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Stimbo

Trad climber
Crowley Lake
Jun 25, 2013 - 07:48pm PT
I'm pretty sure Kim Walker is still in Bishop. She got married to Jeff Osterguard and they had a daughter that must be in her early 20's.
yanqui

climber
Balcarce, Argentina
Jun 25, 2013 - 08:21pm PT
I think Silvia Fitzpatrick was the first Argentine (man or women) to climb 8a. As I recall she also got the first female ascent of Fitz Roy. The old school valley guys might recognize her name because she climbed the North Face of the Eiger with Bridwell. When she came to my hometown and bouldered with us on the nearby sierra about ten years back, she wasn't at her best because she was recovering from a pretty serious injury caused by rockfall. Well she must have recovered with a vengeance, cause since then she's done a couple of 8bs.
Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Jun 26, 2013 - 06:59pm PT
Bumping this for the testosterone-challenged members of S-T.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jun 26, 2013 - 09:07pm PT
Stimbo, yes I've heard that! Em of Wyde recently talked to her as did another friend of mine. It would be cool to run into her, she was, and I'm sure still is, the real thing!
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Jun 27, 2013 - 12:22am PT
Great adds BrokeDown...looking forward to seeing you soon!

Susan
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
Jun 27, 2013 - 08:09am PT
Kim Walker was seen just recently at the crags and supposedly getting back into climbing...?
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jun 27, 2013 - 09:25am PT
Go Kim!

And Broke, hoh man, my heart goes out to ya.
Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Jun 27, 2013 - 08:21pm PT
Hey, thanks Jaybro. The upside to the lawyer story; last October the police raided the f*#k's home and confiscated his computer which had been traced as receiving downloaded CHILD PORN! He was charged with 2 counts of possession, and in Wyoming each count was worth 12 years in Rawlins. A day before the pretrial hearings began, he saved the taxpayers of Wyoming a lot of $$$ by going to the City Park where he blew his polluted brains out.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jun 27, 2013 - 09:11pm PT
Yikes! There in Douglas?
Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Jun 27, 2013 - 09:16pm PT
Casper! That's where he lived.
Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Jun 27, 2013 - 09:43pm PT
Was Catherine Cullinane mentioned in this thread? She should be. I also saw only a single mention of Kathy Besio (KB).
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 27, 2013 - 09:54pm PT
Was Catherine Cullinane mentioned in this thread? She should be.

3 times.

I also saw only a single mention of Kathy Besio (KB).

4 times.

To count these, I clicked on Show All to put the entire thread on one page, then used Find (in Chrome) on Cullina and KB, and checked each occurrence .

Counting references is not as interesting as reading stories, though.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 27, 2013 - 10:22pm PT
Here is something slightly better than a count, but photos aren't as good as stories...

Catherine Cullinane
(has posted here as CathC, mostly in 2007)
http://www.supertopo.com/inc/view_profile.php?dcid=Ojo9PTg_OSE,
photo posted by Simon and a short recollection from Werner:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1262633

J Crack at Lumpy Ridge, ~1978, photo by Rick A
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=264400

climbing at Indian Creek w/ Renny & daughter Jane, 2011
"Renny [Jackson] worked in the Tetons for years, but in the early 90's he and his wife Catherine moved to Talkeetna, Alaska, where he worked on Denali for a few years. ... Catherine Cullinane was the first woman to guide for the Exum Guide Service in the Tetons, so she holds her own in the climbing world."
http://ralphsclimbingblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/climbing-with-jacksons.html
Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Jun 28, 2013 - 12:34am PT
Clearly... I am a lazy sod.

Thanks Clint!
sibylle

Trad climber
On the road!
Jul 2, 2013 - 01:53am PT
i recall "pixie of the crags" Aussie Louise Shepard was very talented.....

