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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 21, 2018 - 10:13pm PT
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Sitting around this evening drinking beer after dinner with Steve Grossman (a common occurrence), we got talking about the old days (another common occurrence), and about Supertopo (yet another common subject), and somehow the subject of the wreck came up.
Steve was never part of rec.climbing, and I tried to link it to ST for him, but wound up stumbling. As in, "sure, there are probably dozens of us who made the transition... Uh, well... no... I can't name dozens..."
When he pressed me, the only people I could be certain of were Craig (Dingus Milktoast), Greg (the monkey of steel), Kath (ekat), and me (David).
Okay, there are a couple of drive-by posters. Slime, maybe MadDog, but who else?
Anybody out there in ST-ville who arrived via the wreck? Gotta be some history here...
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Russ Walling
Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
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Mar 21, 2018 - 10:15pm PT
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I was Wrekked... still use it as a resource sometimes
Russ Walling
4/26/99
Ed Huckle wrote:
>
> Many times while driving to the Sierras I see these huge rock walls just
> a few miles north of Olancha California. They are located about a mile
> off of the west side of the 395. Does anyone know if there are any
> routes there?
>
> Thanks,
> Ed Huckle
These are the Crystal Geyser Crags, named after the nondescript blue metal
building that houses their bottling operation. The middle of the 4 "towers"
has the longest routes. There is a 9 pitch 5.7 with a very exposed crux
section comprised of crimping large feldspar knobs about 2 feet above a
bolt. Very serious lead. The guy who runs the shipping dock is known for
hiking up there on his lunch hour and solo-drilling new lines. Some of
these will be 10-34 pitches long (depending on rope length) and quite
exciting. The crags have an access lean put on them by Crystal Geyser Corp
so that only employees of Crystal Geyser can climb up there, unless you
have the necessary "poop-free" permit....only available by inspection at
the plant. Seems some roughneck redtag jumpers from Bakersfield were
bagging all the good lines and taking huge dumps in the rivulet that leads
directly to the bottling facility. Very unpleasant. Maybe this situation
will change in the future, but for now just suck it up, clean your pipes and
go on in for the inspection. Nurse Ralph is very gentle.
hope this helps,
Russ
FishProds
4/7/94
(Quang-Tuan Luong) writes:
>>I understand that it does not provide a good storm shelter, but
>>how uncomfortable is it compared to a portaledge, and compared
>>to a bad (real) ledge ?
On a scale just devised in my head, calling on past experiences, mostly
unpleasant, here's what I think: (using the star rating system with 5 being
best)
Moms bed when you are a child: 5
Your own bed, after a 100 mile hike: 5
Your own bed on most nights: 4
The livingroom floor with your girlfriend: 4
A FISH (blatant plug) portaledge 2000 feet up, in the summer: 4
El Cap tower with 3 ensolite pads: 3.5
El Cap tower with no ensolite pads: 2.5
Camp 4 on the Nose, with 3 ensolite pads: 2
Tied up naked, on your own front lawn, with all your neighbors laughing,
pointing, and pouring icewater on you, after a 100 mile hike: 1
A hammock: 0
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Mar 21, 2018 - 10:17pm PT
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I posted to it 1995-2003
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 21, 2018 - 10:22pm PT
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Ahhh...wreck.climbing...
There's a few folk here that posted on the wreck.
I met and climbed with a number of folks through that site. Still keep in touch with most.
Cheers!
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Mar 21, 2018 - 10:29pm PT
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I helped found rec.climbing, but my first priority was keeping rec.bicycling and then the six subnewsgroups I split that into in 1992 going so I didn't post much on rec.climbing. Those of you who were on the rec.climbing site in the early days might remember my primer for climbing in Yosemite Valley which was first posted in 1992.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.climbing/BjGDJOOw604
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Mar 21, 2018 - 11:21pm PT
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I found the wreck only in the 21st century. The decline of the wreck was a big topic when I first checked in. There was a lot good writing there. (Steve m)
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Mar 22, 2018 - 12:02am PT
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I posted to rec.climbing from 95-99, according to google. Only 20 messages. When I first discovered ST, I didn't sign up for a while, as there was too much hard core climbing content from people like Peter Croft, Bachar, etc. I didn't want to dilute that with my modest ramblings. I got over it, though.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 04:19am PT
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Oh yeah, I treaded those waters; tiblocs and flamethrowers, Brutus, Slime and others.......
