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John Ewbank - RIP 12-Dec-2013 At 10:23:05 PM simey

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Nice work Macciza with your tribute to the man. I'm sorry I won't be there on Saturday as it would be great to share a few stories about John. I'm sure it will be bloody funny.

As draining as John could be on a personal level, his energy, ability and creativity in the world of climbing were quite extraordinary. I imagine him as Vincent Van Gogh, where now that he is gone we will savour his contributions to climbing more than ever; from the many superb routes he established around Australia, to his grading system, his writing, his performing, and his incredibly passionate approach to climbing.

I only climbed with John once, when along with Malcolm Matheson we established The Big Loose Corner in the Blue Mountains in '93. It was three days spent climbing utter rubbish, but it was certainly memorable for a bunch of reasons and in the ensuing years I did keep in touch with John via email.

All I can say is that John was obviously doing it tough the last decade as you can tell by this passage from an email he sent me in 2005...

> I had over an hour of really heavy duty sex last night and my back is killing me. The woman I am doing the business with at present is a lot younger than me and and I have been suggesting to her for several months now that she ought to be having sex with at least one other chap to give me a bit of a break, but she will have none of it; She insists that she is into the old monogamous relationship racket. All very well for her but she's going to put me in a wheelchair. Either she starts screwing around or I'm out of this relationship. A man can only do so much; My poor little willy is totally exhausted and now my back is so bad I can hardly walk and still she expects me to be as hard as the man from uncle. She can jerk herself back to the stone age as far as I'm concerned. My health is more important than her orgasms, and if she is not gracious enough to start having a bit on the side then so be it.

I could waffle on for ages about all sorts of funny shit regarding John, not to mention his genius in climbing (and I barely knew him). Even if you never met John, I reckon it would be worth going on Saturday just to listen to some of the stories and raise a toast. I'm sorry I won't be there. I hope you all make a great day of it.