The first place I climbed with a friend from my church (he went to church in Long Beach and I went to the same church in Los Angeles. However, I was 21 and he was 18 and he and I were at a church conclave at Shasta Springs in the Mt. Shasta area owned by our church. His parents were arguing about something and he didn't want to listen to them argue anymore and so asked me for a ride back to the Los Angeles Area to Palos Verdes where he lived then with his parents. So, since I had just broken up with my girlfriend that I had intended to marry I didn't really want to be alone for 12 to 14 hours then driving south to Los Angeles and he was one of the most intelligent people I had ever met so likely a good conversation would ensue at the very least.
I found out that he liked to climb mountains like i did so we went to Yosemite national Park and climbed Half Dome up the wires which was the first time I ever did this.
However, he was also interested in going to UCLA as a freshman and interested in Rock climbing with pitons and ropes. Though I had been climbing cliffs and rocks my whole life and even got a concussion at age 9 climbing a cliff I hadn't used ropes or pitons yet so he got me into rope climbing with pitons and this was interesting.
One time a group of our friends interested in Rock climbing went to Yosemite in the winter time and I remember sleeping under my VW Bug 1966 because it was snowing and I hadn't brought a tent. I think I bought what is called a tube tent made of a big circle of orange plastic so I didn't get snowed on again. But, when it wasn't snowing we were rock climbing the rocks in Yosemite national Park.
As you can tell we were all really into rock and mountain climbing then. However, it moved from there to all of us dating different girls and sometimes traveling with them to places like Mt. Shasta too in either my 1966 VW Bug at 30 miles per gallon which I bought for college. Or my friend also bought a 1959 36 horsepower VW Bug that got even better mileage than that which allowed us to drive to Mt. Shasta and camping there for about 10 or 20 dollars round trip because of the high mileage of both vehicles.
If we went to Mt. Shasta often it was easier to go up there in summers when it was warmer and hike up and camp at Horse Camp on Mt. Shasta for free owned by the Sierra Club and manned usually by someone to rescue climbers from May to October.
My friend and one of his friends used to get paid to do this for the Sierra Club for several summers while he was in college by the way. So, each of them when they were on duty would rescue people off the mountain or help call in helicopters any way that they could to rescue people.
So, like I said we were and are still really into mountains and he after he got his master's degree from UCLA moved to Mt. Shasta and bought 2 1/2 Acres by 1976 and has lived there ever since.
If you were wondering why I stopped rock climbing in 1973 it is because I got married and had a son and I thought it was too dangerous to continue doing if I wanted to stay alive to raise my son.
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