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Sonic
Trad climber
Boulder, Co
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Werner -
Here's the best color photo I could find. I was strolling through the used bookstore in Boulder yesterday and ran across Telluride Rocks. This cover is Rob Miller on Ophir Broke, taken by Andrew Sawyer.
I asked Largo about the climb and he said he has never seen a photo of someone on it. I'm going to head out there this summer and will come back with some. The world seems absent of this climb.
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WBraun
climber
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Looks good sonic.
Hope you have a productive trip out there .......
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Crasher
Social climber
Charlottesville
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Sep 23, 2015 - 10:20am PT
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Great thread! I was at school first session in 76. Had 3 guys from my hometown of Martinsville, VA. Buck & George Andrews and myself. Remember I really wanted to learn to kayak, but there was no way I was going to get in the upper lake and learn to roll. Did end up in a kayak on the Yampa/Green Trip - don't know who let me in one I went straight into a hole and barely escaped with my life (at least that's the way I remember it). Ely you were there I remember. Wish I could remember more people. Do remember Bo Calaway's son (dad was a congressman from GA). I think there was a great looking girl from Moline, IL there that summer. We hiked up Engineer Peak on July 4th, that was pretty cool! Remember a long several day hike that ended at Bridal Veil Falls overlooking Telluride, what a view! I had only climbed stairs prior to school and was unprepared for it, but what great fun and sense of accomplishment! Still have a North Face sleeping bag and vest I bought there! Great life lessons taught at that place! I'll try to find some photos. Michael Cross
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Bouboulina
Social climber
Old Chatham new york
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Oct 27, 2015 - 05:56pm PT
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Graduated in 1971. Changed my life. Would anyone have the 1971 graduation photo?
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Jane Van Domelen Reagan
Social climber
Boulder
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I don't know if any of you are still reading this string of posts, but I just happened upon it. My brother was Dan Van Domelen who was the 16 year old that was killed with Kevin Dippy at the Farny's Telluride Mountaineering camp in the late 70's.
I'm wondering if any of you knew Dan. If so, I would really love to hear some stories about him or see any pictures you may have of him. I know it's been 37 years since he died, but he was my older brother and I would love to have any additional memories I could cherish. He has been sorely missed all these years. I still think about him often and wonder what life would have been like if he were here with all of us.
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hfigi
Mountain climber
Bozeman
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HI Jane,
I just found this forum, so sorry for the late reply!
I knew Dan fairly well. I was in Guide School at TMS in 1974 and guided in '76 and '77. Dan was a camper in a couple of those summers. I recall him as an extremely well-liked and friendly boy. He was cheerful and happy, and only slightly goofy befitting a boy his age. He always jumped in to help without being asked, which is one reason Dave asked him to join the crew at such a comparatively young age. He and Kevin were great friends.
In the summer of 1979 I was working for Dave on the Little Annie project in Aspen when Dan and Kevin died. Dave called me over to Telluride to help out as a guide through the balance of the summer. The ranch was somber and in mourning, but everyone was eventually buoyed by the memory of and in respect for Kevin and Dan's optimistic and adventurous spirits.
I was at the memorial - I think at the Aspen Presbyterian Church - and recall the grace of your family - your parents, especially. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine the pain of such a loss. But they were amazingly poised and seemed comforted by the memory of what an absolutely great young man Dan was.
I hope this helps in some small way. Sorry I don't have any photos.
I just found this thread, so will make a few more observations to the page in the event anyone reads this so long after the main posts!
Best regards
Hans Figi
TMS 1974 and 6, 7, 9, I think...
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hfigi
Mountain climber
Bozeman
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Am in Sydney and thrilled to be headed to Tasmania next week to visit with John MIddendorf and his family. I taught John how to climb at TMS when he was about 11 (haha - sort of true). Guess he did ok after that :) I actually wasn't a great climber, preferring the alpinist side of things. On the photo near the front of this thread I am the tall guy in back left (guide school - pre-guiding). John is with the bowl haircut, kneeling behind Tom Stimson, laying out with the Afro...
Hi John Ely. "Sigi" is "Figi', but that's ok - been a long time... Hope you are well. You were a really enthusiastic climber at TMS, i sure recall that.
I was in the death seat of the van that went airbourne near Ophir in "77. Grateful no one died - stopped by a 4" dia Aspen. Ran into Todd Hoitsma in Bozeman three years ago - he asked if I were the same Hans Figi from TMS - he was one of the campers in the van 40 years ago. We did a lot of reminiscing.
Wonder where Mongo (Greg Anderson) is. Lloyd Aiello is a professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard (got most of that right), Saw the Farnys in Helena 2 years ago. Sorry to miss Dave's 80th - I was working in England or would have come. I've seen the video.
