The Thimble - John Gill

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mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Sep 19, 2011 - 10:45pm PT

Thanks for the writing John.

survival

Big Wall climber

A Token of My Extreme

Sep 19, 2011 - 11:27pm PT

Dang, I didn't know you were gone either John!

We miss you already!

dogtown

Trad climber

JackAssVille, Wyoming

Sep 19, 2011 - 11:48pm PT

Gill is still KING, No Bullshit!!

Inner City

Trad climber

East Bay

Sep 20, 2011 - 12:24am PT

Dang, the taco abides...John Gill! A great post! Thanks.

MH2

climber

Sep 20, 2011 - 12:39am PT

Pretty good post for an exhausted 75 year-old.

Let's see, now, extrapolating into the past...

Hey! This internet stuff wasn't even around, then. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, more like.

tarek

climber

berkeley

Sep 20, 2011 - 12:57am PT

John Gill--
Many thanks for your post.

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Sep 20, 2011 - 01:22am PT

John, I feel bad about the sense of criticism. You rightly admonished me for tarnishing your observations with a facile slippery slope argument. We are both of us too old for even the tiniest hint of discord to come into our lives, and I beg your forgiveness.

The tree you climbed with Kamps to avoid placing a bolt was probably on the regular route on the Incisor, around the corner from your North face boulder problems.

Your story about discovering the same theorem twice reminds me of stories about McCarthy, who was remarkably bad at remembering climbs, and who on several occasions managed to make the first ascent of the same route twice. We decided that this would be one of the stringent entry criteria for the OFMC, the Old Farts Mountaineering Club, of which Jim was, of course a charter member.

The real joke about that was that we were in our forties at the time. We had no idea what old fartdom was about. Our farts may have been well-seasoned, but were years away from being old.

Lots of luck changing your Wikipedia entry. You probably have little or no standing to do so, and will have to defer to the real experts, who know far better than you whether you are alive or not.

philo

Trad climber

Somewhere halfway over the rainbow

Sep 20, 2011 - 01:38am PT

Well, it’s been a long day, and I see on the John Gill entry on Wikipedia that I am deceased. So, from the other side - as Houdini would say – greetings, fellow climbers. Surprisingly, things seem much the same over here . . . weird.

Yeah, posting from the 'other side', weird!

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Sep 20, 2011 - 02:22am PT

The Thimble is still there, as of August. Here it is with my secure bouldersaabpad to catch you
I climbed it the ghey way (toprope) in '88. That's as close as i'll ever come to doing it. i'm glad to have even that connection. What an amazing, bold, ahead of it's time climb!

It gave me an outsider's view into a specialist's world in a time long ago. -I was in kindergarten that year-
Just knowing the story of that climb informed the way I've done many new climbs, infusing them with a knowledge of boldness I would not otherwise have been aware of. I was clearly channeling that when i did a freesolo fa of a .12 ow in the supes once, though i had a spotter...

Cheers and thanks, john.

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber

Fruita, Colorado

Sep 20, 2011 - 02:22am PT

John,
You are a humble man, as we all have long known. No need to worry if
someone disagrees. Your opinions are valuable. You and Rich and I
are eternal friends, and that's just the way it is. No little tit for tat
commentry on some rinky dink thread means anything alongside that.
It seems strange that so many questions must be asked on a thread,
when virtually all such questions are answered right there in
Master of Rock, or in Wizards of Rock. People prefer their memories,
vague as they sometimes get. I understand, because I too get lazy
and don't want to go to the bookshelf and look things up. Whatever.
I have held off this thread for the most part because it would take
hours, possibly, to deal with all the inaccurasies and so much that
simply isn't exactly right, or the questions for which no ones seems
to have answers. I would come across as a know-it-all,
if I even made half an attempt to deal with all that, so I pick
my battles. I preferred recently to write some more on the
Walter Bonatti thread or to utterly
waste time by discussing my favorite guitarists....

