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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 5, 2007 - 12:48am PT
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Like many others or the last few years we've lost another friend in the person of Jim Anglin. I don't know any more details than the info below which was posted on cascadeclimbers.com. I was just out with Jim last week working on a project and was so looking forward to our next go on it with him.
Jim had strong connections throughout the West given he's basically been round-robin'ing all the major climbing areas out here since he retired. I'm not a close friend having only met him in the past several years and others with deep relationships with him can speak better to the man he has been. I know from my brief time with him that, like Vern, he will be sorely missed by many here and all the other places he climbed so brightly...
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Wa man dies after 100-foot fall at Smith Rock State Park
06:48 PM PST on Sunday, November 4, 2007
A Washington man was killed Sunday morning while climbing with friends in Deshcutes County Oregon.
55-year-old Jim Anglin of White Salmon Washington lost his footing while climbing down a steep trail at Smith Rock State Park.
Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputies arrived and determined that Anglin had died from the 100-foot fall.
Anglin’s friends told deputies that he was an experienced rock climber and was wearing climbing gear but was not wearing a helmet at the time of the fall.
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ground_up
Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
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That is very sad news.....
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mike hartley
climber
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I'm not in a place to write a lot but unfortunately its true, Jim died today. He was approaching the lower gorge at Smith Rocks when he slipped on the trail, got rolling, and went over the cliff. Friends got to him within minutes but he was gone. Jim was a beloved fixture on the NW climbing scene for over 30 years. He was a man in constant motion. Jim was a unique blend of gentleness, good humor, and tenacity. He loved climbing regardless of whether it was clean Yosemite granite or some rotten Menagerie first ascent. Tonight, there’s a hole in the heart Jimmy. A hole in the heart.
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michaellane
climber
Spokane, WA
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Sorry for the loss ... tragic. Will be keeping Jim's family and friends close to the heart.
--ML
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there all... say, i am very sorry for the loss of your dear friend, jim anglin.... best wished to his family, now, for them trying to take hold of the future, with such a sad loss... god bless...thank you for sharing with folks here..
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Mike from Phoenix
Trad climber
Phoenix, AZ
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This is truly very sad. I only climbed with Jim a few times, but it was always a good time. I could've climbed with him in Vegas recently but did other things instead. Guess I really missed out.
How many times do we all scramble unroped down steep trails?
Very sad news indeed.
-Mike
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Mike Hartley described him well and said it best
"a hole in the heart Jimmy"
He was a friend to my family and I and we are stunned by this tragic news.
God speed to Jim and solace to those left behind.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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This was my first attempt at the whole photo bucket process.
Cheers and God speed Jim
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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My condolences to the friends and family as well. Very sad news...
-Tom
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Sorry to hear this. Didn't ever meet the man. Condolences to family and friends.
Steve
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tokyo bill
Social climber
tokyo
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My thoughts are with his family and those close to him.
My chances to spend time with him were few, but even in that short span I could see that he squeezed every drop from the days that he had.
What a loss.
Readying a rap at Redrocks, 2003:
Leading Risky Business at Redrocks, 2003:
Following on Warpaint at Cochise, 2007:
Leading on the Rad Wall at Cochise, 2007:
At ease at Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Taking advantage of an empty campground at Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Topped out at sunset, Mt. Lemmon, 2007:
Cheers, mate.
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WBraun
climber
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Hummmnnnn So Sorry
I don't think I know this man. Seems like a cool dude from the photos.
Again, so sorry.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 6, 2007 - 12:14am PT
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Werner, Jim was quiet and unassuming and a prolific climber. He was a recently retired fireman who developed much of Southern Oregon's climbing. Since his retirement he's basically been doing a permanent round-robin of The Menagerie, the Valley, Indian Creek, Red Rocks, Moab, and Mt. Hooker in the Wind River Range. He's been coming your way a few times a year for awhile, but being Jim, I suspect he just did his business and moved on. On a recent trip through I know he did WFLT in under nine hours and put up a pretty fast time on Free Blast as well.
He was an incredibly competent and accomplished climber. He was the last person you'd ever expect such news about. He will be sorely missed in many places, but especially here in the NW and I know also in Red Rocks where he has many close, long-time friends among that crew. He is the person I had hoped to finally make it to the Valley with to do a wall with. He (half in jest) had just proposed we try for the old guy NIAD record at combined age of 110 given we were both 55 and still moved pretty fast. I had to let him down gently with the news I'm not the worlds best at jamming. I do count my blessing in the fact that I did get to climb with him some as opposed to Vern who passed before I had the chance.
Some one else said it on one of the forums with threads about Jim - "hole in the heart". It's been a rough couple of years for all of us with regard to losing friends and loved ones.
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WBraun
climber
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Thanks for the history on Jim, healyje.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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never met him, but I'll definitely look for him on the other side.
