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RDB
Trad climber
Iss WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 15, 2009 - 03:49pm PT
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Anyone remember Dick Irvin?
Long shot but I thought it worth a try.
He sold MacInnes ice tools, "sold directly to the climber", back in 1964 from Saratoga CA? I am thinking this is where Don Jensen and others got their early MacInnes tools around that time.
DR?
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 15, 2009 - 04:10pm PT
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He was in the Loma Prieta RCS, where I first tied into a rope in 1958. He probably belayed me at Castle Rock on my early fumblings. I grew up in Los Altos, the next town over.
They were all likably nerdy techies from the nascent Silicon Valley and incorrigible punsters. Style was mountain boots on the rock, and way-baggy army surplus pants with a drawcord at the hem.
Dick did more High Sierra climbing than most of that group, as you can see from scanning the guidebook. That was pretty much lost on me until later. I remember paying more attention to some of the other RCS guys who had cute daughters. I think he may have been the one who broke a leg on Mt. Lyell and had an epic crawl back to Tuolumne.
I never knew about him importing ice tools. In fact since you got an old MacInnes I've started to wonder where mine came from?
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RDB
Trad climber
Iss WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 15, 2009 - 04:52pm PT
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Thanks Doug. First ad for the MacInnes axe I found was in Summit April of '64. (just got a fairly complete set) Ads on and off after that for a year or so and then a few in the early/mid '70s in MTN. magazine for the same axe. Although it is without question the first metal shafted axe (1963) by 1975 the same tool was long out of date with the almost straight pick.
But more interesting to see just how far MacInnes' aluminum shafts and drooped picks have gone.
I had wondered how you and others in the CA / Sierra East side got hold of the Scottish ax in the '60s. Guess Dick Irvin was the answer to that.
Kinda fun to trace the direct connection to Scotland. I suspect there is way more to the story though than just selling axes.
MTN #41 Jan 1975
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 15, 2009 - 07:00pm PT
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Last I saw Dick was in the mid 80s in Nepal, he was leading trips for Mountain Travel and I believe living near Bolinas, Stinson Beach, Marshall or in that vicinity. He had done some sailing on a famous boat called Improbable and was interested in sailing with us but we never put it together. Great guy.
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Gimp
Trad climber
Grand Junction
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Apr 15, 2009 - 07:50pm PT
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I lived for a number of years with one of his niece's and still stay in touch with her. He died a couple of years ago. At that time he was living in Idaho and actively birding. Very nice obituary in AAC journal. He was an incredible source of information on mountaineering history and a great story teller. Enjoyed knowing him.
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Apr 15, 2009 - 10:23pm PT
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As is mentioned in the AAJ Obituary, Dick Irvin taught math at Saratoga HS. One of my climbing partners had him as his math teacher and when Dick found out he was a climber, Dick told him lots of stories, the one my friend remembers most is of Dick climbing the Golden Gate Bridge (don't know if it was the south or north tower).
Bruce
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Jim Wilcox
Boulder climber
Santa Barbara
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Apr 15, 2009 - 11:03pm PT
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I had forgotten how heavy the toll was in 2006. Fowler,Nott, Skinner... The list seemed endless that year.
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RDB
Trad climber
Iss WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 16, 2009 - 01:37am PT
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Thanks for the link and personal comments. Some good stuff there. We all could do worse with how we will be remembered.
"Pull out a map of the world and randomly stick a pin in a mountain range. Dick had probably climbed there. He was the mountaineering equivalent of Kilroy. No matter where you went, he had been there first."
"Although he was a member of the successful Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak) expedition in 1958, he did not get the opportunity to climb high on the mountain because of the early success of the party. But Dick’s most remarkable expedition was the four-man attempt on Rakaposhi, 25,550 feet, in 1956. Dick, Bob Swift, Mike Banks, and Hamish McInnes tackled that giant with a budget of $5,000. It was an epic. Among other things, everyone fell more than 100 feet at one time or another. Somehow they reached 23,500 feet, a new high point, before having to turn back. Later, when Dick was asked how close they had come to the summit, he immediately replied, We were $5,000 short.”
