While we wait for the museum
in Yosemite, take a
virtual tour through time.
Part of what makes Yosemite amazing is how it has
inspired an ongoing
evolution in climbing. Along with these advances come some great
stories.
If you have an image, object or story that you would like to share
with YCA for inclusion
into the museum, please contact us.
Enjoy the tour. Climb on.
A Short History of Yosemite Rock
Climbing
September 7, 1869
John Muir climbs Cathedral Peak alone encountering a block about
30 feet high and steep
on all sides. Muir climbs up and down a Class 4 crack unroped.
Most climbers to this day
are roped up on this section.
October 12, 1875
Trail builder George Anderson climbs Half Dome only ten years
after the California
Geological Survey deemed it unclimbable. Anderson drills holes
approximately every six
feet with a hand-held drill and a single jack, placing handmade eye
bolts into the holes.
The bolts serve a dual purpose. They allow him a foothold to stand
on while drilling the
next hole and enable Anderson to rope himself to the eye of the
bolt, giving him some
sense of security. George goes on to guide several parties of
tourists up the route in years
to come. He may be the first climbing guide in Yosemite.
August 23, 1877
George Anderson with James Hutchings and J.G. Lembert climb the
southeast face of Mt.
Starr King unaware that it had been climbed the year before by
George B. Bayley and
E.S. Schuyler. Needless to say, Anderson and his party were
dismayed to find the summit
cairns left by Bayley and Schuyler. Anderson climbed using
moccasins covered in
turpentine to give him extra friction on the polished granite dome.
He also placed an eye
bolt for protection on the route. The eyebolt is a smaller version of
the ones he used on
Half Dome.
1880s _ 1930
Climbers of these years mostly spend their time unroped, exploring
and climbing
unclimbed peaks in the Sierra and scrambling up exposed brushy
ledge systems in
Yosemite or the classic high points around the Valley floor. Some of
the more notable
climbers of this period are Charles A. Bailey, S. L. Foster, Joseph N.
LeConte, Charles
and Enid Michael, Ralph Griswold, James Hutchinson and William
Kat. The climbers of
this era, though bold and committed, are severely handicapped by
the lack of rope
techniques that have already been developed in Europe during the
1850's and improved
upon since by the Europeans.
Summer 1930
Francis Farquahr, editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin, while climbing in
British Columbia
with former college classmates learns the European rope
techniques from Robert
Underhill. Underhill has spent the last two summers climbing in the
Alps. He teaches
Farquahr the running belay, the use of pitons and rappelling using
the Dulfersitz method.
Farquahr is so impressed that he asks Underhill to write an article
for the Sierra Club
Bulletin explaining the new techniques and invites Underhill to the
Bay Area to teach the
local climbers.
February 1931
Underhill's 20-page article is published in the Bulletin, arousing
interest amongst the
Sierra Club and other Bay Area mountaineers.
July 12, 1931
Farquahr, with others, goes on the first rock climbing outings
organized by the Sierra
Club. Farquahr teaches the others the techniques Underhill has
shown him, and the group
climbs Unicorn Peak.
August 1931
Underhill finally visits the Bay Area and teams up with Jules Eichorn,
Glen Dawson and
the legendary Norman Clyde for a five day climbing trip in the
Sierras. They climb three
new routes, including the impressive east face of Mt. Whitney on
August 16, 1931.
Winter 1931-1932
Eichorn teaches the running belay and the Dulfersitz rappel to
friends Richard Leonard, Bestor Robinson and other Cragmont Climbing Club members.
All winter they
practice jumping off the local Berkeley rocks with the belayer letting
some rope slide
through their hands for a gradual slowing of the falling climber.
This reduces stress on
the falling climber and the belayer but, even more importantly; it
avoids shock loading
the weak manila ropes. The Dulfersitz rappel is practiced by
wrapping the rope around
the body for friction to descend in a somewhat controlled manner.
March 13, 1932
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) joins the newly formed Rock
Climbing Section
{RCS} of the Sierra Club. The RCS continues to practice falling,
holding falls and
rappelling on the local Berkeley rocks for the next year and a half.
