Speaking of Dee Molenaar and brushes with greatness, have you seen his personal copy of his book "The Challenge of Rainier"? He took the first copy off the press and for years carried it with him to any lecture or meeting were mountaineers were present. It's full of signatures of climbers like Hillary, Tenzing, Shipton, O'Dell, Bonatti, Messner and so on.
I met Dee at a lecture and book signing for "Cascade Voices" by Mac Bates. To my surprise, he asked me to sign his Rainier book. In my copy of "Cascade Voices" he wrote above his picture: "To a younger generation role model, Berg Heil!" Boy, that made me feel good.
Dee came to Yakivegas a few years back (his old stomping grounds, ya know) and I met him at a climber's meeting, along with Bill Mahre, and a lot of their old cronies. Dee had brought along a bunch of his paintings, and lithos/prints of same.
I "wrestled" with him for a bit over an original watercolor of Rainier (the north side) that he had brought along that he had painted eons before. He wasn't keen on selling the original, but he finally relented and sold it to me for a couple Franklins. He penned a nice parting note on the back of the picture. It hangs with pride in my little corner of our living room, next to my climbing library.
I bought my used Volants from Phil Mahre, Olympic gold medalist downhiller from 1984.