Louise lead me up OZ in about 1980 (I think I fell across the crux). My son and I visited her in Natimuk, Australia in 2009, where she lives close to Mount Arapiles.
sibylle

Trad climber
On the road!
Jul 2, 2013 - 02:12am PT
first met Sibylle in the mid 90s in Yosemite, though we both lived in Boulder. I hadn't had the opportunity to climb with very many women, particularly longer trad routes. It was a real treat to go out with a lady who was so comfortable and competent on the rock

In 1995, Manda and I had an awesome day: we were too hot in the Valley, so we borrowed her ex-boyfriend's truck (he was on a wall; she had the keys); drove up to Tuolumne.
Got there at noon, parked at the base of South Crack. These two guys saw us and started running up the slab to beat us to the climb.
I yelled up,"We're probably faster than you."
They lead, and belayed the first pitch. We soloed it, and Manda started up behind the second. Worried, he suggested there wouldn't be room at the belays for two parties.
"Oh, don't worry," I replied. "We'll simulclimb the route."
"Yuo girls plan to simo the whole route?" he asked, appalled.
"Yup".
By the time I got to the end of pitch two, both guys were waiting for us. They had decided to let us go first, and also asked us out to dinner ...
We turned down dinner, since we figured we'd have time to climb Fairview next. Started that about 3:15, and topped out 3 hours later.
Those were awesome times... and oh, Manda was leading hard 5.11 then.
RyanD

climber
Squamish
Nov 15, 2013 - 12:40pm PT
Bump for the babes. Good stories here!
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
Nov 21, 2013 - 11:23am PT
Here's a woman climber and mountaineer that I'd never heard of until Ghost posted some photos of her on another thread.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2274959/Terrific-collection-of-old-climbing-photos
http://www.wunderground.com/news/mount-hkakabo-myanmar-downgrade-20131120
The bio is from Wikipedia.



Fanny Bullock Workman (January 8, 1859 - January 22, 1925)


was an American geographer, cartographer, explorer, travel writer, and mountaineer, notably in the Himalayas. She was one of the first female professional mountaineers; she not only explored but also wrote about her adventures. She achieved several women's altitude records, published eight travel books with her husband, and championed women's rights and women's suffrage.

Born to a wealthy family, Workman was educated in the finest schools available to women and traveled in Europe. Her marriage to William Hunter Workman cemented these advantages, and, after being introduced to climbing in New Hampshire, Fanny traveled the world with William. They were able to capitalize on her wealth and connections to travel extensively around Europe, north Africa, and Asia. The couple had two children, but Fanny was not a motherly type; they left their children in schools and with nurses, and Fanny saw herself as a New Woman who could equal any man.

The Workmans began their journeys with bicycle tours of Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Algeria and India. They cycled thousands of miles, sleeping wherever they could find shelter. They wrote books about each trip, with Fanny frequently commenting on the state of women's lives that she saw. These early books about their bicycling tours were quite popular. At the end of their cycling trip to India, they escaped to the Himalaya for the summer months and fell in love with climbing in the mountains. They returned to this unexplored region eight times over the next 14 years.

Despite not having modern climbing equipment, the Workmans explored several glaciers and summited several mountains, eventually reaching 23,000 feet (7,000 m), a women's altitude record. They organized multiyear expeditions but struggled to remain on good terms with the local labor force. Coming from a position of American wealth, they failed to understand the position of the native workers and struggled to find and negotiate for reliable porters.

After their trips to the Himalaya, the Workmans gave lectures about their travels. They were invited to learned societies and Fanny became the first woman to lecture at the Sorbonne and the second to speak at the Royal Geographical Society. She received many medals of honor for European climbing and geographical societies and was recognized as one of the foremost climbers of her day. She demonstrated that a woman could climb in high altitudes just as well as a man and helped break down the gender barrier in mountaineering.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Nov 21, 2013 - 12:50pm PT
Bump!
LongAgo

Trad climber
Nov 21, 2013 - 05:58pm PT
Maybe already referenced on this thread, as I didn't go through every post. But for the record, from previous thread on Bev Johnson:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/194665/Bev-Johnson-Stories

Beverly and Astroman

I knew Bev from climbing with her some in the 70’s. We did a number of short crack climbs in Yosemite. She had an infectious energy, raw power and determination on the rock which I much admired. I also loved how she handled being a woman climber when there were few and when lots of men were threatened by the thought of a woman entering their prized mostly male sanctuary. She entered the holy place without knocking and blasted around with such confidence and verve it made all the chauvinism look utterly silly.