September 2, 1933
The RCS comes to Yosemite for a climbing outing to try out their
well-rehearsed
techniques. Richard Leonard, Jules Eichorn, Bestor Robinson and
Hervey Voge climb
1,000 feet up Washington Column to what is later called Lunch
Ledge. They use 10-inch
hardware nails instead of as yet unacquired pitons from Europe.
September 3, 1933
Eichorn, Leonard and Robinson try to climb the southwest face of
Higher Cathedral
Spire, getting to within 350 feet of the summit. They are turned
back by the steeper rock
when the nails they are using start to bend under their body weight.
They vow to return
after acquiring some pitons.
November 4, 1933
Eichorn, Leonard and Robinson return to Yosemite armed with some
pitons that were
mail ordered from Sport Haus Schuster, a Munich sports shop. They
try to climb the
Lower Cathedral Spire but are stopped 20 feet above Main Ledge.
November 5, 1933
Unfazed, the three men turn their energies back to Higher Cathedral
Spire and "got 180
feet higher on the west face using pitons as direct aid."
Winter 1933-1934
The trio, obsessed by the Spires, spends the winter planning and
studying photographs
using a protractor to measure the different angles around the
Spires. The men save and
work side jobs to buy more pitons from Sport Haus Schuster at a
dollar apiece. Jules
Eichorn teaches piano and turns to one of his students for extra
work to pay for the
pitons. His student's name is Ansel Adams, and Eichorn develops
and washes prints in
the bathtub at Ansel's home.
April 15, 1934
Eichorn, Leonard and Robinson return to Higher Cathedral Spire
with an entourage of
friends and well wishers. They reach the summit in nine hours with a
total of 38 pitons.
On top, the men string up an American flag and take the obligatory
photographs of each
other. They then quickly rappel back to the ground and their crowd
of spectators as
darkness approaches.
August 8, 1934
Eichorn, Leonard and Robinson climb Lower Cathedral Spire in six
and a half hours
using only 14 pitons. The men have now climbed the two most
technically difficult and
intimidating rock climbs in North America and are hailed as heroes
by the media. The
three men and other RCS members have proven that the European
system of climbing
works well in Yosemite. The have opened up a whole new realm in
Yosemite climbing.
During this era, there are other influential climbers, including David
R. Brower, Morgan
Harris, Kenneth Adam, Raffi Bedayn, Torcum Bedayn, Fritz Lippman,
Oliver Kerlein,
Jack Riegelhuth and female climbers Olive Dyer, Doris F. Corcoran
(Leonard) and
Marjory Bridge (Farquahr).
October 9, 1936
Until now, the Yosemite climbers have shied away from the main
cliffs, preferring to
climb the lines of least resistance on high points around the Valley
or climb the breaks
and chimneys between Yosemite's smooth walls and formations.
Morgan Harris has
become obsessed with climbing a formation above the Ahwahnee
Hotel. After two
previous attempts in the last year, one of which ended in a hospital
stay for sunstroke,
Harris succeeds with Kenneth Adam and Kenneth Davis. They climb
the Royal Arches in
eight hours, doing two roped pendulum traverses. The top and
bottom half of the Arches
is separated by a blank looking right facing corner. The men are
able to overcome this
section by shinnying up a dead tree that has fallen and become
lodged across the corner,
dubbing it the "Rotten Log." The rotten log was climbed by
thousands of climbers until it
was pushed off in 1986. The Royal Arches is the first Yosemite
climb that goes up the
middle of a major wall and not to a distinctive summit.
World War II
About 1,000 of the Sierra Club members serve in the war, many of
the rock climbing
members joining the 10th Mountain Division. The war puts a
damper on new route
activity until 1946, and it will take a new generation of rock
climbers to push the limits of
Yosemite rock climbing. The war effort produced three innovations
that changed
climbing. They were thin wafer pitons, aluminum carabiners and
nylon ropes. When the
war ends, these items are all readily available to climbers in surplus
stores except for the
aluminum carabiner this need is filled by Raffi Bedayan when he
manufactures them.
Yosemite climbers now have three different sizes of pitons (thin
wafer pitons and two
sizes of angles) that are readily available in army surplus stores at a
reasonable cost.