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Mar 22, 2018 - 04:21am PT
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Long, long time ago
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 04:42am PT
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Oh yeah...
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 22, 2018 - 04:44am PT
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I made eight posts there.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 04:59am PT
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I posted on rec.climbing, from 1992 to 2007.
Eventually it got kinda wrecked by Jeff Batten's trolling, and people moved over here. Then he trolled people here for awhile.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
Valles Marineris
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:19am PT
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I think I was 'Gunkie' on rec.climbing, too. EDIT: Yep, just checked. Good times.
RE-EDIT: I just looked. It seems I was mostly posting under my real name when the world was new. June 1994 was my first post on rec.climbing. 24 years ago I was 30 years old, really fit, climbing and surfing like crazy, doing stupid stuff just to do stupid stuff and BK (before kids). And OMG, I was using Delphi internet service!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:20am PT
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I believe so.....
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:46am PT
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I was there, and a few other places, until the fish sent me a link to this place in '03, and I saw the, lite...
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:46am PT
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Present. It was a interesting place. I was running FreeBSD in those days and used Tin as my reader. I liked Tin. Two good things about usenet was the killfile and no back editing or deleting of posts. So you'd better mean what you wrote.
Batten might have been a little too much involved, when I climbed with him, it was a major topic of conversation. He really liked the Double Cross bolt troll.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:47am PT
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April 1st is almost upon. Us....
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Mar 22, 2018 - 06:26am PT
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hey there say, ghost... i saw it... and skimmed a few reads, but never thought to stay there... or, join in...
however... i saw my brother's name here... and folks seemed to like him...
so-- any place that liked my brother, had to have 'real people' at least, :)
plus-- supertopo just 'sounded neat' ... and the trip reports,
at the time i joined in were neat, and full of info, and camaraderie...
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 07:20am PT
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Brutus was the best.
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ExfifteenExfifteen
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 07:37am PT
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yes, but not exactly as the ExfifteenExfifteen... but close...
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Russ Walling
Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
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Mar 22, 2018 - 08:56am PT
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I think the tedious war between (if memory serves) Madog and Sulam brought the whole thing crashing down. Batten lorded over that place, and Slime was, well.... slime.
What about that car to car time of like 16 minutes to do Crimson Chrysalis that was heavily disputed for about 11 years? Who were those guys?
or ROKKOR... that dude was a hoot, or was it a w00t?
Batten Vs Pappen and the Nose saga?
That place is a goldmine!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:07am PT
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Looks like my first posting was in May 1992 and it went downhill from there.
Ha ha ha.
Met a lot of great people through the wreck and climbed with a bunch of them. It was a great community for a long time. Can't believe after all these years, I haven't met or a least run into DMT in the flesh.
The Crimson Chrysalis saga was about Tony Bubb's car-to-car claim.
Tony's in the Boulder area these days.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:13am PT
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OK. Here's a question for all you rec.climbing types out there(Clint can't play because he's so smart he probably knows the answer:-))
From what already existing "rec." group did rec.climbing emerge?
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:18am PT
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^^ You poor bastard. That can mean only one thing.
Yer gunna die!
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D Murph
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:25am PT
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I read it regularly in the late '90s through 2001 / 2002. Never posted very much so I doubt anyone remembers me but it was fun to lurk. Eric Coomer gave me a sandwich once in the valley, but I never climbed with anyone from that group (well, Clint, but that was because of a different group not the rec). I read it through pine.
Dennis Murphree
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dh
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:31am PT
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Whoa. Memory lane. Lots of posting (93-97) while a PhD student at Cal. Enjoyed it. Nate B, Eric Coomer, and so many others.
Good times.
Dave Hill (dfhill)
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:32am PT
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^^^ From rec.backcountry?
Remember the meltdown between A. Tarr and ???. It was any eyeopener for me that people could get so worked up over some ASCII text.
