Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 08:19pm PT
|
+1 Cragman
|
|
Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 08:26pm PT
|
Eric and Lin O. were my first desert climber friends when I moved to the SW in 1980. From day one, Eric was my pal and we spent many hours "chewing the fat" about desert climbs and adventures. After I moved away, we corresponded by mail for years, and every spring break I would return and always stop by to visit Eric and have a chat or go out for a meal or a beer....for 23 years in a row we went back to the SW;..always visiting Eric as customary....it was mega-awesome. At Xmas, he always sent one of his cool hand made glass ornaments, and always a cheerful heartfelt letter. I sent him a lot of info on climbing on the Rez for his first guidebook;...he was facinated by it, very appreciative, and treated it like it was actually something worthy and cool (which remains to be seen;......some fairly "challenging" rock). Everytime we visited Eric, he was always very happy to see me...and me to see him. Often we would invade his small trailer with fairly large party group;......he was always very welcoming and stoked to have climbers visit. He was eager to share info, collect info, share a photo or a book, tell a story, or hear a story. I saw Eric's slide show in Moab at the rock shop once;...the pictures were awesome;...even the ones he "lifted" from me and made copies of when he was working on the original desert rock one (one of the best guidebooks on earth climbers have agreed on)......I was sort of pissed and honored at the same time;...pissed that he "borrowed" my photos without permission;...honored that he borrowed my pictures and thought they were cool enough to have in his show. Eric was the coolest;........quirky, awesome, sincere, gimpy, and always Eric-like. I looked up to him a lot, and appreciated his friendship over the years;......especially when I really didn't have many friends in the area;...I had Eric and Lin.....then later Kyle and Steve Swanke. I was very fortunate to call Eric my good friend. Rest in peace, my dear pal;......and thank you for everything.........thank you so........
|
|
BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 08:36pm PT
|
Very sad to hear of Eric's passing, he was the consummate desert rat and his guidebooks inspired many fine adventures...
|
|
Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 09:14pm PT
|
I never got close to meeting him, but just as consumer of his Desert Rock book: Thanks dude. Que te vaya bien.
These are from Matt's daughter Heidi. She mostly dropped out of climbing and gave it to me when I started (too infrequently) going down to the Desert South West. She has friends down there and still visits more or less yearly.
sorry about the quality. I can actually scan them if there is interest.
PS: can anyone effing believe that 91 was 20+ years ago?
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 10:11pm PT
|
sorry to hear.
back when i was a grommie, eric helped to inspire me to move from pwn to sw.
condolences
|
|
Rob Roy Ramey
Trad climber
Colorado
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 10:30pm PT
|
I will never forget a white-knuckle ride up the River Road to Castle Valley with Eric at the wheel, hours after meeting him. It was dark, rain falling, and Eric was gunning his old Volvo sedan at high speed. The tires would groan with a low-pitch squeal on curves, while Eric was sipping red wine from a large mug, stories flowing, and all the while, a wiper without a blade drug back and forth across the windshield in front of me and with that horrendous, fingernails-across-the-blackboard sound on every stroke. I thought for sure we were going to die.
That night, we weren't going climbing, we on our way to measure bighorn sheep skulls for my dissertation research. The goal was to determine the evolutionary origins of the area's now extinct native bighorn population. Eric took an interest in the project, and with great enthusiasm, made sure that I had access to every bighorn sheep skull in or near Moab: in private homes, NPS storerooms, and sitting among fossils or hanging from the wall in Lin Ottinger's rock shop. This was the first one on his mental list.
Three years later, we were standing in the snow on the Island in the Sky collecting blood and parasite samples from bighorn sheep, brought in one-by-one slung under a helicopter, for processing and radio-collaring. The goal then, was to answer a long-standing question about whether the parasite that killed off bighorn across large swaths of the West, starting 150 years ago, were native to bighorn or introduced with domestic livestock. It isn't easy to find someone to join you on a freezing cold day to dig scabs crawling scabies mites out the ears of bighorn sheep, but there Eric was.
Many of you remember Eric as a friend and great climber, or and later as guidebook writer, and a lucky few, as a mentor. I will remember him for these reasons, but also doing his part to give back answers to the land he loved.
Thank you Eric.
Rob Roy Ramey II, Ph.D.