Aluminum carabiners are about half the weight of the standard steel
carabiner, making it
more feasible to carry a lot of gear. The best innovation from the
war is the nylon rope
which is vastly superior to the hemp ropes. A climber can take a
longer lead fall without
the fear of the rope breaking as long as the rope isn't running over
a sharp edge.
1945
Swiss born John Salathe, a blacksmith in San Mateo, is feeling ill and
is idly watching a
cow and calf grazing outside his workshop when a voice says,
"John, look at those
healthy animals. They eat grass, not meat. You eat meat, and you
are always feeling
sick." Salathe is to have many more conversations with what he
refers to as his "angels."
John immediately becomes a lifelong vegetarian and, upon his
Doctor's suggestion, goes
to Tuolumne Meadows for some fresh air. While there, he
inadvertently ends up at the
Sierra Club's lodge. Salathe is intrigued when he hears the
caretakers talk about the RCS
outings.
At the age of 46, Salathe does his first and what could have been
his last climb. Robin
Hansen, after leading a climb on Hunters Hill near Vallejo, tells
Salathe to come on up
and "climb freely," meaning to climb only the rock and not to pull
on the rope or the
pitons. After several minutes, Hansen hasn't felt any activity on the
rope when suddenly
Salathe pops around the corner climbing unroped. Salathe has
misunderstood Hansen,
thinking that "climb freely" means free of the rope.
Salath's physical health returns and he quickly becomes obsessed
with climbing. Being
older, Salathe isn't as agile as the younger climbers so he isn't a
particularly good free
climber. Because of this, he focuses his attentions on aid (artificial)
climbing. Climbers
so far have done mostly free routes with short sections of aid in
order to link together the
free climbing sections. Salathe becomes the first climber to
embrace aid climbing as the
predominant means of ascending. Salathe realizes that the soft iron
pitons will not be
durable enough for multiple placements in Yosemite granite, but,
being a blacksmith, he
decides to do something about it. Back at his shop, he fashions the
first hard steel pitons
out of Ford Model A axels, and they work splendidly.
1946
Salath_ decides to try his new pitons on the Lost Arrow Spire. His
two partners don_t
show up, so he decides to rappel to the notch and have a look
around. Leaving his ropes
in place and peeking around the corner from a small, exposed
ledge, he finds a thin crack
system leading to a good-sized ledge. Undaunted by the 2,000 foot
drop, he sets up a self-
belay system and starts aid climbing. When the incipient cracks end,
he uses his hammer
and drill to place bolts. Though bolts have been used a few times
before to protect blank
face-climbing sections, this is the first time they have been used for
upward progress.
Salathe goes back for another try with John Thune, Sr. One of
Salathes pitons pulls out
just off the tiny ledge, and he plummets past a cowering Thune
who manages to stop the
fall. Undaunted, Salathe climbs back up and continues. They run
out of daylight at a
blank section 30 feet from the summit.
September 2, 1946
Anton Nelson, Jack Arnold and Fritz Lippman throw a rope over the
Arrow Tip from the
Valley rim. Nelson and Arnold, after rappelling to the notch, prusik
up the rope to reach
the summit. After placing summit bolts, they pull a taught rope
across from the rim and
Lippman does a Tyrolean traverse. They get the coveted first ascent
of Lost Arrow after
using a rope trick.
Salathe rappels to the Lost Arrow notch and attempts to climb the
Lost Arrow Tip alone.
His pitons work well, but he is turned back by blank rock that would
require drilling for
bolts.
October 13-14, 1946
Just over a year after his first climb, Salathe with Anton "Axe"
Nelson climbs the
southwest face of Half Dome in a 20 hour marathon using 150
pitons.
September 3, 1947
Salathe and Nelson climb Lost Arrow Chimney to the Lost Arrow Tip
after five days and
much preparation. This is the first time a climbing party has
intentionally planned on
staying several nights on a climb. This is a whole new level of
commitment so far unseen
in the United States.
June 30 _ July 4, 1950
Salathe and Allen Steck climb the north face of Sentinel Rock during
five days of
blistering hot weather. The pair has provisioned a quart of water
each per day which soon
proved inadequate due to the heat and the tremendous amount of
effort required.
These three visionary routes- southwest face of Half Dome,
Lost Arrow Chimney
and north face of Sentinel Rock - have stood the test of time and
are still bold outings.