Yeah, Brutus was absolutely fantastic. His writing inspired my writing almost too much. Too much 'cause I'm not as good a writer.
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Happiegrrrl2
Trad climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:36am PT
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When I first came on here, some of you were waxing poetic about the god old rec.climbing days, and would sometimes provide a crumb trail so I could get in and look around.
It felt a little bit like wandering into a dank, dark, bar filled with locals who all knew each other, and anyone unfamiliar walking in would be intimidated, interrogated and/or intentionally ignored until they passed some sort of acceptance barrier.
Since all the active ones were here anyway, it didn't seem much worth trying to fit in over there. But I may have tried anyway; that would be my MO, but I don't recall.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:44am PT
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Darwin,
you are correct! rec.backcountry!
rec.backcountry got started because before that there was just an E-mail list server for climbing discussions on the Arpanet/Internet. Unfortunately, the list server was moderated and the moderator, who was down at CalTech, was not very good. He kept moderating all sorts of things that didn't need to be moderated so a few of us got fed up with him and started rec.backcountry.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:51am PT
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yep, rec'd for a couple years. Good resource and lots of humor.
That's how I came across ST.
I still recall Lord Slime's handle and Brutus of Wyde's handle as being stand out names.
Side note to handles and IRL... for the most part I still don't know who you people are. Then I get Facebook requests and I'm like, 'is that that guy from the taco?' If you're are, best to remind me of the associations, else I'm afraid of letting the trolls on the Bookface.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Mar 22, 2018 - 11:22am PT
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batten was awesome
remember when trolling was about asking ridiculous and amusing questions in order to provoke outraged responses from people who didn't get the joke, instead of straight up hating?
RIP Jeff
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 12:07pm PT
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"Like"
I didn't even have a computer until five years back...
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Mar 22, 2018 - 01:08pm PT
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I lurked on rec.climbing.
But mostly I was on rec.music.gdead. That and The WELL.
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crøtch
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 02:05pm PT
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I posted there from the late 90s until it died. Great format and capabilities. The only thing missing from usenet IMO was the ability to embed photos inline.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Mar 22, 2018 - 02:17pm PT
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It helped me find places to climb in Iowa, maybe '94, on a visit to my wife's folks. And other stuff.
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jbaker
Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 02:31pm PT
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DMT - I see Eugene Miya in the flesh every few months, and it is still an even bet that he's a was an AI bot on the rec.s. He's still very amused by all the speculation back then. I was mostly a lurker on rec.climbing and rec.backcountry. Same on ST.
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perswig
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 03:46pm PT
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Would dirtineye have been part of that madness?
Dale
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jbaker
Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:10pm PT
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DMT - I'll pass on your kind regards. I'm sure Eugene will be happy to hear from you. Gene retired from NASA about a year ago and is in constant motion around the Bay Area, the Sierra, Nevada, Alaska,.... We belong to the same ski club in Soda Springs, and I'll wake up in the morning to find him sleeping on the couch and then he's off to 4 or 5 stops before the next destination.
Joe Baker
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Esparza
Trad climber
Westminster, CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:21pm PT
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Loved Rec.Climbing back in the day... Met some really good climbing partners/friends on there!
Mike
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Wretchedalan
Social climber
Wisconsin
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:23pm PT
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Lurked there
Lurk here.
Anyone want to share their opinions on Tiblocs
rick
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Mar 22, 2018 - 05:50pm PT
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Crawlin' from the wreckage
You'd think by now at least that half my brain would get the message
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 06:17pm PT
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The only thing missing from usenet IMO was the ability to embed photos inline.
So...you never visited alt.als?
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jbaker
Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 06:46pm PT
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eKat - Yes, Eugene did distilled wisdom for rec.climbing and rec.backcountry, at least. I knew his name from things related to SAIL, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, from back in the 80's (I remember a reference to him in comments in the LINPACK code from the 70's, but he is doubtful about that) and 90's, but didn't meet him in person until I moved to the Bay Area in the 2000's. It was a relief to see there was an actual human Eugene, and not just the bots that had been speculated. But Eugene definitely looked at the distilled wisdom automated posts as an experiment, so it isn't shocking that some would think it was a bot. In reality, Eugene was a polymath and active in skiing, climbing, hiking, work parties for Sierra Club huts, assisting friends with research projects in Alaska and Antarctica, and much more. One of the most interesting people I've had the pleasure to know.