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survival
Big Wall climber
arlington, va
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Wow, that truly is sad news. Jim will be on the other side waiting for us with a willing belay, a solid lead or a ready smile. Let me say for the old school crowd at Smith Rocks that we can only hope to have such a positive impact on our sport or our partners as Jim did. I climbed with Jim only in the mid to late 70's, when we were both much younger. Smith Rocks could be very quiet and empty in the winter back then, but I could often find Jim. We shared some quiet times and climbs. Once when I was about 17 I found Jim soloing a scarey aid route (Monkey Face, NW Passage), we were the only people around. I offered to join him and hold his rope, but he politely declined. I backed off a few hundred yards to give him his space, found a nice spot, pulled out my pile jacket and laid back and watched for a whole day. A lot of people were very lucky to hang out with Jim. Our best wishes go out to his family.Peace Jim, you old hangdog...
Bruce B.
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Jobee
Social climber
El Portal
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Did not have the pleasure of knowing Jim.
The photos' say it all, such joy when climbing.
My sincere condolences to family, friends, and aquaintances.
May you find peace.
jow
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WanderlustMD
Trad climber
Lanham MD
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I didn't know Jim, but looking at the photos, I definately wish I had. Thanks for the history, he seems like a stand up guy.
Many regards and condolences...
-Matt
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mike hartley
climber
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Writing is therapy for me and right now I sure feel like I have some work to do… If you care to read I want you to know about Jim Anglin.
I had the good fortune to take a beginning rockclimbing class in Feb of 1978. The instructor was this prematurely balding guy with skinny legs who twitched with energy. There weren’t many climbers living in Lebanon, OR those days so Jim was thrilled to have an eager gumby to climb with. Life changed for me after that and Jim became my main climbing partner and soul brother for almost exactly the next 30 years. He may well have been the most influential person in my life.
Jim was a firefighter/paramedic and a damned good one. He chose the occupation after attending a high school presentation on firefighting and heard that they worked 24 hours and then had the next 48 hours off. “That’s my kind of schedule”! He started planning early on how he could pack the most into his life. He didn’t waste the opportunity.
In terms of individual ascents, Jim would never have made it into a climbing mag. He had climbed 5.12 but that was the exception. He had put up an A5 but it was short and nothing like the bold routes on El Cap. He had been up El Cap and Half Dome numerous times but only on the trade routes. But in terms of shear volume he could hold his own. He was a climber’s climber. He was a man in perpetual motion who loved nothing better than knocking off a route like Dreams of Wild Turkeys in a couple of hours. And then do it again the next day.
Much of Jim’s climbing went unobserved. That’s because he loved to explore areas where he could put up routes that required all-around ability and boldness as opposed to gym rat strength. He found it in a small pocket wilderness area in Oregon called the Menagerie. Probably no one, outside of possibly Tom Bauman, knows the Menagerie the way Jim did. It’s an area that most would hate. It’s a heavily wooded area filled with 200 – 300 ft spires. At least 80% of them are composed of rock that has been characterized as “a disease”. Many of the approaches take over an hour and in the winter, when the logging roads are closed, the only trail gains 1000’. Occasionally climbers will spend all day trying to find a spire but be unable to locate it in the big timber. But Jim loved it. He would often put in his “Half Dome” days rope-soloing 20 pitches. He would not only climb all of the routes, even the most horrendous, but he’d go back and repeat them time and again. And he put up route after route.
Jim had already accomplished more as a climber than 99% of us ever will; and then he retired from firefighting. After retirement he repeatedly did his loop; Yosemite to Red Rocks, see the kids in Phoenix, then to Tucson, back up through RR and Yosemite again, then polish it off with the City of Rocks or the Elephant Perch. Spend a month at home and then do it again.
Jim had had so many close calls and bad accidents. His solo top-rope system failed once resulting in a long fall. He was only saved from serious injury when his jumar jammed leaving him upside-down with his head resting on the ground. He broke his neck skiing bumps. He had to be rescued as a beginning sailboarder when he was almost sucked into the outlet of a big dam. He didn’t know how to tack against the wind and he was damned if he was going to abandon his new board. He took a 40’, factor 2 fall directly onto his anchor rope soloing a new route in the Menagerie when his hook popped. He broke some ribs on that one. He was dragged off his road bike at full speed by two Rottweilers, resulting in a multiple fracture of his femur. He had a head on with a flatbed truck when he was driving home from the City of Rocks. But he always survived.
As the years passed and I climbed less and boated more, our rendezvous’ became less frequent. I did talk him into joining my family on a self-supported kayak trip this last August. He’d never done a trip like that before and he loved it. We were both thrilled that we had a common pursuit again to fill in the gaps between our rare climbing trips. But it was not to be.