They were such a bold jump in commitment and human endurance
that Salathe is
considered the grandfather of big wall climbing.
Salathe's pitons work so well that others (Yvon Chouinard, Dick
Long, Chuck Wilts) use
almost identical designs when making their own. Salathe has
proven that, with careful
planning, equipment and plenty of determination, Yosemite's
formidable walls can be
climbed.
**
May 30 - June 1, 1953
Steck returns with Will Siri, Willi Unsoeld and Bill Long and, after
three days, they
succeed in climbing the East Buttress, establishing the first route on
the flanks of El
Capitan.
1953
Royal Robbins, a talented 18 year old Southern California climber,
along with Don
Wilson and Jerry Gallwas climb Salathe's intimidating route (North
Face) on Sentinel
Rock in an unbelievable two days. Robbins has already made a
name for himself a year
ago by getting off route on Higher Cathedral Spire and establishing
a desperate 5.9
variation.
Weekend 1954
Newcomer Warren Harding sets his sights on the East Buttress of
Middle Cathedral
Rock, only half the length of the North Buttress of Middle Cathedral
Rock but more
continuously difficult. Harding, Whitmer and Swift battle it out with
an ant nest then are
stopped by a blank section that requires bolting. They spend the
night and get several
pitches higher but, demoralized, decide to retreat.
1954
Warren Harding arrives and joins Frank Tarver on the North Buttress
of Middle
Cathedral Rock. Arriving at the base, they are surprised to see Craig
Holden and John
Whitmer a few hundred feet up. Harding and Tarver start climbing
and soon catch up to
Holden and Whitmer. The four join forces and spend three days on
the longest climb yet
done in the Valley.
Harding and Tarver, with Bob Swift, do the second ascent of
Salathe's feared Lost Arrow
Chimney route in a four-day effort. Warren leads many of the free
climbing pitches
involving strenuous chimney climbing and horrific runouts partly
due to the fact that
Salathe and Nelson had destroyed some of the bolts they had
placed in order to reuse the
hangers.
Memorial Day 1955
Harding, Swift and Jack Davis complete the East Buttress of Middle
Cathedral Rock in a
two day effort.
June 1956
Mark Powell, Jerry Gallwas, Don Wilson climb the East Buttress of
Lower Cathedral
Rock. They did this intimidating wall in one day, a remarkable feat.
1956
On a roll, Powell climbs Liberty Cap with Robbins and Joe Fitschen,
another long route.
Then, in October, he teams up with Bill "Dolt" Feurer, and they climb
Arrowhead Arete,
possibly the most intimidating and continuously difficult free climb
in the country.
Powell's first climb ever with Jerry Gallwas on Higher Cathedral
Spire is not promising
to say the least. Powell, an overweight chain smoker, is hauled up
by Gallwas who later
was heard to say that "Powell didn't have it in him to amount to
anything in the climbing
world." Powell sheds 40 pounds and becomes one of the best and
fastest free climbers of
his time. He later shattered his ankle in September 1957 while
climbing on an easy climb
which essentially ended his climbing
career.
So far, the faces of El Capitan and Half Dome are unclimbed.
July 1957
Northwest face of Half Dome sees early reconnaissance by several
parties including one
that involves Harding, Robbins, Gallwas and Don Wilson.
Harding races his Corvette up the Valley intending to climb Half
Dome but, when he
arrives, he is disappointed to find Robbins, Gallwas and Mike
Sherrick one day short of
the top. The three men complete the Northwest Face in a brilliant
five day effort. The
gracious Harding meets the men on the summit and offers
congratulations. The
Northwest Face of Half Dome, Yosemite's first Grade VI, is the
longest and most
demanding route to date.
Harding, despite his disappointment, has come to the Valley to
climb. He decides to take
the next obvious step and see what El Capitan has to offer. He
chooses a route right up
the center and longest part of El Capitan.
July 5-12, 1957
Harding joins Powell and Feurer and spends six days on the rock
then retreats after 1,000
feet of climbing. Powell leads the team through the Stoveleg
cracks.Trying to cut costs,
the men string hemp rope from their high point to the ground
rather than the more
expensive nylon rope.