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Mar 22, 2018 - 07:30pm PT
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Great to hear, jbaker. He knew I was kidding. If you get to chat with him sometime please give him my kind regards.
Please give him my best wishes as well.
I used to get the occasional Christmas card from the "bot" back in the 90's. :-)
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John Morton
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 07:44pm PT
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ah yes, rec.climbing
I see my postings starting in 1991, but can't figure out how to search in date order. I was happy to abandon rec.backcountry, which didn't reflect my narrow interest in rock climbing.
That seems so long ago, my first exposure to internet community life. I never noticed anyone from the 60s Berkeley/Yosemite scene. I remember being pissed at the proliferation of handles, as used by truckers with a CB radios. Real names were the thing.
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brett
climber
oregon
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Mar 22, 2018 - 08:15pm PT
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I participated in the vote to split rec.climbing off from rec.backcountry
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Bargainhunter
climber
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Mar 22, 2018 - 08:46pm PT
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Haha....using some of the links on this thread I was about to see some of my old posts from ~25 years ago! Cool!
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Mar 22, 2018 - 09:22pm PT
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rec.climbing was cool and all, but I was mostly a lurker there. …spent most my time on alt.sysadmin.recovery.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Mar 22, 2018 - 11:04pm PT
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Atavism rools!
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George
Ice climber
Los Alamos, NM
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Mar 23, 2018 - 06:56am PT
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Started there as a lurker back in the late 90s and have continued lurking here and elsewhere. I kind of miss USENET....
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Majid_S
Mountain climber
Karkoekstan, Former USSR
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Mar 23, 2018 - 07:50am PT
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I should go back and restart trolling
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 23, 2018 - 09:27am PT
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Tradgirl!
Ate dinner with her at Red Rock a couple years ago. Still climbing and gettin' 'er done!
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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Mar 23, 2018 - 10:14am PT
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I was there...
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crøtch
climber
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Mar 23, 2018 - 10:28am PT
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So...you never visited alt.als?
I have a feeling I don't want to look up alt.als at work.
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Mill Valley, Ca
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Mar 23, 2018 - 11:50am PT
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In 1995 I discovered the internets at SF public library on 12" monochrome terminals, reading archived USENET posts via Deja News (which became Google Groups after endless name changes). A friend showed me how to open a free account at Vancouver Community Network and how to telnet in to use the Tin newsreader and Pine email - a vastly better experience. Good times!
Hung out and climbed with Inez (Gnar Gnar) a bunch of times, including a trip to J-tree, where I met Robert Fonda (RIP). Also climbed a bunch in the gym with Brutus of Wyde (RIP) and Nurse Ratchet. Joined several getogethers at Ironworks with the all of the above when Brian in SLC was in town on business. Also, had the privilege of climbing and hanging with my rec.climbing idol a couple times, the legendary Lord Slime.
Finally, here's a random blast from the past from former arch-nemesis Rex Pieper:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/258630/Hardmann-Knott-yer-still-a-poseur-Hi-from-ex-rec-climber
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 23, 2018 - 02:14pm PT
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Hardman! Don't forget we crushed the Snake Dike on Halfdome together. Prior to that, I didn't know what a potato(e) connoiseur was...
Note to self: get a slide scanner.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Mar 23, 2018 - 02:23pm PT
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rec.climbing was awesome. Probably as influential at the time as Facebook is today. :)
rec.climbing was actually very influential in gaining global support for the opposition in the saving Camp 4 episode. Before, only about 200 comments were received for the EA that was going to destroy Camp 4. I posted to a global audience, and I think the digital spread of information helped the tens of thousands of individuals and mountain organizations around the world to comment on the EIS on the development proposal that our lawsuit forced them to do. The global support the second time around was overwhelming, and the NPS realized that they too could resist the concession and pressures from Washington.
