Jim was technically & practically not a Vulgarian but he was smart enough to realize that we all made super seconds. A case in point being the first ascent of the trendsetting MF (yeah you guessed what the name stands for). The party consisted of Jim, Claude & Roman, the latter two being suckered into this 2 pitch horror show by Jim’s silver tongue (or was it golden). Claude was second & managed to shake his way up to the belay ledge. Roman, however, did not have the advantage of hanging onto the piton on the overhanging bulge near the start of the first pitch since good form required him, to remove the pin. This resulted in him parting company with the rock & hanging free of the bulge while desperately trying to reattach himself to rocka firma. After a monster struggle he finally emerged onto a virtually holdless wall & quaked his way up to the belay ledge. Claude & Roman took one look at the ceiling over their heads & immediately voted for rappelling off. We had Jim outvoted 2 to 1 but Jim refused to untie from the first rope & 1 rope doubled wouldn’t have reached the ground so we refused to belay him over the ceiling. This impasse went on for several minutes until Jim threatened to start climbing without a belay taking the end of the first rope with him. Well now our collective gooses were cooked, so the Shawangunk Guide Book simply reads: MF (5.9) Jim McCarthy, Claude Suhl & Roman Sadowy.

But Jim was famous as much for his great falls as his great climbs, but that’s another subject that we won’t go into here.