Craig Luebben

you will be missed dearly and golden will not be the same without seeing you around town, sharing climbing stories and most of all your friendship and encouragement. my heart goes out to Giulia and Silvia.

Absolutely gut wrenching! My condolences Silvia and Giulia!

RIP Craig

Just awful news... the year continues to worsen when you think it can't get any worse.

Deepest condolences and sympathy to family and friends.

The world just lost a great human being! So sad.

Unbelievable....this is horrible. Craig was a sincerely good person and his presence will be greatly missed. We always thought of him as a hard-core climber, but over the years we came to think of him as a friend first.

Tina and I send our deepest sympathies to Craig's family and friends…especially Silvia and Giulia.

Rest in Peace Craig. I'll keep you and your family in my prayers.

I am so sad and shocked to hear this. Craig was a kind hearted guy who inspired, taught, guided, helped and befriended many, many people. My heart goes out to his wife and daughter.

Fuck. I had the privilege of taking one of his self-rescue classes a couple years ago. As someone else said, really a great teacher. RIP.

Awful news. A great man, He will be missed!

This is terrible news ! I spent countless hours up at Horsetooth Rez bouldering with Craig.

My thoughts go out to his family.

I JUST heard about this from a good friend of mine...I'm still in shock. My mentor learned EVERYTHING from his guide books and I've had the honor myself of taking an anchor clinic with Craig.

You'll be missed!

Bummer! Not another one! This sure has been a sad year in the climbing world.
Rest in Peace, Craig.

What a huge loss! I learned a lot, both from his books and in person, such a great guy. It was a privilege to have known him.

My condolences to his family and to his friends.

There is not much room in this thread for me to even begin to list all the things I have learned from Craig. He truly saved my ass on my first gear lead ever, My rope was stuck in a crack and giving me drag that actually stopped my progress. I whimpered in fear and argued with my belayer to give me rope. Then out of nowhere comes Craig, Soloing by and sticking his head out from around the corner to have a look. He so quietly and calmly reached over and flicked my rope out of the crack. I remember so vividly how quietly and solid he was as he just disappeared and soloed off with a quiet piece of advice in his calms soft spoken voice as he faded away. "next time you might want to use some runners".

He has been a hero, an inspiration, one of the best teachers/mentors, a co worker and more importantly an incredible friend and partner. He will be sadly missed by all who had a chance to meet and share words with this man, a rope, a beer or whatever, Just amazing to be around.

Thanks for your dedication and inspiration to our sport which is nothing compared to the people you meet along the way, People like Craig.

My heart and deepest condolences to Giulia and Silvia,

I had the chance to Climb with Craig last week right before he left, Beer and climbing while we discussed the Cascades, It just doesn't seem real, I too hope I can refresh this thread and see it go away,

I miss you Craig

Joey

PS. someone say it isn't so

Dear Mr. Luebben, I didn't know you personally but you will be missed. Take all the people from a fringe sport like climbing and take all the people from a fringe of that, offwidth climbing, and you have a small band of climbers that takes your passing as the death of a hero. While all climbers can claim to move over stone, only the offwidth climbers can claim to move through it.

I had an old issue of Climbing that featured offwidths that I'd torn all the pages out of and then taped them to the walls of my tiny room in New Zealand for almost 2 years. I dreamed of ascending cracks like Lucille. Reading about you crushing hard offwidths in Wyoming and Utah inspired me to build an offwidth machine in a friends garage. That paralyzer of a crack may have been the hardest offwidth in the South Island of New Zealand.

I remember placing a big bro for the very first time above the crux of the Left Torpedo Tube. That was my final piece for the next 30 feet of squeeze chimney and I remember thinking 'I hope that f*ing thing holds!' Thankfully, I never had to test the piece but the lurking presence of an 8" bro below me was enough to get me to the top.

Mr. Luebben, you were and will remain an inspiration.

My Deepest Respect,

Dan Morta

Such a tragic loss. Craig's contribution to the climbing community, especially in the local area, was huge. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but he was hired by the Colorado Mountain Club a couple of years ago to lead an all-day review course for their rock climbing instructors, which was videotaped for posterity, from which I have certainly benefited. His authoritative book Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills is also used as the required text in the CMC Boulder group's climbing classes.

My sincerest condolences to his wife and family....

Oh no.

We've all lost another Working class hero in this small community of ours.

My heart goes out to his wonderful wife and beautiful little girl.

Can we please call uncle on this year? So many great folks have gone already.

josh

I met Craig at one of our Mountaineering Museum Thirsty 3RD Thursday events. He always came to support the museum, raise a glass with friends and have fun with us. While I only knew him a very short time, he was the person you could become friends with instantly and I know he is missed terribly. His friends here at the museum will certainly miss him and we will be raising a glass for him next Thirsty 3RD Thursday.

Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

This is truly sad. I never met the man; however his books have been a key part of my pursuits in the vertical realm. I learned a lot about placing gear from his books and no doubt the information gained from them has made me a safer climber. My condolences to his family and friends.

I'm in shock, in disbelief. The more of this thread I read the more it sinks in. The more sad I feel. I considered Craig a friend. After I contacted him to teach some rescue classes for a group of friends of mine, he and I climbed indoors together for the winter of 2006. I have a lot fun memories of climbing with him but also my technique got so much better over those few months; I have always given him the credit for how much better I climb now than prior to that winter. He was a great teacher: communicating everything clearly and able to juggle many students at different stages in the learning process. His Basic Skills book is my primary reference book. I recently got his Anchors book, knowing it would be equally useful. I'll never forget the presentation he did at Neptune's a few years ago; my sides and face hurt from laughing so much.

What a great guy. A good friend. An excellent teacher. I can't believe I'm saying this: he'll be sorely missed. I wish this terrible news was a mistake of some sort.

I'm so sorry Silvia and Guilia.