Oh Man,
Portland State University
Outdoor Program trip to Smith Rocks
1975 maybe.
I was young (not in school yet - but hanging out with the official students) and a little green about the ways of the world.
But I had a tent, and "she" didn't.
Spent the day climbing with this beautiful and well endowed girl who insisted on climbing topless. Don't remember her name.
All I remember is I got so f*#king drunk that night around the campfire I missed out on what may have been my first time. lol
Or maybe only in my imagination.
I do remember climbing something dangerous and high, late at night in the dark with some other dozen people. Then puking my brains out from the top. Don't remember anything after that. ha
My wife. I met her freshman week at college, and she had already done Robson with her dad and brothers.
I suppose prior to her, there was the daughter of my dad's climbing partner; we did some mountaineering with our dads. But she was slightly older than me and I didn't think I had much of a shot at getting to know her better. She also had a tendency to stop a little short of the summit, which I didn't understand.
I climbed with some french guys in the Valley for a week in the late 80s. One of them said "Isa" was his ex-girlfriend.
I had the hots for a gorgeous chick with curly brown hair and blue eyes who worked at Western Mountaineering in San Jose. I think her name was Carol English.
Maybe times have changed... but back when I still had a full head of hair, most of the climber chicks were complete psycho nut cases.
You may have known you had a full head of hair, but you obviously didn't have a mirror, hahaha.
Ah, man, my climbing crushes... I guess they were too close and too unavailable to really bear mentioning. Oh, hell, I'll just settle with Chris Sharma for my hippy bro-dude crush and leave it at that.
I used to have a great picture of her in the same lime green helmet I would later get. She has those thick, nerd glasses on. Hawt. That was in the rec.climbing days. A guy named Karl Lew used to have some pictures of most of the people back then, but it's been down for a while.
Anyway, I e-mailed her back and forth for a while when she was single. Then...we played Quake II against each other online! She killed me in very humiliating ways and spoofed my communications somehow. I loved it.
Now we both have kids about the same age. Memories...
Definitely, sandstone. My last romantic climbing partner and I are still climbing. I just have to...hide the pain man. Oooooof. No, I'm OK. Belay on...
The Climbing Chica...nothing boosts the self-confidence like that partnership/crush of an opposite sex climbing partner. And nothing breaks the heart like when that patrnership/crush is done.
edit: fuking shoulder injury plus chica's new non-climbing, lead singer of Poison look-a-like mofo= big fukin frowny face.
I met my first gf, Donna, at Stoney Pt. She was a Bruin Mountaineer; I was attending Pierce J.C. She was learning with the club; I was bouldering with Hennek, McLean, Higgins, Roger Newell, maybe Lauria, etc. After a while of me not noticing her, she came up to me and said, "You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen. Would you like to go to a sorority dinner-dance with me?" I said that I would, so that began a year and a half of seeing her and going on trips together tho she was not really a climber. She liked the outdoor life tho. This is the only digital pic of her that I have, taken in Havasu Canyon.
Donna crossing Havasu Creek.
Credit: BooDawg
The only real climbing gf or crush I've had was Mary Bomba. We met on a flight to Europe, and she came on some Bruin Mountaineer trips and learned to climb with me and was very good, and I trusted her implicitly to belay me on some good FAs.
Mary on the FA of the N. Face of Merced Pk.
Credit: BooDawg
Mary rappelling after the FA of "Marginal."
Credit: BooDawg
Mary on an exploratory backpack into Evolution Basin
Don't know her name. French chick I think, based on the armpit bush. She hung around the old Body Shop in Salt Lake. When I was 15 she was teaching me and a couple friends how to climb in the cave. She told us to "grad that big donkey dong like you own it."
Her parents picked me up one time when our jeep broke down on engineer pass. They had an RV and were out for the day. Got to sit shotgun and talk about Amanda for the whole ride back down. Really great people! I'm pretty sure she was 19 when she soloed H wall.
Jack Roberts. Our first "date" was a climbing day. Next date was dinner...that lasted until the next morning, at least. Thank goodness he married me, as my mother would have been SOOO shocked at the events of our first date! What an after-date time....25 years of the best times ever. I miss him so much! Still, not dead yet (me, that is)....wonder what the next 3rd of my life will bring............
