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Garcia
Big Wall climber
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Nov 16, 2008 - 12:14am PT
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Barry, if you are out there reading this, it is me Phyllis. Have you been down to Granite Creek lately? I have had polynesian paralysis for 20 years. I have been in Bend for the last four. Write if you are out there.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Bump for a great thread.
I just went swoooshing back through time! I think there's a portal in here.....
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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wasn't there a "10d" thread or must do "10s" thread awhile back where we were talking about the likes of
Vanishing Point
Manana
The Thief
etc.
Largo's post reminded me about that discussion.
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MisterE
Trad climber
One Step Beyond!
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bump for history and climbing
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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bump
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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How about the Bates eliminate at Castle?
Is there a climber from the bay area that has not felt at least a degree of frustration trying that thing?
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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can't find it, hrm
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Topic Author's Reply - May 18, 2009 - 01:50pm PT
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I just caught up with Jim Donini's telling of the first ascent of "Overhang Overpass" bar dips and a hangover and realize that it didn't really get included in the quintessential early 70s free-climbing routes. It is mentioned in the history that George Meyers included in his guide and I mention Jim as amongst the drivers of hard free. Given all that, in the general discussion posts from folks climbing then, we forgot about "Overhang Overpass." Maybe it was too hard, too early and didn't get climbed until the late 70s when it was an established if not often done route.
Any way, here's to amends.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 30, 2009 - 02:57pm PT
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Valley history bump!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 10, 2010 - 11:38am PT
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Mark Klemens- Enter and sign in please!!!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jul 10, 2010 - 02:39pm PT
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Stevie, we don't even know if he is lurking.. it would be great to hear from him.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 10, 2010 - 03:35pm PT
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He would have fun here on the ST so consider it a hopeful shout out/bump ploy.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Jul 10, 2010 - 04:01pm PT
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I always lament that there are not more pics of these two. I have some of Barry bouldering and perhaps one or two of Mark in camp but where are all the ones from BITD. Come on! SOMEBODY had a camera!
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Jul 10, 2010 - 08:15pm PT
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One of ST's greatest threads, thanks to so many for such good contributions here. Trundlebum's got it right: C-Mac should be all over getting a colorful history published, stat.
Looking through this thread makes me super fired up for those 5.10 classics named here. I've gotten some of them, but the ones that burn brightest in my memory (and as a result are at the top of my rematch list) are the ones that shut me down: Five and Dime (three attempts and counting) and Vanishing Point (had to pull on gear through the orange Alien section past the roof. Loved this climb though - beautiful and quiet corner of the Valley; the slammer hands after the business go on forever, as good as Silent Line or Gripper's epic hand sections imo.)
How could any 5.10 scrub like me not be enticed by JL's gem, "the Bates Big Four: Vanishing Point, Five and Dive, Lunatic Fringe, and Independence Center"
Fall 2010, Season of the Bates Big Four.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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Apr 28, 2012 - 10:23pm PT
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So Roger Bree, said Mousie Bee:
Is the K still active? Are his whereabouts known? And the burning question no one touched on
did anyone bother to teach him how to play something other than Louie, Louie?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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Apr 28, 2012 - 11:07pm PT
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Peter or Steve,
any news of Klemens since your last posts here?
For the record, in the late seventies, Millis tried to tell me he had become a pharmacist in the inland empire in SoCal.
I saw BB climb and he was as smooth and sure as anyone I ever watched. He had such control when he reached for something, there wasn't much else moving in the rest of his body. You watched him, you were in for a clinic.
I can't remember watching Klemens climb, but frankly, if sass were class, I would think more of him. He did me wrong one day and I might not have ended up in the Yosemite jail that night. It was my fault (worst thing I have ever done in the Valley kind of thing), but it might have been avoided had he been a little more kindly, a little less of a sass-box. That's the word, exactly. Sass-box. And the same old guitar riff. I think he used Louie Louie as an irritant and attention-getter. I take nothing away from him as a climber of exceptional ability and daring. It took a lot to keep up with JB.
So why is Geek Towers not mentioned? I thought it was a pretty darn good days work. Was it just not so difficult as the rest of the climbs or did I miss it up-post? (I have no guides recenter than the green of '71, so I only can guess it was "easy" 5.10). Also, name abuse question, What did they finally settle on, Tower of Geek, Leaning Towers of Geek, Geek Towers, Fawlty Geek, Faulty Greek? Lord knows JB and K used the word more than any four other guys!
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Apr 29, 2012 - 12:04am PT
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Barry Bates getting set to boulder at Castle Rock State Park sometime in the late 70s:
Note: EBs!
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Apr 29, 2012 - 03:42am PT
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Just now catching this thread and have only read the first entry.
Roger, some good thoughts. Lots I would talk about, had I the
energy at the moment.
One fine point, in your early paragraph about who started the '70s
free climbing boom. You might want to add "in Yosemite." There were
fantastic and very difficult climbs being done elsewhere and equal
to the hardest climbs anywhere.
I wrote a pretty nice piece on Barry, with an interview of him and
some photos, in the Climbing Art, back when I was editor. In Wizards of
Rock, of course, I mention him all over the place. I knew
Barry and continue to know him well. He was my main
bouldering partner in the late '60s, in Yosemite.
He visited me in Colorado, where we climbed.
People don't respond to his name, as we would wish, because they simply
are not up on their history and don't probably recognize the name.
Barry was so humble, as well, he probably half hid himself from the
accolades of the public.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 29, 2012 - 08:27am PT
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Klemens has a very bad back that precludes physical activity and lives near LAX. Bates lives in Austin Texas, I ran into him a year or so ago in Indian Creek.
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