The attraction. How do you drive it? How do you shift the gears? As a child, it was a mystery to me. How do you keep it from tipping over as you climb on? As a little runt, always the smallest in my class, I was impressed with the strength it took just to hold up motorcycle, especially a big Harley-Davidson. My dad was a daredevil and rode motorcycles, and once worked as a motorcycle courier. My mother was said to have ridden in his motorcycle sidecar on one of their dates. Always looking for role models after my father’s death, I was eager to try anything my dad used to do (see story on “My Father”). Motorcycles had the reputation for being dangerous. All the more interesting to me. Then there was Marlon Brando. Most of us cadets at the Shattuck military academy in Faribault, Minnesota, idolized one of
Mt. “Baldy,” Los Angeles, BMTC Diploma award, Lake Sabrina parking, No. Lake camp, Lamarck Col, Mt. Darwin, Mt. Mendel, “Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra,” Darwin Canyon, rock slides, small avalanches, Upper Lamarck Lake, Steve Howe, UCLA Ski Team, Tahquitz Rock, Jim Powers, Bioorganic Chemistry, Georgia Tech, Royal Robbins, Yvon Choinard, Tom Frost, ropes, helmets, carabiners, pitons, hammers, East Lark on North Wall (Class 5.3), descent by flashlight, Sawtooth Peak, Paul Haake, Bioorganic Chemistry Wesleyan Univ., CT, Dave Lightner, Bioorganic Chemistry University of Nevada, Reno, Mineral King Road, Matterhorn Peak, Bernard Hallet (UCLA junior), Upper Twin Lakes parking, knife edge on summit, Sierra Crest Google Earth Pro flyover of 11 highest peaks (Langley, Muir, Whitney, Russell, Tyndall, Williamson, Split, Middle Palisade, Sill, Thunderbolt, and North Palisade) [13 min].
Climb planning, Mt. Goddard, Bernard Hallet (UCLA junior), Lamarck Col, Darwin Canyon, Evolution Basin, Evolution Lake, Goddard Divide, Goddard summit, 40 miles round trip, 8000 ft vertical; led 10 person trip to Mt. Whitney, view from Lone Pine, CA, Whitney Portal parking, Mirror Lake camp, Jim Myers, Judy Swain, Cardiologist, Chair Stanford Medical Sch., Julie Swain, Cardiac surgeon, Michelle Millar, Inorganic Chemistry, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY; led about 10 person trip to Onion Valley, Gilbert Lake camp, Kearsarge Pass, Mt. Gould, friend George Gutnikov, Craig Bradley, builder of NMR probes and supercon magnets, Sally and Prof. David A. Evans, Organic Chemistry, Harvard (Nat’l Academy), and Evans’ dog, view of University Peak; Norman Clyde Peak, Bernard Hallet (by now UCLA senior had climbed Matterhorn (Switz.), Mt. Blanc (Fra), Pico de Orizaba (Mex) and Aconcagua (Argentina)), Toby Wheeler, Ed Lane, Big Pine, CA, started Glacier Lodge site, bergshrund, bivouac, roped climb to
I fell in love with downhill skiing at age 19, a little late to have been a competitor. But I realized that to get better I needed to take up ski racing, which at the tender age of 31 I did. In 1968, UCLA was forming an informal ski racing organization under Captain Steve Howe, and I worked out with the team and entered a few races against other schools. After a couple seasons it was ruled that professors were illegal. But not until my first year at UCRiverside under Captain Jeff Nelson, a short, blond guy who worked professionally as a Chipmunk at Disneyland. The great Bud Jenkins was on our team, and we had a million laughs together. One day we tried to follow a couple 12-year-old Mammoth boys, who took us over every scary cliff or drop-off on the mountain and then fleeced us for an expensive