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 16, 2009 - 03:34am PT
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Dick Irvin on the FA of Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum I) in 1958
Nick Clinch, who wrote the book A Walk in the Sky about the Hidden Peak Expedition, the first American success on an 8000 meter peak, describes meeting Dick Irvin:
"Meanwhile, as I had always wanted to climb in the French Alps, I carefully hoarded my fifteen-day vacation until the middle of August, when I headed for Chamonix. There it rained for twelve days straight. Splashing through the puddles on the way to the post office I heard someone calling me. Spinning around I spotted an emaciated figure with a blond beard approaching me. It was Dick Irvin."
"I'm glad I finally found you. You wrote that you would be in the Alps last part of August, and I've been looking all over for you. Just came from Zermatt," he said.
"How was Rakaposhi?" I asked.
"Interesting. We got to within 1,500 feet of the summit before the monsoon caught us. On the way down Swift [The same Bob Swift who was Chief Guide in the Palisades before Don Jensen] took a hundred-foot tumble. Then he was almost struck by lightning. He tried to avoid the blast by throwing his pack down, but it took a bad bounce and fell to the Biro Glacier instead. We spent the night in Camp II with one sleeping bag for the two of us. The next day I fell 30 feet unroped, but I managed to grab a protruding rock on the edge of a 4,000-foot-drop-off. Everyone contracted dengue fever. We didn't retreat from the mountain -- we escaped!"
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Apr 16, 2009 - 06:54am PT
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Great history stuff here.
Thanks everyone!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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May 24, 2010 - 11:35pm PT
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12 posts on this thread?
We must all have been out climbing!
Amazing history here.
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RDB
Social climber
way out there
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Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2010 - 04:13pm PT
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12 posts? It is more than most of us will get or deserve :)
A well lived life!
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BBA
climber
OF
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May 27, 2010 - 07:54pm PT
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Dick Irvin shows up in the Mt Starr King peak register for a couple of ascents in 1964 and 1969, both with the Loma Prieta Rock Climbing Section. He was also on the first ascent of Spireview point in the Valley. I recall him as one of the Stanford crowd - a more civilized bunch than the Berkeleyites.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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May 27, 2010 - 08:18pm PT
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I have always been an avid collector of climbing books & literature. As a student and young climber attending Los Gatos High School I learned about a teacher of math at the other school in our district (Saratoga) who also collected the words of climbers. I went to visit him at school and he invited me over to scan his collection. When I got there I was blown away; his collection was like a library while mine was just a bunch of boxes. His books were in impeccable condition; lining the walls of his den (as we called those rooms back then.) I ended up spending many hours and days over there and he was always willing to entertain me with stories and point out what books were valuable and why.
Sorry to here he passed away... I missed that Obit.
Weird, I have been trying to remember his name for about a year now...
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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May 27, 2010 - 08:34pm PT
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This is a great thread- I wish I would have gotten to meet him.
murf
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 27, 2010 - 08:45pm PT
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I was trying to figure out why that name rang a bell.
I guess he deserved a whole carillon!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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May 27, 2010 - 09:30pm PT
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Thanks RDB for bringing this back to ST.
As a kid growing up in Berkeley, Dick, along with Steck and Swift and Jim Wilson and Les Wilson and several others were my heroes. I just read the obit on the AAC link at it was heartwarming to say the least.
Venturing out like they did in the late 40s and 50s was the real frontier and they were part of a small nucleus of adventurous individuals in this country that set the pace for climbing today.
Just for one moment imagine climbing in Yosemite, the Tetons or the Himalaya back then! To be so lucky.
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wondermutt
Mountain climber
Banff Alberta
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An old photo from the 5th ascent of Mt. Colin in Jasper. Note the names... Frank Smythe used his first and, as legend has it, only piton on this peak.
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