I offered free big wall spoons and A5 birdbeaks to people who wrote thoughtful letters—sent out 100’s of booty around the world, fun times.
https://groups.google.com/forum/?nomobile=true#!searchin/rec.climbing/Free$20birdbeak$20/rec.climbing/VQY--wsrm1s
(Note, documents now at http://bigwalls.net )
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Mar 23, 2018 - 05:31pm PT
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I was an occasional poster on rec.c.
Ended up honeymooning in Cayman Brac in 1998 at Lord Slime's place there as result of connecting with him on rec.c
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TradEddie
Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
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Mar 23, 2018 - 05:52pm PT
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I lurked a lot, it may even have saved my life in those early years of ignorance. I'm not sure I ever met or climbed with anyone through it, but I've come to know several regulars in real life afterwards.
TE
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 23, 2018 - 06:09pm PT
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I'm not sure I ever met or climbed with anyone through it, but I've come to know several regulars in real life afterwards.
Just the opposite for me. One of the things I loved about the wreck was reading "Hey, I'm going to be in [cityname] for work next month. Anybody willing to take a stranger out climbing?"
I met loads of rec.climbers that way. Sometimes just for a day of climbing, sometimes for a day of climbing that led to a long-term friendship.
That's true to some extent here on ST as well, but it was a mind-blowingly new thing in the early days of the internet (or whatever it was called before Al Gore invented it) and I loved it.
Okay, slight correction. Climbing, or any similar madness, has always led to a kind of worldwide kinship web. Before there were computers there was mail. And you can find plenty of stories from the pre-internet days that start with "When I checked the mail today, there was a letter from X. He said his friend Y was going to be passing through my city and could use a place to stay and a day or two at the crags..."
But it became exponentially easier with the advent of email and online forums. Rec.climbing was my introduction to that world.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 23, 2018 - 06:36pm PT
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Remember the annual best quotes post? Ah, how flattering it was the make the cut. Like the Academy Awards it was.
I came away with one Oscar, for this one: "One method of getting loved ones to look more fondly on your climbing is to tell them that since you've started climbing you hardly do drugs anymore."
And, looking that one up, I stumbled upon yet another of us who made the transfer from the wreck to this junk show: Richard Goldstone.
Edit: And the Baba, too. And Chiloe.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 23, 2018 - 11:47pm PT
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I told you this thread would have quads...
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Gunkie
Trad climber
Valles Marineris
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Mar 24, 2018 - 06:31am PT
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So where did everyone end up after rec.climbing as their 'go to' climbing message board?
I ended up here, circa 2005, but tried gunks.com valiantly until it died under the weight of apathy or inbreeding. I think it's still on life support. I never clicked with Mountain Project. Something weird about that place; I mean weirder than here. I liked NEClimbs but it had about as much traffic as a church parking lot on a cold Tuesday morning and when someone would respond to a beta request, it was like they were giving up the secrets of the lost arc.
Glad this place is here plus there are surfers, too!
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Concerned citizen
Big Wall climber
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Mar 24, 2018 - 10:48am PT
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I was a regular lurker on rec.climbing, but I'm not sure if I ever posted on it. If I did, it would have been links to two trip reports: a text-only report on climbing Leaning Tower with my 14-year old son, and (the following year) an illustrated report entitled "Cruising up the Zodiac at Age Fifteen."
I have an archived copy of the latter at this address:
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ijo/zodiac/
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 25, 2018 - 04:29pm PT
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A quick run-through of this thread turns up 35 people who made transition from the wreck to ST, plus a few who were regulars on rec.c, but have only posted here a very few times.
List is below. Many of us, despite our stupid ST handles, are well enough known. The rest are welcome to fill in their names if they want to.
Bargainhunter (??)
Brian in SLC (??)
BruceHildenbrand (Bruce Hildenbrand)
Brutus of Wyde (Bruce Bindner)
Clint Cummins (Clint Cummins)
crøtch (??)
Darwin (Darwin Alonso)
del cross (??)
deuce4 (John Middendorf)
dh (Dave Hill)
Dingus Milktoast (??)
Ed Hartouni (Ed Hartouni)
ekat (Caffeine Celery Fryers)
Esparza (Mike ?)
