Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 12:30pm PT
|
Very sad to hear. Condolences to family and friends.
;-(
|
|
DeepGlue
Trad climber
Albany, NY
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 12:45pm PT
|
Heard about this yesterday, and I'm still in shock. I was very lucky to have Andrew in my life. As a climber he was incredibly bold and tough. As a person he was incredibly generous and happy. He got me into ice climbing, and helped me realize that enjoying climbing is about much more than chasing numbers. Just last December I got to spend a day in RMNP with him and cook a couple dinners with his family. My heart is torn apart, but it goes out to them.
|
|
Bargainhunter
climber
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 01:23pm PT
|
What a great video of him talking about math. His excitement is palpable. The world has lost another great one. Condolonces.
|
|
Woody the Beaver
Trad climber
Soldier, Idaho
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 01:40pm PT
|
Gosh, I'm sorry to hear this. I hugely admired his Prow trip report. He seemed severely critical of himself as a wall climber, and I just wanted to give him a big sweaty hug about it. He wrote gracefully and clearly, and wrote fondly of his spouse and kiddo. I'm deeply sorry.
|
|
Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 04:18pm PT
|
Watching the video drives this one home hard. Very upsetting. He was obviously a wonderful man, full of life and with the gift of seeing the world through many lenses. No blinders on this guy.
I pray his wife and daughter will be able to find peace, to go on and live rich and full lives inspired by his memory.
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 04:22pm PT
|
This is one more piece of evidence that each of us, quite independently of the demands of ego, contribute to the web of life in which we live. As the evidence builds up we might consider making that a part of our view of life and of our own place in that web.
|
|
jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 05:22pm PT
|
Andrew Ladislaus Barnes:
Ph.D. Duke University 2003
Dissertation: Electromagnetic Scattering by Three-dimensional Periodic Structures
Mathematics Subject Classification: 78—Optics, electromagnetic theory
|
|
mooser
Trad climber
seattle
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 08:48pm PT
|
So very sad. My genuine condolences to his family, and his friends. What a loss.
|
|
Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Jun 12, 2015 - 10:59pm PT
|
This one got to me more than most. I loved his writing style, and I can't even think of the haul bag photo without getting teary and a pain in my heart. I'm so sorry for friends, family and acquaintances.
|
|
roy
Social climber
NZ -> SB,CA -> Zurich
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 12:22am PT
|
This is very sad news - he has a great smile in all those pictures and so clearly enjoyed life. My condolences to all his friends and family. Roy.
|
|
nita
Social climber
chica de chico, I don't claim to be a daisy.
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 08:57am PT
|
*
Such Sad news...Heartfelt condolence to his Family , friends, and colleagues.
|
|
fberger
Sport climber
bern, switzerland
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 01:18pm PT
|
We went outdoor and climbed with Andrew mostly in NC. Watching his first steps in the gym and on Moore's wall. Trips with him were so wonderful.
Andrew was such a particular person. One we will always remember. Kind, eager to learn, integer, positive, full of joy and dreams, serious about all his activities.
Tragic news. Condolence to his family.
Fabien
|
|
phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 06:42pm PT
|
How truly sad. I send my condolences to all of his friends and most especially to his family.
|
|
rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 13, 2015 - 07:06pm PT
|
For those who know the locale, Andrew was on pitch 1 of CCK, 5.5.
|
|
Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 08:06pm PT
|
Such a bummer . . . Thanks Andrew for setting the standard and being a quality individual. Best of thoughts to his family and loved ones.
|
|
Gunkie
climber
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 08:30pm PT
|
For those who know the locale, Andrew was on pitch 1 of CCK, 5.5.
I've always found that P1 bulge near the top of the long-ish pitch to be a little insecure. Certainly not as solid as cranking the flake on the final pitch.
|
|
Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
|
|
|
Jun 13, 2015 - 09:38pm PT
|
Last week was humid and the Gunks rock can get incredibly slick in humidity. No matter how hard you crush its f*#king bold to be soloing in those conditions.
|
|
rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 14, 2015 - 10:18am PT
|
Andrew's obituary: http://www.newcomeralbany.com/obituary/105104/Andrew-Barnes/Albany-New%20York and http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion-albany/obituary.aspx?n=andrew-ladislaus-barnes&pid=175074970&fhid=22149
Andrew Barnes 14 Sep 1968-10 Jun 2015
Andrew Ladislaus Barnes passed away on 10 Jun 2015 in a climbing accident in the Shawangunk mountains of New York State. He was born in Calcutta, India, the second of four children of Stanislaus and Grace Barnes, both from the vicinity of Mangalore, India.
An idyllic childhood included close contact with an extended family located near Mangalore, Bombay, and Nasik, a loving and encouraging home environment, and a religious upbringing in a devoutly Roman Catholic family.
His basic education, from first to twelfth grade, was obtained entirely at St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Calcutta, under the supervision of Jesuit priests, one of whom, Fr. Goreaux (himself a student of Albert Einstein), ignited Andrew's interest in mathematics, which thereafter became his first
passion.
A scholarship took him across the world to Yale University in the USA, where his elder brother was also studying, and where he obtained his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1992. Yale and its academics made a profound impression on him. Moving on to Duke University for graduate study, he completed his PhD in mathematics some years later.
