Brush with Greatness

[lummox]

i threw rocks at a once.

[sobo]

Lowell_Skoog said:

pindude said:

And I had a chance to hike/climb with Dee a few years ago through a mutual friend, but have never met him.

 

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.

[Stefan]

Met with Alex Lowe. He was a really nice person. Couple of days later talked with Hans Kammerlander--that guy wanted to ski from the summit of K2. He is one skinny dude. All he is, is lungs and legs. His torso does look disproportional to the rest of his body. He didn't get the chance to ski down K2 but still made a decent attempt.

[Jim]

Drake mate with Steve Gurbeding, Conrad Anker, and Rolando Garibotti at the Bridwell Hut. Had dinner and beer with Charlie Fowler in El Chatan and met Casimo Ferrari.

 

Becky passed me while I was fooling with my climbing skins on Mt. Margaret, didn't say hello. He also drank from my beer instead of his at Gustav's.

 

Had ice cream in New Paltz with Lynn Hill and Hugh Herr. Derek Hersey soloed past me (no shirt w/walkman) while I struggled on a route on the Bastille. John Long clipped the first bolt for me on a tough start at J Tree.

[Terminal_Gravity]

ChrisT said:

Terminal_Gravity said:

I spent an afternoon teaching several of the "Women's place is on top" team, rock climbing technique at Stoney Point ( LA )...just befor they headed off to Annapurna.

 

Arlene Blum? She didn't mention you in her book

 

Why would she?? I was just a punk assed, cut off jeans wearing, climbin' fool kid.

[Alpine_Tom]

When Dee Moulenar was in the Harvard Mountaineering Club, they went to climb Mt. St. Elias in the Fairweathers. This was, I think, the second ascent of St. Elias, and they did some cosmic ray research on the climb.

Anyhow, my wife's grandparents ran a native school up there in Yakitat at the time, and the climbing club stayed at their house, while they were getting ready to head out, and after they got back. Dee developed his photos of the climb in their bathroom, and he's kept up with them ever since.

She has a painting of his of Yakitat bay that he did for them, and a whole bunch of hand-drawn Christmas cards, etc, in her big old scrapbooks. She still gets his Christmas letter. Seems like a really nice guy.

[ncascademtns]

I had Peter Croft dump a huge boulder on me when I climbed the East Face of Mt. Whitney. I did manage to step out of the way though.

Didn't even stop to say sorry.

I suppose that was due to the fact that he was climbing so fast that he was out of site in a matter of seconds.

[Eastsider]

A gentleman that I work with used to work with Dee Molenaar (in the USGS I think). He invited Mr. Molenaar to his wedding. Mr. Molenaar apparently did not make it to the ceremony, but presented him later with some artwork that he created at the same time that the ceremony was performed, to "save the moment", so to speak.

 

The man sounds like a class act to me.

[Dru]

i am familar with all of your mothers

[pindude]

Lowell_Skoog said:

pindude said:

And I had a chance to hike/climb with Dee a few years ago through a mutual friend, but have never met him.

 

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.

 

Now that I'm not sober, I realize I actually have met Dee...shook hands and chatted with him at the last AAC meet in Seattle. Class act is right. But I really did miss my chance by not taking up an opportunity to climb with him--when I really would have gotten to know him better--through mutual friend Porter (now that's a great name). Sobo, I'll give you $300 for that watercolor...

 

Lowell, here in Spokane our own Joe Collins--who most of you never have heard of but was mentor to Roskelley and Kopzcynski in the 60s to early 70s--has a book or two much like Dee's 1st copy of "Challenge of Rainier." I don't recall Shipton or O'Dell, but he has the 3 others' signatures, and an incredible number of others dating back to the 40s and 50s. John and Kop were even tasked with taking books with them on their Himalayan and other travels to get signatures of "greatness" through the 70s and 80s. Joe continues to get signatures and photos of every great who passes through.

 

One of the better things about the climbing community, is that we *do* get to meet a lot of the folks who have made our sport what it is. I feel pretty fortunate for most of those who I've had a chance to climb and ski with, "greatness" or not.

 

--Steve Reynolds

 

 

[tshimko]

Speaking of Dee Molenaar, have run into him any number of times in Tacoma, once saw his slides from his 1953 K2 climb....absolute slices of history. His artwork and mapwork are incredible. And as others have mentioned, he is a great person from the old school.

 

Used to work at Cascade Designs, once saw this old guy in the conference room, kinda looked like Fred, so I walked in and sure enough it was, he was there to scam some free gear for some adventure. Had a chance to talk with him, completely forgot that I had a copy of the green CAG sitting on my desk, could have nabbed an autograph. CD was a great place to work; how many others have run into FB at work. Spoke with Carlos Buehler about poles, once called LaSportiva to get some technical info on an alpine boot, spoke with a tech rep, who asked me what kind of climbing I was planning with the boot...eventually found out she was Bobbi Bensman, she was surprised I had heard of her

Met most of the staff writers for R&I, Climbing, Backpacker.

 

Perhaps the best was that I had a chance to work with Jim Lea, a great man, inventor of the Thermarest, and founder of Cascade Designs. Also worked with Bill Forrest at CD. And worked with many other great people at Cascade Designs who you will probably never know.

