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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 8, 2009 - 04:51pm PT
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Maybe I've been out of the loop...
we were on After 6 yesterday evening and the conversation came around to not having spied TM on the route for a while. He used to be spotted their soloing up, chatting up the young climbers at the belays...
I can't recall running into him in the last couple of years, where in the years before that I'd run into him all the time, both in the Valley and up in Tuolumne Meadows.
My interactions with him are limited to just those encounters, he wouldn't know me from any of the other admiring hoards... but I am interested to hear if he is doing well. As I said, it maybe that I've just not been around.
I do miss his story telling, remembering the time when we hiked past the base of Moby Dick Center he was holding forth among a gathered group of new climbers telling them of Robbins soloing up Ahab and down climbing Center. Brought me a smile, that did...
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Bullwinkle
Boulder climber
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Ed
TM hasn't been climbing much the last three years or so. Every fall he'd showup in the Valley and we'd solo after 6 and rope up for a few other routes around the circut. I spoke to Tommy H this spring, he said TM is doing fine being a Grandfather.
Sadly TM told me last year that he didn't quite feel up to climbing anymore. I first went climbing with TM when I was 16, mostly because he had a rack, rope and a car, the last time I went climbing with him was two years ago, mostly because he had a rack, rope and a car. . .some things never change. . .DF
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Once, I asked Sondra (his daughter in law) how he was doing, climbing wise, "he mostly wants to do long classic stuff, but he climbs 5.11 when we make him."
Wouldn't you want to have a grampa as cool as him?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 8, 2009 - 11:10pm PT
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Thanks for the news Bullwinkle...
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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TM has to be in his seventies at least. I‘ve known him for 43 years. We first met on the top of Rixon’s Pinnacle. It was getting dark, TM was raving as usual and Royal was incredibly sick of him as well as of everything else, plant and animal. Royal was like a really pissed off arch vampire to TM’s nervous nelly act. They had spent the day together on the West Face route. Josh and I had spent the day on the Direct South Face line. Our experiences were all different, that day. Royal summed his up in one short sentence, snapping: “keep feeding TM, keep feeding” as TM finished seconding the last lead Jerry Lewis-style. It almost seemed as if lightning bolts came out of Royal just then. The nonstop stream-of-TM style comedy could get old; he usually staged it to get up stuff and shunt the fear he probably actually had going on at some deeper level.
Then a bit later when I was in the Valley all the time, I would see him really frequently. We even did some stuff together although at that point I was not too stimulated by it. I think Doggie Diversions and other Camp Four wall routes and El Cap base routes. Oh and Manure Pile routes. And the tickertape of comedy was still running move by move.
As time wore on Jan Herbert left, people moved on too, and TM, once a credentialed school teacher began another phase of life I guess the best part of which has been his two sons and his love the outdoors. I last saw him at Lovers Leap about 15 years ago, maybe longer ago. He was there with the sons. Vandiver and I were climbing there and at the Phantom Pinnacles for a few days and playing endless amounts of tennis at the lodge. He was okay but I think it has gotten a bit tougher since.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 10, 2009 - 06:06am PT
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Anybody know what happened to Jan Herbert?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jun 10, 2009 - 06:19am PT
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Real estate / title office person(?) Reno?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jun 10, 2009 - 09:43am PT
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TM mentored me when I first showed up in Camp 4. Super guy and one of the funniest people I've ever met.
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sneville
climber
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Jun 10, 2009 - 12:28pm PT
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I saw TM last summer as we were descending stately pleasure dome. He was hiking up the slabs to the summit. I never met him before but we talked for 15-20 minutes about some routes he put up. He has done some classics in Idyllwild, Tahoe and the valley. Nice guy to talk to, looked good for his age.
Sean
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 10, 2009 - 02:15pm PT
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What did TM do after he stopped teaching?
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jun 11, 2009 - 10:47pm PT
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TM is alive and living in Reno as a loyal employee of Patagonia.
He's a dedicated birdwatcher and a retired rock climber.
Can't see, can't hear, and can't do one-armed pull=ups - I quit! That's his answer to why he's not out there - climbing.
