>>2183703I started this thread because someone told me recently Jim Bridwell had died.
I was about to buy some ice tools from him and tackle the larger routes in VT but he must have fell ill and forgotten.
The person in the center of the pic and I went to a place he had climbed at for a while in the Tramway cliffs in Palm Springs.
He belayed me on a 5.13a and I onsighted it.
BUT the main foothold on the crux was a dropknee onto a small flake edge which broke as I was moving through the crux.
I got back after falling and sent the 5.13a without the main hold so it was a redpoint 5.13b.
The one I set the anchors on to the right of his was a very gymnastic 5.13c or even harder as it was at a 45 degree and used one and two finger single digit holds......
This was something of an oddity that there was no better routes in the valley at that point other than his there and at the playground near his crib.
Was cool meeting him.
I just got ripped off of all my work at the place called Uprising Rock Climbing Center as I helped them build the outdoor cliff towers and then finished the last of the routes off (80ct) for their grand opening, and managed the maintenance of the wall and set up the instruction plans for their crew.
When the owners Paul Blanchard and Alan Damashek had gotten the hang of it they whined together and canned me.
I discovered that Jim Bridwell was the original guru and they shit canned them the same way.
