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Many hands help carry the keg
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During the early 1980s, I fell in with a bad crowd of
Leavenworth locals, including the baddest of the bad, Cliff
Dangler. (His name has been changed to protect his identity,
in case he decides to run for public office someday.) This was
back in the days when Cliff rode a motorcycle and hung out at
Das Berghaus bragging about his secret crags, long before
Cliff became the decent, upstanding citizen he is today.
Cliff is a different person now. He's downright respectable.
So don't let anything in this story change your opinion of
Cliff. He's alright.
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Cliff Dangler and Mike Jackson, all smiles
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So anyway, one night there was a party at Cliff's house, and
there was a keg of Washington's finest brew, Rainier Beer. We
sat around the fire pit drinking beer, telling stories, slandering
all of our absent friends, lying about the routes we'd
climbed, and drinking beer. (Did I mention we were drinking
beer?) This went on well into the night. The next morning,
everybody was pretty trashed from the night before, except
Cliff, who seemed unfazed by the previous night's drinking.
He was perplexed, though, because the keg was still half
full. (Cliff is an optimist.) But he quickly came up with
the perfect solution. We would take the keg with us climbing
that day, and finish it off before it had to be returned that
afternoon. Of course!
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Hauling the keg
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So we zoomed off to Castle Rock, racked up, and unloaded the
keg, to some astonished looks. There was some discussion about
what to do next. The wisest among us said we should just drink
the beer in the parking lot so we didn’t have to carry the keg.
(A half keg of beer is pretty heavy.) That reasoned approach
was instantly rejected. Someone thought we should just carry
it to the base of lower Castle Rock, which wasn't very far.
But that, too, was vetoed. There was really only one thing to
do, and we did it.
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Summit photo, keg on Logger's Ledge
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I quickly offered to photograph the event, which made sense,
since I had a camera, and also because wanted to weasel out
of carrying a heavy beer keg all the way up to Logger's Ledge. My
offer was accepted, in hopes that perhaps the photos could be
sold to Rainier Brewing Company for advertising. So I got to
watch while several grown men grunted and strained under the
weight. It was quite a team effort, and I did my part, taking
several photographs. At first, one climber would carry the
keg until he was exhausted, then another would take up the
burden. After awhile, many hands helped heft the keg upward.
It took a little bit longer than usual to hike up to Logger's
Ledge that morning, but nobody was worse for the wear. At
the ledge, it was proclaimed that this was the first beer
keg ever to ascend to Logger's Ledge, although for all any
of us knew Fred Beckey had likely accomplished the feat decades
earlier and had just neglected to mention it in
Challenge of
the North Cascades. (Of course, Beckey probably carried
a full keg all the way to the top of Castle Rock, not just
to Logger's Ledge.)
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Climbing under the influence - Cliff Dangler on The Nose
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So here we were with a keg of beer on Logger's Ledge on a sunny
Sunday morning. While God-fearing decent folk were sitting in
church praying for our salvation, we were drinking beer. The
keg was tapped, and the golden beverage flowed, much to the
cheer of our group, but to the apparent consternation of some
elderly Mountaineer-types who chided us for our irresponsibility
even though we offered them to share in our bounty. However,
many other climbers were quite willing—eager even—to dump out
their water and fill their poly bottles with beer. There were
many smiling faces at Castle Rock that day, and although there
was some climbing under the influence, nobody suffered any on
our account.
Of course, the photos never did get sold, and although he
became a legend, Cliff never became a famous purveyor of
Rainier Beer. He did get the keg back on time, though.
It was empty.
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