Kathy: An unpublished Bird tell all

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marty(r)

climber

beneath the valley of ultravegans

Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 13, 2018 - 10:23am PT

To keep up with the Zeitgeist I might as well issue a trigger warning:

This free-flowing remembrance involves Mark Klemens, the River Boulder, an STD, and has not felt the gentle caress of an editor's hand.

Enjoy.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Jul 13, 2018 - 12:57pm PT

... to punctuate the ... what??? Dammit, Marty, at least finish the sentence!

marty(r)

climber

beneath the valley of ultravegans

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 13, 2018 - 01:44pm PT

To punctuate, indeed. Error corrected.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Jul 13, 2018 - 03:32pm PT

I liked the scarfing tip and the "canning" action!
It seems that money was tight at the time, or perhaps spare time was simply abundant.
Maybe a rest day between bigger projects.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Jul 14, 2018 - 09:02am PT

First off, the hand written note shows calligraphic qualities. This indicates a thoughtful temperament.

Jim's first encounter with Whitey, the two of them competing over a dimp: now that's a little jewel in itself.
Brings to mind one of our more memorably named boulder problems (or is it top rope?) in JT: Dimp for a Chimp.

Some key passages which I appreciated:

Ignorance propagates hate, and fear is the launch platform

Civilization had passed me by, and I hadn't even been born yet, climbing was nothing more or less than escapism to an earlier time. It was in fact escape to something missing in a misguided degenerating civilization, but I was so self-centered, I couldn't tell you what was missing if not adventure or basic animal excitement.

FA attempts on Goldrush and River Boulder in the same day. Interesting.

I got to the village and noticed a cluster of three Rangers I knew casually from rescues or maybe jail.

The contextual reality of the C4B-Ranger baseball games is good stuff in itself, just for historicity sake, never mind the underlying impetus to discuss liberty versus oppressive government, which is really at the heart of the matter.

This is a very useful narrative in terms of understanding the thoughtful nature of the man, something of which I was personally aware, but more is usually better in terms of understanding: so thanks much for posting this up, Marty!

.................................................................

The only book I'm aware of that Bridwell published is this one from 1992:

Is there another more recent work by Jim or perhaps an unfinished manuscript?

ron gomez

Trad climber

Jul 14, 2018 - 03:54pm PT

Man I MISS my Buddy.....gonna carry his ashes over the Sierra comin' up soon. I love the return address ingenuity of Jim....he was genious. I was so blessed to spend so much one on one time with Jim to LISTEN and be able to ask questions. I still ball my eyes out, just last night, Kelly and I were talking about him....tears welled up, voice cracked, even as as I type this I hold back emotion.
Jim....I'm gonna have one more trip with you, we will spend nights under the stars, walk over the mountains you Loved, recall memories of over 5 decades! I Love you Brother.
We ended our visits with those words.
Peace

mastadon

Trad climber

crack addict

Jul 14, 2018 - 06:17pm PT

Wow! That was some great writing from The Large Man! When was that written and is there any more?

That September in 1972 was the first time I met Jim. Actually, that was the first time I'd met Mark Klemens and Pettigrew, also. I guess I should be thankful I never made Kathy's aquaintence.

I can't tell you how different the world seems without Bridwell in it. He was such a commanding presence for so many years that it just doesn't seem possible that he's gone (he's certainly not forgotten).

One of these days I'll fire up my scanner and post some pictures of some stuff Jim and I did.

We all miss you, Jim, and we'll be seeing you soon enough......

Don Harder