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Dec 16, 2003, 7:01 PM
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csoles
Dec 16, 2003, 7:39 PM
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Ah, sigh, one of the very few real women.
http://www.janreynolds.com/
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Dec 16, 2003, 7:51 PM
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indeed. i was so infatuated with her back in the day.
thanks, clyde.
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roughster
Dec 16, 2003, 11:29 PM
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roughster moved this thread from General to Climbing History & Trivia.
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copperhead
Dec 18, 2003, 9:45 AM
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Oh man, this is too weird. I was flippin’ through the various forums (like I never do) and was looking for a thread that I saw a while ago on the homepage. And then I see the name Jan Reynolds… Hmmm Ok, I think, let’s have a look.
Well, I may not be an old fart (yet) but Ned was my uncle – my mom’s brother. I don’t think about this much because it isn’t easy but I figured that I’d say a few words since it’s late and I’ve had a few beers and I found this thread.
Jan visited us at the house a few times (with Ned) and always had more energy than the rest of us combined. At the time when I knew her, she could probably carry a haulbag with the best of ‘em. There wasn’t much that would slow her down.
Jan and Ned co-authored a book titled Everest Grand Circle that tells the story of their two-year expedition to circumnavigate Mt. Everest. Other members of the expedition included the notorious ‘Bird’, Jim Bridwell, speed skier Steve McKinney, and adventurist Craig Kalonica (please pardon any spelling errors…). Hey JAN, if you happen to read this, it would be fun to hear from you!!
The following is an excerpt from a piece that I wrote for school a few years ago. It’s rather simple but it is what I wrote at the time.
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Ned lived an amazing life. He was a great adventurer. He had dreamed up, organized, and led many expeditions including a 300-mile ski traverse of the Brooks Range in Alaska, a circumnavigation of Mt. McKinley (20,320 feet), the first one-day ascent of Mt. McKinley with Galen Rowell, the first ski descent of 24,757 foot Muztagata in China, a 300-mile ski traverse of the Karakoram Range in winter, a 300-mile circumnavigation of Mt. Everest, and the first winter ascent of Pumori (23,442 feet), just to name a few (there were many others). He and three others rowed a specially built 28-foot aluminum dory across the Drake Passage (the world’s most mad seas) a 600-mile journey that lasted two weeks. He climbed Mt. Everest in 1992, the same year I first climbed El Cap.
Ned was a very special person to me; he was my favorite member of our family. When I was a little kid, he took me out around his house in Stowe, Vermont to play and laugh and do silly things. I think he liked acting like a kid again. We found an old pair of skis at the city dump and I asked the man working there if we could have them. He said “sure!” We took them home and made a crude bobsled out of scrap wood. Ned found an old climbing rope, tied one end to the bumper of his Subaru, and the other to the bobsled. I got in and he towed me around on dirt roads. The metal edges of the skis sparked as I bounced around and we both laughed ecstatically. If the bobsled rolled over, it might have taken my head off. A few years later, he took me climbing in Vermont and New Hampshire. At the age of fourteen, we climbed a 600-foot route on Cannon Cliff, my first big climb. We would later climb two more routes on the taller, middle portion of the cliff.
I always wanted to join Ned on one of his expeditions or climb El Cap together but I never had the chance. He was a great inspiration to me. He taught me to be strong and put up with the gnarly shit and to have a good attitude when things get bad. He taught me how to have fun. But most of all, he was a best friend. Without his influence, I would have never done what I have done or climbed what I have climbed. I just wish I could thank him.
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In reply to: "i-want-to-be-like-him-when-i-grow-up"
Yeah Mtngeo, it was pretty much like that… A lot of us wanted to be like him.
He was the coolest and the most FUN person that you could ever meet. He had such a neat lifestyle and was having so much fun. I guess you could say that schist happens but it doesn’t always make sense or seem right. Yes, he is gone, but for the time he spent here, he definitely logged some mileage. Skied on 6 of the 7 continents, or something like that.
I stayed with Ned on various trips out east during my childhood. When I was still a little kid (may still be...), Ned would be my buddy and ‘hook me up’. We’re talkin’ candy here. The kid in the candy store gone wild… I was set. More sugar than I knew what to do with. Whacked! Well, Ned thought it was pretty cool and so did I. Heck, I was a hyper-spazo kid to begin with so you can imagine the result when I was blasted on sugar. Anyways, the best part is that Ned was done with me and my grandmother picked me up to take over (child control, that is…). So, Ned hands me over and my grandmother (unknowingly) has to put up with me bouncing off the walls of the car for the whole ride to wherever we were going (I think it was a long drive). Needless to say, she was not happy with my uncle for his kind generosity to me and later she let him know it! He lost mom points on that one but gained a new friendship in my book.
There is published info out there on the story of his death and there might be info on the web too. Have a look if you are interested.
Ned was murdered on August 5th, 1998 while Warren Hollinger and I were on El Cap. Because of this, I decided to name our new route “Ned’s Excellent Adventure.”
Well, I could say a lot more but it’s late. Ned was a great person and we miss him.
Anyways, sorry to hijack the thread.
Carry on about Superwoman as you will…
Bryan
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Dec 18, 2003, 3:31 PM
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bryan --
thank you so very much for posting your thoughts. wow, what a treat to have had ned gillette as your uncle!
i deeply respect and admire him on many levels: he was educated, inquisitive, an athlete without equal; a real renaissance man. his murder was surely a tragedy of the higest order. i'm sure you miss him very much.
in my original post i wrote that he "[b:33a7db6ebb]ranked[/b:33a7db6ebb] right up there on my 'i-want-to-be-like-him-when-i-grow-up' list". the truth is, he still [i:33a7db6ebb]does[/i:33a7db6ebb].
thanks again, bryan; i'm sitting here with a swelling in my chest and fond memories of ned going through my head. and that's not such a bad thing. :wink:
regards,
geo
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