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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:41am PT
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Amusing that of all the posters, only PhilG caught that there was nothing requiring that the influential climber(s) be American. Croft, Salathe and Muir were/are arguably not American.
Several (at least) of the "ten climbers who influenced American climbing the most" weren't American.
On the other hand, what about Oliver Perry-Smith?
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:43am PT
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Leaving John Stannard off the list show just how limited these little popularity contest are and how little people know about who really influenced rock climbing in America.
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:53am PT
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Chris Sharma
Dave Graham
Lisa Rands
Justen Sjong
Tommy Caldwell
Alex Honold
Matt Wilder
Rob Miller
Mikey Schaeffer
Dean Potter
Sonnie Trottoer
Emily Harrington
....Oh and all those dudes who used to climb
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:59am PT
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Well I think we know where the lines are drawn NOW.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Dec 30, 2007 - 03:01am PT
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Nobody has mentioned Jardine...if only for bringing us cams,
which were IMO a huge influence.
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Dec 30, 2007 - 03:13am PT
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Mighty's right,
Meissner
Brown
....
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 30, 2007 - 03:35am PT
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I love it. Riley on Messner on Denali;
"eh,... not so much."
LOL
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Dec 30, 2007 - 12:05pm PT
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For my generation of Yosemite climbers it was Jim Bridwell, period, though we were all still riding the vapors or Robbins, Pratt, Frost and Sachar. Most So Cal guys were also greatly influenced by Bob Kamps, because he was so active and paved the way.
JL
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ckalous
Trad climber
Colorado
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Dec 30, 2007 - 12:10pm PT
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Patrick Edlinger
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:14pm PT
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David Roberts
He inspired east coast climbers to go really big when they needed to and live to tell the story.
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10b4me
climber
1/2way between Yos and Moab
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:51pm PT
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limiting to the top ten is a disservice to others that have contributed so much; added to my list. . . Kor
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:52pm PT
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Muir
Robbins, for basically creating 'modern climbing.'
Bachar
Alan Watts
Messner
Barber
Bonnington
Chris Sharma - So many have climbed because of him. Very influential to the sport.
John Gill
The Bird
Galen Rowell.
These, in my eyes, are 'influencing' climbers. Pratt, Gullich, Long et al are great peices of the history, but the above are those that impacted the sport to what it is today.
Wanted to put Croft up there.... but he was another guy who was just amazing, not necissarily changing the way the sport went. Interesting stuff to think about for sure.
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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Dec 30, 2007 - 02:54pm PT
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Messner is only on my list because the ideas he brought to the big mountains influenced us here.
I missed Jardine.... He would be top 5.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 30, 2007 - 03:28pm PT
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Yes, Dam munge. heh
This is just for fun. To think about those that went before us.
Put your full on list up too. There's a lot of names for me.
Also, feel free to post the reasons why. Links to stories, etc?
get the juices flowing y'all.
I'm off to buy a kitchen appliance. Clearly I haven't been influenced enough.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Dec 30, 2007 - 04:29pm PT
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hey there all... say, obviously i dont know much history of climbing, or what exactly it takes to trigger someone to be highly influenced-upon by what they see or hear, as to climbing, BUT:
after reading that article about BEV and how she was the fist gal to do that solo on EL CAP (hope i remembered that right)--you would think that would greatly influenced both guys and gals that climb, to take up some good adventures of their own...
well, hope it was okay that i pitched in... :)
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Dec 30, 2007 - 04:56pm PT
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Radical wrote:I thought about John Stannard but wasn't Barber much more influential in this region/era/group ?
Who do you think influence Henry???
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Dec 30, 2007 - 05:39pm PT
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The Stettner Brothers (for being early bad-asses)
Dick Leonard (FA of Higher Cathedral, also pioneered technical climbing techniques)
Salathe and Nelson (pioneered the American "big wall")
Yvon Chouinard and Tom Frost (as gear designers and clean climbing pioneers)
Royal Robbins and Warren Harding (as diametric philosophers of the "golden age")
Fred Beckey (for his prolific number of climbs)
Jim Bridwell and Charlie Porter (for pushing the limits of the possible on the big stone)
Ray Jardine (for his design of Friends)
Henry Barber, John Bachar and Lynn Hill (for each extending the free possibilities a quantum leap)
All the recent pioneers of free climbing El Cap (like the Hubers) have also changed the game forever, and Yvon's prophecy of the trend to climb extreme rock faces in remote places using techniques gained in Yosemite will continue in a big way.