Let me say here, though, that if a voice exists to which
I would listen... it's yours, and it would be Goldstone's
or Higgins'.... those who were there.... Yes time passes,
but your insights are as sharp as anytime before. Cease and desist
from saying you have no right to speak, being so far removed,
and such. We all want to hear your thoughts, even if there is a senior
moment or two. I had to stop worrying about that, because there have
been so many dumb things I've said. I do what I can, what I have
energy for, and hope people will forgive. I have mostly come to realize
if I write more than about two sentences people don't read on. By now,
most have skipped to the next entry.... Let's hold to those sayings
I have always liked, first Wordsworth: "Man, if he do but live within
the light of high endeavors daily spreads abroad his being with a
strength which cannot fail." And e.e. cummings: "Above all, you shall
be young and glad, for if you are young whatever life you wear
it will become you; and if you are young, whatever's living will
yourself become."

I still see myself, certainly at least at times, as that young lad
who was discovering climbing, and I'll always see you as that person
I bouldered with on all those sunlit days....

funkazzista

climber

Italy

Sep 20, 2011 - 03:18am PT

jogill, your memories are priceless.
Thank you

mcreel

climber

Barcelona

Sep 20, 2011 - 03:45am PT

Jaybro: "Just knowing the story of that climb informed the way I've done many new climbs"

That's a good summary of the impact of Gill on the Thimble, and how it has affected all of climbing, not just bouldering. If the problem was an FA today, it would have a 3 foot thick layer of pads at the bottom, with a posse of spotters, and would have been rehearsed on TR. For example, that arete in South Africa of which Adam Ondra was trying to get the second ascent - a very impressive, bold and hard line, but I doubt we'll hear much about it in 10 years.

jogill

climber

Colorado

Sep 20, 2011 - 02:01pm PT

Thank you, one and all, for your kind remarks. Special thanks to Pat and Rich, old and good friends - pioneers of our craft and brilliant writers.

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

bouldering

Mar 8, 2013 - 03:59am PT

The eastside "thimble" seen here (Sherwin Plateau). At least somebody had a compound fracture falling from it. http://king-dino.com/ankle.html

shady

Trad climber

Mar 8, 2013 - 03:02pm PT

Chris Jones and I used to talk about this aspect of style, which approached it's zenith with __no-hands_ problems, like falling ant slab at Jenny lake. Just the tips of toes. Bob Kamps and I enjoyed doing these problems, spending hours making a five foot passage.

Part of John's legacy still to be realized.
As a very young boy in the '60s, I would watch the rock wizards at Stony point ascend problems, sans-hands. Later in the '70s (?) I saw an interview where John spoke of it. So throughout my climbing career I had always accepted hands free bouldering as a legit style.
Try to demonstrate a hands free problem to my peers and it would end with, "hey...that's very good....Soooo what-do-you-say we go climbing now."

Although Kneecapitation, High squeak of low heeled boys and Big shoe dance have no doubt been reclaimed by the chaparral and sagebrush in which they sit, all were done with a sense of WWJGD?
John, thanks for the inspiration.

gonamok

climber

dont make me come over there

Mar 8, 2013 - 11:36pm PT

EBs may be slick and stiff compared to modern rubber, but BITD we called EBs "magic shoes" after climbing in PAs and RRs. Lots of hard stuff has been climbed in EBs. They felt plenty sticky back when that was the best free climbing boot available.

shady

Trad climber

Mar 9, 2013 - 07:22pm PT

Before seeing the thimble in person I had only seen the one picture posted here. The one with the dots outlining the route, face-on. Seeing it in person I was shocked as to how big it is. Next was to see how overhanging it is. I stood in shock with my mouth agape, I only regained consciousness when birds began to build a nest in my mouth. I left thinking this had to be an urban legend type of thing.
gonamok...
When boreal fires came out I started calling them Free-Ways. =)