Jimmy Ray Forester dies soloing

Don't know if you guys saw this on the Rock and Ice website. A group of us are going down to el portrero at the end of december and I stumbled across this while looking up information...

Monday 27th November, 2006
Posted By: Admin

The Texas and Oklahoma activist Jimmy Ray Forester died on November 24 when he fell while free soloing in El Potrero Chico, Mexico. Forester, of Dallas, Texas, was attempting The Scariest Ride in the Park, a 40-pitch 5.9 ridge route, but failed to return to camp that evening. He was found the next day at the base of the wall, apparently having fallen from one of the route’s initial, loose pitches. Although El Potrero is known worldwide for its quality, bolted limestone sport routes, at least five climbers have perished there in less than a decade, including the brilliant all-arounder Jose Luis Pereyra, who was struck by rockfall in 2003.

Forester, a strong, talented and seasoned climber with 17 years experience under his belt was an iconic figure throughout Oklahoma and Texas, where he repeated the classic runout trad routes and establishing a slew of his own in characteristically ground-up, onsight style, which he loved. Endued with a deep sense of climbing history, Forester sought to preserve the traditional ways, believing that the ethic was the bedrock of climbing and that without it the sport was nothing more than base exercise. Forester, however, was not a crusty had-been. He excelled in all disciplines, from bouldering to aid climbing, and strove to win allies through education rather than browbeating: When he wasn’t climbing he was busy compiling hundreds of pages of route and historical data for a series of guide/history books that he had hoped to someday publish as a free resource for all climbers. His friends, of whom there were legions, will recall that his anecdotal tales, attention to detail and stickler for the facts made him one of climbing’s most astute, if unsung, chroniclers.

Although Forester cut his teeth on the rugged granite outcrops of the Wichita and Quartz mountains in southwestern Oklahoma, and road tripped often, racking up nine ascents of El Cap, he recently homed in on the granite domes of Enchanted Rock in central Texas. There, he cranked some 80 routes this past season, including repeats of virtually every runout trad line. Of note, he repeated Real Gravy, an old-school 5.11c with just three bolts and such serious ground-fall potential that locals had in recent years retroed-in three more bolts. On his ascent, Forester made a point of not clipping the added bolts, which he felt disrespected the first ascent and reduced the climb to a gym route. To help preserve “E-Rock’s” traditional ethic, Forester ran for and received a seat on that area’s bolting committee.

Recently, in July, he and another homeboy, Marcus Garcia, climbed five routes in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in three days then drove to the Fisher Towers and ticked off the Titan and Echo Tower. When contacted by this magazine for details about his climbs to include in the news section, the reticent Forester replied, “Naw … you guys can find better news than us.”

A memorial service for Forester will be held at Exposure Indoor Climbing Gym, near Dallas, on December 3. Proceeds will benefit his daughter, Riley, age 4.

—Duane Raleigh