Besides scaling my parents’ chimney with a friend and a few trips to a climbing gym when I was eleven, I’ve been an armchair rock climber for over thirty years, which was also set off by a middle school gym teacher bringing in his climbing gear for show and tell after he climbed Mt. McKinley/Denali. Every now and then I get the urge to jump back in and see what’s happening on the scene, watch as many videos as I can of climbers and slackliners, and think about energy, being, and the natural world.
I recently found Brad Gobright in a sad fashion, unfortunately on Rock and Ice’s list of “Climbers We Lost in 2019”. His memorial write-up created a vision of a man so intriguing, pure, and one filled with that amazingly youthful spirit which knows no bounds because there just aren’t any. If you get that sentiment, then you get a large piece of Brad’s being, at least as I perceive it.
If you scour the web for any and all of Brad’s projects, you’ll find Cedar Wright’s “Safety Third,” the time lapsed nose speed record, “Gramicci: Brad Gobright climbs hard trad in Indian Creek” (complete with a Dr. Octagon influenced route shout out), the Dreefee vid where you see Brad encourage climber Ben Hanna’s lead, of course other youtube vids and snippets, and all the memories seen on Instagram and site message boards. It’s all such an interesting snapshot of a beautiful character of doing and being what he loved. He was surely loved.
As the title above teases, it is a reference to a quote taken from Kerouac’s “On the Road” and from the quintessential college poster I had on my dorm room wall:
“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
