mjemond

Charles (Chuck) Spiekerman Memorial Friday, Oct. 18 at The Mountaineers, 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Goodman Room. Parking is free next to the Mountaineers as well as at Magnuson Playfield on 74th Street nearby. 5:45-6:45: Program with refreshment/appetizers 6:45-9:30: Food service and informal sharing/mingling. (BevMo will be involved but BYOB also is allowed. No indoor climbing, tho.) Moon rises at 9:40 over Lake Washington that eve, and we have reserved the outdoor Seattle Parks Bouldering Rock right next door. Those who knew Chuck are invited. (Olyclimber might want to post this on a new thread to get this announcement out???)

The lessons and the good times are not lost. In fact, the good times keep getting gooder. And we teased each other, too. On one trip to the Olympics, Chuck was telling me how he was going to "teach" me the major differences in consideration between the Cascades and Olympics. He even sacrificed his "Favorite T-shirt" to demonstrate: it poured rain about 60% of the trip and was hot and humid for the remainder. One night when it wasn't raining, he spread that shirt out over some branches to try to dry the sweat some. You know where it ends ... inside some goats. I will never forget the look on his face in the morning when we figured out what happened. GumpyCat. OMG, I am laughing right now. So cathartic. And I fell down laughing then. GrumpyCat2 And then I was unconsciously humming Bill Grogan's goat on the trail back... GrumpyCat3 Eh, he had a hundred Favorite T-shirts. No biggee, there. He never let bad stuff get him down, at least not for more than an hour. I am working on figuring out how he did that. He was happy every day, shared a lot, and dreamed of retiring early to the mountains. He didn't suffer; that we know. It is just we who have to figure out how to fill them gap.

Heh, on the Three Queens, one can see a bit of a special watch he got from his pops with an altimeter on it.

Here are some oldies. Some Line Yo Mamma Don't Like in the Gunks in 1993 as well as the "middle queen" of the Three Queens in '93. We climbed all those familiar peaks in the background, of course. We had matching helmets, harnesses, rock shoes, fleece... soo sappy. And, of course, we thought we were on the way to being such Badasses. We made up our own online registry at REI in 93 because there wasn't such a thing back then. Got Friends from Friends. I had purchased the old red B2600 in 92 and had driven it out to New York for my post doc. We drove it back to Seattle together in 94 ...took us like 3 (4?) weeks .... did a few climbs along the way. I am not bothering to PS these images.

Somewhere near Beaver Lake on a "trip" to play in the snow, about 20 years ago. I am sure he still has that t-shirt and probably still has those pants.