Loved the Snow School remembrances. I do recall fixing one camper's braces with my swiss army knife after he failed in a self arrest and went head over heels all the way to the bottom. Can't beleive no one skewered themselves...
Mike Farny and I bivied on top of Wilson Peak with 8 campers. Lightning storm came in at about 2 am and we had to descend in the dark (no headlamps in those days - well there were lightning flashes, which helped). Nuts.
Powdered cheese, Rye Crisps and sardines. Freeze dried jambalaya? Ring a bell?
Lloyd and I used to ferry the food and gear to the Elk Creek camp for climbing school. Took the narrow gauge from Silverton. Meant a lot of hauling while tourists on the train gaped. Also meant we did not have to hike in and were drinking 3.2 Coors around a fire by the time the rest of camp showed up...
Mike Farny and Dippy and I and some others originally found and named Walkabout Canyon on Lake Powell. After HOURS of scrambling and chimneying we eventually reached one "pot hole" that was insurmountable, until we threw a rope with a branch attached over the lip. It caught (barely) and someone (the lightest - Richard Levitan maybe) shimmied up the rope while we spotted him in case of a long fall. It held, he fastened the rope or otherwise belayed and the rest of us followed - to where we had no idea. We made it full circle and swam part way back to the boat. Best adventure EVER. Truly a walkabout. Loved the pothole that you had to run around the outside rim - fast - so the centrifugal force kept you from falling in the pit...
John's copies of Dave's Fish and Owl Creek maps are priceless. That's what we went by all the time ("turn right by the big tree and go two miles..."). On my trip we got nervous on the way out of the canyon and bushwacked to the rim (too early) then hiked in the dark cross country in the desert in what we hoped was the right way. Finally laid down to sleep - out of food and water. Woke up the next day, 50 feet from the road and take out!
I could go on. TMS was an amazing, impossible to repeat series of adventures.
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Hubbard
climber
San Diego
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I moved to Telluride in June of 1979 from San Diego. As a California 18 year old it was tough to make friends with local climbers. Bill Kees and Tim Kudo were silent at my suggestion that we go climbing. They just looked at me like how dare I ask. I did some routes on the red sandstone right above town with Dave, never got his last name. I was almost killed on Ophir Wall by ice-fall. I lived next door to Susan St James the Bond girl and would drink coffee with her in the yard. I worked at Olympic Sport shop with Sam Seagull and Stiff and Buck Pollock who was a ripping skier. Jeff Bassett was a friend and we did plenty of reckless things. Once I fell skiing and was buried head down in a tree well. I would have died but a stranger noticed my skis sticking out and pulled me out. I stayed for exactly one year and then came back to California for college. Telluride was such a great experience. I never dared go back to visit since then for fear of seeing such a cool town built out and overdeveloped.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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I never dared go back to visit since then for fear of seeing such a cool town built out and overdeveloped.
You should have visited, Telluride is far from built out and over developed.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Dec 31, 2017 - 09:30am PT
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the shows that were played in that neck of the woods never failed to resound
with great full soundz
(often a duplicate of a the tried & true show), but
one had to be touring to notice thats just what they do[Click to View YouTube Video]bumping this to make up for past indiscretions
happy new year
get this it is
twenty eighteen!
thats some rides 'round
on this ole roller coaster
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NovaPatrol
Mountain climber
Montrose, CO
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Jan 29, 2018 - 01:46pm PT
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> Graduated in 1971. Changed my life. Would anyone have the 1971 graduation photo?
Just finding this thread... I was first session in 1971.
I don't recall a "graduation photo", though I do have a copy somewhere of the *group* photo taken during our week long rafting trip through Dinosaur Nat'l Monument on the Yampa and Green Rivers, early in the session.
There was a darkroom somewhere at the Skyline Ranch then, and the film was both processed and enlarged into 8x10's there sometime during the session, so we all left with a copy. I will try to find mine, scan it in, and post it here.
I had my dad's old Kodak 35mm camera and shot ~3 rolls of Kodachrome slides during the five or six weeks. Here's my picture of the Wham ridge on Vestal Peak at the start of our climb:
As I recall, there were 11 or 13 (maybe 15) of us that climbed it that day. I was the middle man on the one long rope that had three climbers. And I definitely still recall the 5.6 (or 5.7) crux 80-85% of the way up -- it's the only time I've gotten "sewing machine leg" (also called "Elvis-ing"). I independently discovered there in the moment how to dyno a move, and got through it. When I was back in the area in 2005 the narrow crack/gully we rapped down (E of the face) looked absolutely impassible. I had a pair of cotton fabric gloves on that got burned up by going down the rope so fast.
The trip up into the Grenadiers was just the start of a week long backpack that eventually took us all the way along the Divide to Stony Pass and then on north to Animas Forks (we spent the night there, and a couple of the guys hitched a ride into Silverton to buy candy bars) and then on to where Bear Creek comes down to Highway 550 a few miles above Ouray.
