Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:28am PT
|
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.
|
|
H
Mountain climber
there and back again
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 12:39am PT
|
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.
|
|
Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:46am PT
|
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.
|
|
Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2013 - 12:53am PT
|
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.
|
|
couchmaster
climber
pdx
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 10:01am PT
|
What part of Thailand did Pratt use to retire too in the winter?
|
|
Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 10:23am PT
|
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.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 11:16am PT
|
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.
|
|
Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 12:52pm PT
|
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.
|
|
McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2013 - 01:01pm PT
|
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!
|
|
Rollover
climber
Gross Vegas
|
|
|
Dec 25, 2013 - 11:07am PT
|
Bump
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Apr 28, 2017 - 07:34pm PT
|
Pratt Bump...
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
|
|
|
Apr 28, 2017 - 07:44pm PT
|
Sure played a mean pinball!
|
|
Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
|
|
|
Apr 28, 2017 - 07:54pm PT
|
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.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!