Ok, so that's more than 10, there's a helluva lot more, of course.
Obviously missing from this list is the Colorado greats: Jim Erikson, Pat Ament, Jim Collins, Steve Wunsch, and the great one, Layton Kor.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 30, 2007 - 05:50pm PT
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"If I can see farther, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants"
 Isaac Newton, and others
It's always hard to objectively give credit - history is a slippery thing, and a lot depends on perspective. But here are my two cents.
Edward Whymper - ended golden age of Alps with the ascent of the Matterhorn, wrote "Scrambles Amongst the Alps", which introduced many to the idea of mountaineering.
Oscar Eckenstein - inventor of bouldering as a pursuit of its own, inventor of the crampon, participated in one of the first attempts to climb a Himalayan giant, K2.
Inventor(s) of nylon - no nylon ropes = not much climbing. Same goes for other key inventions - aluminum alloy, etc. They may not have been climbers, but we're utterly dependent on them.
Theodore Roosevelt - for establishing parks as places to protect remaining pieces of the frontier, for us all to enjoy. And he was a mountaineer, of sorts.
Various climbers in Europe from 1900 - 1930, who established the idea of rock climbing as a pursuit of its own.
John Muir - for his visionary writing and leadership.
French 1950 Annapurna expedition - first to climb an 8,000 metre peak, lyrically summarized in 'Annapurna' (Herzog), which inspired many to start climbing.
English 1953 Everest expedition - first to climb Chomolungma, less lyrically summarized in 'The Ascent of Everest' (Hunt), which inspired many to start climbing.
(Not to forget the cast of thousands of porters and Sherpas who actually made these expeditions possible, symbolized by Tenzing.)
Vitali Bramani - invented vibram sole.
David Brower - for showing that climbing and conservation were opposite sides of the same coin.
John Salathe.
Willie Welzenbach, Heinrich Harrer, and so on.
The really influential ones from the 1950s - 80s who were from the U.S. include Robbins (especially), Chouinard, Frost, Pratt, Bridwell, Kor, Higgins, Haan, Bard, Bachar, Braun, Roskelley, Jardine, Porter, Barber, Washburn, Beckey, Stannard, etc etc. (Many of the usual suspects omitted for lack of space.) Those who were not only good climbers but community leaders, innovators, and writers, stand out. Non-Americans including such as Sutton, Burton, Croft, and now Sonnie Trotter.
In modern times, those who created the Access Fund, to fill a compelling need. And all those who work in a similar vein - Greg Mortenson, Ed Hillary, the ASCA, etc etc.
I'm not so well informed about climbing in Europe, and poorly informed about climbing in places like Japan, India and Korea. Influential people from the 1950s - 1980s include Hermann Buhl, Ardito Desio, Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Chris Bonington, Walter Bonatti, the Lecco Spiders, Terray, Rebuffat, Vitali Abalakov, the people who invented and popularized nuts, and on and on and on. But it's important to remember that climbing in the U.S. was something of a backwater through the 1950s, relative to Europe, that there was a surge from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s when the U.S. set many standards, and that it's now very much more internationalized. People from places like Slovenia and Spain now seem to often set the pace in terms of climbing standards.
Not to forget the social and economic reformers who created the conditions that allowed ample leisure time, and a rising standard of living to make it possible to enjoy it.
I'll cut it off at the late 1980s, both because of limited knowledge and because there hasn't been enough time to really know who if anyone has been influential.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Dec 30, 2007 - 05:52pm PT
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Wow...no one has mentioned Alan Watts....
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 30, 2007 - 06:50pm PT
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More than thirty years ago I met one of the Stettner brothers below the East Face of Long's Peak when he came back for the fiftieth anniversary of his route there, but I had no idea that they had beat Kamps and Rearick to the FA of the Diamond.
Wow!
Well Deuce has edited, but his correction is incorrect.
Stettner's ledges was a groundbreaking route, but not the first on the face.
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