Trad History

[LK Day]

Nah, we're well down the road, but the pussyfication of climbing is far from complete.

[Clevis Hitch]

touche'

[KD]

Larry - were you a caver? Did you know a guy named Jim Borden? - used to climb in the Red in the 1970's.

[LK Day]

Yeah, I was a caver, a beginner actually, but Martin Hackworth took me and Frank Becker climbing one day and we were hooked. The first route we did was, appropriately enough, Cavers - on Tower Rock. It was January of '72, I believe, seven degrees F and Tower Rock was covered in snow and ice. It was a blast. Frank and I retained our membership in the Blue Grass Grotto for a while, but we were basically done as cavers. "Jim Borden"?, the name sounds familiar, I bet I met him, but can't say that I knew him. In the early seventies most everyone climbing in the gorge was either from UK or Cincinnati. I hardly ever crossed paths with the climbers from Cincy. The UK crowd was either Blue Grass Grotto or Sierra Club (the Cumberland Climbers) I belonged to both groups in the beginning, but soon dropped out of both. Where was Jim from?

[KD]

He was a UK student then worked with Jim Currens and discovered Roppel cave. I climbed with him a few times and he told me he did the first ascents of blue runner and party time.

[LK Day]

There were some guys that hung out with Ed Pearsall that I never got to know all that well. Maybe he was part of that crowd. I remember Kevin Pogue and Billy Bevins, but I only met Billy after he moved to Colorado.