At Duke, he met and married a fellow student, Natalia Smelova, the true love of his life, who compensated for the mathematician's eccentricities, and kept him connected to everyday life.
Here too, he met Stein and Fabian, two top-notch Swiss rock climbers, who introduced him to the sport that became a second passion, one bordering on obsession. This propelled him to many places over the succeeding years, including Mount Rainier, several trips to the Canadian Rockies, and yearly pilgrimages to the `big walls' of Yosemite.
Both his wife and he had moved to Niskayuna in New York to work at GE Global Research, and in 2004 they were blessed with a lovely daughter, Sophia, who he took great pride in, and whose mathematical education, in particular, he enjoyed supervising.
Andrew was generous, patient and personable, qualities endearing him to many people in both the climbing and professional worlds. Curiously, he managed this while remaining ruthlessly truthful, a fact that was initially disconcerting to some. He believed in not doing things by half-measures. Thus he lived life with uncommon intensity, allowing him to reach both mental and physical heights.
He leaves behind a grieving wife, daughter, parents, three siblings, and many relatives and friends who he touched, and often inspired. The world is a poorer place without him.
A wake will be held on Monday, June 15, 2015, 4-7 p.m. at New Comer Funeral Home, 343 New Karner Rd, Colonie, NY. The Liturgy of Christian Death and Burial will be celebrated at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, June 16, 2015, at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 806 Union St., Schenectady. Interment will follow in Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery, 2501 Troy Schenectady Rd., Schenectady. Contributions may be made in Andrew Barnes' memory to Playground Fund, Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, 617 Sand Creek Rd., Colonie, NY 12205.
|
|
Masalai
Big Wall climber
CA
|
|
|
Jun 14, 2015 - 01:44pm PT
|
The note on the Camp 4 board in Yosemite stood out for its neatness and length, different from the others scrawled on napkins or with faded ink, one of which read, "I wanna climb!" I studied the document and found out someone was soloing Zodiac and accepting a partner if one could make it before he was out of shouting distance. I'd have to hurry. I rose at seven the next morning, packed a toothbrush, food and climbing gear and ran up the half-hour approach to the east side of El Cap to find the wizard behind the note.
Andrew Barnes was standing directly at the base of the first pitch, the only pitch fixed after two days of climbing. Apparently he wasn't the speediest of climbers. I found him to be soft-spoken and eloquent. "Let's do it," I said. We exchanged a hand shake and started climbing, as simple as that.
The climbing was decidedly more complex. When we went to haul the bags after the first two pitches a giant bear (not a figure-of-speech-type giant bear, but an actual GIANT bear) scrambled out of the bushes and jumped on the bags. Laughing and grimacing, we hauled him three feet off the ground before he let go. A mathematician to the bone, Andrew turned out to be slow as a Sherwin-age glacier on the wall, but so fun to talk to I didn't care. We laughed and suffered on the wall for several days before topping out to a gorgeous moonrise through clouds over Half Dome. Short on food, I insisted we hike off in the dark, despite his objections. But watching him pack his bag and slowly lace his boots, and feeling tired myself, I reconsidered. We laid out our sleeping bags on a rock with a view and went to sleep.
A few hours later, Andrew stood up from his bed below the same clouds that had made the moon so beautiful, now swirling overhead, and spoke clearly, "I think we must go down. The weather does not look that great." I tried to ignore my resentment and analyze the situation objectively. A vast, dark blanket, so close I could almost touch it, choked out all traces of light in the sky and hope in my heart, but I was feeling resentful and rolled over and said, "This is the Sierra Nevada. It doesn't rain here." An hour later it dumped.
Rain and snow pureed our clothes as we ran back and forth and then to a slot in the rock as narrow as a library shelf, and climbed in. "This isn't going to work," we agreed. Our bags dirty with slush, we held them close and ran down a hill to a better shelter, by a slight margin. Leaning over like a diving board, the fin of rock was enough to protect half of each of us, so we hunkered down for the night.
In the morning, with snow still falling, we abandoned everything, jumped into fresh powder and rivulets, and fled down the mountain, rappelling on wet, fixed ropes that sloughed their sheaths below our GriGri's. We climbed down cliffs that acted as ramps for all the water. The snow turned to rain, then let up as we stumbled into the valley. We were relieved. I didn't even care when I found that a giant animal had clawed the side of my truck and ripped off a window from my truck's camper shell, for no apparent reason but spite. Through it all, Andrew's steady, stealth enthusiasm never waned.
I only got to climb with him a few times after that outing in 2009 but they were memorable trips too. Keeping in touch by email, I made it to the east coast once and got an encyclopedic tour of the Gunks, Cannon, and Cathedral Ledge. We climbed on wet and frigid granite while other climbers dry tooled beside us. He gave me tips on keeping my hands warm on what was my first ice climbing trip.
His interests were many but hearing him talk about math was the most hilarious of all. He once told me when he would interview candidates for positions at GE, which related to math and something about probability theory, he didn't care about their job histories or education or anything. "I want someone who is violently excited about the subject," he said. That's what I'll remember most, his excitement, and the way he shook and pronounced every syllable in "violently excited."
My condolences to his family and loved ones. I considered him a good friend and will miss him.
Josh McCoy
|
|
divad
Trad climber
wmass
|
|
|
Jun 14, 2015 - 02:02pm PT
|
^^^
Thanks for that. It is so Andrew.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!