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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Apr 30, 2016 - 07:57pm PT
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Yes, Jim Wilson.
I knew both and climbed with both.
There was "Wild" Jim Wilson, slightly older than we were, a great guy and hardcore. He may have been a few years older.
And there was Rubideoux (sp?) Jim Wilson. Rubideoux was of my era. My first ascent of Valhalla was with JW in '74. We were the same age, climbing together since '74-, graduated from high school in '75. He led the crux.
I don't remember much about "Wild Jim" but that on one occasion we all hiked up to "One Hour Rock," and did a number of FA's. I think Clark was there and maybe Matt Cox or RV. We did 4 or 5 routes and all were FA's.
This was before Dr. F was born.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Hey Vikki!
We're not done yet!!!
Here's some good stuff to go through: links to a couple of reunion threads.
TONS of pictures.
(You'll find some missing pictures/broken links with red Xs. It happens with the older threads)
The first reunion, Kevin Powell and his partner Laura hosted in 2006:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/181502/Official-JT-Old-Folks-Reunion-Photo-Neb-4-15-16-2006
The second installment, NOT to be missed!
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=182828&f=0&b=0
In 2008, I put together the second reunion at the Dry Lake campground, on the edge of Joshua Tree:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/574993/70-s-Joshua-Tree-Crew-Redux-2008
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... also, Vik, you mentioned Maria, Lynn, and Mari.
Still HOTTIES ... in every sense of the term!
photo, Dave Wonderly
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Guy said: And Roy, Jan was a Valley Boy and so was Mike Pope, Jim Wilson (wild jim)Shawn Curtis, Dean ...
Thanks for filling the group out Guy!
Of course Dean Fidelman was a Stony Point local.
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BULLWINKLE TAPS THE FLOYD
By the end of 1976 Munoz and I were making our first forays into the sandy pit of graffiti and pink sandstone boulders that is Stony Point. During 1977 we became regulars.
There were the omnipresent teenage brothers who bouldered exclusively in mountain boots. The young greyhounds had narrow set eyes, sharp noses, and bowl-cut dark brown hair. They were highly skilled and the toes of their boots were totally blown out. They floundered at the real crags, but at Stony, they were little kings.
Scott Loomis a.k.a. The Old Man, was something of a self-driven prodigy. He must've been 12 or 13 years old. Bob Kamps was there, and he would boulder with the young Loomis, giving lessons in immaculate footwork and edging skills. We'd occasionally see Largo and Kevin Powell and Mari and others. We called Kevin "Popeye" for his nasal repartée and wicked strength-to-weight ratio.
Under the eucalyptus trees one smoggy afternoon, a long hair jumped up and grabbed the opening holds to a sort-of-high boulder problem called Pink Floyd. He stuck the holds and his feet swayed out from the overhanging rock. He stabilized, feet still free from the stone, and flung a dyno out left with his right hand, slapping for a gutsy crossover. He latched the hold, making an X pattern with his forearms. Feet still hanging away from the rock, he bumped his left hand to another hold.
I watched intently and counted the moves: dyno entry onto pinch-grip holds in an overhanging wall. Two successive dynos from those holds to grab the next two handholds, all with no feet. Only then did he bring his feet onto the available foot smears and continue his acrobatics, and high enough from the ground to get hurt. His ascent looked practiced, but really elegant and definitely powerful … maybe a little dangerous.
"And that is how you do that, boys."
I was beginning to see this bouldering thing really had potential!
We didn't know exactly why the dude was called Bullwinkle. True, he was lanky and had a rack of hair ... I never learned where his nickname came from, or I've simply forgotten. From Dean I learned about bouldering with gusto. I also learned that once you break bread with him, he'll back you up when you need it!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Shawn Curtis
"Hey man, somebody send me up a reefer or something, FAST!"
That was the first and last time I'd ever heard Shawn asking for stoner supplies. He had just led Stick to What out at Echo T in Josh, circa 77 or early 1978. The sun was bright, we were all young, some of us just on spring break from high school, and the crystalline monzonite was sharp to the touch.
Levi cutoff shorts, EB's, scraggly red hair and a mock-histrionic display. Summoning reefer at his belay stance. I knew I liked Shawn right away, just from his self-effacing, cool-but-concerned style. Pat Nay was there that day too, fresh from his military stint in Germany, wearing an Edelrid chest harness.
It wasn't until the end of 1978 that I met him, when Shawn had returned from a trip to Canada and invited E, Fred Ziel and I to come down to San Diego to take a look at his slides from his trip to the ice fields.
"Man, just look at those glaciers and crevasses! How cool would it be to take acid in that setting!
It kind of hit me as a bit much, but Shawn had a bubbly enthusiasm that made it seem possible.
"Check out those taco shells I had to climb through on this next mixed section!
E and Fred and I went on a few climbing trips together. I didn't make it down to San Diego again for another couple of years, so really getting to know Shawn would have to wait. But we did pass through on our way to climb the Pan Am in late '79.
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Fred Ziel, on the Pan Am, Great White Throne, October 1979:
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Summer of 1981, some of the Sheep Buggerers and most of the Joe Boys were all up in Tuolumne. Those club names were beginning to wear off.
By this time, having left Southern California for Mammoth Lakes in spring of 1980, I was pretty much an independent actor, and had ties to several groups of climbers hailing from Southern California, Yosemite, and the east side of the Sierra. (By the End of 1981 and Early 1982, Russ and I would become solid pals).
Shawn was there that summer. So was Tim Sorenson. Shawn was big into his photography at that point. He took a lot of pictures of us that summer. Peter Wilkeney was around as well. I was very driven by this time, almost antsy, and it was kind of obvious.
At one point Peter and some others said I should just chill out and drink a beer.