On Harding's third attempt with Feurer, Al Steck and another
talented climber, Wally
Reed. Wally Reed is prusiking up the fixed line when it suddenly
snaps and Reed slides
back down to "Dolt Hole." After this unnerving incident, Harding
decides to use only
nylon rope from now on, "cost be damned."
Harding spends a total of 47 days with a variety of partners over the
next 1_ years before
he completes the route. Harding is asked not to climb on El Capitan
during the summer
tourist season because it was creating major traffic jams in El
Capitan Meadow. Warren
complies with the National Park Service request.
November 1-12
The Park Service gives an ultimatum to Harding: "Either finish the
climb or pull your
ropes by Thanksgiving." Rich Calderwood, Wayne Merry and George
Whitmore join
Harding for the final push. Nine days into the climb Calderwood,
thinking about his
pregnant wife, decides he's had enough and rappels the fixed lines
without telling
anyone. The three men continue climbing and encounter a blank-
looking overhang 100
feet below the summit. They are exhausted and, understandably,
depressed. Harding
takes over the lead and starts drilling and placing bolts up the
overhanging rock. As it
gets dark, Harding refuses to stop and continues throughout the
night oblivious to the fact
that his belayer is drifting in and out of sleep while hanging in
slings. Harding, Whitmore
and Merry reach the summit at 6:00 a.m. after spending a record 12
days on the climb
called "The Nose."
The Nose was the first climb to use siege tactics. Harding employed
fixed rope up the
climb not only for an escape route but also for shuttling of
provisions to the various
camps that were set up on the routes six spacious ledges. The
climbers were innovative,
designing and making a lot of homemade gear. Some things
worked well and some things
didn't. They tried using lacquer cans for water but found it
unpalatable. They brought a
capstan with cable on the climb to winch a specially designed
hauling cart to bring up
their supplies in 200 lb. loads. The "Dolt Cart" worked well on the
lower part of the
climb but was abandoned once the route became steeper and more
featured.
Frank Tarver had made some large angle pitons by cutting off all
four legs of a
woodstove. Because they worked so well, Rich Calderwood went to a
junkyard to find a
stove to make some "Stovelegs" for himself. The proprietor, after
learning what Rich was
going to do to the stove, refused to sell a good one and would only
sell him one with
three legs. The seven "Stoveleg" pitons were hanging at a high point
on the East Face of
Washington Column, another project started by Harding. The pitons
were needed for the
Nose and Calderwood was sent up to retrieve them. At the high
point of the East Face,
the pitons are missing. After rappelling back to the bottom, Rich
finds the scattered pitons
and a rat-chewed sling after scouring the base. These pitons enable
Harding's party to
climb up a 400 continuous wide crack system part way up the Nose.
They place 125 bolts
on the route. This crack system is called the Stovelegs. During the
climb, Wayne Merry
writes love letters to his sweetheart and future wife then tosses
them off of the cliff in
soup cans for her to find. The media is heavily involved and the
climbers are
overwhelmed by the national attention.
The Nose of El Capitan and the Northeast Face of Half Dome are
both visionary routes,
though done in two completely different styles. These routes
opened eyes and set a new
climbing standard, giving us a glimpse of what was to come.
April 1960
Chouinard invents the Realized Ultimate Reality Piton or Rurp. This
is the smallest piton
yet made.
September 1960
Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt, Joe Fitschen and Tom Frost climb the
second ascent of the
Nose in an incredible six and a half days.
September 1961
Robbins, Pratt and Tom Frost climb for three days and get up 900
feet on a new El Cap
route, the Salathe Wall. Then they fix ropes to the ground.
September 24, 1961
With food and water, they prusik back up to their high point and
cast off for the summits.
They climb the rest of the route in a single push over the next six
days, placing only 13
bolts.
The three men prove that El Cap could be climbed without the siege
tactics that Harding
employed and that, with careful planning and route selection, that
Yosemite's big walls
can be done with a minimal amount of bolting.
October 1961
Harding climbs the blank and severely overhanging West Face of
Leaning Tower with
Glen Denny and Al McDonald. They place 110 bolts on this 1,500
foot climb. On an
earlier attempt, Harding pulls a block onto his head, resulting in a
fall. His partner
worries when he sees blood dripping and doesn't get an answer
from Harding. Harding
wakes up and is lowered to his partner. It's almost dark and
Harding has a nasty cut on
his forehead, but he insists on opening a bottle of wine before
heading to the clinic for
stitches.
