Who is the most famous climber you have ever met? What circumstances?

I met and drank wine with Warren Harding after he spoke at an Arizona Mountaineering Club meeting. He was great fun to drink with. Such an anti-hero, too. I also met Peter Croft, but never got to talk with him. He was at another AMC event. Ante up and tell us.

John Long, literally grabbing the rope out of my hand to belay my wife while she led Stick To What some 20 odd years ago at JTree. Once he deemed me safe enough to belay, he proceeded to solo up next to her - cigar in mouth - to point out all the little dishes to stand on.

We knew exactly who he was, even though we'd only been climbing a few years.... and we were quite in awe.

The funny thing about living around Boulder is that you frequently run into famous (and infamous) climbers at the crags, and sometimes even end up sharing a rope with them. It's like playing pick-up basketball with Michael Jordan...

I got to go on a road trip with Charlie Fowler a few years ago. We aimed for Vegas but hit a deer and ended up with a dead jeep in UT. We climbed at Indian Creek and hung out in a junk yard on Thanksgiving. Good memories.

Ran into Steph Davis just above Chasm Lake on my way to climb Pervertical Sanctuary. Didn't know it was her at the time and she yelled down to my partner and I to find out what route we were headed up, she then said oh no that 's what I was going to do. My partner and I were taking our time racking up and then we see this chick almost running to beat us to the route. She climbed the North Chimney in the dark and then waited for the sun to warm things up on Broadway. She was still on Broadway when we arrived and that was when I realized it was Steph Davis. If she would have just told us that she wanted to solo the route we would have just let her go ahead of us. It was pretty cool to watch her cruise up the route.

Russ Walling wrote:Hank Caylor.

I met that guy too; man, he's ugly. (Eldo -- he let me dry hump his leg; ah that was so cool)

Usually hate topics like this. But I've got a decent list, so I'll post.

Jim Bridwell- Smoked a few cigarettes with him outside Hangar 18 gym in Upland CA

Jason Kehl-He was one of my girlfriends roomates for a summer in Squamish.

Chris Sharma- Met him the same summer in Squamish

Lyn Hill- Played hacky sack with her and a few friends in the parking lot of the Happy Boulders

Few others, but I gota run....

Ed Hillary and Reinhold Messner both on trips to Mt Cook.

Russ Walling.

We met at a small smokey cafe' in the South of France. Hey, I didn't think anything was gonna happen either!

Christopher Jones wrote:Ran into Steph Davis just above Chasm Lake on my way to climb Pervertical Sanctuary. Didn't know it was her at the time and she yelled down to my partner and I to find out what route we were headed up, she then said oh no that 's what I was going to do. My partner and I were taking our time racking up and then we see this chick almost running to beat us to the route. She climbed the North Chimney in the dark and then waited for the sun to warm things up on Broadway. She was still on Broadway when we arrived and that was when I realized it was Steph Davis. If she would have just told us that she wanted to solo the route we would have just let her go ahead of us. It was pretty cool to watch her cruise up the route.

I believe she mentions this event in her article that was in Alpinist.

I met her at her book show/signing at Neptunes in early 2007, she was real pleasant to chat with briefly and she was nice enough to tolerate many many people getting her to sign the poster and the book.

A friend of mine used to babysit Bobbie Benzman's kids, but that doesn't really count does it?

Met others, but here's some fun interaction with the rock stars:

Boone Speed. College climbing buddy. I led him up Supercrack before he knew how to climb crack. One trip later, he was the rope gun. One trip later, the bullet left the barrell and I've seldom seen him since. Oh, and I got a ticket driving his BMW with non-working speedometer to Indian Creek.

Fred Becky. We did an obscure FA in the Wind Rivers after he did a slideshow at my college.

Ray Jardine. He was rapping and caught a high school buddy and me jugging a pitch on his fixed ropes while he was working the Nose. He cussed us, then took pity and encouraged us. And I've lived 29 years since with the secret guilt of missing some of the stoveleg pitches.

Jim Bridwell. He freely gave our party some circle-heads as we started up Mescalito. Dont remember if we used 'em, but I did place and use a rurp.

John Long. Tearing it up and shouting encouragement all around Southern California and Yosemite.

Tom Frost. Went to the same church for a few years but never did get out to climb.

Pat Ament. Same.

Lynn Hill. A minor encounter but fun memory. Before she was The Lynn Hill, I saw her free solo Rat Crack, 5.9, at Big Rock in So Cal. I was 15 and she was 17.

Shawn Mitchell wrote: I saw her free solo Rat Crack, 5.9, at Big Rock in So Cal. I was 15 and she was 17.

BIG ROCK! One of my old stomping grounds when I was learning to climb... now you are bringing back the memories. I remember being terrified leading those 5.7 lieback pitches up and left... and feeling quite proud went I sent "NW Passage".

Hilarious! What a great community. Was The Trough your first climb? Your first lead? First free solo? I bet it's awfully greasy now...

Shawn Mitchell wrote:Hilarious! What a great community. Was The Trough your first climb? Your first lead? First free solo? I bet it's awfully greasy now...

The Trough! My first two pitch climb and my second day of climbing alltogether. Haven't been back for about 25 yrs. Last time was with(who else) Eric after getting rained out at Tahquitz.

Edit: pretty much anyone who climbed in So Cal back in the day saw, played hacky with Largo, Bachar, Lynn Hill, Yaniro, etc.

Chris Macnamera

Chris was giving a slideshoe/movie presentation of his wingsuiting movie at RRR. I was hanging out with some big wall climbers and Ammon mcneely and Chris showed up. I talked to him and asked him some BASE questions and stuff like that. It was a great night.

Once me and a chick friend were going on a spring break climbing trip to Mexico, but we wimped (too long of drive) out and decided to go to Taquitz for the week instead. When she showed up at my place, she said, "Oh by the way, my friend, John, is coming." Turned out to be John Sherman. It was an interesting week...

I've met various high profile climbers at climbing events.

The one encounter that still sticks with me is Mike Reardon. On top of Intersection Rock in J-tree, I was finishing up overhang bypass with a a few friends and there were several other parties up there. Given that there were no non-technical ways to the top, everybody was geared up, and here comes Reardon sauntering up the ski tracks shirtless, in board shorts and shoes. It was kind of funny. He said hi, and then casually down climbed the route.

He was camped next to us, and talked with us breifly. Love him or hate him, he was very gracious, and I respect his accomplishments.

Cheers

Ran into David Breashears as we were all getting ready to head up Irene's Arete.

How about somewhat famous climbers you've run into who want you to be impressed by who they are? Those occasions stick out more in my head due to the comic value. Needless to say, those aren't the folks who are getting mentioned here.

Thanks to the amazing bobkamps.com, I can pinpoint May 23, 1987 as the day I shared belays with Bob and Herb Laeger on Prince of Darkness and Yellow Brick Road.