Ranger John, The Green Man

"Quit dilly-dallying, it's going to rain."

Here's a photo of John on belay. I took this black & white photo of him belaying Jeb on "Friday the 13th" (on Vedauwoo's Nautilus)back in 1992, on our very first outing together.You have to know ONE thing about him: he can climb hard rock with a 60-pound pack and no protection!!!

I know that sounds kind of odd, but John doesn't really know how capable he is. It's a syndrome I have noticed with all of the folks from that part of RemoteAmerica I have become aquainted with. John will tell you he "scrambles." John can lead 5.10 if you tell him it's 5.7... Those guys over there in RemoteAmerica - Jeb, Eric, John and several others - have practically no clue about how hard they can climb. And they just don't care. It doesn't seem to matter. The content is more important than the title, if you see what I mean.

Besides, there really isn't that much natural protection where they all learned to climb. And nobody put in any bolts until they had already lead most of the (R- and X-rated!!) routes on a few manky pieces of gear. John's one of those climbers.

By the way: I just wanna make it perfectly clear that John is not a Coloradoan. I know he'd be upset to called a "greenie." It's just that smart-lookin' uniform he wears that's green. And don't go ridin' yer motorized vehicle in his wilderness district, 'cause he'll getcha.

John finding a way back down to that river, some 500 feet below him...
June, 1996.

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