ExfifteenExfifteen (??)
Gary (??)
Ghost (David Harris)
Gunkie (??)
Hardman Knott (Dave Buchanan)
jaybro (Jay Anderson)
John Morton (Johh Morton)
healyje (Joseph Healy)
kpinwalla2 (Kevin Pogue)
Lennox (Scott Lennox)
Locker (Locker Smith)
Majid_S (??)
mcreel (??)
MH2 (Andy Cairns)
Mungeclimber (??)
Oplopanax (Drew)
rgold (Richard Goldstone)
Russ Walling (Russ Walling)
scuffy b (Steve Moyles)
steelmnkey (Greg Opland)
stevep (??)
Anyone else out there?
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Mar 26, 2018 - 12:15am PT
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Wow, eKat, fond memories. blushing!
It was good to see you and Mark at your mountain home, I think we had met in Camp4 sometime before if I recall correctly, plus you were both legends in the California climbing community.
Amazing to chat with Mark on design—I think it was not long after he developed the Silent Partner? Incredible inventor, and seeing the craftsmanship on his stringed instruments was eye-opening (inventive and high craftsmanship—there is a duality there). And the fact that he completely filed his own patent. A few years prior, Walt and I had spent a few weeks machining and prototyping solo belay devices on my Bridgeport mill (Walt’s Idea was along the lines of a hauling pulley, I was trying something on the same principles as a Grigri in those pre-GriGri times), but our prototypes were unsuccessful, so we were both really impressed with Mark’s solution.
Funny to recall those early hacks into the internet, too. Early 90’s?
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 26, 2018 - 03:23am PT
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I started with NEIce and then found RC.noob not sure how long I have been here but it is awhile.... Neclimbs and NEice both died from self inflicted wounds. NEIce fron completely changing the webpage a few times to the point that you needed to create a new username and set your account up from scratch. I never bothered. Neclimbs from chaseing away the troll Lucky Luke/jaques. When they finnaly got rid of Lucky Luke traffic dried up to a snails pace or less. The other problem with NEclimbs is that it is hard to post photos there. they need to be less than 150kb which is much smaller than I size for FB and here. resizeing twice is NOT going to happen....
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Mar 26, 2018 - 09:13am PT
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I think I have told this Eugene Miya story before, but it's a good one.
Sometime in the mid-90's I sold some bicycling panniers over the internet to a student at Cal Tech. The guy was slow in paying me(before PayPal) and when I asked him what was up he said that he had used the panniers on a spring break bike trip, but they were a bit small so he was going to send them back.
When I informed him that that wasn't the deal he just sent silent. It turns out that Eugene was a good friend of the provost at Cal Tech. A few days later a check and an apology letter arrived. It would be interesting to know how the provost handled the situation!
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Hendo1
Trad climber
Toronto
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Mar 26, 2018 - 10:22am PT
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>>>Anyone else out there? >>>
You can add me to the list.
I posted regularly for a few years in the mid-'90s, opposed to maybe half a dozen times on SuperTopo. It was an invaluable resource in the early days of the Internet, when the only climbing website was Tuan's Mountaineering Page and we were stuck with 14K and 28K dial-up modems.
It opened up what was a smaller climbing world back then. I met a few climbers out west (Jean Scully, Andy Gale) at the J-Tree Hallowe'en party. And a few climbers here in the Toronto area (Hugh McNeil, Adrian McNair).
One of the memorable things were the ingenious ASCII drawings that people like Chris Weaver came up with because we weren't allowed to post photos:
David Henderson
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Mar 26, 2018 - 10:36am PT
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I ran into Andy Gale briefly at JT many moons ago. I didn't know it at the time, but had a minor scuffle with Sue and Julie at Tahquitz. Had exchanged some emails with McBee about climbing at Tahquitz, but her trip was canceled. And of course, actually climbed with Batten. Jeff was a really good climber, way above my pay rate. I saw Brutus' van at Humber Park, but unfortunately did not get a chance to meet him.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 26, 2018 - 12:37pm PT
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Wow...Kellie...I climbed with her a few times. Haven't heard from here or seen her in 8-10 years.
