Fun Climbs Around The World

Andrea Lawrence with poet Gary Snyder

Last summer, as Tristan and I parked by the gate that bars the road to Soda Springs, near Tuolumne Meadows, a car drove up to the gate. A frail-looking older woman with white hair got out, opened the lock, and pulled off the heavy chain that loops over the posts. Using a cane, she walked slowly back to her car to drive through.

Accustomed to helping my mom , was recovering from a total hip replacement, I ran over to close the gate.

“Are you going to hear Gary Snyder?” she asked. “Would you like a ride?”

After grabbing our water, we rode  with Andrea Lawrence to Gary Snyder’s poetry reading.

Tristan chatting with two-time Olympic gold Medalist Andrea Lawrence

After the reading, at the sumptuous feast prepared by the organizers, we chatted more with Andrea Lawrence, who had been a supervisor of nearby Mono county, home to Mammoth ski area.

When we asked Andrea if she was a skier, she said yes, she’d skied all of her life. When we mentioned that we skied, and that Tristan had raced, she said that she too had raced. A little more conversation revealed that she first raced in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, and later Andrea won two gold medals in Oslo in 1952.

So much for the frail old lady!

She invited us to visit her in Mammoth, which, sadly, we failed to do. I recently read Andrea Lawrence’s obituary in Ski magazine, and realized we’d missed a never-to-be-repeated opportunity to speak at more length with one of the former greats of skiing. Since Tristan plans to pursue ski racing, it may have been a rare opportunity for him

John Sherman, Lynn Hill, and Tristan

Several weeks ago I wrote about Craig Lubben’s tragic accident. Since then, we went to Craig’s memorial at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden, Colorado.

I thought I’d post a few photos of some fo the folks there to pay Craig and his family their respects.

Film maker Rob Raker and the beautiful Lynn Hill

I had a chance to speak with Craig’s widow, Silvia, from Italy and we shared memories of climbing in Finale Ligure.  It’s so hard to speak with the parents, children and widows of my deceased climbing partners.

The hardest time I ever had was when I had to explain to Chris Hampson’s mother how, and why, Chris had died when we climbed together in Yosemite, but I was fine. I hope I never again have to meet with one of my climbing partner’s parents to tell them that their child is dead.

It’s been a tough year, with three good friends who died in climbing accidents already. I only hope that’s it for this year, and maybe next year too.

When I got home today, I read that Craig Luebben was killed in the Cascades. Craig was not only a great climber, but also a husband father, mountain guide, and inventor of BigBro tube chocks. He authored numerous books on climbing and was previously on the  Board of Directors, American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA).

I didn’t  expect Craig to be killed. When John Bachar died climbing last month, it did not surprise me, since John soloed so many climbs that I did not think it unlikely that he would   fall to his death sooner or later. But Craig mostly climbed in the U. S., and mostly on rock, using a rope, so I gave him a good chance of survival.Plus, he had a wife and young daughter, and in my experience, many parents climb more conservatively.

After reading the shocking news, I walked out into the living room.

“This is not a good year,” I said.

My son  turned and looked at me. “Who died now?” he asked.

How sad, and what a statement about our passion, climbing, and the lives of our friends, that when I say it’s a bad year, or day, my son doesn’t ask if it’s money, or my job, or the economy  - but immediately asks the obvious:  who died now.

I wonder if that’s the right reaction for a teenage boy, that when I say it’s bad news, he immediately thinks it’s death. Of course, there have been a lot of deaths  lately. In June, our  good friend Micah Dash disappeared  in China. I first met Micah in 2001, when I lived in Yosemite’s Camp 4 on the SAR (Search and Rescue ) site next door to Micah and Amelia’s tent cabin. Tristan, then 10 years old, spent a month there with me, and looked up to climbers like Micah and Craig Luebben.

He’d gone to Micah’s birthday party at Indian Creek, and as he learned to climb harder, was excited to know so many of the country’s top climbers. Now, he’s learning a sad reality of life: it is so very, very short.

