You guys have inspired me!! This may sound like another acid dream but it is all true!
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I have been rock climbing on and off for over 20 years. I first learned from two amazing human beings, Daryl Miller and Craig Luebben. (Be sure to click the links if you want to know a bit more about these guys) Daryl ran the Experiential Learning Program (ELP) at Colorado State University when I was there from 1986-1988. Craig was finishing his Master's degree in engineering and worked at the ELP program. He had invented an ingenious device to protect rock climbers when they are out on what is considered the most difficult type of climbing. They are called off-widths and climbing them was Craig's favorite. His invention was called the Big Bro and it was one cool device. Even if you aren't a rock climber and you picked this item up you would be fascinated by what it is. |
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I added a few of the links on the bottom. The important ones. The obviousness of editing in the Mountain Project text editor escapes me. lol I am not sure who the target audience is. I just wanted to write about these two guys. Two icons to me! I am have been mostly a lurker here on MP because I don't like to get too much involved in things. The dream and the story of my climbing past seems to want to get told so I figured I would tell you guys first |
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Hi All: |
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Rodney, |
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Please continue, I enjoyed the story. |
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Here is Part Two in case you haven't seen it
We start the 2.5 mile hike or so with excited anticipation and Daryl is chattering away about who knows what. After a while we (the students) notice that Daryl has disappeared. No big deal, he is pretty fit and he knows the way so we speculate that he will just meet us at the base of the route. As we approach the base still no Daryl. Where could he have gone? No idea? We call out...no answer. We hike a but further and all of a sudden Daryl jumps out from behind a bush whooping and a whumping and scares the shit out of all of us. He immediately falls over laughing like he was possessed by the devil himself. It doesn't take us long to catch on and we are all enjoying the exquisite moment laughing together. The next bit is a blur just like the first day with Craig. The Third Flatiron is 600-800 feet high and the climbing is easy. If your Grandmother is reasonably fit she could get up it on her first day out. It is the perfect beginners multi-pitch. The blur clears up at the top when it's time to do the short rappel to the ground. If I remember correctly it was windy, the rappel is overhanging/freehanging and I to this day am never happy about rappelling. That is a brief introduction of what my experience with climbing has been. I wanted to capture the beginning because it was such a special and exciting time. I was 18 or 19 years old and I was being exposed to things that were incredibly mysterious and hanging out with people with really colorful past experience. I always kick myself when I realize that I missed some incredible opportunities while at Colorado State University. I took advantage of many but I also missed a bunch. Daryl used to have this friend who used to show up from time to time. He had all these slides of the adventures he had been on. He used to stay with Daryl when he was in town and they used to drink it up. After they got good and drunk Daryl's friend would bust out his slides and tell crazy adventure stories. All stuff that he had experienced first hand. After the slide show was over anybody who was sober enough to walk would pile into Daryl's car or his girlfriend's micro-bus and they would drive down to Boulder and solo the Third Flatiron. They especially loved doing it by the light of the full moon. The tragedy of it all for me was that I never got in on any of these trips nor did I ever get to see the slide show. I was always doing something else. All the information I got was second hand from friends who had participated in these adventures. Anybody got any idea who this guy was? If not then I'll tell you. It was none other then the famous iconoclast climber Warren Harding. Batso |
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Just an aside about Craig Luebben |