Yosemite's biggest impact....you be the judge.

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

Post a Reply

Messages 21 - 40 of total 57 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

Jim Brennan

Trad climber

Vancouver Canada

Mar 11, 2013 - 12:35pm PT

I thought of saying 3rd classing John but my point is in context to Kruk and Kennedy's trip up Cerro Torre. It was a roped climb but incredibly fast due to using every blend of technique in their quiver for the situation.

Fat Dad

Trad climber

Los Angeles, CA

Mar 11, 2013 - 12:49pm PT

from the Elbsandstein area in Germany, where they climbed 5.10 or even 5.11 free before 1900

I think this might be overstated somewhat. True, the Elbsandstein was a strong catalyst for free climbing, but pre-WWI, I think the hardest route was 5.9, put up by American expat Oliver Perry-Smith (c. 1909 I think?).

I think A is probably the most accurate of donini's premise, though gear is pretty close behind.

bergbryce

Mountain climber

California

Mar 11, 2013 - 01:03pm PT

i think the huge tour buses have the biggest impact on the yosemite valley experience. o h wait...

clean climbing without a doubt.

mueffi 49

Trad climber

Mar 11, 2013 - 01:12pm PT

In conjunction with Jim's item 1. and 2. - I like Chill's reply: "Cams"

Think about it - what would the Valley be without it?

Compare it to Europe's "free climbing" approach where - by now - nearly all the classic free climbs are"retro-bolted" to provide (their) State-of-the-Art protection

sempervirens

climber

Mar 11, 2013 - 01:20pm PT

Perhaps a topic for another time: Climbing's impact on Yosemite.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Colombia, South America

Mar 11, 2013 - 02:08pm PT

Crack climbing.

le_bruce

climber

Oakland, CA

Mar 11, 2013 - 03:11pm PT

1. Salathé Wall
2. Nutcracker
3. Nose free

I see those three as the emblems of Yos' progress, each for the obvious reason. Maybe you could add the Phoenix as 2b, for Jardine's contribution of the SLCD.

Maybe the next item on that list would be Honnold's Triple IAD.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 11, 2013 - 03:12pm PT

Regarding Free climbing, Ben and John have excellent points. The routes being free climbed in Germany in the early part of the 20th century were far harder than anything else being done. The British also have a long tradition of hard free climbing with the likes of Whillans, Brown and Boysen and guys like Stannard, Wunsch, Barber, Goldstone and Bragg were pushing standards in the 60's and 70's in the Gunks as was Erikson, Ament and others in Boulder.
These developments, however, were happening in a degree of isolation. The lure of the magnificent granite walls of Yosemite brought climbers from many countries together into one spot. I was witness to the transformation of a really good French climber tn the Valley in the early 70's. He was super good but he would naturally grab a piton if there was one in place. After being admonished, he ceased doing it and found that he could still do the climbs. That sort of attitude was brought back to the Continent and other areas around the World and soon became the norm.

JohnnyG

climber

Mar 11, 2013 - 03:19pm PT

What about climbing clean??

No pitons. Kind of goes along with someone's suggestion about cams.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.

Mar 11, 2013 - 04:43pm PT

that's what I says above Johnny. It's been glossed over in the thread by the rest of these guys and subsumed into some clap trap about SLCDs. ;)

* and to the point above about Elbsandstain. Its not an impact if it isn't done at a time when magazines couldn't have picked up the story and had the rest of the world doing the same thing.

While poignant, the "impact" was not that big.

In clean climbing though, let's compare Gritstone standards to Yosemite's harder learning curve of having to go through the iron age first to start using nuts and SLCDs and free climbing more.

Gene

climber

Mar 11, 2013 - 05:16pm PT

Yosemite’s impact is a result of the fact that it provides an accessible and benevolent playground relatively free of objective dangers which allows climbers to master the art of moving over stone. For most, that is enough of a goal. For some, mastery learned in Yosemite is just a point of departure for other arenas.

Big walls were done in Europe prior to Yosemite. The Brits had a great tradition of free (and clean) climbing which Yosemite embraced. Yosemite climbers without a doubt opened the door to big climbs in Europe, Asia, and South America – and even in Colorado.

Yosemite’s contribution is that it attracted climbers who took the best from around the world and synthesized it into the techniques and commitment that Chouinard was referring to.

My vote: 1, 2, and 3 with the caveat that what was done in Yosemite – at least after the mid-60s - was not done in isolation.

g

The Warbler

climber

the edge of America

Mar 11, 2013 - 05:17pm PT

Yosemite's biggest impacts?

The first view a climber gets of El Cap as he cranes his neck to look out the window from South Side Drive.

The awe inspired by the sheer NW face of Half Dome, and the massive and mysterious South Face.

Rolling thunder and flashing lighting moving west fast out of the high country.

Unsurpassed beauty and grandeur on the colossal scale and the miniature.

Unclimbed lines for decades into the future.

The grace and majesty of the Cathedral Rocks and Spires.

The steady crash and boom of water falling from nearly every towering precipice in Spring.

The collapse of walls which seem to have stood forever into clouds of dust and house sized boulders.

The quiet and crispness on a Fall day by the serene Merced.

The impeccable stone and sweeping lines everywhere.

That kind of stuff has big impact.

QITNL

climber

Mar 11, 2013 - 05:24pm PT

From an outsider's perspective, the social scene has/had a lot to do with it.

phylp

Trad climber

Millbrae, CA

Mar 11, 2013 - 05:35pm PT

Biggest impact: proof of concept that a climber can meet all his/her caloric needs by eating food leftover on stranger's plates.

This was a quantum leap forward from making a meal of tomato soup from free ketchup packets.

Second biggest impact: proof of concept that the climber can sleep free in a highly regulated and expensive venue by employing the stealth bivy.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Mar 11, 2013 - 05:56pm PT

I gotta go with the big wall climbing on this. I think that is the most uniquely Yosemite contribution to climbing. Clearly the free climbing style was influential in the way Donini suggests, but i think that it was part of a whole that was going a lot of places. Even if it had the largest of the voices it didn't stand out the way the wall climbi g did/does.

And likewise the alpine. It seems to me that Yosemite school contribution to that was mostly an offshoot of the wall climbing as well.