I learned this truth early, since my father was also an avid mountaineer. I learned to love climbing when my family and I joined him in the mountains, and I learned to love the high places that he loved. And I learned that there’s a price to pay for our joy and for the beauty: it may take our lives. Yet I never felt that I would give up climbing because it was dangerous. After Tristan was born, I gave up climbing in the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, and I gave up climbing ice in the Canadian Rockies, Europe,  and similar places, but continued to climb rock throughout the world. I missed ice, and the spectacular beauty of high mountains, but I loved to rock climb, so that was ok.

I wonder if some climbers can’t limit themselves to  rock, with a rope, and feel caged by those boundaries and  must continue to push themselves  on harder, and more dangerous terrain?

People always say, “He died doing what he loved”, but to me, that’s not as good as living doing what we love. I  hope that my friends who are  climbers will find a way to joy in the mountains that allows them to survive to climb again, and to enjoy more days with their friends.

And the last issue

Shortly before Christmas, an unknown group bought Alpinist Magazine for $71,000. Originally on the block for as low as $30,000, I’m glad they got this much and hope to see a magazine published again, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

However, while everyone still thinks the poor economy may get worse, it may be difficult to find investors to support a new publication.

There’s also the question of business model —Alpinist published a high-quality magazine with few ads, hoping to support it with subscriptions.

Dougald Macdonald, editor of the American Alpine Journal, provides an shrewd analysis of why Alpinist didn’t survive.

Though considered the best climbing magazine in the world, readers were unwilling to pay for that quality.
“It never attracted nearly enough readers to turn a profit,” said Macdonald. “Climbing and Rock & Ice . . .  deliver . . . what readers and advertisers want to see”

“Alpinist executed the limited-advertising, high-subscription-price, “reader supported” business model, it simply didn’t work in the tiny climbing market,” Macdonald concluded.

I’m particularly anxious to see Alpinist or a related magazine resume publication. I wrote a story for issue 25, originally titled “Bev’s and my Grand Adventure”, that appeared as yet another incarnation of “Walls Without Balls.”

The editor asked me to write about Layton Kor, Alison Sheets, and my first ascent on the Rainbow Wall in Red Rocks. I’d started this story when the editor told me that Alpinist would fold..

Perhaps I can write it for the new magazine.

James Welton on Wheat Thin, City of Rocks

I met and climbed with James this June in the City of Rocks, Idaho. After his sudden, tragic death recently, I wrote a quick story about him on my blog.

I got so many responses to this, and questions and comments from people who knew him that I decided to post another obituary.

James on Wheat Thin

When a friend dies, at first I feel like there’s nothing I can do and I’m terribly sad and try to reconnect with friends still living. However, in this case, I thought that I could share some photos I took of James so that other friends of his would have those photos to remember him by.

James leading Wheat Thin

Every person I talked to told of how kind and helpful James had been, and how positive and enthusiastic he was. He will be missed. I’m glad people who read my earlier post found it helpful.

I wish I could do more.

James Welton climbing at the City of Rocks, June 2008

Last June, Tristan and I were climbing next to three other climbers in Castle Rock State Park. We next wanted to climb the route they were on. One of the climbers, James Welton, asked if we wanted to top-rope the route, using their ropes.  All three climbers were very friendly and we teamed up with them to do another route around the corner.
That evening, they invited us to visit at their campsite and plied us with homemade pie and other delicacies. The next day, we climbed with Jim, James, and Tara again. Tristan wanted to climb difficult routes that my shoulder wasn’t ready for, and James Welton also wanted to climb harder routes, while Jim and Tara were happy on easier climbs and I needed to baby my shoulder’s injured supraspinatus tendon.

We had a great time climbing with the three of them, and hoped that we would meet up again, either at the City of Rocks or another area.

Sadly, we won’t have that opportunity. Today Jim Barnes sent an email that James Welton tragically died a few days ago in a climbing accident at Zion National Park. When I look at our climbing photos from last June, James looks like such a happy, vibrant, person. He seemed very competent and safe, and not one of the climbers where I thought, “He won’t last long.” He lead Wheat Thin at City of Rocks using only passive gear (stoppers and hexes) rather than cams, a sign of an experienced climber who knows how to place protection gear.

I’m always sad to lose climbing partners. I try to learn from their mistakes, and I do my best to enjoy the climbing partners that I still have.