P.S. The answers: The native Canyonlands bighorn were a branch of desert bighorn sheep. The respiratory disease that killed them off was introduced from contact with domestic sheep. The scabies mites were introduced with domestic sheep and/or other livestock. The ~1.5myr divergence between bighorn and domestic sheep explains the susceptibility of bighorn to these pathogens and parasites, and the necessity to prevent contact between them.
|
|
crunch
Social climber
CO
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 10:50pm PT
|
|
|
Roughster
Sport climber
Vacaville, CA
|
|
|
Dec 17, 2014 - 11:43pm PT
|
Bummer :(
|
|
Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 02:13am PT
|
The man was as much a part of the fabric of climbing as anyone!!
He felt deeply, and the level of purity and care for the wild spaces that he inspired must be maintained in his honor.
RIP
a great desert rat has passed, and left us with a legacy of greatness.
|
|
pix4u
climber
Sonoma, CA
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 07:17am PT
|
When I got a flurry of emails this morning concerning Eric, it turned out that what I suspected had happened...his passing. He had been a friend of mine since 1960. In recent years I visited him at his different residences in Moab. He was always very engaging. I last talked to him on the phone earlier this year, urging him to complete his yet unfinished autobiography of his fascinating life (as I have done several times over the last 15 years). Yet it never did get finished and that is a loss to the mountaineering world. I'm attaching a few images along with this post.
|
|
pix4u
climber
Sonoma, CA
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 07:20am PT
|
Another more recent image with Eric in it.
|
|
Manny
Social climber
tempe
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 07:43am PT
|
RIP Sir. Your book was the key to my love of Canyonlands and the Wingate rock. You inspired many and I was pleased I got to at least meet you.
|
|
wbw
Trad climber
'cross the great divide
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 07:58am PT
|
Hey Rob Ramey, how long ago did the desert bighorn vanish from Canyonlands. I ask because I feel like I've seen them in Taylor Canyon in the last 10 years. (Ok, maybe the last 15, not sure.)
Maybe turning the unfinished autobiography of Eric into a biography would be a good project for a prolific photographer and writer like Mr. Cooper.
|
|
Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 09:32am PT
|
Heckuva nice guy and climbing icon. Always wanted to touch base with him again in Moab...heavy sigh...
He sent me a small stained glass piece years ago, along with a few of his guidebooks.
What a history!
|
|
o-man
Social climber
Paia,Maui,HI
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 09:50am PT
|
RESPECT !
|
|
adrian korosec
climber
Tucson
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 09:56am PT
|
I'll never forget my first trip to the CO Plateau in the early 90's with your book in hand staring up at those great towers realizing a new world was opening up to me.
Thanks Eric!
|
|
J-Dub
Trad climber
Durango, CO
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 10:11am PT
|
I met Eric on my first desert trip in 1984, and will never forget our first "climb" together - driving out the River Road drinking beers, back to Moab for more beer, then down to the White Rim all the way to where we could glimpse Moses, then out the Potash Road - all in a day - by day's end I was sloshing with beer and overflowing with desert climbing history.
In 1985, we drove out to Merrimac Butte to attempt the first ascent - we climbed the first pitch of what would later become the Hyper-Crack on the Anchor Chain (later finished by Jimmy Dunn, John Bouchard, Eric, and Lin Ottinger). We never climbed together again, but it didn't matter, as the many visits we had, poring over route beta, storytelling, and sharing meals and wine, were just as rich.
When Eric asked me to write a biography of him for the updated Desert Rock series (along with a low-impact desert climbing piece), I knew there were other climbers far more qualified, but I humbly accepted, and in the process was amazed at the diverse life he had led.
Eric was a kind and generous man, and we visited often through those years. He was in love with climbing and the desert, and I know he'll always be out there among the wind and towers . . . Fare thee well my friend, and thank you -
Jeff Widen
|
|
dugillian
Trad climber
Vancouver
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 10:40am PT
|
Condolences to friends and family.
Desert Rock is uber classic.
|
|
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2014 - 12:09pm PT
|
hey there say, all... i did not yet learn about him...
thank you for sharing, and sharing about how special he was...
my condolences to his family and loved ones, at this sad hard, time,
of his passing, and of missing him... :(
prayers for you to stay strong, as you move ahead, without him...
god bless...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!