 

Had dinner with Scott Fischer and his wife in the late fall of 1995; ran into Dave Roberts and Jon Krakauer (together!) and had a short conversation. Saw Brad Washburn and his wife in Tacoma Library, had a short conversation.

 

Met Eric (what's his name?) the founder of Marmot, although he was the CEO of SweetWater at the time, when CD purchased Sweetwater. Had some eventual confrontations with him when myself and a co-worker discovered that the viral portion of the SweetWater product (ViralGuard) did not work. What was his name...I can picture the face....

 

First met Mike Gauthier after my friends and I had climbed the Nisqually Icefall in Feb, he had come up the Gib ledges that day...later we spoke in the ranger office at paradise, as we came down after the gate was locked. Have run into Mike many more times since on Rainier summit, at Muir, at slide shows of his, etc; I invited him to come speak about climbing the more interesting routes on rainier at one of our classes (he came!). He tells me he was in the same basic climbing class as myself, in Tacoma, way back when he was a smart-ass teenager (ohmigod!!??...I've let it out that I'm a Mountie...Oh well).

 

Have met Wolf Bauer, Stimson Bullit, Stella Degenhardt (wife of William Degenhardt).

 

This past summer on a peak in the north cascades, opened a summit register, found a few pieces of paper, including one from the first ascent in 1939, with names that I recognized, plus the second ascent party, and the third, all of which I had read about, and everbody else who had climbed that peak (there weren't that many).

 

THAT was a brush with greatness!!

 

I had held a small piece of history that day. Didn't actually count, but we were maybe the 25th-30th party to have climbed that peak.

 

It's interesting to recall how much my experience of mountaineering and working in the outdoor products industry has led me to meet so many interesting people.

 

[Wopper]

Kris Boskoff slept on my living room floor. Alex Lowe autographed a poster of himself for me, "To Don, Thanks for all the advice and tips." He got a good chuckle when I asked him to write that. Big Lou signed his book for me, "Don, Next time you buy the beer."

[Bug]

Wopper said:

Kris Boskoff slept on my living room floor. Alex Lowe autographed a poster of himself for me, "To Don, Thanks for all the advice and tips." He got a good chuckle when I asked him to write that. Big Lou signed his book for me, "Don, Next time you buy the beer."

I went to highschool with Alex. He was not well known but liked by those who did know him. He was always pushing into the Bitterroots to places no body had been to climb. When I started to get serious, he was full of suggestions for projects. I did a lot of them and so did he. His always seemed a little more serious than mine. It's funny that most people from that class still have no clue who he was. Anyone who didn't play basketball, football or murder a bunch of people, just isn't worth remembering in Montana.

[sobo]

pindude said:

...Sobo, I'll give you $300 for that watercolor...

 

Hey, Steve:

 

You already got a set of vintage Coonyard hexes of mine... you wanker.

[pindude]

What, Sobo?! You won't take a $100 profit! What's your price, then?!

 

Yeah, I still have those hexes. Two years ago I had what I thought were two promising but poor climbers who I might be able to give them away to, but they both faded away from climbing. So I still have them, waiting for some young kid who can't afford to start a lead rack but is really into climbing , and who I know will be a "climber for life" and thus worthy of em.

 

Cheers,

pindude

[sobo]

pindude said:

What, Sobo?! You won't take a $100 profit! What's your price, then?!

 

Uhhhh, not on a Molenaar original. No way, dude.

 

pindude said:

Yeah, I still have those hexes. Two years ago I had what I thought were two promising but poor climbers who I might be able to give them away to, but they both faded away from climbing. So I still have them, waiting for some young kid who can't afford to start a lead rack but is really into climbing , and who I know will be a "climber for life" and thus worthy of em.

 

Um, that would be me, no? Wanna send 'em back?

 

Cheers, Steve. I'm off now.

[scratchandsniff]

I'd like to thank Dru for sparing us all by withholding his 2nd brush with greatness: wanking to a pic of Pam Anderson.

 

Thanks Dru

[scratchandsniff]

BTW: Mom says Hi Dru.

[scott_harpell]

i met bush. he was a nice guy. stopped the limo just to talk to me and my father. it was quite cool. very well spoken in person. seems to be less so on T.V. mabe he is railing lines before his speeches or something now?

[lummox]

i got some crappy old style ice gear abused by mugs stump. a funk ass prototype charlet moser ice axe from nil bohigas. carabiners 'modified' by earl redfern. memories of being intimidated by catherine freer. and bad advice from chongo.

[Ursa_Eagle]

My friend managed to lock his keys in his new (red) CRV by the Practice Wall in the 'dacks. Some other guy who was soloing came down and let us sit in his blue CRV while we waited for the locksmith to get there.

About a month later we were climbing in the Quarry on the same weekend as the Adirondack Ice Festival. There was a group of people waiting for their instructor next to us. We asked who it was, and they said Don Mellor. We looked down to the road, the blue CRV drove up, and Don Mellor got out of the drivers seat.

[Doctorb]

I fucked Chelsea Clinton.

[sobo]

Doctorb said:

I fucked Chelsea Clinton.

 

Hardly considered "greatness"

[Doctorb]

sobo said:

Doctorb said:

I fucked Chelsea Clinton.

 

Hardly considered "greatness"

 

"His Greatness" didn't seem to mind when I plowed her fields.

[Dru]

Doctorb said:

I fucked Michael Jackson.

 

thanks for sharing!