Registered: Nov 22, 2001, 2:25 AM Last Logon: Feb 19, 2018, 2:25 AM Posts: 3608 (0.4 per day) Local Time: Apr 5, 2025, 6:57 PM
Personal Profile
Name:
Doug Widdis
Occupation:
USAF
Interests:
CLIMBING...duh
Email:
No email entered.
More Info:
I started rock climbing in 1982. Originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, I learned to climb in the
<b><a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=391">Garden of the Gods</a></b>,<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/31/3120.jpg"></center> and was one of the first <b>Climbing Rangers</b> working for the Park Police, keeping the tourists from climbing up and falling off the rocks.<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/33/3323.jpg"></center> The next couple of years I climbed extensively in the <b>South Platte</b> and <b>Boulder</b> areas.<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/34/3426.jpg"></center> I helped discover and develop <b><a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=29">Shelf Road</a></b> before the crowds found out about it. In May of 1985 I climbed the <b>West Buttress of <a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=2732">Denali</a></b>, and in the spring of 1986, <b>The Nose on <a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=995">El Capitan</a></b>. <p>I joined the United States Air Force in 1986 and got stationed in New York. I climbed in <b>Vermont</b>, the <b>Adirondacks</b>,<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/32/3245.jpg"></center> the <b><a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=173">Gunks</a></b> (every three day weekend, and a three week stay every year),<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/31/3134.jpg"></center> and then got transferred to a base near Oxford, England. When I wasn't fixing jets, the outdoor recreation program there used me as a climbing, rappelling and caving instructor for their trips so I got to plan trips and climb all over <a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listState.php?CountryStateID=43"><b>Great Britain</b></a> and <a href="http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listState.php?CountryStateID=205"><b>Wales</b></a> as long as I took some people who wanted to learn with me. Then the U.S. Air Force decided to tone down my climbing ambitions. I got stationed in Clovis, New Mexico (200 miles from any rocks) and then in Newport News, Virginia. <p>Things got better though, I got stationed at Elmendorf AFB, near Anchorage, Alaska. Lots of mountains, some halfway decent rock, and world-class ice!!!<center><img src="http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/109/10920.jpg"></center> Too bad the summers were so short. At least the days were long! <p>Now I am near Atlanta, Georgia, inspecting the production of the F/A-22 Raptor, the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world.<center><img src="http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/web/web_021105-O-9999G-071.jpg"></center><p>Looking forward to some great bouldering and trad climbing, if I can just find the time!!!