wow, great work, Bill. The Starr King register was the first one I encountered with Salathe's name in it. Reading through that gave us quite a thrill.
One correction:
The August 7, 1971 entry (below Chris Denny's solo ascent) should read Bill Hastrup, not Hostrup.
Thanks again for the great work, and thanks, Boo Dawg, for the great posts as well.
John
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Oct 18, 2010 - 11:36am PT
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 11:54am PT
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Great TR Boodawg!
Nice register shot, too! How many of those did the Club set in place, I wonder?!?
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Oct 18, 2010 - 12:22pm PT
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Nice post Ken. I like the portrait shots of both you and Tim.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 02:45pm PT
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[*RE*-EDIT: I was wrong twice about the deaths on Anchors Away - sorry, I should have been more careful - maybe do a forum search and read my own post?].
In 1973 Tim Harrison rap bolted Willie's Hand Jive on Lembert Dome.
The 1974 "Accidents in North America" lists "Michael Harrison" in the accident on Anchors Away. So apparently his name was Michael Tim Harrison.
10/17/1973 - David Bryan and Michael [Tim] Harrison were the fatalities.
I wonder if they were working on the second pitch or something?
The FA is listed in the guidebook as in 1972 by Tim Harrison and Mike Breidenbach. Probably what this means is that Tim had done it with various partners to a high point where the fatality occurred. Then Mike Briedenbach finished it. Or maybe Mike was Tim's main partner on it? 1972 can't be correct since Tim was still working on it in 1973.
Anybody know more?
(After that 1973 double fatality, folks like Ron Skelton went back and added second anchor bolts to Apron climbs).
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 18, 2010 - 03:01pm PT
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Steve: I'm guessing there were at least 100, maybe even 200 or 300 scattered on many of the named peaks of the Sierra. It's boggling since each one had its own cast aluminum cover. Probably someone at the Sierra Club or the Bancroft Library knows or could make a more educated guess.
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 18, 2010 - 04:30pm PT
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Someone in the Sierra Peaks Section of the Sierra Club probably has an idea about the peaks with the register boxes. Certainly they have been placed on their list of 100+ peaks. I think the club itself is no longer that interested as it is a relatively inconsequential item in the scheme of things.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Polynesian Paradise
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Oct 18, 2010 - 05:38pm PT
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Realizing, of course, that those who actually get up to the peaks to sign a register are a self-selected group who don't represent the full spectrum of the climbing community, much less the whole of society, what are your observations (and judgments) about the changes that have taken place both in the climbing community and society, in general, since the Starr King register, at least, was placed there? Your have undoubtedly looked at this register more closely than anyone else, tho Guido and others now have the opportunity to do so now that you've done such great work with it for the rest of us.
Of course, your judgments may say more about you than they will about the climbing community or our society.
I look forward to hearing your views on this question. Thanks again for your work here.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 18, 2010 - 05:40pm PT
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How do you thread the rope through that thing for lowering, after redpointing the climb? Maybe Weld_it was involved in some way - it looks like the sort of thing he might make.
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Oct 18, 2010 - 06:25pm PT
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Just can't say how much I loved that peak and the friends I was able to climb it with. What a thrill to see those signatures again... thanks so much for what can only be described as your tireless effort.
Paul
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Sam R
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Oct 18, 2010 - 06:29pm PT
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This must be one of the only old registers in the Sierra without Norman Clyde's name in it!
Thanks for the note about my friend Sheldon Moomaw- I was with him in Afghanistan all those years ago...
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 18, 2010 - 08:40pm PT
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I made changes as appropriate as noted by Harrington, Eleazarian and Sam R.
Clint mentioned the death of Tim Harrison, and that is in the book, too, and I will make the year 1972 vice 1972 or 1973.
Sam R.: I don't know if Clyde may have had an entry which was later removed as happened to Salathè and Nelson. There are at least two pages of missing entries.
They will show when the book is re-posted in a couple of weeks.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Oct 19, 2010 - 02:39pm PT
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This is quite a monumental work. I can't think of this having ever been done before.
Here is a small mistranscription: From 22 July 67, Tony Qamar was recorded as "Terry Qamar". Tony was an excellent climber and a member of the Cal hiking club in the 60s, killed in a freak incident when a logging truck lost it's load.
Nice supertopo thread on Tony:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/107615/Tony-Qamar
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Oct 19, 2010 - 03:35pm PT
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BBA,
I, too, remember seeing Clyde's name in there as well as Salathe's (on different pages, of course). I don't remember who Salathe's partners were, but since Ax lived in Fresno at the time, I probably didn't think it was so remarkable to see Nelson's signature.
