About This Site
The original Rhinoclimbs.com site emerged from an idea voiced on a hike into Wyoming’s Wind River Range. Kal Brauner and Amy Carlson, Jim and Phebe Richards, and John and Karen Roper and their then 9-year-old son Aaron hiked 10 or 11 miles before making camp at Double Lakes. We spent the next several days fishing, swimming, hiking, and hanging out around the campfire.
While Kal, Amy, John and Aaron bagged some of the surrounding territory, Jim, Phebe, and Karen shared coffee and a meandering conversation around the campfire. Someone mentioned that while John has always shared trip reports, his overwhelming wealth of knowledge of Washington’s mountains, and his incredible 50,000+ slide collection were privately held treasures of significant public interest and value.
“What he really needs,” Jim declared, “is his own website.” With his 60th birthday rapidly approaching in 2004, Karen enlisted the help of an experienced web designer, collected and organized information, and lay out the chassis of a vehicle where John could publicly share his lifelong love of the mountains.
Many thanks go to Jim and Phebe for their ideas and encouragement, to Jeff Howbert for helping me identify and pick out pieces of John’s massive documentation to link to his website, to Ian MacKay for keeping John busy while Jeff and I went through his computer files, to Aaron for keeping the secret and helping wherever he could, and to all of you who took the time to submit your thoughts, memories, and photos for the “Friends’ Stories” section of this site.
Thank you, Gregg Brickner for allowing us to use the amazing Pickets shot as a banner for the original site, and John Lixvar for your very entertaining Bulger essay.
Most of all, thank you Colby Ray for designing and creating the site and serving as webmaster and host for more than 20 years.
Rhinoclimbs 