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Midwest

Original Post
Terry Kieck · · Baraboo · Joined Jul 2002 · Points: 170

Since Devil's Lake Climbing was combined with this site, would it be possible to add a Midwest section to the Regional forums? We had good forum discussions on Midwest topics on the old site and it would be nice to have that again. Thanks - Keep up the good work on this site.

Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950

I'd love to see what's new at Taylors Falls, my stomping ground from a previous life.

Greg Hand · · Golden, CO · Joined Jan 2003 · Points: 2,623

I learned to climb at Taylors Falls in 1968.
I was on top of Devils Tower the day I was supposed to be at my graduation at the U of Minn. There are priorities!

Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950
Greg Hand wrote:I learned to climb at Taylors Falls in 1968. I was on top of Devils Tower the day I was supposed to be at my graduation at the U of Minn. There are priorities!
Hi Greg, I learned to climb at TF in 1971. Do you recall any of the following folks?

Gary of the Minnesota Rovers
Bruce Christoperson
Cosmic Curt (Bruce's pal)
Dan Grady

These folks are fuzzy in my memory, from circa late 70s
Is Orville's grocery store still in town?
Andrew May · · Westminster, CO · Joined May 2006 · Points: 435

It would be nice to have a Midwest section in the forums area. It would let us Midwesterners have a "homebase".
Although it doesn't look like any of the people posting in this are even in the Midwest...

BruceC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0
Andrew May wrote:It would be nice to have a Midwest section in the forums area. It would let us Midwesterners have a "homebase". Although it doesnt look like any of the people posting in this are even in the Midwest...
Andrew - some of us are still here - but lurking in the shadows....
Tom - I saw Gary last well over ten years ago - Curt or Dan I have not seen or heard from since 1982 or 83..
I still "hoop" the FA hoop when I get to TF or the Lake (rarely) and have had no answer for many, many years - except for parroting from the croutons. Great to hear you are still holding up the FA (DL,TF or otherwise)standards.

Bruce
Frostbite Falls, MN
Andrew May · · Westminster, CO · Joined May 2006 · Points: 435

Dont Lurk! Make your presence known!

erickson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0
Tom Hanson wrote: Dan Grady These folks are fuzzy in my memory, from circa late 70s Is Orville's grocery store still in town?
I don't know about Orville's, but I do remember the Mug n' Jug and Mongo Burgers. I think Dan used to climb with Dick Anderson a lot. Didn't you climb with Craig Martinson? I left in '83 and never looked back. Did some climbing in California, NZ and Antarctica but gave it up for a life.
Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950

That's right. Dick Anderson was the guy who hung with Dan Grady.
Thanks for jarring my memory. I think I remember you too, if you had curley blonde hair and glasses. You were one of the guys who climbed hard back then. I used to climb with my brother quite a bit.
We were the obnoxious bunch who were at TF just about every weekend circa 1977-1982

erickson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0

Yeah, you got all that right. Wouldn't mind doing some climbing now, I live in the Adirondacks and have a good sized cliff in my backyard. Those were some fun times but had to grow up sooner or later. I used to partner with a guy named Brad Reity (sp?) Don't know what he's up to; also a guy named Jim Gildelamadred who was a DL regular, lost touch with him too.

Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950

Mike,
was Brad a paramedic? These climbing sites/forums are so cool.
It is unbelievable how many of these posts have triggered memories that I have not recalled for a quarter of a century.
Brad, the paramedic was a cools guy. I climbed with him several times at TF. I think we were all together one day when we were downclimbing Slicksides, blindfolded and ropeless.
You had Sizzlefoot totally wired, if I recall.

BruceC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0

Brad the Paramedic - I think you got his last name right. Great guy - totally jacked. I climbed with him a lot right around 1980. I remember a time he lowered me onto a wall hanging over the river that he said had gone 5.9ish...I thrashed and struggled for hours on that thing til I finaly went off route to get up it - at which time he admited no one he knew of had climbed it - or even worked on it before. He thought it looked like a nice line, though.

I've got a great picture of Curt L sitting on a ledge below witches head (?) soaking wet, smiling and lighting a pipe after he took a 20'lead fall from 15 ft. Most of his body hit the river - although he messed up one leg on the ledge on the way by.

BruceC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0

erickson...first name Bill?

erickson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0

Yeah, Brad was a paramedic. I heard a few years ago that he switched careers to something that didn't mess his head so much and that he was married. He *always* had smoke. He had a real messed up ankle from a crater out in the Black Hills I recall.

erickson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 0
BruceC wrote:erickson...first name Bill?
Mike
Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950

Many of the old TF regulars' names and faces are coming back to me now. Does anyone remember Margaret? She was a tiny, but strong gal, back when there weren't too many gals at the crags.
Here is my list from hazy memory:
Gary the Rovers guy (pleasant easy-going gent. Old, must have been in his thirties back then, young compared to me now)
Bruce Christophersen (who, with Cosmic Curt, introduced me to David Bromberg- Danger Man, Ain't Gonna Be Your Fool))
"Cosmic Curt" Lee
Brad the Paramedic (I remember his bum ankle)
Mike Erickson (Mike, you seemed rather quiet and aloof. Perhaps this was just your reaction to my usual crew, who were really obnoxious back then. You were a great climber though)
Dan Grady (big blonde muscle guy with tatoos)
Dick Anderson (straight dark hair and always wore sunglasses. He had a real raspy voice, climbed with Grady)
Scott Backus (introduced me to The Clash, usually wore a Sony Walkman, had a girlfriend that looked like Jean from the movie Billy Jack. Went on to become alpine guru)
Margaret
Beaver Dick and the rest of the Midwest Mountainerring folks. Pat and Rod didn't get out of the store too much circa '76-82 I'd see Jan Ebeldhoft (sp?) out there quite often.

Bruce C · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2005 · Points: 45

Hey Tom -
After almost 25 years I managed to track down an e-mail for Cosmic Curt. It sounds like he moved on to other things about the same time we moved away from the Twin Cities. I think he may have a slightly higher Domestication GPA than me...but not by much.
I was thinking of a climb he and I worked on back then - a couple rock formations left of Noah's Ark. The top section looked like a vertical knife blade with the edge toward the service road. We did a couple 'eliminates' on that and it seemed awful hard.

There was another guy I've been trying to remember - longish straight black hair, with conservative looking black rimmed glasses? Ring any bells?

How about Dean A and Rod S from the Chicago area? They were DL regulars but made a couple trips up to TF. I climbed a lot with them - have not seen them since '80 or '81, I think.

bruce

Tom Hanson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 950

Hoop hoop!

Hi Bruce, So you finally managed to track down Cosmic Curt. Very cool. Has he climbed since back in the day? Please tell him hello from me and my brother Rob when you get a chance.
You mentioned an arete in the vicinity of Noahs Ark. Was that on the same formation that housed The Grack? I do have a hazy recall of an arete that everyone was working on.
You also mentioned a guy with longish straight black hair, with conservative looking black rimmed glasses. Did he pull down with Dan Grady? Perhaps it was Dick Anderson? That guy could really crank.
Dean A and Rod S sound familiar, but their faces have become lost in the assorted cast of characters that inhabited TF and The Lake back in the late seventies.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Midwest
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