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Extremeartiste
Big Wall climber
Las Vegas
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Oct 27, 2015 - 08:37pm PT
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I spent my summer break climbing and diving in the Calanques, the same heaven for Gaston and Patrick Edlinger, both climbers were climbing for the love of being in connection with the self, not for the quest of records. The simple desire to be in the moment with one self. Both were as close to the rock than the nature close to God. I was the same age as Patrick and we used to free dive by the rocks, today I climb were ever there is a rock, just for the sake of it, invisible of any other climber, just because climbing is were you meet your emotions and learn to deal with them. Gaston was a poet, a man of humanity, a gentle soul, a true free spirit. Climbing gym and people ego for competition has destroy people spirit and replaced it with narcissism which has killed too many climbers. Be true to yourself, be who you are. On and off the rock.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Oct 27, 2015 - 09:03pm PT
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Rebuffat was was my hero and major inspiration at the very first. Classy gentleman, helluva climber.
Gary Hemming liked him too and was inspired to make some of those aiders like his, with aluminum steps, and we tried them on the El Cap Tree. They were horrible! Like climbing with cowbells tied to your feet. But I don't think Gaston had webbing at the time. We quickly reverted to home-tied two-step surplus store webbing aiders.
Never did find a cool sweater like his.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 27, 2015 - 09:14pm PT
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Ghastly, je t'aime.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 28, 2015 - 07:10pm PT
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Bump for the comic strip from the past calling Hermann Buhl a tweeker.
Anybody know if these old guys were using performance enhancing drugs, like a meth precursor?
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Oct 29, 2015 - 01:55am PT
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Hey Extremeartiste, I used to work in Pierrefeu-du-Var and would take the small Peugeot 104 company car and drive to the Calanques (about an hour away) regularly. Great climbing and swimming, but nowadays I hear that Cassis is overrun by tourists, but it sort of was back then too (1982).
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Oct 29, 2015 - 11:26am PT
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I did not see a reference to Hermann Buhl in that article. Maybe I missed a link?
edit: OK, I saw the cartoon on page two. Was it speculation or known that Buhl took this stuff? I read his book years ago but can't recall him mentioning drugs, only eating potato skins!
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Roots
Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 12:07pm PT
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Gary Hemming liked him too and was inspired to make some of those aiders like his, with aluminum steps
Possibly one of his aiders is in my collection. I will try and look for it tonight.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Oct 29, 2015 - 12:33pm PT
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Buhl...to the tune of a Stone song...running to the shelter of the climbers' little helper...ha ha.
http://www.outsideonline.com/1914501/climbings-little-helper
AMPHETAMINES WERE THE FIRST drug of choice in the mountains. In 1953, Austria’s Hermann Buhl took pervitin, the superdrug that Nazi troops took before battle, during his solo first ascent of Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat. Ten years later, during his historic 1963 traverse of Everest, American climber Tom Hornbein gave two teammates, Lute Jerstad and Barry Bishop, dexedrine to aid their descent. “My impression is it didn’t do a damn bit of good,” says Hornbein, who didn’t take the speed himself.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 12:44pm PT
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The US Air Force and Navy routinely give 'uppers' to single seat fighter
pilots on long redeployment flights. Hey, it's medicinal, and cheap insurance.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 06:24pm PT
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Cool article about Dex, Brian.
They didn't mention their source on Buhl and the pervitin. Hopefully the source wasn't an old cartoon from supertopo.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Oct 29, 2015 - 06:44pm PT
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From Buhl's Lonely Challenge:
"I had with me a few tablets of Pudutin, a drug with stimulates the circulation and wards off frostbite, and a few pills of Pervitin for extra strength in case of extreme necessity. We had carried them ever since Base Camp."
"Completely exhausted, I fell down on the snow. Hunger racked me, thirst tortured me, but I knew I had to save the last drop as long as possible. Perhaps Pervitin was the answer? It couldn't be many hours before I got back again and the effects would last that long. Doubtfully, I swallowed two tablets and waited for them to take effect; nothing seemed to happen and I felt no benefit. Or was it that they had already done their work and that without out them I would never have been able to get up again? You never know with tablets!"
His own words.
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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 07:00pm PT
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Oxygen or speed?
What's the difference?
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 07:02pm PT
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Thanks Brian, I guess the old comic had the pervitin part right.
It does appear though that he used them in need, rather than chomping them for the way up?
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Oct 29, 2015 - 07:13pm PT
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Nah...he was on the way up...
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 08:30pm PT
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So....tweeker?
He seems to have some familiarity with these things, "you never know with tablets."
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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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Oct 29, 2015 - 09:08pm PT
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Speed was handed to both sides during WWII...
... similar sh#t probably is still issued.
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Oct 30, 2015 - 01:45pm PT
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Thanks, Brian. I couldn't find my copy of Lonely Challenge which I read maybe 45 years ago.
At the U of Chicago in 1958 I climbed with a mathematician who had known Buhl. He talked about a bouldering traverse that had finger-holds "the width of match sticks" that only Buhl could do. He also encouraged me to learn a one-finger pull-up, which he said Buhl could do . . . which I did; and he might have, but I wasn't able to find any other evidence. (maybe it's buried in Lonely Challenge and I missed it!
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 30, 2015 - 09:16pm PT
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This almost needs it's own thread. Rebuffat was a different type of inspiration than Buhl.
I didn't know what pervitin was when I used to read all this stuff. I'm not sure I know what it is now. One article I linked equated it to meth, but others compare it to dexadrine. I don't really know the difference, but I think it is good that these things come out into the light.
I learned long ago, from an older and wiser climber than me, that there really aren't any rules except that you don't lie about what you did. Buhl did not feel the need to lie about the pervitin, it appears. So in his mind, and perhaps his world at the time, it might not have been cheating to him.
What is cheating when it comes to substances in climbing?
I go back to the old words of wisdom- if you think you will have to lie about it, don't do it.
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