2006 Climber’s Holiday Awards

Each year the Mountaineering Committee hosts a gala climber’s holiday party the first Friday in December at which we present climbing awards both frivolous and serious to recognize the accomplishments of our climbing companions.

Sharp End of the Rope Award
Culinary Delight Award
Climber Who Goes Climbing Most Often But Climbs the Least Award
Union Jack Award
World’s Longest Belay Test Award
Most Enthusiastic New Climber
The 50 Years Award
Big Eater Award
How to get lost on a very small mountain Award
Most Pale Hiker Award
Kinetic Energy Award
Scott Sandberg Volunteer of the Year Award
The Cabin Boys Award

Sharp End of the Rope Award

After rapelling off the rap rings at Nomad Dome, our desert climbing pair pulled the rope. There was a huge prickly pear cactus "system" at the base of the climb. 1/4th of the rope fell into the cactus. One of our pair gingerly picked up the rope (one foot at a time) and handed it to the other so as not to disturb the big thorns on the cactus. Well, they forgot about the little thorns. A thorn got caught in one of their hands from the rope and was stuck into the rope. They had to get nail clippers to gingerly pull it out of the rope. They decided that the only way to get all the thorns out of the rope (the tiny ones; the ones you can't see) was to slowly run the rope through their hands, and immediately stop when they got "poked", and remove the thorn from their hand and continue. They had to run the rope through their hands three times (finding thorns all three times).

Please congratulate Mike Mullins and Linda Mederios for expanding their experience this year at the sharp end of the rope.

Culinary Delight Award

My great uncle was a mountaineer who was also, by reputation, a culinary snob. My mother used to be very anxious about trying to cook for him when he came to visit, except if he was recently returned from the Canadian Rockies which is where he went mountaineering every summer. After these trips my mother noted that he would eat anything what so ever without complaint.

Well, thanks to this award recipient, civilization has advanced since those days. Mountaineers and climbers who are lucky enough to venture forth with this recipient can dine on the fine cuisine he prepares in the field. This became very obvious in the Canadian Rockies this last February. He almost (but not quite) made up for not having Nancy Savickas on the trip this year. He and Rick Buirkle dueled for the honors of best cook, Rick almost taking top prize for his fresh bread baked daily. John outdid Rick, and all comers, with shear volume and effort, spending about a week’s pay and countless hours on food and preparation. Jean, his wife, certainly has a keeper here. Would John Hazell come forward to get the Culinary Delight Award, and no it’s not edible.

Climber Who Goes Climbing Most Often But Climbs the Least Award

This award goes to a new, dedicated climber who took the program this spring and then hurt his elbow and hasn't climbed much but he goes on all the Wednesday nights to the Quincy Quarries and he went to the Fall Frolic, even though he doesn't climb at the moment. Ron is now the webmaster for www.BostonClimbers.org, the web site for the Mountaineering Committee. We hope our award recipient, Ron Birk, is able to climb again soon, but not at the expense of all the excellent things he is doing for the web site.

Union Jack Award

For improving Anglo American relations.

The recipient of this award has gone beyond the call of duty by listening to an endless stream of butchered American talk and translating it into proper English, of hearing endless accolades regarding our "most ancient and honorable institute of higher learning", Harvard, and it's esteemed Mountaineering Club despite having graduated from Oxford and having served as chairman of the Oxford University Mountaineering Club, enduring American beer, and most of all, hearing about all the wonderful climbing around here - the Ravine is better then the Ben, etc. - but actually being dragged to Metrorock time after time. This award goes to Nick Brown.

World’s Longest Belay Test Award

How careful are you in picking a partner? Do you really know if they really, really, know how to tie all the important knots? This award is given to two people who took checking out each other's skills, all kinds of skills, to an unheard of extreme. Yes, our two recipients took 27 years before tying the knot, our own newly weds, John and Carol Barry!