Whacky times those were...!
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Hard Rock
Trad climber
Montana
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Mar 26, 2018 - 12:45pm PT
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I posted to rec.climbing in the 80's when I was in Wisconsin. Kind of quit when I moved to Montana. I guess there was no need to keep up with what was going on in the rest of the country.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Mar 26, 2018 - 12:56pm PT
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I honestly can't remember what my rec.climbing username was. I may have had a couple.
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rbolton
Social climber
The home
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Mar 27, 2018 - 11:51am PT
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I was there. Mostly lurking.
Bob Bolton
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Peter Green
Mountain climber
Davis, CA
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Mar 27, 2018 - 04:07pm PT
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Google says I posted some dozens of times during 1992-1996, after which (I recall fairly clearly) life got busier (job, growing family) for almost 20 years, and I seem not to have taco'd until several posts in 2015 -- and now two this year.
Regards to all from way back then -- it was a nice resource back when less was searchable! (Hard to believe, but that appears to really have been the internet before Yahoo and AltaVista...)
Unlike the internet, I have hardly changed at all: just beard is now gray and my 1989 randonee ski gear has been replaced with 2006 alpine touring. (Yes, I've grown up enough to have a pair of buckle boots!)
-Peter
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poop*ghost
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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I wouldn’t say I’m still here, but I do poke through these pages every so often to see who’s doing what awesome thing. I think about Bruce quite a bit. He is missed.
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piglicker
Trad climber
Cubage Patch
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Was at least a very active lurker for 1993 - 2001 or so, then lost track of it as NNTP started to fade away from people's collective consciousness, to be replaced with lame web forums (ST is one of the better ones)...
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pmonks
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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THIS IS BURT BRONSON THE LAST BASTION OF THE HARD CLIMBER SPEAKING.
j/k - I rarely post here, but was a wreckular (is that the right word?) in the mid-late 90s and early 00s. I still refer back to the Burt Bronson stuff, as well as the beer powered ascent of the leaning tower (one of my most favourite TRs ever).
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BillWright
Trad climber
Boulder, Colorado
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You can add me to the list as well.
I also helped found rec.climbing. It was born out of too much climbing-specific threads posted to rec.backcountry. I remember voting on splitting it off. It was such a great source of like-minded climbers when I discovered it. I made some long-lasting friendships from that group including:
"English" Bob Sinclair
John "Mr. Slime" Byrnes
Greg "Opediah" Opland
Tim "The Toolman" Taylor
George "The Trashman" Bell
Bruce "Dr. OW" Bailey
And others that I only knew a little bit, including Bruce Hildenbrand, Jeff Ellison, and others.
Great memories.
I'm generally just a rare lurker here these days, only coming here if a topic in the weekly email from Chris piques my interest. Hope everyone is doing well.
I was known mainly for posting overly long Gumby trip reports. I still write reports these days on my blog: http://billwright510climbing.blogspot.com/
Back in those days I wasn't even married. This summer I'll celebrate my 25th anniversary and my main climbing partner is my youngest son Derek, who is now 20 years old.
Bill
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Pewf
climber
Gunnison, CO
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I was there late 90s to maybe 2001. Amanda Tarr (now Forrest). Mostly do drivebys on ST
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John Morton
climber
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Sometime in the early nineties a few Bay Area rec.climbers who had never met arranged to rendezvous and camp at a hot spring near Austin, NV. Next day we met at a roadhead and climbed Arc Dome, the high point of the Toyabe Range. A marvelous trip, the only one I've ever taken with net strangers. The ones I remember are Eugene Miya and Bobbie Morrison, with whom I still have occasional contact.
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dh
climber
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Very good years on wreck; mid-90s. Was at Berkeley at same time as Coomer. Met Nate B in the valley as I was setting off to do the Muir. Looked up George Bell in Boulder once. Met very few others in real life, but enjoyed all the chatter and TRs online. It was fun seeing people drift into and out of the orbit. Remember climerware?
Dave Hill
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NBB
Social climber
Boulder
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I met a lot of brilliant, incredibly talented, interesting and sometimes totally bat-sh!t crazy people. I miss them all.