I wonder how many other registers are now bereft of some priceless entries because of signature thieves.
John
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2010 - 07:00pm PT
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Thanks Eric. I must have been tired or had too much white.
Thanks Clint. It turns out a Hartouni list has Tim Harrison on the first ascent of Anchors Away, and I used that to see what other things I might learn about him. Since it seems inappropriate to ask who is who and who died when, I will delete the footnote references for Tim Harrison. In Supertopo I see Michael "Tim" Harrison, so I am totally confused on this issue.
John - It's too bad those signatures are gone, but this is all part of "history". From other readings I know Clyde climbed the Snow Cone under the Upper Falls in the 30's, and I was thinking he must have made it to Starr King, too, but nothing was in the register. Nelson was there for sure and the date is in the register in a reference by another climber, the Dipsea Demon.
Bill
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 20, 2010 - 05:29am PT
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Bill,
You were right all along. Sorry, I got confused, too. I re-edited my post above. So Tim Harrison died in October 1973 on Anchors Away with David Bryan. The forum posts on Tim Harrison / Anchors Away from people who were there at the time (like Kevin Worrall) suggest the "Michael Harrison" listed in 1974 Accidents in North American Mountaineering was really known as Tim Harrison.
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 21, 2010 - 12:30am PT
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Here is what we are looking at as far as torn out pages from the register. John Eleazarian saw Salathè's name on August 7, 1971. Chris Denny said it was missing on July 21, 1973. That means our suspects are about 81 people who signed in and perhaps some who did not between those dates. Also in that 81 people are some who used bogus names. So, who was it? Oh man...
And then I got a communication from someone who said it was him who done the dirty deed, but he went up after the 1973 date, so it wasn't. He took out someone elses (and others) name(s), but only the Lord knows who!! Oh boy...
At least it's entertaining.
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Aquadoc
Sport climber
Corvallis, OR
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Oct 21, 2010 - 03:47pm PT
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Bob, thanks for the kind words. I am indeed a water guy at Oregon State and taught at UNR from 1976 until 1989, but am not the same Michael Campana who climbed Mt. Starr King in the Sierra Nevada (unless I lost a year of my life somewhere).
The odd thing about this is that as a youngster, I climbed (hiked up) Mt. Starr King in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the early 1960s, all the way to the top - 3907 feet above msl!
Michael Campana
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clode
Trad climber
portland, or
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Oct 21, 2010 - 03:57pm PT
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Bob, Mike Campana of OSU fame did climb Starr King, in New Hampshire! He does not recall ever being on the Sierra version.
EDIT: Sorry for the duplication; I just saw that Mike beat me to the (straighten the record) punch!
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BBA
climber
OF
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2010 - 10:52pm PT
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The book has been updated with a few changes, corrections, and additions. Check out page 438 for Nita's encounter with hornets. A picture was added for Jeff Van Middlebrook and his buddies plus some comments on pages 404-405. I'll leave it open for changes until Nov 17, 2010, should any of you out there wish to give me anything to add, etc.
Regarding the Bob Locke thread, a mention of his accident is in the register.
And, for those for whom it is necessary to appeal to baser instincts, there is a nude ascent. That will get you reading.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Great read. Blown away to find Steve Sereda's entry (essay) in the register. Typical Steve.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jun 15, 2012 - 10:33pm PT
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Bump in memory of Tim Harrison- what a beautiful lad.
Those are wonderful photos of Tim, thanks Boodawg.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Sep 13, 2012 - 03:02am PT
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This trip report is extremely interesting. This is the first time I ever saw a picture of the late Tim Harrison, who did the FA of "Willie's Handjive" (5.11a) on Lembert Dome. I think "Willie's" was one of the first 5.11a face climbs in YNP. It's also interesting to me personally because Mt Starr King was my first time climbing with an early iteration of the Carlmont Alpine Club in October 1961 when I was a freshman in high school. I think the group did a 4th class route to the summit of SK. And because most of the kids in the group had not been checked out rappelling, we had to lower them down with goldline ropes done up in a dulfersitz arrangement. Still, some of them were nearly cut in half as we lowered them over a small roof that bisected the slab at half height. Lots of rope burns. Walking wounded. Don't know where we camped exactly, but think it was down by the creek. Someone recently collected all the old signatures in the SK register and, lo and behold, it contained the signatures the Carlmont Alpine Club left there in 1961.
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