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| Messages 1 - 33 of total 33 in this topic |
Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 2, 2009 - 05:15pm PT
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Earlier in his life, Pratt seriously considered entering Clown College. He was amazingly agile and could walk on the tops of wine bottles lined up in a row on a camp table as well as juggle many balls at once, even ride a unicycle. Although he left us nine years ago, this is where he has come to be.
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jstan
climber
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I'll try to make an argument that walking on the tops of wine bottles is better training for climbing than is slack lining.
Both require excellent balance and muscular control. But....
The holds do not move. The climber does have to achieve minimal lateral forces on the immobile holds. Wine bottles do just that.
Slack lining is a dynamic training primarily for balance and mucular control to restore balance when the holds are moving.
Slack lining is great training for climbing...........during Richter 9 earthquakes.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 2, 2009 - 05:29pm PT
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Okay, Johno Stannard. This will be simple. Next one is you, slacklining in Camp Four with antennae and pink capri pants. But I do agree. I agree, I never thought that slacklining was that useful. Pratt knew everything.
THIS JUST IN FROM SCUFFY: "Johno, don't be forgetting that outside foot again, okay?"
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jstan
climber
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But when you drag that outside foot along it makes such a good scraping sound!
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matty
climber
po-dunk
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Looks like he's texting...
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Look at those old Regal Select cans.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Bump for the man in knickers!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Yes, bump for Chuck.
Meanwhile, this thread is the second one I've seen this morning that refers to dragging the outside foot. What's the story behind that?
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jstan
climber
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Story not suitable for polite company.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Well ok then.
That means you might find my comments on the "Ladies do you feel objectified?" thread to be interesting.
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jstan
climber
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The Pacific Ocean is now spanned by puzzlement.
That's a lot of puzzlement.
Edit:
I thought it was your thread and so had trouble picking it out.
Comments added.
I declined to tell the story when it occurred to me saying it was impolite would cause imagination to go at warp speed. Always good to exercise the imagination.
The story:
Many years ago Bragg, GHand, I, and one or two more were walking down the carriage road when Greg asked how was one to climb offwidth. None of us had ever even seen an offwidth much less climbed one. But Henry had given us the rules. To wit:
Face the ground
Back to the offset
Stand up on the outside foot
So I told Greg
Back to the ground
Face the offset
Stand up on the inside foot
Greg then asked why everyone was laughing. Today, after Peter suggested I slackline wearing pink tights, Scuffy B offered the opinion that I should try not to drag my outside foot behind me.
Any student of "Young Frankenstein" knows this is the only way to walk.
I rest my case.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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jstan-
You won't be puzzled if you read what I wrote and I think you will agree.
Edit:
Sorry for the confusion. I see you found the other post.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 3, 2009 - 10:15am PT
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Jan,
I know, I know. Usually Stanno is more tractable and makes most attempts available to communicate. But he can, as has been noted by all in past years, verge into the Disneyworld of explication. We humor him and even feed him occasionally.
In easy wide cracks, it is actually possible to climb them with the inside leg, ignoring--- dragging I should say--- the outside leg and foot. Such a frisky approach is actually simpler in a few respects and more exhausting in others. This all applies only to easy wide cracks. And some climb them this way without even knowing it, as Scuffy has noted in the past, especially in Johno's case.
Now when the climb is harder, possibly overhanging, not the right width, has a bad edge, and so forth, the outside foot is crucial, each move made is of shorter length, and the whole business is not prone to sassy 1-1/2 foot-long single moves, lest you come flying out of there, perhaps even "facing the ground". In short, although forgetting about the outside foot is very common, it is just that, an oversight due to the obsession with the detail closer at hand. Can we twalk.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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With all due respect to gracious JStan, I think Frost is next, and he don't look good in pink either!
I never met Pratt, but you have captured perfectly, for me, the mythic status which we all have been able to afford him so naturally. ("so righteously," for-crying-out-loud). Part of the Myth is the perception of restlessness, struggles and sacrifice regarding his profession, home and personal life.
As climbers, especially those of past eras, the common experience of sometimes feeling like we don't fit-in, is a powerful aspect of our emotional identity. Here, that identity, our metamorphic self, is seen in the soul of Pratt, in the distorted bluesuede and reflections of the windows and is well-balanced on bottles; revolving like spheres, and spilling out of the itinerate's heavenly van. Thank you Peter Haan.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 3, 2009 - 02:18pm PT
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Brun, thanks tons for the very kind comments above. And I stand corrected. Frost shall be next. I think Argyle....By the way Herrington is photographing Frost early next week in Oakdale. When I do Yvon, I might replace his outside with lizard skin or maybe Komodo Dragon skin. I have some files on those surfaces.
I won't use pink for Frost--- he is kinda femmy enough already--- I could lose him entirely in there. Pink has to be held in reserve for Johno. Now if I can just squeeze Stannard into a pair of leotards---even black ones--- I can photoshop the color afterwards. Antennae also no problem.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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I suppose YC made his own universe.
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jstan
climber
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Peter:
I hate to tell you. When I bicycle any distance I put on one of the stretchy black buttrags. But i wear regular shorts to cover them up.
You have your work cut out for you as regards me and black tights.
I have lots of good hats though.
As regards Tom Frost I am reminded of the efforts late in the 19 century, and before Einstein, to explain relativistic effects using the Aether, a fluid filling the entire universe.
The Aether wasn't real. Tom is.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2013 - 09:58pm PT
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bump for The Great One.