Supertopo casts a wide net as the internet has made it into pretty much every home - and that's pretty cool, it makes things more real here.
However, in 1994-ish, when I first logged on to rec.climbing, it was a very different space than this place - full of outliers.
Jean's Halloween parties, then later the Boulder crew - made the memories.
I've bumped into most I knew from back then, here and there, in person, or online, over the years...
...except...
...where is Mattie Thompson??
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allanc
climber
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I was there from the late 1980s to maybe 1994.
I remember the person that told me about it asked "do you have any exams
or problem sets due this week?" When I replied no, he said, "ok, I'll
tell you how to get onto rec.climbing"
This was pre-web, so it was using text-based news reader software.
It was soooo long ago, that I think a typical hard drive was about
100 MB at that time. Even more disturbingly, the climbers were
all wearing pink lycra tights. I'm not sure if the lumberjacks and
fauxhemian man-bunners that infest my gym have pushed the stylistic
boundaries forward or backward.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 3, 2018 - 07:31pm PT
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...where is Mattie Thompson??
Alive and well in my memory.
In real life, I think she's now in New England. Vermont, if I remember. But we had a lot of great times together, and I sure do miss her.
And on the subject of old wrecks that I really miss, I think Al Black tops the list. Are any of you still in touch with him?
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Hurrah for the donut man! He kept with rec.climbing 'til past the end. That was important to my hanging on there, too.
edit
Make that doughnut.
On 17 May 2005 10:15:24 -0700, Mad Dog wrote:
>Al! Nice to hear from you. Consider this note to be an electronic doughnut!
Yes, I'll have that doughnutt Maddog. I've been lurking the
past bit, slumming for a decent newsfeed, changing ISPs etc. Good to
see a few familiar faces living the life.
Speaking of doughnuts, I've been thinking about Cairns' bouldering
post, and would like to extend it with a modest proposition. It may
give you a smile.
The D scale:
D'a = A problem, as in that's da problem.
D'ough= A problem that's so much fun it makes you think of a doughnut.
D'slag = A problem that you and your friends are going to sit under
for a while, looking up, and having fun slagging one another.
D'Oh = A problem that makes you think you may have had too many to
many doughnuts.
D'OhOh = A problem that leads you to indulging more. Often in the
face of common sense, often at the expense of your tendons and joints.
This scale gets more to core of why me and my buds like bouldering.
It also solves the problems inherent with grading shemes. By getting
rid of numbers, it avoids counting, which hard to do when you're
hyperventaling or eating something. The doughnut scale is not likely
to suffer from grade inflation, since its rather "climbing resume"
replellent. Real beauty of the D scale is that you don't actually
have to finish a problem to give it a grade.
It may also be applicable to other things in life. For example, I'd
say Usenet is a D'OhOh problem. But your milage may vary on this
one, so I'd recommend caution or perhaps a few mindful moments and a
doughnut or two.
al
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nafod
Boulder climber
State college
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Jun 21, 2018 - 09:18am PT
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Lurked with my 14K modem, then posted for a while (til 2003?) Similar user name. Stopped posting and climbing when my climbing partner had an accident and I lost my belay slave (posted the accident report on rec.climbing at the time, very similar to Florine's incident). Moved on and got fat, but recently have re-gotten the itch to climb, especially since my son has become a gym rat. Was a middle of the bell curve climber.
Met and climbed with a bunch of east coast folks back in the day. Met some great peeps.
I remember arguing with DMT about eating and bonking, where I based my knowledge that you can go a whole week without food on having gone through a whole week of SERE school without food. But you lose a *lot* of weight fast.
Resubmerging...
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Jun 21, 2018 - 12:59pm PT
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HAS A BLACK MAN EVER CLIMBED EL CAP?
I miss Batten, man.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Jun 22, 2018 - 06:56am PT
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Courtesy of Ouch!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 23, 2018 - 03:45pm PT
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I met a man named Carlold Nelson in the parking lot at Lowe's in Seattle who claimed to likely be the first African American to have climbed El Cap. I have yet to interview him but he was a Gunkie made the voyage pretty early on.
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