MudNCrud Forums
Climbing and ... Climbing => Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles => Topic started by: salad on October 24, 2006, 06:05:46 AM
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For those of you who don't read other forums...
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=270833&f=0&b=0
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weird eh, Todd was a fixture of American climbing when I really started getting into things in the 80s.
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It is sad.
According to R&I it was a decending accident.
I guess he's catching up with Harding and the others.
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This is my Todd Skinner story,
I had been climbing one to two years. Been to the Pins a few times maybe the Valley. Mostly just Castle Rock. A tech at work his father owned a climbing shop in Phoenix and was going to be a contributing sponsor at the Bouldering comp. I think he helped start Mountain Hardware or something. So anyway he told me about the comp and told me to go to the comp and while I was there to check out his Dads store. So I did and while I was out there I met up with some old friends. They showed up to watch and one of them got kicked out for sunbathing but that is another story. Anyway after the comp I was sitting on a slight hill and this somewhat familiar face as standing there talking with another guy. I nodded and smiled.
The other guy took off then Todd came up and sat on the hill and started talking with me. I was thinking he this is the guy in the mags. He pulled down his hat and we just started talking. After a bit I asked if he had any advice for someone that was just getting into it. Since I just got spanked bouldering. He told me the one piece of advice that someone had given him was, when climbing and you get to one of those spots where your not sure, just think, "it might hold, it might work, I might be able to do this. I still think about that on occasion. And, it has gotten me through a few situations.
As with other people the one thing that struck me about him was that he seem very sincere, he seemed to really care. I think the reason he was successful as a motivational speaker was that he really wanted to see other people succeed. The other thing that I got a kick of was how when the press showed up and started grilling some guy he just got this really amused look, a bit of a gleam in his eye. After a awhile someone noticed him and he went down the hill and they just swarmed him. After about 5 minutes he looked up at me and it wasn't just the look on his face it was the look in his eyes. I will never forget it.
Rest in peace, you were quite the individual.
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Man...that really sucks. I've idolized that guy since I was 13. Condolences.