Derek Hersey
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I've just been reading all I can find on him (which isn't much) seems like a super interesting guy. I know he spend alot of time in the Eldo/Boulder area. I was just wondering if any of you guys that way knew him or have stories about him. |
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Ay-Up Mate! |
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There is a really great piece on Derek in the movie "Front Range Freaks." If you haven't seen it, you should check it out to get more insight into who Derek was. |
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climber73 wrote:There is a really great piece on Derek in the movie "Front Range Freaks." If you haven't seen it, you should check it out to get more insight into who Derek was.I'll definitely have to try to get ahold of that. Thanks for the info! |
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I'm going to order it from REI on friday. not only is Derek Hersey in it but it's also got MP's Very own Hank Caylor. Totally worth buying! |
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We did the 2nd ascent of Ariana on the Diamond together. His girlfriend and mine(names withheld to protect the innocent) lived together. I remember, as it was my first time up the Diamond, he never shut up. We drove up there (cuz' he never owned a drivers license in his life) on my Suzuki GS350. It started DUMPING rain as we were rapping' off and he thought it was just grand. There were no formal rappel anchors at the time, just piles of tat. ATC's, soaked by water, squirt like a fountain and the more miserable I got, the more happy he got. |
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I was told this story about Derek from back in the day by a work associate: |
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Hahah! good stuff. was it true he lived in a treehouse in Zion's one summer? |
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Chase Gee wrote:Hahah! good stuff. was it true he lived in a treehouse in Zion's one summer? .See the tree house here. bigwalls.net/climb/Derek.html Enjoy |
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Climbing issue 131 has a must read article (I think it is #131, I don't have that issue in front of me.). |
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Derek and I use to work together at Potters Restaurant on Pearl St Mall in the 80s. He was a dish washer and I was a bus boy. It was great work because we could climb all day and work at night, and each night we would share our climbing adventures with each other. The best story I have from those days was when Derek showed up at work one night after having done the first onsight solo (probably still the only solo) of the Crack of Fear up at Lumpy. He was all grins, as happy as could be, but was unbelievably scarred from his heroics. Derek's right arm and right leg were skinned to the muscle. He was a really skinny guy and his elbow and knee were swollen to a few times (at least) there normal size. I've never seen someone so scarred from a climb they didn't fall on. It looked comical and grotesque at the same time. Despite always greeting you with an, "Aye you punter (or pufter)", he was one of the nicest climbers I've ever known. A tremendous loss when he cratered. Twinkies and Toothsheaf forever... |
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He Seriously sounds like my kind of guy. Thanks for sharing everyone. |
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Sweet topic! I love reading about the late great Dereck and his incredible feats. |
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One of the things that made Derek special was his easy-going nature and plain love of climbing. He didn't give a toss who you were, or how hard you climbed. I bumped into him one day near the Boulder bus station, and he badgered me to go to Eldo with him but I had other plans for the day. Not much later he was gone and I had missed my chance to climb with one of the sport's greatest characters. |
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Free solo'd Crack of Fear and El Matador, and then downclimbed off the Tower? These are feats of his I hadn't heard of. Is there a list anywhere of the things he did solo? I'm sure it would be a good tick list of leads to humble the up and coming hardman. |
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I never got to climb with Derek, but somehow I drank a lot of beer with him. As good as his reputation was for climbing and soloing, he was even better at drinking beer. And I always seemed to meet up with him at some sort of drinking event... |
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There are some pics of him in this gallery. |
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that's a really nice gallery, i've not seen it before. |
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Annie: "So I heard you did all that [solo three routes on the Diamond] on a couple of snowballs. Is that true?" |
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"Twinkies and Toothsheaf forever..." |
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In my opinion, Derek Hersey is one of the most inspiring climbers to ever live. I would have been honored to have met him, let alone climb with him. Just looking at the routes he soloed in Eldo is mind blowing. Rest in Peace. |