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nita
climber
chica from chico
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Thank you- Healyje, Mike, Philo,Pcousa,Tokyo Bill,flamer and Bruce B, for your loving tribute to your friend and climbing partner.
My sincere sympathy and thoughts of peace.. go out to Jim's friends and family.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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nice words Mike.
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flamer
Trad climber
denver
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Such a loss.
I'd just begun to know Jim over the last couple of years. We'd been introduce by mutual friends in Vegas and Phoenix. We always seemed to be just missing each other for climbing plans but had several opportunities to drink a beer and tell a story.
That changed this last April when Jim and I finally had the chance to climb together. We did a long route on Mt Wilson In Red Rocks called "Gift of the Wind Gods". That day was one that will always be one of the better ones I'd ever had. I was very excited by how well we climbed together, Jim was a very fast, efficient, and strong climber. I thought that I'd found another partner to have serious adventure's with. A partner I could learn a lot from and who understood a lot of things in my life that others never could...that due to Jim being a Retired Fireman.
No one but another Fireman will ever truly understand some of the things that you see and do. It was nice to have someone who shared a love for climbing, so similiar to my own, and was also someone that I could talk about the job with.
Who knows how many life's Jim saved? Over a 30 year career I would guess more than a few.
I still laugh at how Jim found a way to place the biggest cams we had in the first 10ft of every pitch he led. Or how he pointed out pitch's that I could link...only to realise later that by doing so he got to lead the crux's! Crafty guy! I'm learning Jim!
I think Jim is a one of those mountain souls. The kind that will watch over the rest of us as we have adventure's and epics. Who will be that last little push when we are so close to exhaustion and failure. He will see us through and watch over us in the good days and the bad.
Thanks Jim....I'm learning.
josh
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survival
Big Wall climber
arlington, va
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Mike and Josh,
Great words you guys. You said a lot that many of us don't know how to say. Jim was a good teacher to so many. Mike, I don't think he gave a rat's ass about being in a mag. I told Royster today and he just about dropped his phone I think...
Bruce
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mister t
climber
nowhere special
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rest in peace
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purplesage
Trad climber
Bend, OR
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I had the good fortune to know and climb with Jim over the years. Never has there been a better climbing partner or good buddy to hang around the campfire and tell stories with. We did a 1 day ascent of The Prow in the early 80's that will always be in my best climbing memories. Moving quickly on perfect stone and sharing the accomplishment of a well done route. Rest in Peace Jim, we will miss you.
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kirra
climber
Golden
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Thanks to everyone for sharing your stories and photos. I had just got a call from mutual friends yesterday, void of details and was speechless. This is truly a very sad loss.
I met Jim Anglin in Phoenix when a small group of us took out his son for a day climbing in Queen Creek. I knew that he was an xlnt climber by watching him and having seen him in photos with friends in Red Rocks. I had often hoped to see him again in the future somewhere and be able to rope up on something much larger that in QC. He sent me a beautiful photo of a mountain near his home in Oregon when he had returned back to his home. It always struck me as the most beautiful picture and I kept it with the intention of someday, printing it or using it as a desktop design. Not sure if Jim ever took many photos, I will post it here later to share.
His passing has reminded me again to live fully in the moment and treat each time with your friends and loved ones with great love and respect. You never know if you will have another chance to say what you should have said, or apologize for something that you regret.
Strength - Love - Thanks - & Great Admiration to you Jim Anglin. Some of us here will miss you very much.
I send a Group Hug to All ~
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John Anglin
climber
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I posted this on the cacade climbers site and would like to share it with all of his friends here as well...
I want to thank everyone again for their thoughts and prayers. I wanted to write more before but it was too painful. But it is comforting to know that there are so many people that cared for and admired him.
I want everyone to know that in addition to the friend and rock climber that everyone here knows, he was a great father and grandfather. My childhood is full of the same kinds of adventures that many of you shared with him…exploring the wilderness around Dallas, Oregon where he grew up, rock climbing at the Skinner Butte Columns in Eugene, hiking around the Cascade mountains. Many these activities we shared into my adulthood.
Although I already miss him terribly, it is more painful to think of my daughters growing up without their Papa. On his many trips down to Arizona he was always happy and patient, teaching them yoga in the back yard and taking them on short hikes. The girls were always excited when they knew Grandma and Papa were coming for a visit.
I was very fortunate to spend some time with him just a few weeks before the accident. On a walk to the park with my daughter, he said something that, in hindsight seems very important. My daughter was talking about the past, present and future, when dad quoted-
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present”. I think this quote is summery of how he lived his life. He crammed as much into every day as possible. From climbing mountains in Peru, windsurfing in Hawaii, rafting the Grand Canyon, his life was one adventure after another.
