The Twitch

The Dean who Disappeared

The climber who disappeared!

Dean at one of the now-defunct Vedauwoo parking areas. August, 1993.

I first met Dean on Edwards' Crack, when I was rope-soloing the route. Dean and his brother Dan were climbing the route right behind me, and since they were moving alot faster than I was, I halted on the ledge at half-height so they could pass. Dean climbed up to me, extended his hand and introduced himself:
"Hi! I'm Dean, and I just got out of treatment!"

"Hi, Dean," I replied as I shook his hand, adding, "Why me?"

It was the start of a productive friendship.

Gnorga& Dean after establishing Old Easy Arete at Vedauwoo. August, 1993.

In August of 1993, a rounded, humpy arete beneath the central Vedauwoo crag Old Easy caught my eye. I was waiting for Dean and Dan one day when I decided to top-rope it (solo). They arrived as I was working out the moves in the difficult lower section. We all took turns toproping the route, and in subsequent days, Dean and I installed seven bolts, scrubbed away the colonies of lichen from the miniscule holds, and redpointed the route, calling it Arete Now. We rated it 5.10a or b, a conservative rating for central Vedauwoo, where routes are often harder than their given rating. Robert Kelman, co-author of the 1993 guidebook Heel and Toe: Climbs of Greater Vedauwoo down-rated the route to 5.9, changing the name to Arrettez Maintenent, and told me that a student of his, who had been climbing all of 3 months, had been the deciding factor in the route's grade. I had always preferred to call the route Old Easy Arete, which is what I call it to this day, naming it after the formation on which it is found. Poor Dean was always livid that Rob changed all of the things that he did about the route. Nowadays, about once a year, I see newspaper photographs of my route, with students working their up the tiny face holds. It always makes me feel like I did the right thing, when I originally had so many doubts about bolting the line.

Dean and me Missus somewhere in Blair-Wallis. May, 1994.

In May of 1994, Dean and I started chasing harder routes with higher ratings, mainly because the lines are so beautiful. One such line we attempted was Spectreman in Blair, on The Heap. We laid seige to the route until a hailstorm gave us a good excuse to leave the it for another time. At hard 5.11, Spectreman is a prize for me. I still haven't been able to climb it.

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© 1997 gnorga@aol.com