Shim's gems

I had the pleasure on Saturday to climb with Jim Shimberg. I had met him once, really briefly, when I was dating Mayo, out in the 'daks.

He's a great guy with the most positive attitude of anyone I've met in a while. Which is not to say he isn't sarcastic. Here are some of my favorite things he said:

On coaching newbie climbers on having the correct stance for ice climbing: "Push to screw, squat to poo" - meaning, stand up with your hips towards the ice when you're putting in an ice screw or whacking your tool into the ice, and then walk your legs up on your ax before moving up. He yelled that at people continually through the day.

When giving me advice on whether or not to move up on a crap tool placement - I had just told him how Joe always yells at me for moving up on bad tools because you get into the habit and that can kill you when you're leading: "Ah, that tool looks alright, go ahead and move up on it" (I was climbing with one ax at the time to practice foot placement, and I had the tool only 3 teeth in and it was wobbling back and forth)

After I stood up and got my face in line with the badly placed tool: "Of course, you don't want to stand up on it because it'll pop out and hit you in the face (which it almost did). Make sure you tell Joe Shim is keeping you safe."

On mixed climbing: "Maybe I'm just an old dinosaur, but I don't know why you'd ruin your tools rock climbing with them. When it's cold, I climb ice. When it's warm, I rock climb." Of course, a few hours later he sent a hard mixed climb.

On having good belaying skills: "One of the problems with dropping your partner is they are going to hit the ground and die."

On saying "I love you" (if Shim loves you he tells you all the time): "Sometimes I wonder if guys stop talking to me because I tell them that I love them."

On having a picture of his wife and daughter taped to the back of his helmet: "It reminds my helmet who's really in charge of making decisions."

On being a substitute teacher for a class of first graders: "The first day I followed the lesson plan, and that was a disaster. The second day I said "let's go run around outside". So we were running around outside and the principal was looking out the window at me like "what's that guy doing????" That day went a lot better for the first graders." (he didn't mention if he was hired as a substitute again)

On yelling when we knocked down ice: "Don't waste energy yelling "Ice!" We're ice climbing, we know it's coming down."

On how often we did a lap at the clinic (it was mid day and a few of us were really tired): "Look, this is about what ever you want it to be about. You can climb, you can belay, you can take a break to eat something, it's very relaxed. But, right now, you have to climb. So who's getting on this rope?"

I learned, and re-learned, a lot climbing with Shim. Thanks Shim! If you ever get the opportunity to climb with him do it! He has a guide service too (www.rhinoguides.com). And if you're interested in seeing what he looks like (he's a handsome dude) there's a pic of him climbing on his web site with his shirt off.