Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Nov 26, 2015 - 12:18pm PT
|
I give thanks for John Turner.
|
|
Chris Jones
Social climber
Glen Ellen, CA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2015 - 09:30pm PT
|
John Turner's son, George, recently sent copies of letters John had written over the years to various guide writers, historians and so on. My original of the one addressed to me had gone up in smoke many years ago, and I was delighted to see it again. In the letter John's quirky sense of humor comes through. I had written John with a draft of his times and exploits, reminding him that Dick Dorling and I had run into him at the Bob Downes Hut in England's Peak District in 1963. Turner had returned to the UK in 1962, while Dorling and I were to leave the UK for North America in 1964 and 1965 respectively. At that time he was a bit of a legend in the UK for having made early repeats of Joe Brown/Don Willans routes - we knew nothing of his exploits in the Northeast. In fact we did not know about climbing in the Northeast. John Turner stayed with us through the years: Dorling became a leading climber at Bon Echo, while I was to write about his climbs.
|
|
steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2015 - 04:31am PT
|
Chris,
Thanks so much for posting that letter.
Having done many Turner routes; including Bloody Mary and Repentance, I always had great respect for the man, and wished that I had met him.
|
|
rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2015 - 06:05am PT
|
Turner is little known in the UK. When he died, I posted a note about him in ukclimbing.com (http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=583071);. There were just five responses, and no one who did respond had heard of him. Although he made early repeats of Brown and Whillans routes in the UK, it is clear that his main accomplishments were in North America, and even here he has gone unrecognized because of the locales of his activities.
So I think it is fitting and---to the extent anything we do in the climbing world matters---important for climbers in the land of his major achievements to celebrate his contributions. One can only hope that this thread bubbles up to the top periodically, as it has done now, to remind us all about those who went before us...
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2015 - 08:30pm PT
|
I try my best to bump the good stuff like this thread so folks will have a chance to learn about these amazing climbers. I wish that John had not become self conscious about the veracity of his recollections once I had him engaged in conversation. Truly a deep and lasting disappointment for a historian...
|
|
rbob
climber
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2015 - 09:53pm PT
|
John Turner is a legend in the Adirondacks and throughout the Northeast - at many points in my climbing career I leafed through the various guidebooks looking for his name and visionary routes (rock + ice).
|
|
Gritter
Trad climber
Hudson, Quebec
|
|
Correction:
Actually, John Turner almost NEVER took significant leader falls.
People (now deceased) whom I have spoken to personally, and who climbed with John out of Montreal during the late 50s and early 60s said that he had incredible endurance and that he was cool as a cucumber in difficult situations. Completely unflappable.
This was back when climbing at Poke-O-Moonshine [Poko], Cathedral, Val David and Bon Echo was in its very early phases of development.
Ed Webster wrote a superb but all too brief obituary for John on 15 May 2014, entitled "The Life, Times and Scary Climbs of John Turner (1931-2014)".
Check out Ed's obituary at:
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web14s/wfeature-john-michael-turner-obituary
Ed Webster had interviewed John at his home in the English Midlands just a year earlier, in 2013.
Quoting Ed from this interview in 2013, here below is some clarification about Turner's utterly unfounded reputation for falling frequently.
Quote from the Webster obituary at:
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web14s/wfeature-john-michael-turner-obituary
* quote begins below
It was at Ontario's Bon Echo cliffs in 1960, on one of his four attempts to make the first ascent of a route he named The Joke (5.10), that Turner took a 60-foot leader fall and fractured a bone in his foot. When I interviewed John at his home in the English midlands in 2013, he declared quite specifically, "In my entire climbing career, I only had two major leader falls. On a Joe Brown route, Hangover in Llanberis Pass in 1955, and on The Joke at Bon Echo. It was later that I developed a reputation for falling off climbs, but that was just a rumor."
* end of quote **
From:
True Gryte in Montreal [aka the Great White North]
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
Missed this the first couple of times. What a guy!
And the meek shall inherit the Earth.
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
“And the meek shall inherit the earth”....that particular passage was the one that first made me question the Book. I was only a teenager but I certainly hadn't seen any evidence supporting that particular fable.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!