Remembering Royal

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Messages 1 - 4 of total 4 in this topic
Inventioneer

Boulder climber
Mountain View, CA
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 25, 2017 - 07:33pm PT
Forgive me if I am posting this in tears, but learning of Royal's death just today on top of learning that my Iraq War combat veteran son is back on meth has overwhelmed me.

I'm a has-been climber. I haven't climbed since 2000, the year of my 50th birthday. I really don't miss climbing, I suppose it's a sign of old age maturity to let go of the passions of our youth, but I do miss the characters of climbing I interacted with back in the day. Just as I was saddened to hear of Bob "Monkey Man" Kamps' death (I bouldered with him at Stoney Point), so it is that to learn of Royal's death earlier this month is especially poignant for me because he and I had an on-going correspondence when I was still climbing in the 1990s.

I still have the letter from Royal from sometime in 1993 in which he said I had challenged him to write what could be his finest dissertation on the challenges of transformation and adjustment that aging athletes face. It's the only letter from Royal I saved.

In 2012 I met up with Royal at the REI near Monterey, and we chatted about Pat Ament and Barry Bates (who I went to college with) and others. Royal looked really good for his age. I assumed he'd live to 100.

The old guard of climbing -- myself not excepted -- is dying off. Royal was a unique man and great pioneer of Yosemite big wall climbing. Rest in peace!!
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Apr 25, 2017 - 07:53pm PT
The old guard of climbing -- myself not excepted -- is dying off.

That has been the case for 200 years.
guyman

Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
Apr 26, 2017 - 10:01am PT
Inventioneer..... why did you stop climbing?

I to miss Bob Kamps and so does Stoney Point. Every time I go to SP (2x week) I say hi to Bob. I say hi to Bob when I manage to do the "Scrambled Eggs" problem, "Pot Hole" or the "Bob Problem". He lives on!

Climbing, at whatever level, is a challenge to my body and mind and it still delivers the goods to me after I get my ass up something, no-matter the difficulty or grade.

To climbers of my age Royal was the Teacher for all things rockclimbing, the man who showed us the way to climb with style and purpose and maybe find something better in life.

So go and tie on a pair of boots and pull down again, feel alive, remember your friend- and the good times.

We are all headed for the end, keep fighting.

peace to you.



Inventioneer

Boulder climber
Mountain View, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 26, 2017 - 09:24pm PT
I quit climbing, "Guyman", at age 50 for two reasons: 1.) I still had four minor kids who depended on me, and after a crazy free-solo at age 50 I had a religious experience and realized that deliberately jeopardizing my existence was "the only blasphemy"; 2.) I was tired of cortisone injections in my finger, elbow and shoulder joints all due to the stresses from climbing. I'm an accomplished pianist and composer of eclectic piano music, so playing piano is EXTREMELY important to me. I can play piano to the age of 100 but not if I sacrifice my fingers in pursuit of something only young people should be doing.

Anyway, I really don't want this to be about me. My post was to honor the memory of "RR". He and I had a special rapport that transcended climbing. Royal had moved way past climbing, and it's unfair for any of us to drag his memory in toto back to that time of his life. He was way more than that.
Messages 1 - 4 of total 4 in this topic
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