Gary Hemming

he died of a "self-inflicted gunshot wound." I didn't know this

. . . a reckless stunt of Hemmings on a deck at a party at Jackson Lake Lodge

GARETH H. HEMMING 1934-1969

Gary Hemming’s death has ended the career of a climber widely believed in Europe to have been among the best in the world. Less well known here - all his important climbs were in Europe - he had close to the same reputation in the community of American climbers. Although not a member of the AAC, his great record makes it appropriate to publish this obituary here.

He started climbing in the early 1950’s at TahquitL Rock while living in southern California. He soon met John Harlin, then at Stanford, and, while working in the San Francisco Bay Area, began climbing with him and others from the Stanford Alpine Club in Yosemite. He and I first met on a trip to Mount Rainier in 1957 that included John and Hobey DeStaebler, that was designed, in John’s words, to teach us ice climbing techniques “suddenly,” in preparation for a trip we made later that summer to the Battle Range in the Selkirks.

Gary was uneasy and unhappy in the United States and a trip to Europe was the start of a new life for him in an environment freer, for him, of the restraints he sensed so acutely. He climbed in England and then in the Alps, attended the University at Grenoble sporadically, and tried to complete the aspirante guide course in Chamonix in 1961, failing in this
for his refusal to dispose of a magnificently unruly beard. He climbed from time to time with Americans and began to eye the very important climbs. He made an attempt on the Walker Spur in winter but was forced off by a particularly ugly storm. This was a climb he completed late in the summer of 1961, the first American ascent of the face. It was a route that fascinated him and several years later he spent some effort in planning a solo ascent to be completed in a single day. It was possibly beyond his powers and the attempts depressed him.

He introduced Yosemite climbing techniques to the Alps starting with a fine new route on the west face of the Petit Dru and, in 1963, with Harlin, Tom Frost and Stuart Fulton, completed a route of great difficulty on the south face of the Fou that had turned back some of the best European climbers. He completed spectacular solo ice climbs on the Aiguille Verte - the Coutourier Couloir - on the north face of the Triolet.

In the late summer of I966 two Germans were trapped on a ledge on the standard route on the west face of the Dru. Gary stepped in to lead the rcscuc expedition and received enormous publicity for his skill in carrying out the rescue. It is not common for Americans to lead French rescue groups ~ it has happened perhaps just this once.

He climbed with strength and with style and, as his technique improved and his experience increased, he was able to carry out a succession of ascents that made him as well known as any American climber in Europe excepting only John Harlin. As the years passed however, the inner struggles that his friends observed surface from time to time in moody withdrawal or violent outbursts became increasingly intense and finally were too overwhelming to be controlled. When he died, in the Tetons, where some of his earliest climbing was done, it was by his own hand.

Henry W. Kendall

Dave Dornan and Rick Horn are two more from Jackson in that era. I believe Rick still lives in Jackson and Dave lives in Michigan now.

This piton was hand made by Yvon Chouinard and given to Gary Hemming. When Gary Hemming was a student in Grenoble (France), he was hosted in the Thomas family. Stewart Fulton was also hosted in this family. 14 years old Dominique Thomas started to climb with Gary. When climbing, Gary always carried the piton as a luck piton. When Gary went back to the US, he gave the piton to his friend Dominique Thomas. Dominique is now 71. He was mountain guide and physiotherapist. He was also technical adviser for Alpélit.

With permission from Denis P.

I first heard of this book 11 years ago when Mirella wrote to me: “I am compiling a biography of Gary Hemming and I’m looking for information all over the world,” were her opening words. She explained further:

“The biography I plan is in book form, for the general public (although it will have a lot of climbing accounts in it). I never knew Hemming. I’m the wife of an Italian rock climber and a writer on mountaineering and my interest in Hemming arose from the lack of documentation on his outstanding activity in the Alpine range. During my search I became less interested in the climber and more in the man.”

Could Mirella have but known how insidious was that shift in interest! Two years later she wrote:

“I am treasuring the manuscript you sent me a couple of years ago, waiting for my book on Gary Hemming to advance and ask you the permission to use the material you sent me. I have worked four years now interviewing people and gathering information, but cannot finish my work yet because there are too many gaps.”

Mirella was a featured speaker at the Ninth International Festival of Mountaineering Literature at Bretton Hall in England this past November. In the morning she reviewed for us her work on the history of Italian mountaineering, a remarkable performance which moved Andy Popp to say:

“Mirella showed us how we might begin the writing of something which climbing has long been in need of, a real history of the activity…

I doubt that I will often hear a neater or more intelligent exploration of the evolution of mountaineering. Powerful and evocative character sketches of leading climbers and writers, often one and the same person, were combined with telling reference to other wider currents of history; political, social and cultural history were all included in a way that went far beyond paying lip service.”

Andy might have added that of the two tasks, a biography of Hemming and the history of mountaineering, the latter is the easier task.