The 1980's. The missing history. Players.

He asked me once to go on one of those and it's a 50 foot pile of sh!t that goes nowhere.

I start laughing at what he wants to climb.

He'll do anything.

Too funny ......

When I think of that time, I think of all the colourful, high energy personalities. To name a few:
Don Reid
Grant Hiskes
Russ Walling
John Yablonski
Mike Lechlinksi
Al Swanson
Steve Schneider
Mike Lechlinski
Rick Cashner
Mike Corbett
Steve Bosque
Tory Johnson
Dan McDivett
Tracy Dorton
Scott Cosgrove
Kurtz Smith
Jo Whitford
Bill Russell
Rick Albushcat
Michael J Paul
Roland Arsons
Steve Gerberding
Dean Fidelman (almost unique in his notion to take some pictures)
Dave Schultz
Werner Braun

but from little backwater areas like Smith Rock and Shelf Rd to name a few.

The Hockey Dawn ascent was memorable for the three days of storms we climbed through and the massive earthquake on the last day.

This thread really captures the ambiance of the eighties, like Walleye said.

Wade, maybe you still think the multiple incidents of vandalism regarding my vehicle in Yosemite is funny....me?...not so much.

But then I see this nitpicky age-old battle taking over the thread. Maybe Bob DA is right. But somehow I don't recall it that way.

The sixties and seventies seem well understood and well documented, but not so with the 80's, or not to my knowledge.

Remember when Doug Robinson suggested everybody just climb to climb and quit recording all of it? That didn't work!

...how do you know?

Clearly, people have done climbs that have not been recorded

And Julie Brugger was killin' the offwidths still in the 1980s.

Lots of little stories of colourful personalities.

Take Dave Altman for instance. He lived in Berkeley, and would sojourn to Yosemite a few times every year with some hardcore project climbs in mind, which he would steadfastly and progressively achieve. We called him, "the world's strongest man", he was one of the few who could do a bonafide set of one arm pull-ups. He often carried a well worn ancient book about amazing human feats--I was most impressed with the picture of the two brothers, one doing a one-arm handstand, with the other hand holding a rope taught to a tree. The other brother was doing a handstand on the suspended rope (this was at a time we were refining and advancing the webbing tightrope techniques pioneered by Jeff and Adam).

But Dave's favourite was a man holding a 10 pound bowling ball by a pin. He considered it one of the more amazing feats in the book, and he had built himself a series of training tools to replicate the feat, and would frequently update us on his progress over the years. Never knew if he eventually mastered that particular feat, but many others in the book he had done.

I was born down in Visalia in the 80's. Did you guys hear about that when you were up in the valley? It was a pretty big deal.

1987
Peter Croft solos Astroman
Peter Croft FA Excellent Adventure 5.13c
Peter Croft climbs Cosmic Debris
Peter Croft solos Fish Crack

A Dog's Roof

I was born down in Visalia in the 80's. Did you guys hear about that when you were up in the valley? It was a pretty big deal.