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jgill
Boulder climber
Colorado
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Dec 21, 2013 - 10:18pm PT
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Is that Chuck on the left?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2013 - 10:31pm PT
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Actually rSin, back in the day we all did handle Chuck with tweezers, yes. That Pixie/Fairy Dust was terrifying. "Technique is your protection" kind of thing going on everywhere when it actually was all done with Pixie Dust. Call a spade a shovel.
Johno Gill of course knew Pratt back in the day, as in the Nineteenth Century just above. That was clearly when Pratt wore comely pantaloons even as shown. They could be made to gather in inscrutable ways, hidden from even a belayer anchored close by, but serving to knot up in certain untold ways as to make even the worst offwidth a mere certainty of ascent.
Pratt really looked like he could have run off with the circus; I suppose in a way he actually did, too, as JohnoG suggests by innuendo just above. Chuck was cute; he had that button nose turned up a slight bit, blond but balding early, and transistorized at 5'-4". A perfect atomic guy. Thank god he loved to party and drink. Had he not had this particular arcane skill, perhaps he'd have merely taken over everything by this point.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:28am PT
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Probably worth mentioning here is that Chuck Pratt came from one of the highest-most Mormon family, royalty actually, the Pratt family, from whence we get Romney and Huntsman families.
Of the Pratts: Parley Pratt was an original Mormon Apostle as was Orson Pratt; they were the first of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in LDS orthodoxy and Orson was even in surveying, leaving his mark throughout the state.
Perhaps someone here from the LDS persuasion could elaborate. It would be very interesting.
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H
Mountain climber
there and back again
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Dec 22, 2013 - 12:39am PT
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Peter I love your work. Hope your well. If you ever want to check out the climbing on St. Helena I would be honored to show you around.
Happy holidaze my friend.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:46am PT
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Hi H!
Thank you. I remember looking at those rocks off to the east as we would drive north to our little walnut farm up near Kelseyville back in the Fifties, finding our way over and over again from Berkeley late Friday nights. I was just a child then and my parents were hell-bent to still have agrarian roots when my sister and I appeared. So we worked this farm for years while living in Berkeley.
And then later of course as a young man. And I do understand there is a bunch of history with these formations too, maybe even Roper got up there during some period and that there are routes from way back then. Relic bolts 'n stuff. Threads previous here as well, I understand.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:53am PT
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H, there was a time when fast asleep at maybe 9 or so, I was wrestled from sleep while in the back of the old 1949 Plymouth station wagon we had. A buck was loaded in the middle of the night; we had stopped along the road. Actually we had hit it as it ate something in the roadway but mesmerized by our lights. I hadn't been disturbed from sleep quite yet, and when we reached the farm a hour later with this carcass, my parents hung it up and skinned and gutted it by the headlights of the station wagon. Like the farm people they were. We ate it for months and soon grew remarkably tired of it but years later still crave gamey flavors in all my eating.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Dec 22, 2013 - 10:01am PT
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What part of Thailand did Pratt use to retire too in the winter?
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Dec 22, 2013 - 10:23am PT
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Thank you Peter for this kind remembrance of one of the most influential personalities in American rock climbing. Thank you Chuck for your still relevant insight into the human condition.
I was not aware of Chuck's lineage to the "Pratt" family of Mormonism fame . . . talk about a cross to bear. To grow away from the religion and ultimately separate from it, as I am assuming he did, would potentially create tremendous family discord and the proverbial weeping and gnashing of teeth. A difficult environment to say the least. It is no wonder he found solace in nature's cathedrals.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Dec 22, 2013 - 11:16am PT
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Peter, your sweet whimsy amplifies the respect we feel for Chucky.
My brow gets crunchy, though, trying to imagine how I could benefit doing the wide with a pair of wings of any size. You don't have room to move.
Therefore, I'd consider weird earthbound angelic abilities, rather than the "lame pixie" vision, consider the "angel" approach (drop any reference to the Fall, however).
It is a proven Hollywood winner, the angel bit. Capra used it. Dietrich used it.
Frost still comes across as a choirboy.
You yourself come across as a little kid in a candy store some days.
Wherever Monkey Seat Man went, I like where you are going with the thread and it's nice you resurrected this rabbit.
Merry Christmas and นางฟ้าอเมริกากลับบ้าน.
Pacific is vast.
Clowns laugh that it is so large.
Pratt giggles hardest.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Dec 22, 2013 - 12:52pm PT
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Chuck taught me to juggle. I got so I could do three up and over, as opposed to in a circle which is harder. Also two in one hand and four (two in one hand, both hands). Chuck could do five, at least an order of magnitude harder, which I never got close to.
He recommended practicing at the beach because the balls wouldn't go anywhere after a mistake. Also, in learning, to first learn one cycle, tossing each ball once. Then try to progress to two cycles.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Dec 22, 2013 - 01:01pm PT
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Nice art Peter. How does one learn to walk on wine bottles? How many do you have to empty first? I can hardly imagine walking on bottles!!
Here's an idea; Bury them in sand and progressively bury them less deeply. I must be channeling Pratt, although I never met him!
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Rollover
climber
Gross Vegas
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Dec 25, 2013 - 11:07am PT
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Bump
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 28, 2017 - 07:34pm PT
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Pratt Bump...
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Apr 28, 2017 - 07:44pm PT
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Sure played a mean pinball!
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Apr 28, 2017 - 07:54pm PT
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Nobody could climb like Chuck Pratt.
Old timers will verify that.
He could on-sight five nine
With a gut full of wine,
While juggling three balls and a bat.
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| Messages 1 - 33 of total 33 in this topic |
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