Gunks pioneer Hans Kraus book
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I was lucky to spot this book at Rock & Snow -
I've already bought a second copy and gave it to a friend. My own was covered with marginal notes. Got a story about Kraus that might not be in the book? Ken |
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I can't contribute any stories really. I knew Kraus and was treated by him twice, very successfully, for back spasms. His office was on Park Avenue and his fees were astronomical. But he treated me and other climbers for free. I did my best to send him some very nice (and expensive for me) climbing-related holiday gifts, which he graciously sent thank-you notes for. |
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Yes, But I hesitate to write any thing here.Too many times, my 'style of writing' has been attacked. |
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Any idea how "JFK's Secret Doctor" differs from "Into the Unknown: The Remarkable Life of Hans Kraus" also written by S Schwartz and published in 2005? |
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Michael Schneider wrote:Yes, But I hesitate to write any thing here.Too many times, my 'style of writing' has been attacked. He was holding the rope for my first slip at SkyTop.I'd be interested, especially if you throw in a couple of paragraphs and line breaks. :-) |
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Mark E Dixon wrote:Any idea how "JFK's Secret Doctor" differs from "Into the Unknown: The Remarkable Life of Hans Kraus" also written by S Schwartz and published in 2005? Does the new book better explain Marcus' fall?Thanks for that response -- I didn't know there was a previous edition. Sounds like the account of Markus' fall stayed pretty much the same -- hard to figure out what happened. I guess it happened about 60 years before Hans told his memory of it to the author. With the ropes and belay methods they had back then, and both climbers were (approximately?) teenagers -- who can say? The other puzzle for me is that Hans says that it was the watershed event of his life. Yet I did not notice much difference in his character or lifestyle before and after. Ken |
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I have a few more pages left but have to say it's an enjoyable read. |
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rogerbenton wrote:I'd be very interested to read or learn more about the K+W exercises.Keep reading: One description of them is at the back of the book. A web link is: bonnieprudden.com/files/kra… That website address reminds that one of the things I liked about the Hans Kraus book was learning more about Bonnie Prudden. Ken |
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kenr wrote: Keep reading: One description of them is at the back of the book. A web link is: bonnieprudden.com/files/kra… That website address reminds that one of the things I liked about the Hans Kraus book was learning more about Bonnie Prudden. KenFinished the book today. The K-W test movements are described but not the K-W exercises. Looks like there are some of them in the link you posted; thanks for that. Here are three more, (apparently there are 21 in total) courtesy of Kraus protege Dr. Norman Marcus: normanmarcuspaininstitute.c… |
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Mark E Dixon wrote:Does the new book better explain Marcus' fall?My best try at an explanation: The death took place in 1921 when almost nobody had a clue about methods or equipment for belaying a leader. Both Hans and Markus were tied into the rope. Markus was leading and fell. Hans (lacking sound technique or equipment) could not hold the fall, and suffered rope burn on his fingers. Markus fell to 90-100 feet below Hans and the fall stopped. Hans down-climbed to Markus and found him dead. Hans down-climbed to the bottom of the mountain and reported it to the village. The report in the book says that Markus fell down the mountain. That's the misleading part. All the rest makes sense. Maybe Hans had to climb down the whole mountain, but Markus did not fall down the whole mountain. In two other climbing stories in the book, the author makes a big deal about the supposed difficulty of down-climbing. Likely she was not using a tape recorder when Hans told the story, got confused in her notes between length of the down-climb and length of the fall). Never got around to asking Hans for clarication later. Or maybe Hans himself was confused in remembering the details 60 years later. I see no "obfuscation": Hans fully admits that he failed to hold the fall. Justification for this interpretation:
Simpler explanation is that he knew because he found Markus' body 90-100 feet below him.
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One of the explanations athat occured to me is the possibility that neither of them knew the proper way of the era to belay? It seems like they were mostly self taught? i do not remember reading about any climbing lessons? maybe Hans untied but did not want to restack the rope and marcus was still tied in?? maybe Marcus ledged out before he hit the end of the rope? |
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Most modern climbers have no clue what the activity was like a century ago. See John Gill's website at johngill.net/ for a host of historic climbing images. I took the latter two images from there. Add to this the fact that Hans was an enthusiastic teenager at the time of the accident and probably didn't have even such knowledge of ropework as existed at the time. The fact that he couldn't hold a leader fall would be a given even if he had been experienced and was certainly nothing he or anyone would think had to be "obfuscated." Even in the sixties, with nylon ropes and chromemolly pitons, the leader not falling was still the mainstream idea. As an enthusiastic teenager, what I aspired to, based on the information I had, was |
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RG. that sums up perfectly what i was trying to say. |
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I have seen a few belay anchors still attached to boulders in the talus @ cannon.... |
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Nick Goldsmith wrote:I have seen a few belay anchors still attached to boulders in the talus @ cannon....Rumney too! One of them I had placed (40' piece of cliff fell off) I got to reuse it, lol. Rich, thanks for the link to Gill's website. I love all the historical photos. |
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Rich. the last photo you posted is absolutly Iconic. I know I have seen it many times over the years and decades i have been climbing. do you know the Who, what ,when and where of that shot? |
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Nick Goldsmith wrote:Rich. the last photo you posted is absolutley Iconic. I know I have seen it many times over the years and decades I have been climbing. Do you know the Who, what, when and where of that shot?I really did "grow up" as a climber with that photo, and ones like it which suggested that (1) the leader had to be perfectly attired at all times and (2) must never let the pure lines of a dangling rope be interrupted by the unesthetic intrusions of protection points. I got the shot from the internet of course, but it comes from the book Neige et Roc, translated for some reason as "On Snow and Rock," by Gaston Rébuffat. The shot I posted is of Rébuffat; I don't know where it is taken---some crag above the Mer de Glace I'd assume. The book is full of wonderful pictures, some of them just as phoney and staged as the one I posted, but still glorious in their evocation of an ideal mostly beyond human reach. I was looking for another shot from that book (I can't seem to locate my copy) of Rébuffat and a partner aid-climbing. The partner is in a hanging belay and is just feeding out the ropes hand-over-hand. There is also an account by Rébuffat in Étoiles et Tempêtes, "Starlight and Storm," in which he describes holding a factor-2 fall by Édouard Frendo by first hand-over-handing in the rope as Frendo fell and then at the last instant, looking around and dropping it behind a flake so as to catch the fall. Sure, right. |
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The first shot has always looked like he was soloing 5.11 in mtn boots trailing a tag line? |
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The book is about a climber, written by a climber and describes a climbing accident which was a pivotal event in the subject's life. When critical details are inconsistent, it makes me think that there's more to the story. |
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Just a reply to the original part of the post. That is an awesome book for sure. |
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Yes I bought a second copy and gave it to a friend -- He read through it quickly. |