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05/31/2004 Entry: "IMSAR at 30"

About 20 or so years ago, when I had fewer creaking noises in my joints and possibly a few more loose marbles rattling in my head, I took a course in rock climbing at a local community college. That introduction to the climbing community kept me busy for several years or more with training sessions after work, weekend trips to local crags and occasional expeditions to more remote areas. The fellow teaching the course is still at it. In fact, he's been at it for 30 years. He knew there was no way that one person could take an entire class out for climbing trips, so he always recruited past class members to come along on the trips as guides. The system worked well. Most of the students bitten by the climbing bug came back to assist for several years, always happy to help out the man who'd shown them the way to the top of the rock.

His hair is a little thinner now and a whole lot grayer but he's dragging another class down to Seneca Rocks in a few weeks. There'll be a surprise for him there. A number of the folks who guided for him over the past three decades got together at the practice cliff used by the class for a group portrait. There'll be a bigger color digital print of the group and also a tiny 4x5 Van Dyke print of the IMSAR guides.

Posted by dan @ 06/04/2004 01:41 PM ET