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So, a few years ago, I started signing registers with WPS Gang...
(Whitney Portal Store Gang)
Up until today on Thor Peak, I'd never seen anyone else use it...
Except Speedy...
Cool to see it, Jeff M!
BTW: it's a fabulous day up here!
I did the SE Couloir. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Last edited by Richard P.; 07/12/13 07:51 PM. Reason: Be down for a hot dog shortly...
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It kinda felt like we were a gang after Kent's memorial (though more like the Sharks & Jets---not so much like the Crips & Bloods, though others may feel differently). I tend to add that designation along with an OPG. I'm not sure what I wrote on Russell after the Fishhook the next day, and we failed to write anything after the E. Butt 'cuz the lightning rods were humming like transformers and it made more sense to run than stand around wondering why our hair was getting all Einsteinian...
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 From 10.17.2009  From 7.12.2013 The rest of the album: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Thor-Peak-July-12-2013/30534792_R6MJW3#!i=2634181054&k=WBFNDnb I find it impossible to head up Thor Peak these days without thinking of Kent and the rest of his family. As I was walking the sand slog towards the summit, I recalled photos of his family outing where they camped on that plateau overlooking the Portals and Lone Pine...
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It amazes me still that 44 people could come together on a snow-covered peak, thus, creating a synergy unlike anything experienced in everyday life.
It dismays me that shortly thereafter, an unremarkable series of events could fracture that collective so easily.
Perhaps Harvey has a quote that could put it all in perspective.
The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.
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It amazes me still that 44 people could come together on a snow-covered peak, thus, creating a synergy unlike anything experienced in everyday life. I think that puts it all into perspective pretty well...
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One of my all time favorite hikes. My first with the Whitney Portal Store Gang.
I've never gotten my membership card.
I need to log a complaint.
ಠ_ಠ
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller
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Perhaps Harvey has a quote that could put it all in perspective. Bee. I did not know Kent, but thanks for helping me contribute to his memory.... Harvey Please help me select from one of these fine quotes the one that might be the most suitable. The first ones are cautionary, or even morbid, and perhaps not needed here as we are aware of the risks. The latter ones under "Why Go?" are much more uplifting. The Risk Taken There can be few mountaineers who have not at some time run the gauntlet of some obvious danger for the achievement of a particularly enticing goal. One may pass beneath a tottering serac nine times, to be buried by it on the tenth. Eric Shipton, Blank On The Map page 427 Team photographs often become obituary shots in the literature of Himalayan climbing, and not a single one of those smiling faces has the faintest knowledge of the fate that awaits him. Matt Dickinson, The Other Side of Everest, page 112 Tragedy in the mountains can occur from the most innocuous situation. Joe Tasker, Everest the Cruel Way page 54 …it was quite easy to realize that the price of life is death. Bentley Beetham Chapter VIII in EF Norton, The Fight for Everest 1924, page 159 Why Go? Something that was never in doubt, though, was [his]abiding pleasure in going to the high and windy places. He was in his element while he was in the mountains. Robert Birkby, Mountain Madness, page 290 You seem to absorb a greater intensity of experience in the short space of time of one expedition such as this than you can in years of your ordinary life below Wanda Rutkiewicz (from Reinisch’s Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams) Bernadette McDonald, Freedom Climbers, page 44 A glorious feeling almost of being part of this giant creation of Nature. Eric Shipton, Nanda Devi page 74 To climb a mountain is to tread not only the heights of Earth, it is to adventure to the very boundary of Heaven. Frank Smythe, The Mountain Vision, page viii The are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experiences of a way of life that is in
itself wholly satisfying. Such, after all, are the only possessions of which no fate, no cosmic catastrophe can deprive us; nothing can alter the fact if for one moment in eternity we have really lived.Eric Shipton, Upon That Mountain page 454 [u][/u][i][/i]
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I heard the exhale when I read the Tasker quote...
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It amazes me still that 44 people could come together on a snow-covered peak, thus, creating a synergy unlike anything experienced in everyday life. I think that puts it all into perspective pretty well... Ditto
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The simple truth of that Taskar quote really spoke to me.
And might I add: I really hope that our paths cross some day, Harvey.
The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.
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It kinda felt like we were a gang after Kent's memorial (though more like the Sharks & Jets---not so much like the Crips & Bloods, though others may feel differently). I tend to add that designation along with an OPG. I'm not sure what I wrote on Russell after the Fishhook the next day, and we failed to write anything after the E. Butt 'cuz the lightning rods were humming like transformers and it made more sense to run than stand around wondering why our hair was getting all Einsteinian... I agree with Jeff. I still feel a special bond with everyone that day. And most of you I have not seen in awhile. We are a family - even if sometimes we fight like brothers and sisters.
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I agree with Jeff. I still feel a special bond with everyone that day. And most of you I have not seen in awhile. We are a family - even if sometimes we fight like brothers and sisters. Me too, Tom.... me too. (I WAS going to make a comment that my brothers and sisters don't fight... but then I had an imagine of Richard's face looking at me with an "oh...really" smile  )
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pike
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You call it a normal conversation... I call it Family Bickering!
And I do smile every time I think about those times I've hung out with your family!
Which brings up the question about when Barry is going to schedule his MR Make-Up Climb?
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This was a good day too, albeit a little disjointed. (The great healer isn't time, it's Photoshop.)  Yes, definitely time for another outing... Doug should chime in with the best weekend options.
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This was a good day, too  
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Agreed. The Alabamas covered in snow looks just like icing over a lumpy chocolate cake. Crystal clear weather, snow-capped Sierras, picturesque arches, fun-loving pup, lumpy cake. A fun-filled day of sugary sweet eye candy.
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You call it a normal conversation... I call it Family Bickering! LOL! ... funny, 'cause this is exactly the kind of response that would start a discussion going in my family - "well, what is the actual definition of Bickering"... and then it goes on from there. See... I told you, Richard, you're just one of the (adopted) Heid family!  And I do smile every time I think about those times I've hung out with your family!
Ditto for all of us! Which brings up the question about when Barry is going to schedule his MR Make-Up Climb? Barry came down for the family wedding last month also, so I don't know if he's got any more plans for heading south again this summer... but I do know it's still something he'd very much like to do. I'll ask him next time I talk to him, and I'll relay his message. Thanks Richard, I know he'll appreciate you asking.
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pike
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Harvey finds great quotes in mountaineering books ,for the gang I recall a Dylan song I Dreamed a Dream title or a line .
Many times people come in to the store and say they wanted to go on one of the hikes but couldn't make it but follow the reports and pictures.
The strength of the gang is the bonds that tie each member to the gang and in a feeling that until that time we will support the efforts of the others
Thanks Doug
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I suggest a group ascent of Rum Doodle.
But first we need to decide on our gang colors and gang signs.
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I suggest a group ascent of Rum Doodle. 40,000 and 1/2 feet. You will need more than Doug's pancakes. Remote fictional country of "Yogistan" Bowman, W.E. The Ascent of Rum Doodle Bowman’s Rum Doodle is a 1956 parody of a bumbling, thoroughly British Himalayan expedition, supposedly inspired by the 1934 & 1936 expeditions rendered more classically in Shipton’s Nanda Devi and/or HW Tilman’s The Ascent of Nanda Devi
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