I have not told the following tale anywhere because it is hardly my proudest moment or hers (I can’t find any writing of hers on the climb either), but Beverley and I did Astroman in the early 80s, nearly coming undone in the process. I was determined to get it free within my old traditional standards of few falls, no hangs and starting over after falls from free stances or pitch starts. I was still in rebellion against style transitions of the day and prone to occasional mad proselytizing on the subject. Beverley respected my desire and knew about my stylistic warring but mostly just wanted to do the climb however we did it. Off we went.

All went well until the Enduro Corner. Beverley tried to lead it but half way up got tired and started hanging for rests. She was angry at herself the more she rested. I was quiet at first, and then in a rising pissy mood protested, “NO AID.” She told me to f*#k off. I said we should rap off if we couldn’t do it in good style. She challenged me right back saying something like, “Let’s see you do it right.” Now I was wildly fired up to give it a go, just the mood I needed looking back on it. Down she came and up I went. She was grim faced but I ignored her. We should have talked it out but didn’t. When I was about a third of the way up the corner, she told me she wouldn’t hold me if I fell and I’d just have to start over. “Fine” I yelled back. The camaraderie we had established over several climbs together was falling apart. I found there were a few edges on the right wall allowing rests here and there and managed to get near the end of the corner without a fall before the crack opens up. Suddenly a batch of swallows burst out of the crack into my face and off I went, screaming. Before I could say anything, Beverly, true to her promise and the very rules I touted for the climb, lowered me away to start again.

At the belay ledge I looked at her and said, sheepishly, “It wasn’t my fault!” She looked at me with her soft but penetrating eyes and slowly started to smile, then laugh. Our temper tantrum melted away thanks to her good heart. She, unlike me, was looking beyond the climbing to its meaning for two people who loved the walls. We sat and laughed for several moments. Then, looking over to Half Dome starting to turn golden she slapped my leg and said, “You’re a f*#ker!” I said back, “I know.” I remember that interchange like it happened yesterday. I guess it was what I needed, because I got the corner next try and Beverly followed it with only one fall and rest, and was fine with it.

Higher, the other remaining challenge for us was the Harding Slot. Beverly wanted a go at leading saying something like, “I want this sucker.” Looking up at it, I was happy to let her give it a go. I had never been on the route and was horrified by the slanting bomb bay look of it. She fired off the lower layback but had trouble getting into the slot. I told her to come down and try it again, though getting down from such an overhanging thing was not easy. She came back after some rope shenanigans, looked out at the waning light and told me to give it a go. Now we were comrades again, trying to get up the wall and get off with whatever combination of climbing worked. Perhaps it was because I was pretty skinny in those years but I found I could get into the slot as it widened without too much effort. The only problem was the minimal protection. In current parlance, I think one needs about a #6 to adequately protect the slot and we had nothing close.

A strange thing happened as Beverley followed: she turned the tables. She tried the chimney part twice without luck, but insisted on down climbing each time to start over. Down climbing the Harding Slot from almost anywhere beyond the beginning probably is harder than climbing up it. I couldn’t tell if she didn’t want to weight the rope or take a big swing. It was getting late. Now I was the one concerned about getting up before dark versus style issues. “Beverley, we’ve got to get going.” Or words to that affect. “Shut up Higgins. We’re doing it your way.” And those words are exactly hers. Even in my frustrated state I thought, What a woman. Third try she got it.

Above, there are a couple of strenuous laybacking pitches. I remember Beverley zoomed up one of them in waning light (I think it’s called Changing Corners). I got the last pitch in near dark, for me the toughest on the climb. While it’s face climbing, right up my alley, it was hard to see and protect and the rock seemed crumbly. Unlike me, Beverley didn’t whimper about the oncoming dark and try to hurry me. She followed with no problem or comment.

We had lights and got down the descent gully gingerly, feeling wasted and not talking much. The minimal dialog I remember with her, and the last we spoke to one another due to her untimely death, went something like:

“Not the best climb,” I said.

Unfazed, “It was OK.”

More skittering down the gully.

“Sorry I got pissed,” I said.

“OK, f*#ker.”

Farewell again, Beverly, good and brave soul you were.

Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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