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CLIMBING_HISTORY


                                               February  5, 2013



Like I said:           CLIMBING

    "I've been a climber as
    long as I can remember."       And actually, that's
                                   pretty far.  I remember
Surmounting child                  a lot from the old days
barriers was probably              when we lived in
my first challenge, but            Brooklyn.  We moved         EARLY
I quickly went from                when I was five.
there to climbing a
rope swing in our back                           For some extra-added
yard, climbing the                               pretentiousness, let's
street corner sign         This would be         name the "periods" in my
poles, and so on.          the "little           climbing.
                           monkey" period,
Oddly enough, there        to quote a
were not a lot of          phrase my mother
climbable trees in         used often.
my life back then.
The neighborhood was
full of very old,        I owe my malocluded jaw
large trees whose        to an early tricycle       Consequently, my
trunks were expanding    accident, slamming the     mother has not been
and buckling the         front wheel into one       the only person to
sidewalk.                of these sidewalk          comment on my ape-like
                         cracks.                    qualities.  These days
                                                    I get to hear "blonde
                                                    gorilla" fairly often.
But once out in the 'burbs of Long
Island, I went to work on the local
trees, and then school buildings and        The "monkey pack"?
such. In the early days, I had some
climbing friends among the local kids.


There were then a few years when I stopped      SOLITARE
climbing (and also didn't hang out much
with any one), but I went into a teenage                And this is the
solo climbing phase, after I had a "but                 "post-Doorways
why did I stop doing that?" epiphany                    climbing renaissance".
(inspired by reading Zelazny's "Doorways
in the Sand")
                                                               Later versions
When I was in college, I was known as                          of my "The Mist"
that odd guy who would climb down from         DOORWAYS        revolved around
the roof to get into his room if he                            climbers...
forgot his keys.
                                                                   THE_MIST
After graduating, I took a job in Idaho, where
outdoor sports were king, and when I mentioned
"rock climbing" I was immediately directed to an
expert in our group (there were two, in a group            Pocatello Idaho
of around a dozen engineers).                              turned out to be
                                                           ideal for rock
In grad school, the climbing habit gradually dwindled:     climbing: a long
I had no regular climbing partners (though I would         series of 50 foot
repeatedly take out beginners for their first climbs,      high cliffs could
and was constantly on the look-out for potential           be found just
girlfriends that might become climbers)--                  outside of town.

The central difficulty though, was that I was                    Longer drives
losing interest in driving long distances.                       would take you
                                                                 to places like
   But climbing gyms have become very                            "City of the
   prevalent-- and I suspect rock                                Rocks", and it
   climbers are getting more common--                            was only a few
   But for no good reason I've yet to                            hours to get
   develop the "Mission Cliffs" habit.                           to the Tetons.

                                                           
                                                        Even after returning    
                                                        to Long Island for a  
                                                        while there I would do
                                                        long day trips up to  
                                                        the 'gunks.                
                                                                               


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