A dedicated grandpa and a lifelong friend - TM is still the most natural comedian I've ever met. He's always been a bit of an eccentric - but you can't help loving him.
Jan Herbert is still living and working in Gardnerville, NV.
Last month while sitting at this computer, my doorbell rang. I think it rang – my hearing ain’t so good anymore - but I answered it anyway. I opened the front door and there stood an old man. It took almost 10 seconds for me to recognize the form as none other than TM Herbert. Just driving through Bishop on his annual bird watching pilgrimage to the depths of Arizona. He insisted that I come outside in the sunshine.
We stood out on my lawn for over an hour while he went through all the details of why he still hadn’t taken delivery of his new car – car not truck. No more trucks for Herbert! As he droned on, his arms flailing, I was taking notice of his new tinted prescription glasses, the two new hearing aids partially hidden behind his ears, and the thinness and whiteness of what hair remained on his balding pate. I worried about what my neighbors were thinking watching these two old men, standing on the lawn – one throwing his arms wildly this way and that – occasionally kneeling to draw finger diagrams on the grass- all the while the other very old man stood intently staring as if in awe of the spectacle.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 11, 2009 - 11:09pm PT
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Thanks Don!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Jun 11, 2009 - 11:13pm PT
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Herbert and I climbed Lucky Streaks in...ummm..I'm thinking it was 1999. He had no trouble with 5.10 then. He is a terrific person, just be careful if you invite him to your campfire to park your car and pitch your tent a long way from the fire pit.
I don't quite remember how old he is, but he is 10 years older than Ashworth. I remember the Ashworth-turns-55 party was the same summer as the Herbert-turns-65 party. Just can't remember what summer that was (apparently too many parties that summer).
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Jun 11, 2009 - 11:18pm PT
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Haven't seen him in a while.
Photo by Blitzo.
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AM
climber
DLFA
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Jun 11, 2009 - 11:23pm PT
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feeling privileged to speak with the man regularly...best stories ever. Also the biggest bullshitter i've ever met!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 11, 2009 - 11:24pm PT
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anybody wonder why the dihedral pitches on The Yawn are described as "fist," just take a look at the paws in Blitzo's image!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Jun 11, 2009 - 11:53pm PT
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Ed - little known fact about Herbert is that he is also an astronomy buff. Has a little telescope, reads Sky and Telescope, keeps up with the latest astronews.
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jun 12, 2009 - 02:05am PT
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Herbert is two and a half years younger than me. I'm 76.
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Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
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Jun 12, 2009 - 07:29am PT
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I have to let you know... I almost killed TM Herbert in May 1993.
We had just bailed off the Muir from way up, like pitch 3. Us stupid Gunks climbers had like two 2.5 friends with us for wide gear. Anyway, we decided we could get up the Nose, or so we thought.
Long story, short... We're waiting at the top of the class 3 / class 4 buttress at the start of the route. A team of truckers from Georgia somehow got ahead of us and spent 8 days on the climb. This is where I learned my wall etiquite for popular routes [fvck everybody or you'll be screwed].
So we're sitting there bummed out when TM pops over the bulge below with his son to free climb to Dolt Tower for a day climb. After having read all the Muir Wall lore and seen his mug on various black & white plates and having never run ito a famous west coast climber, I hop to my feet and declare, "you're TM Herbert!" At this point, TM almost teetered back and went for the ride.
He sits down with us and tells us that the Muir Wall "is weird, up there" and tells us to push through Team Georgia Trucker to get ahead of them. We politely [stupidly] decline. TM and his son run up to Dolt Tower. Apparently TM had never been either on the Nose or at least not above Sickle Ledge; TM was amped. I hope I can keep the same stoke.
TM Herbert is way cool.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jun 12, 2009 - 08:44am PT
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I was at TM's 'surprize' 60th birthday party when I was, I think, forty. So that would make him.. wish I could count that high.
The guy is a crack up, no doubt.
Though one thing I have noticed hanging out with the Herbert family, is that maybe Humor skips a generation. Though It doesn't come nstural to him, I have heard Tom do the rare dry whit quip that has to be his father's influence. Tom and Sondra's kids will have people rolling on the floor!
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