Old Friends get together after 38 years!

Dick Dorworth, great coach, writer, skier, climber.

Haven't seen Dick in 38 years, it's like we never missed a beat.

Dick is one of those special people you might be fortunate to know or meet or pass, in life. I’m one of the lucky ones who met and got to know him. I’m also, one of the luckiest, late life climbers ever. I first met Dick in my ski racing years, back in 1970. He was a coach for the US Ski Team. He stood up for the athletes, he was never a US Ski Team coach for aggrandizement, which is in-itself an rare quality. 

What I didn’t know, until 1973, is that he was and became a pioneer rock climber. He is still today, at 72 years, an excellent climber. He’s climbed with the best climbers of his day, which happen to be some of the best climbers in the history of climbing. People like Lito Tejda-Flores, Royal Robbins, Warren Harding, Jim Bridwell, and John Backar just to name a few. 

I got to climb with Dick when I was 23, he took me climbing, but unfortunately, climbing didn’t grab me at that time. Now after, 40 years, it has and I’m able to re-connect with Dick, on the rock. A pleasure that I wish everyone could experience. Dick is walking history. He’s a gentleman and although competitive with himself; you would be hard pressed to notice any in his demeanor. Dick is also a successful coach, skier, instructor, writer, and author.

It is either luck or the connection to skiing that brought me in contact with great climbers. I’ve met, Peter Habaler Jim Bridwell, John Gill, and am friends with Lito, Dick and Hermann Gollner, all great climbers, and this all came about through skiing.

Call it luck or being in the right place at the right time, but what wonderful experiences knowing, meeting and talking with these climbers. 

It doesn’t stop here, the climbing community is small, like the skiing community. Although I have not met Lynn Hill, and many others who are the best in the world, they never-the-less inspire us all. She waved at me as I drove by her car at Rifle last summer, you never know, Lynn Hill or Chris Sharma, David Graham, may want to learn to ski some day and knock on the door.