Tim and I had climbed Inverted Staircase on Fairview. The campground was free. I decided my relaxation program would include renovating a lawn chair with the help of a 2 inch swami. Tim and I attacked it like it really mattered and Shawn took pictures.
Shawn's sister has that photograph and a whole bunch of pictures which he took of us that year.
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Here's a few of shots which Shawn created that summer of 1981:
Mike Pope, On the Lamb, Tuolumne:
Photo, Shawn Curtis
Sir David Evans, The Vision, TM:
Photo, Shawn Curtis
Tarbuster, clowning around on Crescent Arch with Budweiser and reefer, trying, per Peter Wilkeney, to CHILL:
photos, Shawn Curtis
One of my favorite of Shawn's pictures of the 80s crew.
Connie Tobia, Tarbuster, Russ Walling, Mike Paul, Dimitri Barton, Glacier Point, 1982:
Photo, Shawn Curtis
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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Maria, Mari and Lynn are three more than pretty incredible Gals both climbing wise and in the human being category. Great picture of them!
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Roy, I remember the ascent of Crescent Arch, it was the so called "Beer Ascent."
I'm a little surprised to see cams in use.
That was you, me and Shawn.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Shawn and Jim Angione and I had a memorable ascent of the East Face of Whitney roughly during that time period. It was our first time up the famous peak. We took a rope but I didn't use it and those guys only used it for the crux. We drove up there in Shawn's convertible.
We were camped at the lake the night before and saw a most remarkable rockfall off the ridge below Day Needle.
A suburban house sized block cut loose. We watched in awe as it fell, then hit and broke into multiple train car sized chunks. Then it was 2 dozen VW vans and then it continued to disintegrate.
To this day I've never seen anything like it except on Youtube videos.
I love how a thread like this jars the memory.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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I've got a couple of color prints that Shawn took and developed in his bathroom darkroom. I'll try and find them, scan and post.
He had an artist's sensibility and demeanor.
It's no wonder he had trouble dealing with regular life, sort of like Vangogh.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Not to mention his abilities on the piano!
Yes, Dave, I remember you being on that Crescent Arch ascent and this is in my notes.
Say, think you could dig up, from your notes, an ascent you and I and Lechlinski made of Zeno's Paradox at Tahquitz?
Most of my notes for that time frame have been reverse engineered, but they are getting pretty darn good at this point.
I have it as ~ June of 1979.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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sort of like Vangogh
Remember Shawn had done some sort of spoof, putting his face in something like a Rembrandt self-portrait?
At the least, he looked like those Dutch guys on the cigar boxes. Ha ha.
Rembrandt:
(just add a goatee and you've got Shawn!)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Sadly,
I don't have a single picture of Shawn from BITD.
He took a boatload of me, to include attempts at constructing a modeling portfolio.
Bullwinkle looked at the photos and said: "Roy, you look like Mike Paul. Don't models need to have hair?"
Ha ha ha ha.
.......................................
You know who can really tell great Shawn stories: Nick Badyrka.
Russ, of course, has a few good ones.
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2016 - 09:25pm PT
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Got any photos of Nick Badyrka, Roy?
Is he still around or post here?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Negative on photographs of Nick. He does post occasionally.
But if you look at that Rembrandt portrait, he sort of has Nick's eyes.
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Bushman
climber
The state of quantum flux
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2016 - 10:05pm PT
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Didn't Nick take a seventy foot face slappin' whipper on Medlicott that summer? I think I remember that was him.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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OK Roy, I have the "2nd ascent" of Xenos Paradox 5.11 in August 1979. Yup, You and Mo and I. One of you 2 led it.
My other notes from that weekend are as follows.
Jonah 5.10d Roy and Dave Katz........(LOL, how about that?)
and
White Maiden 5.7 (must have been a variation), free solo with Roy.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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But, most of all, thanks for reminding me of Shawns virtuoso ability on the keyboards.
Remember going over to the Tuolumne Lodge in the evening and Shawn would hold forth on the (grand?) piano!?!?
Damn he was good!!!
Those were the days.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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IIRC Nick's big fall was a few years earlier. I want to say 1977.
It was on Wrinkle in Time, Medlicott.
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On Zeno's, Mo led the 10d fist crack.
We were definitely using friends by then, and I found it interesting that he protected it mostly with large hexes.
I led the 5.11 face crux. I had to do a one arm lock-off!
This was a big deal for me.
Although I had done lots of bouldering and top roping with the Stonemasters the winter prior, this was my first time roping up with Mo, and maybe you as well, Dave.
I had forgotten it was the second ascent!
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Yes, Dave, Jonah with Dave Katz.
Here's a good little ditty from that day:
Katz was all psyched to tell us he had done Sh#t for Brains.
To which you replied: "How apropos ..." Ha ha.
[edit] hahahaha
V V V
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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We did give "The Inflatable Man" a lot of sh#t in those days!
Sorry about that Dave!
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Up front apologies to Mr. Katz (I love you Dave), but I feel compelled to toss this out.
One time Dave had had enough, he was fed up with all the "Inflatable" BS. We are all at Suicide and Dave comes up to Mo and is ready to throw down.
All the usual suspects are present.
Dave says something like "I'm sick of you guys calling me "The Inflatable Man!"" "You need to stop it!"
He is REALLY PISSED and we are expecting fisticuffs possibly. Dave is SuperCut and there's no telling who would come out on top.
Mo calmly replies "OK, we'll call you "Inflatable Dave."
The subsequent laughter took all the wind out of Dave's sails.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Jim Angione!?
I think I cImbed with him.
That rings bells?
Seems like a name I know from around, 88?
Maybe in JTree? Or the Meadows?
After my earliest memories, from the late 70s - but before the 90s
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