Most famous person you've ever met?

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Cool Hand Luke
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by Cool Hand Luke »

I used to work as a concierge at a 5-star hotel in Aspen and had my fair share of run ins with the rich and famous. Most were generally nice, especially sports stars.

The best was one New Year's Eve night in Aspen, which is a crazy night in town. I had strict orders to not let anybody through the front doors of the hotel due to security concerns around a private party. A car pulled up and a man I did not recognize started to walk through the front doors, and I asked him to please use the public entrance around the side. The man looked at me, smiled, and politely told me he was told to use the main doors. A few minutes later a co-worker asked what Leonardo DiCaprio and I were chatting about. He seemed genuinely amused that I did not recognize him.

Other celebrities include, but not limited to:

Dwight Howard
Alex Rodriguez
Landon Donovan
Jeff Bagwell
Lance Berkman
Jeff Gordon
Alicia Keys
Robert De Niro
Natalie Portman
Tony Bennet
Michael Douglas
Catherine Zeta Jones
Diana Ross
Shaun White
Billy Kidd
Several guests that required Secret Service protection

My wife's college roommates were major climbing bums and Fred Becky showed up drunk after being kicked out of the Sun Downer early afternoon, and slept it off on their couch.
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nyker
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by nyker »

Sporting:
Simon Yates, by chance at his presentation of the Touching the Void story in an outdoor store in Sydney, he had some cool never released photos of that fateful trip...
Brent Okita from RMI, climbed Rainier with him on which he is a bit of a Celebrity with an incredible amount of summits
Tiger Woods, his ball hit my leg at the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black

Business People
The "infamous" Dick Fuld, on Sept 13 and Sept 15 2008, same day Lehman filed bankruptcy and kicked off the Global Financial Crisis in full gear - our office was across the street so we watched the whole thing unfold
Hank Paulson, then-Treasury Secretary, the same days as above coincidentally

Martial Arts: Had the good fortune to train with some special people:
John Oshlager
Tadashi Nakamura
Renzo Gracie
Wally Jay
Shoto Tanemura

Living in NY I ran into celebrities quite a bit, so a bunch of Hollywood types here and there; Steven Spielberg, Madonna, Robin Williams off the top of my head but never had any meaningful conversation with them
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SnowAlien
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by SnowAlien »

Neil Beidleman (in Aspen)
Jon Krakauer (Silver couloir, Buffalo Mountain)
Pamela Shanti Pack (Moab, Voo)
Chris Sharma (Rifle)
Chris Davenport (Denver)
Ueli Steck (Boulder)
Gary Neptune in his store
Gerry Roach (Golden)
General Wesley Clark (corporate party in NYC)
Probably missing some (?)
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by osprey »

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The most famous climber I have met is Jack Durrance M.D.
He, in addition to doing the first ascent of the Grand Teton Direct Exum Ridge and the Devil’s Tower Durrance Route, was on the 1939 American Karakoram Expedition to K2 where Fritz Wiessner falsely blamed Jack for the deaths of four climbers and the failure of the expedition.
Jack was so bitter after this that he never went on another expedition and devoted himself to his family and his medical career and became a professor of pulmonology at University of Colorado School of Medicine.
A few years before his death he, for the first and only time, gave a talk about the expedition and showed his original glass slides. Watching the slideshow and listening to his talk was fascinating and traveling back into a distant time. He was a kind and true gentleman. He was in his late 80’s when he gave the talk and was hobbled by arthritis but still had the powerful body which had enabled him to carry heavy loads up high places.
His autographs are in my copy of Fifty Classic Climbs of North America on the Teton and Devil’s Tower section.
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Last edited by osprey on Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by dpage »

I met Johnathan Vaughters at the Tour de Georgia as he ushered me and my friends away from his TIAA Creft squad who were warming up/cooling down from the ITT. He was rude and immediately turned me off from liking any squad he ever had anything to do with. Instead we went over to the Jittery Joe's team where I met Tim Johnson who.was warming up for his ITT and still took time out for pictures and autographs for the kids.

While walking the prologue in Strausburg, Tom Boonen stopped to chat seemingly taking the prologue not serious at all since his chances were slim compared to the other specialist at the Tour that year.

A friend and I picked up Christine Witty who was visiting Roanoke for the Commonwealth Games and who was trying to become the first woman to medal in the winter and summer games . She completed in both but placed 5th in the 500 on the velodrome. She did medal in speed skating.

And several times I have met Hunter Kemper, Olympic triathlete at races in NC where mostly he was brought in for awards ceremonies and share racing stories.

And since Boston was today, at Timberman in NH I met Dick Hoyt the day before the race. Ricky wasn't with him and they raced the sprint while I was out for the half. He had always been inspiration to me whenever I start complaining that something I'm doing is too hard. I still cry watching the I can only imagine video of the two of them together.
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by greenonion »

greenonion wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:50 pm Great idea/thread!

