[mrjonathanr]

The greatest rock and roll drummer of all time? What a musician:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/06/ginger-baker-wild-and-brilliant-cream-drummer-dies-aged-80

[mrjonathanr]

Interview here, makes it look effortless:
http://youtu.be/l_UWIKyjAbQ?t=2042

[tomtom]

And a tough character to be around too: guardian obit: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/06/ginger-baker-a-master-and-monster-who-split-rock-music-apart?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[andy popp]

Gunks legend Steve Wunsch: https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/celebrating-the-life-of-steve-wunsch-by-your-own-lights/?fbclid=IwAR0JECWZEU1HYKOvIiiYFZpY6w1_zlPnyb_3ZuHhXx-GIS-QK-6FmiWZ5x0

Starting in the late 70s I grew up on the stories surrounding people such as Wunsch, perhaps best known for Supercrack, 5.12+, first climbed in 1974 (the same year as Right Wall, which was undoubtedly much easier, though bolder). I had no idea about the other aspects of his life, revealed in this obituary. RIP.

[Plattsy]

French alpinist Robert Paragot. Big stuff in the Alps, Himalayas and Andes as well as La Joker at Bas Cuvier in 1953. He received the 4th le Piolet d'Or carriere in 2012 to join Bonatti, Messner and Scott and worked in social services.

[dunnyg]

supercrack looks haaaaard

[Falling Down]

That's a great obituary Andy - thanks for sharing.

[GraemeA]

AP, or Andy Pollitt, not sure what happened but reported as dead/on life support which is going to be switched off.

Back in the day I remember Andy asking the genuine question whether you could make chips from organic spuds - it was a Sunday and the only place open was a wholefood coop which is now Ottos on Sharrowvale. It raised a smile then (well a bit more) and still does although my tears as I type overwhelm my smile.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

[fatdoc]

An inspiration to a whole generation is taken too early, this one bites hard... Rest in Peace...

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Fuck

Sorry Andy xx

[sxrxg]

Jake Burton Carpenter. Founder of Burton snowboards.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/11/21/jake-burton-carpenter-dies-65-founder-burton-snowboards/4258558002/

[SA Chris]

Boo.

Thanks for putting so much fun into my life

RIP.

[rich d]

Jake Burton is a big loss, as a skier I owe him a massive debt - by creating a park culture for snowboarding and making them mainstream he reinvigorated skiing into what it as become, without him it'd still all be groomers and racers with no bigmountain and freestyle.

[SA Chris]

Not to mention snowboards influencing modern ski design wrt shape, sidecut and thus making skiing so much more fun.

[andy popp]

Crikey, just today the Guardian has announced the deaths of Clive James, Jonathan Miller, and Gary Rhodes.

[Oldmanmatt]

I know. Rough day.

Seems Gary died as the result of a fall (or it is rumoured such).

Clive James was a big part of my childhood. His TV offerings were devoured in our house. The travel bug was strong with us.

[andy popp]

Yes, very much the same re: James in our house. I didn't realise until read the obituary today that Miller was responsible for "Whistle and I'll Come to You," the magnificent BBC adaptation of the M.R. James story.

[Falling Down]

Clive James has had a massive influence on me and I’m glad he went on for so long after announcing his “terminal” diagnosis several years ago.

I grew up watching his TV show and read his very funny ‘Unreliable Memoirs’ as a teenager.  I always thought he was a ‘just’ a TV critic and commentator but as I got older I came to understand that he was a real scholar and intellectual from relatively humble roots.  He taught himself French as a student so he could read Proust untranslated.

His poetry is absolutely outstanding.  W bought me his last book for Christmas last year.  An epic, elegiac poem reflecting on his long and rich life called “The River in the Sky” - it’s beautiful, bawdy, funny and very moving.

His translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy is so good, easy to read and hailed as a masterpiece by critics.

Cultural Amnesia, a series of essays on influential figures from the 20th C, many not well known at all, is an absolute delight and a goldmine.  I keep my copy by the toilet at home and have bought several copies for friends as a gift. It’s really something else.

Hopefully the BBC will screen the interview he did with Mary Beard from earlier this year.  It’s a lovely tribute to a life well lived.

Thanks Clive RIP.

[cheque]

Brad Gobright   

[Wood FT]

That’s really sad. RIP

[Ged]

Oh man, that's awful. Abbed off the end of the rope.

Brad gobright seemed like a great human. Very sad news.

[Oldmanmatt]

Oh man, that's awful. Abbed off the end of the rope.

Brad gobright seemed like a great human. Very sad news.

Nuts isn’t it.
You’d think you’d never do anything like that.
I once had a friend do it right in front of me, half way down the Verdon. Even though we’d done it (probably) hundreds of times and tied off the ends. On this occasion, there were three of us, we’d ab’ed past the actual belay and were just hanging out on the route bolts below. It was a minor panic, but the rope(s) was just long enough.
He came down last, clipped a tape into our rig and the end of the rope went through his hand and he dropped onto the tape.
We hung there shocked for a few minutes.

Then realised the ropes were hanging just out of reach...

It was a rope stretch thing. He was a little 19 year old beanpole tagging along with us.
My (and my buddy’s) 75+ kg, had given us just enough to swing 10foot to the left of the rope hang to grab the bolt, with a meter plus of spare. Stupidly, that seemed preferable to prusiking 10 meters back to where we should have been. Overconfidence in our ability to deal with things.
When he arrived, his less than 60kg, meant he didn’t have the rope we’d had.

The sling/quickdraw rope we cobbled together so one of us could climb across to get the ropes, probably wouldn’t have held the fall of the leader. Fortunately, we were to ignorant of how tape fails to be worried at the time.

So, it happens.
RIP

[SA Chris]

Is he one of The Nose speed guys off the latest Reel Rock?

Really sad, seemed like a nice humble guy.

[cheque]

You’d think you’d never do anything like that.

I certainly didn’t and it took me a very long time to come to terms with the fact that I had. Things like this make me realise that I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I got away with it to be honest.

I’m sure Gobright’s well-documented attitude to risk will, rightly or wrongly, be associated with his death but we’ve all done things like locking ourselves out of the house, filling petrol cars with diesel, reversing into bollards that we knew were there, etc. and the disconcerting fact is that we’re not only just as capable of making those kind of simple mistakes in life-threatening situations but factors like lots of very recent experience of success in more difficult and/ or more dangerous situations actually increase the fatigue and complacency that lead us to make them.

You have to feel for the friends and family of a clearly well-loved bloke. Not least his climbing partner.

[Muenchener]

Mate of mine on a multi-pitch ab arrived at a stance on a very small ledge, already mostly taken up by me. He then proceeded direct to step (2), unclip device from ropes, bypassing step (1) clip in to anchor. Oops.

We were both lucky that I managed to  grab his harness before shouting at him.