Myers Park High School
Class Of 1970
Walter ("Skip") F. Daniel Jr
| Residing In: | Charlotte, NC USA |
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| Spouse/Partner: | (I was married from 1971 - 1986.) (After this, I went into, and stayed in a fugue state. Lol.) |
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| Homepage: |
View Website |
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| Occupation: | I'm formally retired, but I'm writing grants so as to do my own independent Neuropsychology & Psychology of Mysticism research. |
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| Children: | No children that I know of. |
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Walter ("Skip") F.'s Latest Interactions
Hi Louise. How are you doing? Are you ready for the next presidential election? Me, I am scared about (You know who) getting re-elected. - Skip
Posted on: Jun 20, 2019 at 1:48 PM
Hi Marcia. How is your puppy? I love dogs, and miss two ("Elbow" [male] and "Blacky" [female] ) I had. I used to take Elbow on winter camping trips with me. He figured out what my mummy sleeping bag (O degree F) was for, and would go all the way down to where my feet were. But after about 30 minutes, he would get hot and start panting, and would whine to go out. Then he would go sniffing and peeing on everything (marking his territory at night?). Then he would get cold, and want back in my tent and sleeping bag. In-out, in-out, all night long. The next day I would be exhausted, feeling as if I had pulled an "all-nighter."
So I took and old plastic milk carton crate, and jig-sawed the bottom got him a rectangular sleeping bad, and fastened it to the sleeping bag. But Elbow would not use it, insisting on sleeping by me in my mummy bag... Go figure.
As for Clint Eastwood, I am a big fan, having read two of his biographies. Eastwood insisted on doing his own stunts. Asked which stunts scared him the most, he replied "Climbing." On "The Eiger Sanction," climber-cameramen" actually died while filming that dangerous mountain.
-Skip
Teaching technical rock-climbing at Stone Mtn.State Park during my hippy days (technically belaying).
About when will our 50th anniversary re-Oniion be? Just wondering about this so I can mark my calendar. -Skip Daniel
Posted on: Jul 03, 2018 at 5:53 PM
"The Traveling Wilburys" was a "supergroup" formed by the late Beatle George Harrison. The musicians were Bob Dylan, Jeff Linne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbisón and George Harrison. (I am not sure who the drummer is, but I think he is pretty good.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZFRXJk037o Here is an interview with George about The Traveling Wilburys.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZFRXJk037o I listtened to this yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it! -:)
Posted on: May 29, 2018 at 7:35 PM
Happy Birthday, Carol
Hi Wendy. Thanks for the post about our loss of Danny Holman.
Sincerely,
Skip Daniel
Posted on: Nov 24, 2017 at 4:33 AM
Happy Birthday, Carol.
Happy birthday, Katharine!
Posted on: Jan 12, 2017 at 7:25 PM
Welcome aboard, Michael.
-Skip Daniel
Walter ("Skip") F.'s Photo Gallery
Apparently the stripper made all of us (except for Marc [does he have "oppositional defiant disorder?" in the background here - take our shirts off (like her). I apparently juggled while intoxicated. (I'm completely amnesic for this event, but please note that alcohol-induced amnesia is related to the rate of ACCELERATION of alcohol in the blood, NOT the total amount consumed, so I'm NOT a complete Sot. Lol)
It was very windy and snowy up there. One day it snowed like crazy; the next day the winds picked up and blew all of the snow off of this area, so much so that the wind picked Jim and Scott up in their Bibler Tent and moved them - they looked very "drug out" the next morning, and wanted in our tent, which was owned by Dick the dentist. (The night before, I had anchored Dick's tent to these huge boulders.)
One day a violent avalanche crashed down from a nearby 20,000'+ mountain. While we were safe, all of us were filled with "AWE" from this experience.
The famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who first solo climbed Mt. Everest in 1980 without supplemental oxygen, stated that the South Face here is like "two stacked Eigers" (see Clint Eastwood's "The Eiger Sanction")
Over the weekend of January 21, 1985, I led a group of four people from the UNC-Chapel Hill Outing Club on a winter camping trip to the top of the Roan. This was the record-setting "arctic blast" of 1985, which set record lows all across the East Coast (http://www.weather.gov/ilm/January1985 cold) (including a record low of -5 F in Charlotte). (Assuming static air conditions, it gets -3.3 F. degrees lower for every 1,000 ft. of elevation gain throughout the world.)
Up on the Roan, it got down to -32 F. (-34 F on Mt. Mitchell) (Lisa my girlfriend went into hypothermia twice, and we had to treat her, even though, if she had frozen stiff, she would have made a good sled to haul our gear down the mountain. Ah yes. Altruism at its best.)
Due to the equatorial bulge of the Earth, Cotopaxi, at 1 degree South Latitude, is further from the geometric center of the Earth (and closer to the Moon) than Everest, which is 28 degrees North Latitude. What does all this mean from a physics/altitude physiology point of view? Beats the hell out of me. Lol. (NPS Ranger Scott wanted to climb Mt. Sangay [17,400'], which rises out of the jungle and erupts very regularly (every 15 minutes?), killing climbers - Scott got outvoted. Lol.]
When our American Airlines jet landed at 2 a.m. in Quito (elev. 9,350 ft.), the capital city of Ecuador, everybody clapped. Very strange. I later found out that, because Quito is surrounded by 20,000' mountains/volcanoes, this is one of the most dangerous airports for a pilot to land in.
Interestingly, in Ecuador, there is a saying that "Ecuador will be destroyed by bad politicians long before it will be destroyed by the volcanoes." However, in 2015, Cotopaxi began erupting again, putting 300,000 people's lives in danger.
Due to time constraints, we were forced to climb Cotopaxi in whiteout conditions.
But the sun started setting one-half of the way up, because Janet and Sandy (from the UNC-Chapel Hill Outing Club) did not wake up until Noon - there was a long hike just to get to the base of the bloody cliff. Lol. Additionally, I got way off route to the left, and, because of the wind, I could not hear the belay signals from Janet. A very sick voice in my head said, "Why don't you just jump and get it over with!" (But I obviously didn't listen to this voice.)
This view is looking towards Lake James. Note the two climbers about 150 ft. up.
Later, I took a lot of UNC-Chapel Hill Outing Club members (besides Janet & Sandy) (even beginners!) up this climb, under "The Macho Clause" (If one wanted to make this one's first climb, one could, but, after the first belay ledge, one had either to go all the way up or be lowered down. About half of the people who took "the Macho Clause" made it up.)
This is a picture of the South Side. It has very few hand- and foot-holds, making it "slab" or "friction" (i.e., "ballet on the rock") climbing. I honestly thought I was going to die on this climb, and was praying to my God to get me out of this mess, and that I would never do it again. Lol
By the way, did you know that granite is radioactive?
Walter ("Skip") F.'s Video Gallery