Most Enthusiastic New Climber

I want to clear up a slight misunderstanding about the Most Enthusiastic New Climber award. You do not need an MBA, in fact, you don’t even need to dress like an MBA candidate. This year’s award winner did show up for New Seconds weekend wearing a dress shirt. In fact, this year’s recipient has made much progress in his upward ways and now dresses a bit more like a climber. In the spring he was pretty nervous, in addition to wearing a dress shirt. But he has gone on to develop good climbing friendships, been a regular at the Quarries over the summer and now takes to rock like a duck to water, or wasps to the cracks at the Gunks, or a vulture to carrion. The change at Fall Frolic was remarkable.

Please encourage Jeremy Spiller to come forward enthusiastically to receive his award.

The 50 Years Award

Or, “ I came, I climbed, I kept climbing”.

There are some of us in the room who no doubt feel that they are experienced climbers who have accumulated a noticeable track record, even if they smugly maintain a degree of modesty about their exploits. (I’m not suggesting the modesty is a widespread attribute in the climbing community, or even a desirable attribute.) However, there is one among us who can help the rest of us put our climbing records in perspective. This fellow has been climbing at the Shawngunks for 50 years!

His first climb at the ‘Gunks was on September 9, 1956. He climbed Easy Overhang. This year he made a repeat assent, which was later celebrated at the Brauhouse with a champaign toast by those present.

Well, here tonight we would also like to raise our spirits and our glasses in offering Bill Atkinson recognition for 50 years at the Gunks, for more than 50 years of climbing, and dedication to climbers new and old. He is a revered friend to us all.

There are many Bill stories, but I will share only one of them with you tonight. This was told to me by a new climber, let’s call her Linda just to have a name for story telling purposes. At age 79, Bill led Linda up her first ever climb as a nervous new second and later that same year followed her up her first ever lead at the Gunks. Linda caught the climbing bug from Bill, and, no, this is not some new malignant form of social disease. Bill has been an inspiration.

Linda still laughs when she remembers that day Bill shamelessly approached her at the base of a climb with unzipped pants and a big grin on his face asking Linda, "Have I shown you my fly yet?" Linda was thinking she should run as fast as she could to get away from him! But Bill persisted with, "Come look" all the while pulling his open fly towards her so she could see better. Not knowing what else to do (and, she admits, wondering if perhaps Bill was getting a bit senile), she cautiously peeked and there she saw it, sewn into the lining of his fly by the manufacturer, a label that said, "Never stop exploring."

No, she thought, he's definitely not senile.

Of course, she did have cause to worry about that once again the day they were at Rock & Snow and Linda was ever so discreetly trying to purchase a wicking thong while Bill was off looking at climbing gear. Suddenly, Bill appeared out of nowhere at the cashier's desk, and peering over my shoulder, he asked, "What's that? A headband?" As matter of factly as she could, Linda explained, "No, it's ladies underwear", to which Bill replied "Ah-ha, must be one of those thong things."

To quote a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "He's not dead yet."

So, would you please welcome up here Linda Medeiros, the real Linda, to offer Bill a bottle of champaign. Here’s to you Bill Atkinson, and to 50 years of climbing. Linda tells me that she’s very glad she’s had the chance to be a small part of it!

Big Eater Award

This award is issued to Pablo Acosta, who, after several long approach hikes and multi-pitch climbs at high altitude, culminating in an ascent of the Grand Teton via the Upper Exum Ridge, did out-eat Tom Boydston at the all-you-can-eat barbeque emporium. Such a feat has never been witnessed by man nor beast…before or since.

How to get lost on a very small mountain Award

On June 11, 2006 Paul Sodano did lead a small intrepid party on an ascent of Mt Wachusett. All was going well until the party was almost within site of the summit when they realized they were on the way down on the same trail they had been going up just minutes prior. The party had not stopped and reversed direction, and no wormholes in the space-time continuum had been encountered. It was just an amazing sense of direction.

Most Pale Hiker Award

On July 29th 2006, after way too many weekends trapped in his urban apartment, Geoff Pingree set out on a traverse of the Moats in the White Mountains. Upon exposing small amounts of skin at the summit, he caused his hiking companions to dawn their sunglasses, and various small children to flee in terror at the intense reflection of the suns damaging rays off his amazingly white legs.