Good thread, by the way!
Pam
Thanks to the women that responded - I totally didn't mean it as a "creepy male" fixation thing, but I was worried for a while when I didn't see any of the obvious man-hotties pop up...plus, it was like 20 years ago for me.
Dan and our youngest, Seth, fishing after climbing.
Credit: LL LL
Dan and I with our oldest, Peter.
Credit: LL LL
You did ask about "climbing crush", right? Not necessarily about climbing pictures. ......so I've posted the "crush". :D Crush lasted (with a few challenging ups and downs) for 41 years.
Snowmassguy, I was just thinking about his "style" in general! Always rocked that SoCal surfer style......guess I've always had a thing for guys in Hawaiian shirts!
When I started climbing back in the late 70s in So Cal, there were so few women around it was kind of hard to find someone to crush on. There were probably only three or four women I can think of: Mari (who was older and was with Mo anyways), Moria (also older), Jan (whose last name I never knew and seemed connected) and Lynn, who was with Largo at the time and so was pretty much off limits. Not a lot there to work with?
Lot of crushes, just none of them on the climbing ladies, though Isabelle Patissier was totally hot. Maybe my wife qualifies, since she climbed before we married? I was 39 when I met her though. Can you still get a crush at age 39?
Fat Dad pretty much nailed it for us late 70's guys in So Cali
Jan might have been Jan Reynolds? She was the skier out of Vermont who did an ski expedition with Ned Gillette and Galen Rowell, then started into climbing. I met her summer of '81 as she started to really get after it..
I had a crush on a beautiful woman who lived in Seattle. Improbably enough, she had a crush on me too. She climbed hard, ran marathons, and wanted me to go to Yosemite with her and her girlfriends for Thanksgiving.
We climbed, bouldered, talked about how to make the world a better place, and generally had a great time.
After two nights of four women farting in the tent and laughing helplessly about it, I was over it.
But, there was still this beautiful woman. We exchanged letters, visited, climbed, and developed a friendship that lasts to this day.
Ron, I get the whole Lidija thing. She was/is a pretty cool chick last time I checked. As anyone with half a brain knows, looks are only one (and sometimes small) part of the package.
I got to know her reasonably well after being a pitch behind her for 3 and a half days on Zodiac BITD. Saw her a little bit after that but then I got sucked into the whole college grad school thing.
Personally, I look around at how women are climbing nowadays and I grow a little envious. I wound up someplace good but back then climbing was almost like being in a monastery.
Okay she doesn't climb, but if I was 90, and she was willing...
Climbed with Molly Higgins a couple of times. Nice gal. But no sparks there, just as well.
And then Barbara, from British Columbia. She worked at the Four Seasons and my credit card was okay. She was just a beginner, I took her up Peruvian Flake (Arches area). She couldn't clean the pro, so I free soloed up and got the gear, thought I'd impress her.
No way. Nothing became of it. Must be my breath or body odor. Or my personality.
Then there was Heather, also from BC, but we worked in a pub in Dublin. Spent a night together, in separate beds. I gave her my Shoenards, never got them back. The idea was to climb in Dalkey Quarry. I was 41 she was 21... would have never worked.
Lynn Hill for sure. From the first time I saw her in the Gunks, preparing for my first 10a toprope and she walks up and asks if I mind if she could go. Are you kidding, I could have watched all day but she soloed it in about 30 seconds.
Mary Jo from the local shop (Appalation Outdoors). I was the punk kid, she was a goddess. Don't know what ever became of her. I still remember climbing a (then) test-piece that her boyfriend couldn't do. Ah to be young and foolish...
Great story, andpartner. Thanks for the pictures and congrats on finding early what many of us search our whole lives for. You are a lucky man - it took me a lot longer, but patience has it's rewards when one is less lucky than you.
I had it all, and now it's gone. Hard to know where to go now. This is a great thead though! So cool to see so many "crushes" that have stood the test of time. Aren't we all so lucky???!!
Let us know!