Something else he said in his last email when I was complaining about how much work I had to do after moving into my new house- “It's never the destination that life is about
but instead the whole ride.” Although my dad has made it to his destination…I think he had a good ride.
His last words will always be memorable to me. He had a huge impact on my life and taught me so much…thanks dad.
John
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chicken legs
Sport climber
bend oregon
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I am so glad to have known Jim, it is great to see all the posts from friends and people who don't know him but can tell what an amazing person he was simply by the out pouring of emotion.There will be a memorial for Jim Thursday November 15th in Lebanon Oregon at the River Center 3000 South Santiam hwy 2 pm.What an amazing person Jim was the energizer bunny had nothing on him- Jim truely will go on and on and on.You will be missed my friend thank you for everything you gave me. kent
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Dave R
Trad climber
Bend, OR
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Although I hadn't seen Jim for years I still considered him a close friend. We were both firemen and climbers during the '70s and that kind of bond never breaks. Jim was a great friend and climbing mentor for me.
We frequented Smith Rocks in the '70s before the bridge was there and had to ford the river to get to the best rock. I was a belayer/2nd on the routes Jim wanted to tackle and got to follow some great leads, he would let me lead the easier pitches and always had encouragement for me. Don't think I ever heard any negativity out of him.
I remember one time when we were in the Menagerie climbing a new route on Rooster Rock, a rather thin route and Jim was pushing it with some real small pro. I was belaying from the ground and he was about 75' up when he came off and zippered several pieces of pro leaving both of us in the air about 5' off the ground swinging! We just looked at each other and started laughing, what else could we have done. We moved over and did an easier route to finish the day...
I'm so sad I won't get to see Jim again, but I know his huge spirit will always be around. Warmest wishes and condolences to all his family and friends.....
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Very sad news. I'm sorry to hear this.
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joeklimb
Trad climber
Willimantic, Connecticut
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My condolences to family and friends of Jim Anglin. I am one of the fortunate to have climbed with Jim, to have shared stories in his van, and to have listened to him play his didgeridoo. Makes me sad, this terrible loss.
Rest in peace. You will be always be remembered.
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GhoulweJ
Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
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I did not know the man, but it looks like he got out and did a bit.... Nice.
I send uplifting vibes to his family and friends.
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Lance_Siebler
Mountain climber
Portland, OR
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My father and I climbed Mt Washington and Three Fingered Jack in the Cascades with Jim in the late 70s. I've hiked a hill or two since, but nothing close to what Jim helped me to achieve. These were the only times I ever shared with Jim who my father knew from working with his wife. He seemed like a great man with a big smile and real zest for life. I'm forever very grateful to Jim for both his experience to help my father and I to the top each time, and the cherished experiences that he helped me share with my father.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Condolences to family and friends.
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jack herer
Sport climber
Veneta, Oregon
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Tom wrote this on this on this day four years ago...
November 4th – It has been gray, damp, and cool all day at work. I’m beat and I call it day. I head for the shop with saws to sharpen. Just as I get to the shop, a red tail hawk rises from in front of the shop and lands on the roof next to the weather vane. I stop, motor idling, and we stare at each other. One minute, then two.
Finally I release the brake and slowly inch forward. The red tail lifts off and flies 60 feet, then lands on top of the barn. I park between the barn and shop and turn off the engine. I sit and watch. The hawk is staring at me - or is it through me? In my 50-plus years on this piece of land I have not seen this kind of behavior in a red tail hawk. I sit and am amazed at this interaction.
If I were not so ignorant of the animal (spirit) world, I would have known that something huge had happened. Finally, I open the pickup door. The red tail flies over the top of me and disappears behind the shop, heading up valley. At home later that night I get the phone call. I start to understand.
November 5th – Cold, gray and damp! The whole day of work is one of sad reflection. Jim has left us and the void feels huge. His camaraderie, energy, athleticism, and spirit of adventure are a marvel that few can come close to.
Yet, could it be that when Jim’s spirit left his body it was captured by the hawk? There are those who know these things. For me it feels like this is what happened. Yesterday evening he came and said goodbye. Today he soars above, watching over all of us. Even if it is not true, for me it is the only way I can see, if only for a second, into that void.
It’s time to head for home. I drive slowly down our gravel road towards the highway and another commute. Ahead in headlights, a hawk lifts off and disappears into the darkness!
 Tom Bauman
miss you a ton Jim!!!!
Cheers,
Tyler
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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You are missed and not forgotten my friend.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Nice post Jack.
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Wow, very sad. Condolences to all.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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Name sounds familiar...but no matter if we knew him well or not. Jim, a human that lived life to the fullest and also loved the people and the world that surrounded him.
The same world that granted him the love challenges of a life really lived. He did, live it and hope I continue to follow after. lynne
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