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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Check out the big brain on Bolte. Shazaam. That's up there.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Surely Chongo must be on the Nobel short list.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Mike Bolte, that's pretty badass. Suggesting the experiments to resolve a dilemma and suggesting a value to resolve the discrepancies that is later verified by others experiments seems to be the major conceptual breakthrough.
That said, working out the details to have precisely calibrated machines and careful measurement for modern physics experiments is no trivial matter.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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sorry! did not mean to be tooting my own horn so loudly. It was really fun to be at the middle of such an interesting moment in sorting out the Universe, but there were lots of smart folks out there doing the clever work.
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Our own John Roe was elected a Fellow in the American Mathematical Society. And Hassler Whitney was awarded the National Medal of Science and both the Wolf and the Steele prizes.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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OK not Nobel but still relevant
How many active climbers have Science PHD's?
I have at least 6 partners with PHD in science
Of course George Lowe has a PHD in Physics
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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George Lowe active? Why it's been over two weeks since we tied in together in Pakistan!
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Chris Jones
Social climber
Glen Ellen, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 9, 2016 - 05:03pm PT
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In the parochial North Wales climbing scene of the mid 1960s, we knew almost everyone who climbed, or at least wanted to climb, at the top standard. I was based in London, and we managed to get up to Wales maybe a couple of times a month. Other weekends we might be at Harrison’s Rocks, the Avon Gorge near Bristol, or the gritstone edges near Sheffield. Mike Kosterlitz would have been someone we had heard about. Likely I bumped into him at the Padarn Lake around 1964, which for a time was the spot to drink, play competitive darts, and hear all the latest fact and rumor - although one never knew which was which.
We had done a few climbs together when he brought up the subject of The Skull. This was a then-unrepeated route in North Wales on Cyrn Las put up by Martin Boysen, then one of the finest rock climbers in England - quite possibly the finest. Mike and I had both done repeat ascents of some of the current test pieces, but I don’t think we had ever taken on such a hairy route. There was one particular pitch, a sort of impending inside corner, which according to local lore was the crux. Mike, a damn good crack climber, said he would take first shot at this pitch; that is how you talk a doubting partner onto these things. At that time there was a point where you yanked on a piton or stood in a sling, which was then typical - the route had yet to be climbed all free. The lead-up pitches were magnificent, and then Mike settled into the crux. It was very hard, but he stuck with it and pretty soon was up. I remember thinking that I could not have led the damn thing as I pulled over to the belay to see a grinning Mike.
In 1965 Mike was an undergraduate at Cambridge, and so would have most of the summer free; and that meant the Alps. I was then a working stiff, but lured by tales of endless vistas of unclimbed rock (perpetrated by the likes of Gary Hemming, Lito Tejada-Flores and other Americans who I had met in Chamonix the year before), I had decided to quit my job in London and move to the promised land - California. Naturally, I arranged this move so I could spend the summer in the Alps. Together Mike and I dreamed up quite a list of objectives, although in hindsight we made an obvious error. Rather than starting out on a couple of warm-up climbs, getting acclimated to the altitude and working on our fitness, we instead chose for our first fling Bonatti’s route on the East Face of the Grand Capucin, then a fairly serious undertaking. It makes no sense to go from a desk job onto a major Alpine face. Like most Brits in the mid 1960s we were pretty slow on aid pitches, and at that time there was quite a bit of aid involved. As we topped out on our second day, the weather was already deteriorating. We eventually reached the glacier in steady snow. Fortunately, Mike had climbed in this exact area previously and was familiar with the lay of the land - our objective was the Requin Hut. But fairly soon I began to lose steam wading into the deepening snow and we decided to get out our bivouac sac. Once inside the sac for a short time, Mike assessed my condition and concluded that waiting out the storm was not going to work. He would make for the Requin Hut. Traveling alone on the glacier in falling snow was not a strictly by-the-book plan. With a reassuring word that the rescue team would arrive before long, he set off. Night had fallen and I was dozing when I heard voices, and saw climber’s headlamps. “Can you ski?” they asked, peering into the bivi sac. Fortunately I could, as skis were the answer to the deep snow. After a warm drink and some food, in the company of these wonderful guys, and on skis, I was rejuvenated. We skied across to the Torino Hut, and from there down to Chamonix by cable car. I was bundled off the the hospital, likely for fluids and observation. A day or so later I was once again hanging out at the awful Snell’s Field campground, probably making light of the incident. But in truth it is evident that Mike saved my life. We did not dwell on his bold effort to alert the rescue services as we continued to climb together. But I would like to dwell on it now, some 50 years later, and thank him once more. Chapeau Mike.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Good to see that.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Surely Chongo must be on the Nobel short list.
probably not on the list, but I give Chongo a lot of credit for taking up his study seriously... I believe he has been back to school to learn the intricacies of quantum mechanics. Good on Chongo!
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Peater
Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
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All my climbing partners over the years have been super smart people (with some notable exceptions}.
I climbed with Bill Shockley's son in the 70's and he couldn't talk about the work he did.
Others who I knew or climbed with worked as astro physicists at Mt Wilson and scientists (his mice got loose in his car) and engineers (who made his own Jumars) and even if they talked we wouldn't understand.
To start climbing you can be dumb but if you keep doing it then climbing makes you smarter.
Maybe not enough to win a prize though.
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Oct 11, 2016 - 02:51pm PT
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I met Mike Kosterlitz in Chamonix in 1965 and climbed with him when he visited Yosemite in the summer of 1966. Among our adventures was an ascent of Coonyard to the Oasis with Robbins and Whillans. A colleague of mine sent this copy of the summit register, which I think is now in the Bancroft Library.
I liked the climb so much I did it again a couple of weeks later, with John Morton and Bill Peppin.
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the goat
climber
north central WA
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Oct 31, 2016 - 08:49am PT
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I remember climbing with a number of notable physicists, physicians (Dan Reid comes to mind) and other academic types. Gocking, Gonzales, Zauman were just a few off the top. Climbing and acadmeic prowess seem to go hand in hand, so what happened to me?! Anomalies in every field I guess.....
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Oct 31, 2016 - 06:44pm PT
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"So we have a paint salesman (Royal), a plumber (Whillians), a future professor emeritus (Dozier) and a future Noble Laureate (Kosterlitz) on a first ascent we named after a little person! Just a typical climbing team back in the 60s......"
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Oct 31, 2016 - 07:15pm PT
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Although not (yet) a Nobel laureate, we have climber, West Point grad, and former Cadet-in-Charge of the Cadet Mountaineering Club Scott Ransom, one of the world's experts on pulsars.
Here's his Wickedly Cool Stellar Undead talk, strangely apropos tonight.
He's an engaging speaker.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Oct 31, 2016 - 08:15pm PT
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Yup, Scott is a smart fellow doing really innovative work.
He is one of the leaders of a really clever approach to detecting gravitational waves by monitoring pulsars through high-precision timing
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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I've had that one described to me, Mike. Very unique window into the nature of the universe pulsars should be able to provide.
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the goat
climber
north central WA
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BTW- I climbed with four of the names in that summit register, does that make me old? I won't laugh the next time I'm asked "does this make me look fat?"
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Shout out to a couple of local math guys here...Nat Smale and Bob Palias. Who's dads are also Math guys?
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