stillcrankin

Fred and I were strip-searched at the Canadian border in 1973 because of some suspicious looking powder he had in his car glove box. That was the first sign that the trip was headed off the rails. After watching Dirtbag, I realized that I wasn’t really a climber. I didn’t have the right to call myself a real climber even though I spent decades trying to be. Fred was a real deal climber. He sacrificed everything for climbing. He had the kind of focus that I could only admire. I saw this guy in Tahoe City a few years ago (after Fred had died). Made me wonder if he really was too tough to croak. “We never grow tired of each other, the mountains and I”, Li Po wrote 12 centuries ago. there will never be another Fred Beckey.

Buy the book “Hooking Up” by PTPP, Pass the Pitons Pete, Pete Zabrok. It’s an absolute masterpiece with more useful aid climbing information than any normal person could possibly assimilate. There’s a whole section on solo climbing. Pete has climbed El Cap by 65 different routes and has spent 850 nights on the wall. Yes, 850. Hard to fathom (he likes to take his time). I’ve been aid climbing for over 50 years and there are things in the book that blew my mind: soloing, hauling, how to jug traverses, lowering out bags, haulbag management, head placement, belay management, rapelling with bags etc. The list goes on. Here’s his email: passthepitonspete@hotmail.com He’s in Yosemite right now and has 300 copies of his book with him. He may not respond right away as he’s working on another El Cap project in his usual shit-show manner but I don’t think he’s heading up for good for 3 or 4 days so he may get back to you. Tell him Don sent you his way BTW-the book is 670 pages with lots of pictures and illustrations

I totally respect that opinion. Like I said, I hadn’t been around Jim on a day to day basis in a long time, probably 35 years. People change. I’d heard that Jim was pretty whacked out but I hadn’t heard about the white supremacy leanings. That’s effed up. Jim endured (enjoyed) a lifetime of drugs, alcohol and other abuses. He loved LSD and other psychedelics and was known to dabble in heroin. Cocaine was a staple for him for years as I witnessed firsthand. These kinds of chemicals on a regular basis can change a person. I’m just really saddened that he ended up the way he did. You can only hope that you age gracefully and with dignity. Some do. Some don’t. I’ve been known to tell aging hard core climbers and athletes that complain about the things they can’t do anymore to embrace the change, to embrace the things they can still do. They’ll be very unhappy if they dwell on the things they can’t do anymore. If you survive all the stupid stuff you did when you were young you’ll eventually get there. I got back into big wall climbing about 10 years ago after a 30 year wall climbing hiatus. It’s been quite an eye opener. When I flopped onto a ledge three pitches up on the first wall my friend and I did after we got back into it, I thought I was going to have a stroke. We took 3 days to do a wall that I’d done in a day in the 70’s. Things got better. The next wall we did (that I’d done in 1973) didn’t hurt nearly as much. They kept getting easier. I learned to slow down and live in the moment. All the new aid do-dads certainly helped. Anyway, Bridwell lived a long and colorful life and I wish him well wherever he is now. BTW-if we ever meet, please don’t give me a Glasgow kiss.

Nobody gets out unscathed.

Old as dirt? Maybe so, but at least I’m still out there trying. How about you?

Just another day at my ‘puter… BTW-I saw your post before you edited it 😂!

“FAT TARD IS A DOUCHIE FUCKING POSER THAT HASN’T DONE SHIT” 🤣 OMG! That’s priceless! That pretty much describes FatRad to a t. I’m still LMAO 😂…

Ahhhh yes. WideFetish. Thanks for the clarification. I remember that FatRad and LEB were two particularly odious POS’s on the Supertaco. I can only remember once that I got involved in a political thread on The Taco when I laid into FatRad for being such a despicable sh#tbag. I had to respond. Oh, those were the days.

True dat about being totally inept at computers and the internet. He wasn’t unlike a lot of people his age and generation. Not sure what WF is. num1mc, you sound like you might have a little hatin’ going on…..

If it’s true, that’s just sad. I heard that Jim had changed after he moved away from Tahoe. Although I saw him at some climber reunions and other functions over the years, we pretty much lost contact till I called him a week or so before he died. I heard from others that he’d pretty much gone to the dark side, embracing far right conspiracy theories (contrails, etc) and a bunch of other idiotic s#it. His wife Peggy was a real piece of work and Layton, his son, I never really knew him except when he was pretty young. When we talked shortly before he died, he sounded like the old Jim, humble and thoughtful. That’s how I want to remember him.

Wow! Hadn’t seen this before. Bridwell was bad-ass and a really good guy. He was a lover not a fighter. I never saw him get mad at anyone. We were talking one time oh so very long ago in Camp 4, while a bunch of young climbers were spewing and spraying about all the stuff they had done that day and what they were going to do the next day when Jim leaned over to me and said, “You know, it doesn’t matter how hard or how much you climb in this life, what matters, when you cross over to the other side, is how you treated people along the way.” I’ve never forgotten that. The world doesn’t seem the same without Jim in it.

WTB Robbins boots size 11.5 or 12 hopefully in decent shape. I can always get them resoled. They’re still the best big wall shoe I’ve ever used. I know you old fukkers out there are holding some 🤣...

Maggots? MAGGOTS? Hahahaha 😂! I would prefer to think of myself as some kind of blood sucking parasite, like a tick or maybe a botfly. What a great trip report about an ambitious line up an ominous buttress. Not a lot of people are doing that kind of stuff these days. Did you really fix a thousand feet of line or was I reading that wrong? WTF? That must have weighed a ton, carrying all that up there. The thought of having someone lower me that far WITH HAULBAGS gives me the he-bee gee-bees. There IS a better way to descend with heavy bags.... That must have been amazing, being up there in quiet solitude for six days. That’s what wall climbing is all about. I like the name, Jotnar. Very fitting. When some friends and I tried to first climb this buttress in the early 70’s, I was thinking of calling it The Balrog Buttress, after one of the scary creatures from Lord of the Rings, which had just come out. My hat’s off to you!! Don Harder

I’m looking for a pair of Robbins Boots size 11.5 to 12 in decent shape. They’re the best shoe I’ve ever found for standing in slings for long periods of times and yes, they’re old-school but so am I.

Last week in Tahoe City. Fred’s doppelgänger........