The Grit

I only learned of Ken passing this past December. I will always be grateful for the experiences we shared and the skills he taught me. He was hard and gravelly on the outside, but inside he was a sensitive and loyal friend. This photo is one of many that I have of him, this one being the final pitch of Outer Space on Snow Creek Wall. It has hung on my living room wall for well over 20 years now.

I am looking for people to climb at Beacon Rock with. I know the rock really well, but all my partners have moved away or "grown up". email me at thefreakmachine@yahoo.com

I have a ledge you could borrow if you need. Name is Chris, I used to climb with Ken P. Email me if you want to borrow it at thefreakmachine@yahoo.com. I live over by MLK and Lombard

Ken tricked me into soloing Classic Crack in 'worth as well! Ken was a very good friend of mine, like my brother, not just my climbing mentor or partner. I miss him very much. I can not begin to think of Beacon without thinking of him. I have had so many adventures with that guy. He was a tricky guy sometimes, he told me to lead Wrong Gull one day. Seeing how I had never done it, I says to him, "its like a nine or ten a right?" and he says " yeah, I think its something like that". I went for it and it seemed a bit harder than that, but shit man, Ken said I could do it. So I did. After a while I really was just doing laps at Beacon. Ken was the only guy that I knew that I could run into in the middle of a pitch and would just perch on some little lip or bulge and sit there and chat with me.

That water can get mighty mirror like when the wind isn't blowing, as you know. However; the water certainly looks as if somebody has played with the color at least. It is too deep of a blue, even for early dust/late afternoon. Either way, doctored or not, its a fantastic pic of the home stone.

My iPod playlist would bore the average teenage girl.

Both Satriani and Vai are amazing guitarist, and they can bore the hell out of me in a song or less... unlike Hendrix. Amazing stuff he did, especially when you think of the equipment that was available, both for recording and playing on. Plus he couldn't just whip out a copy of Axis:Bold As Love to get an idea of what a cool rock sound is, inventive bastard. I just wish that he would have learned to tune that geetar a bit more goodder....

Ha ha! Jim Gillette and Michealangelo, wow. Nice rig, I am sporting a couple of Les Pauls with a Mesa Dual Rec 2x12 combo. What's your band name? And I still swear that I know you... in that one pic you look like a guy named Andrew, with a shorter hair cut.