At the end of the session, on nearly one of our last days, we had our choice of what to do, and one of the options was "bagging a 14er". Here's one of the guides cutting steps high on the W slopes of Wilson Peak:
We had had "snow school" earlier in the session lower down on these same slopes.
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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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May 23, 2018 - 09:49am PT
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Just curious how and when this fits in with Dad's Rockcraft Telluride school? It appears to me to be just after we sold the house there, but I think Rockcraft lived on for a few years?
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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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May 23, 2018 - 10:44am PT
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In relation to Post Office Crack, here are Dad's notes. He had a route log devoted to Telluride, Ophir, Crack Canyon, and some random Sierra climbs. If there is another specific climb anyone wants me to look for I will do and post.
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JP Watkins
Trad climber
Moline IL
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Jun 25, 2018 - 11:46pm PT
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Wow! This thread makes me very happy (and a little sad too.)
The absolute best of times. I was there in 1977B as well (standing far left behind Dave.) I recognize and remember fondly a lot of those faces including you two Gilly and JQS :-) But sorry, not many names have stuck with me. I also remember some people (and even names) who I just can’t pick out in the photo.
Yeah, slim pickings on the trail, and unfortunately I was a picky eater! I was pretty slim when I arrived, but I was just a sinewy stick of jerky by the end of that summer! I can’t believe I survived TMS without eating peanut butter (and I still don’t eat it.) At one point, with two days left on the trail, and completely through our own mismanagement, we only had dried onion soup mix and crackers left. So we stupidly made an onion paste and spread on the crackers. We slept the last night in an old mining shack and I’ll just say, no open flames were permitted!
JQS that first morning run made a big impression on me as well. Especially since I was the first one to the lake that morning. I got there and the lake was so smooth and beautiful. And I felt pretty satisfied that I ran up the trail so quickly. Dave was standing on the dock with a big smile and said, “The run’s not over till you jump in!” So I stripped and enthusiastically jumped in, running and jumping as far off the end of the dock as I could. Two surprises—when I hit the water there was a thin <1/4” layer of ice on the lake (that’s why it was so smooth!) and of course it was freezing cold! Dave was laughing so hard as I tried to simultaneously scream and catch my breath as I swam back to the bank as quickly as possible, breaking ice the whole way back. Even the mud lake bottom squeezing up through my toes was cold! :-)
And Crasher, I’m confident that great looking girl from Moline that you remember is my cousin. She’s still the best, and her sister was Sherry’s hired cook in 1977.
I’ll have to see if I can find my slides from that summer. Maybe there will be something worth sharing with folks here (I'm just worried the chrome has degraded.)
I only wish I had attended TMS earlier and more than once. It would have been even better to have come back again with the confidence those weeks awoke in me. But I feel so lucky I got there for that one half summer! All thanks to the Farney Clan and everyone who attended. That summer was the start of several decades of Mountain Joy!
—John Watkins
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JP Watkins
Trad climber
Moline IL
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Jun 26, 2018 - 12:13am PT
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Nova Patrol,
One of my cousins may have access to a photo from around that time, but it may be ‘72. I’ll see what they can do.
Lots of good stuff, John Ely. Really fun to read.
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JP Watkins
Trad climber
Moline IL
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Jun 26, 2018 - 12:35pm PT
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Just curious how and when this fits in with Dad's Rockcraft Telluride school? It appears to me to be just after we sold the house there, but I think Rockcraft lived on for a few years?
Hi Tamara Robbins, from reading elsewhere, I understand the Farneys opened Ashcrofters in 1962. I have also read that they "purchased Skyline Ranch in 1968," and that they "moved operations from Ashcrofters to Skyline Ranch in 1969." Imagining they would want a quick transition, I assume the first climbing school sessions at TMS started in summer of 1969 (but possibly it was 1970 depending on exactly when in the year this move happened.) The summer of 1979 was definitely the last of the TMS sessions. I have also read a few places that your Dad's climbing school in Telluride had its first sessions in 1978 (which makes sense to me since I was unaware of his school when I was at TMS in 1977.)
The sources I have read (a variety of magazine articles and a book "Climb! The History of Rock climbing in Colorado") have a few contradictions and some slightly nebulous or hard to interpret language. Despite this, I think this info is correct.
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JP Watkins
Trad climber
Moline IL
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Jun 30, 2018 - 08:54pm PT
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NovaPatrol,
I love the Kodachrome, but mine has been pretty contrasty and has also tended to fade over the years. I need to digitize it all soon, or it will be irretrievable. I have a few tricks that have helped though. When I find my TMS slides and scan them I'll put them up and see how they are. If you like the results and are interested, I'll let you know what helped.
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