Kinetic Energy Award

Unfortunately, some years there is a clear winner for this award, and this year is such a year. If you hit the ledge taking a wicked fall, you learn a lot about the power of kinetic energy. Our winner experienced a broken lumbar vertebra, a broken pelvis, a fractured rib, and a broken foot. Since May he has experienced the slow recovery process, made worse by the fact that foot surgery delayed the time when physical therapy could begin. But he is recovering, and we are very glad to have him with us here tonight, and look forward to seeing him return to the outdoors.

Please give a big hand to Brian Reteneller as he comes forward to receive an award that I earnestly hope is a once in a lifetime event.

For those that may not know, Brian got off onto a hard variation of a route at Crow Hill last May and fell. His top piece of pro, a .5 Camelot, pulled out and he hit the belay ledge about half way up the cliff. A major rescue effort ensued involving getting a litter up to Brian, getting him it, and then safely down and away from the cliff. Brian’s foot injury has proved to be the most serious, requiring surgery and a lengthy recuperation period.

Scott Sandberg Volunteer of the Year Award

Awarded to Nancy Savickas.

She is famous for continuing to climb through a wide array of climbing-related injuries and hospital visits; including stitches to the head from falling ice, thumb tendon repairs, 3 broken noses, massive bee stings, minor frostbite, and 2nd degree burns from putting a hotpack in her sports bra.

Like the lady who swallowed the fly, I don’t know why she thought she needed a hot pack in her bra. She is one hot chick just naturally. But this is not while we are here to recognize her tonight. Tonight we honor her for all of many years supporting the climbing community and her continuing active support of the BCMC.

Nancy was mountaineering committee secretary for many years and continues to work tirelessly to provide training programs through the mountaineering committee, including self rescue, avalanche awareness and first aid. I trust that you all know that we teach basic rock, ice and snow climbing to new climbers. For experienced climbers Nancy arranges for professional guides to provide instruction at convenient locations, and at discounted rates through our training grants program.

She regularly takes new/beginner climbers under her wing. She has been known to take groups of 3 or even 4 seconds at New Seconds or Fall Frolic.

The Cabin Boys Award

Some of the awards we present here express our deep thanks for the effort and dedication that some climbers demonstrate for the benefit of the climbing community as a whole. This is one of those awards. As most of you know, the Harvard low cabin on Route 16 a few minutes south of Pinkham Notch as been the base of our winter climbing programs and winter climbing weekends for at least 30 years. That’s as long as I can remember, and it was a strong “tradition” when I took the Ice Program back in the early 70’s.

We nearly lost it. The Cabin needed renovation to meet current safety codes. There Harvard Cabin Committee that operates the Cabin did not have the financial reserves to make the renovations. In spite of the name, the Harvard Cabin is not managed or funded by the Harvard Outing Club or Harvard University. There were no “deep pockets” in that direction. Without the tireless and sustained efforts of these award recipients we would have lost the cabin. They worked to insure that the AMC provided funds to augment the Cabin Committee’s funds so that renovations could begin. When the work started, unanticipated rot and structural problems were found, adding to the cost. But through their efforts the Boston Chapter of the AMC came to understand the need and provided the extra needed funding.

Now, the fire marshal has approved the renovated cabin to sleep 22 people, and they managed to make these renovations in a sensitive manner that has not violated the rustic appearance and atmosphere of the cabin. We still have a unique, low cost facility. I encourage you to join us for one of our winter weekends.

But right now I’d like to you put your hands together loudly to thank The Cabin Boys: Al Stebbins, Tom Maguire, Tom Carey and Roger Scholl. Would they please come forward.

Al and Tom Maguire are the driving members of the Harvard Cabin Committee. Tom Carey has volunteered his time as an architect to be their designer and consultant. Roger is the AMC Director of Volunteer Relations and the driving force on this project within the Club. We are very fortunate to have their support of our community.