On January 2nd, Daniel Burson, Stan Price and I made the trip south to Cody to climb Side Show Addiction, a climb that had only one ascent and it was by Stan in 1996. As we approached the climb I confidently said that I would lead it, my ambition did not match my ability. I climbed the rock to below the hanging curtain of ice and placed a 000 c3 and a #1 blade, both questionable. As I looked up at the ice, I saw that it was not adhered to the rock for quite a ways until it turned into more solid WI 6. Yes, I just said solid WI6. I pulled up onto the curtain several times, but could not find the courage to commit to the ice with what I considered, at best, marginal pro below my feet and no chance of a screw for a long ways.
Next Daniel went up to my high point and had the same opinion; the route was not “in.” Moments later we learn that calling a route “in” or “out” is more a matter of perspective.
So that leaves us with Stan, the only person to ever lead the route. He quickly gained my high point, turned and gave me look as if to say “watch me here” and I thought “I’ll watch, but if you fall my belay isn’t going to do shit, you’re going to the ground.” He then pulled up onto the ice and threw an arm bar behind the curtain, which gave him the stance to chip a hole in the curtain and fish a long draw through to clip as pro. Why didn’t I think of that? Now, we would get to watch him do battle with the WI 6 above, but rather than watching a brawl it was more like a dance as he cruised to the top. He did this climb after only climbing a hand full of days in the last year and a half due to a shoulder injury. In other words he just climbed one of the hardest pitches in the valley more or less off the couch. At the top of the climb, we all shook hands and in typical Stan Price fashion and he thanked me for climbing the rock at the star. Daniel and I just looked at each other and laughed.
In our little group of climbing friends, we refer to him as Stan “F#&!@*&” Price, and as our friend JoJo says, he hates it, and that is the reason he is the true bad-ass.