- Played basketball with Moses Malone (and actually made a shot against him… cuz he let me)
- Gordie Howe
- Dave Hahn
- Andrew Hamilton
- U2 - Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton (while in Ireland in the late 80s)
- Quentin Tarantino (didn’t actually meet but while having breakfast in the eastern Sierras town of June Lake we looked at each other and I could hear him thinking I know you know who I am - I just grinned)
- Could have tackled at the same time both Alex Honnold and Chris Sharma at an outdoor retailer conference… but chose not too
- Saw CaptCO hiking up Bierstadt from a distance as I descended
- Haven’t met d_baker yet though
- Seems there are others but gotta rely on my ol memorizer
Shamelessy adding on…

Shook hands with Miguel Indurain on a benefit bike ride in TX after his 5 TDF wins. What a nice and humble guy.
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by pmreyn2010 »

In terms of mountaineering, I met Conrad Anker & Renan Ozturk after the Denver premiere of "Meru," and Tommy Caldwell after a showing of "A Line Across The Sky" in Boulder.

I met one of my favorite Rockies players of all time, Todd Helton, a few years ago. Was cool to shake his hand.

Other celebrities I've met include Pat Sajak, Vanna White, & Michael Strahan.
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WVMountaineer
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by WVMountaineer »

Fun thread! It's nice to read all the mountaineering celeb run-ins and stories you all have. Clearly my time in the mountains isn't exciting.

I've met:
14ers User globreal
  • on Mt. Lindsey, he was leading a CMC group down from the summit on my way up as my finisher. After that encounter I read his Denali trip report and it's pretty inspiring.
Jay Leno
  • My wife and I were called up on stage before one of his Tonight shows and he thanked me for dressing up for his show... I had left work early and was wearing khaki shorts and a NASA shirt ](*,) Cued off the shirt he asked what we do for work. My wife was working at JPL on the operations team for the Curiosity Rover and Juno Missions and I was a Robotics Engineer. Jay cracked some funny nerd jokes and we returned to our seats and enjoyed he show. He hosted Bette Midler and Michael Bublé that night.
Bill Nye The Science Guy.
  • I also know his next gen TV personality "replacement" Emily Calandrelli by working with her close friends in a grad lab at WVU.
At least a dozen astronauts
  • The most famous would probably be Chris Hadfield. Maybe you've seen his Space Oddity video?
"There are two ways to measure life; the number of days you simply exist or the number of days you spend truly living your human experience." 14ers.com user goingup
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by Presto »

All at presentations/book signings in the late 80's/early 90's (mostly at the old Neptune Mountaineering unless otherwise noted), Reinhold Messner, David Breashears (at the Tattered Cover), Thomas Hornbein (at a CMC dinner where I won a backpack in a raffle and he presented me with the backpack and signed his book that I had brought with me), Doug Scott, Chris Bonington, and Joe Simpson. Oh, and Walter Borneman on an obscure 13er (he was on his way down and we were on our way up). On a side note, on one of our many trips to New York City, we did meet Paul Shaffer walking along the sidewalk one day when we were out and about. Not going to go into detail on bands ... way too many to list.
As if none of us have ever come back with a cool, quasi-epic story instead of being victim to tragic rockfall, a fatal stumble, a heart attack, an embolism, a lightning strike, a bear attack, collapsing cornice, some psycho with an axe, a falling tree, carbon monoxide, even falling asleep at the wheel getting to a mountain. If you can't accept the fact that sometimes "s**t happens", then you live with the illusion that your epic genius and profound wilderness intelligence has put you in total and complete control of yourself, your partners, and the mountain. How mystified you'll be when "s**t happens" to you! - FM
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by nunns »

TallGrass. Without a doubt.


Sean Nunn
"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." --Psalms 36:6
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by greenonion »

greenonion wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:42 pm
greenonion wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:50 pm Great idea/thread!

- Played basketball with Moses Malone (and actually made a shot against him… cuz he let me)
- Gordie Howe
- Dave Hahn
- Andrew Hamilton
- U2 - Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton (while in Ireland in the late 80s)
- Quentin Tarantino (didn’t actually meet but while having breakfast in the eastern Sierras town of June Lake we looked at each other and I could hear him thinking I know you know who I am - I just grinned)
- Could have tackled at the same time both Alex Honnold and Chris Sharma at an outdoor retailer conference… but chose not too
- Saw CaptCO hiking up Bierstadt from a distance as I descended
- Haven’t met d_baker yet though
- Seems there are others but gotta rely on my ol memorizer
Shamelessy adding on…

Shook hands with Miguel Indurain on a benefit bike ride in TX after his 5 TDF wins. What a nice and humble guy.
Willie Nelson after a show in San Marcos, TX in late 80s.
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greenonion
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Re: Most famous person you've ever met?

Post by greenonion »

John Prater 3-4 weeks ago at the base of the Red Gully. Super nice!
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