June 1962
Yvon Chouinard climbs Direct North Buttress of Middle Cathedral
Rock with Steve
Roper. They are awakened in the night by a heavy downpour
soaking their down jackets.
After reaching the Valley floor, they weigh their jackets in at a
whopping 7 lbs. each.
August 1962
Chouinard and T.M. Herbert establish the Chouinard-Herbert route
on Sentinel Rock, the
second route up the north face.
September 1962
Chouinard is on a roll. He and Tom Frost climb the remote Quarter
Dome in Tenaya
canyon.
November 1962
El Cooper, Jim Baldwin and Glen Denny climb the Dihedral Wall of El
Cap with 38 days
of work spread out over an eight month period. They place 110
bolts and fix rope to
1,900 feet. This climb perturbs most of the Valley locals because
Cooper and Baldwin are
from Canada haven't done any of the established routes, and it is
felt the route could have
been done in a better style with less bolting.
April-May 1963
Colorado climber Layton Kor, intense and energetic, arrives on the
Valley scene and with
Eric Beck starts a new route on El Capitan's West Buttress, fixing
rope to 1,200 feet. Kor
and Beck are joined by Steve Roper and finish the climb in three
days, placing 21 bolts.
1964
Frank Sacherer hits the Valley scene with a free-climbing frenzy. He
teams up with
Chuck Pratt, and they free climb Salathe's Lost Arrow Chimney.
Sacherer then free
climbs the Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock with Jeff
Dozier. As if that
Wasn't enough, he then free climbs Salath's Southwest Face of
Half Dome. (These
routes are all long. Sacherer proved that Yosemite's longer routes
could be free climbed.)
June 1964
Layton Kor and Chris Fredericks climb the South Face of
Washington's Column, linking
together improbable looking crack systems with very few bolts
placed for aid. (The South
Face becomes the most popular overnight climb in the Valley.)
July 1964
Warren Harding, Chuck Pratt and Yvon Chouinard climb the South
Face of Mount
Watkins remotely located in Tenaya Canyon. They climb five days in
full sun during a
summer heat spell. On the fifth day, Harding refuses to drink any
water, believing it to be
more beneficial for Pratt and Chouinard because they are leading to
the summit.
October 1964
Royal Robbins, Tom Frost, Yvon Chouinard and Chuck Pratt climb a
route up the
continuously overhanging Southeast Face of El Capitan. The North
American Wall is
climbed in nine days, involving rotten rock and extreme aid
climbing, making it the
hardest big wall to date.
June 1965
Yvon Chouinard and T. M. Herbert climb the Muir Wall on El
Capitan in eight days.
They climb the Muir without the use of fixed ropes and place only
30 bolts.
Frank Sacherer free climbs the DNB of Middle Cathedral Rock with
Eric Beck then
Sacherer hooks up with Ed Leeper and free climbs the East Buttress
of Middle Cathedral
Rock.
September 1965
Chuck Pratt and Chris Fredericks free climb the bold overhanging
six inch wide crack at
the Cookie Cliff, calling it the Twilight Zone.
1966
Jeff Foote and Steve Roper do the first one-day ascent of the
Northwest Face of Half
Dome. Eric Beck does the first solo of the same route.
(Nuts, an alternative to the rock scarring pitons, are trickling over
from Great
Britain.)
May 1967
Royal Robbins and his wife, Liz, establish the Nutcracker on Manure
Pile Buttress. They
use only nuts and don't bring any pitons on this 800 ft. free climb.
June 1967
T.M. Herbert and Royal Robbins climb the 2,000 West Face of El
Capitan in 4 days
during extremely wet weather placing only one bolt.
Liz Robbins, with her husband Royal, climb the Northeast Face of
Half Dome, making
her the first female climber to do a Grade VI.
Jim Bridwell and Jim Stanton free climb the Stovelegs on the Nose of
El Capitan
1968
Royal Robbins does the first solo ascent of El Capitan by getting the
second ascent of the
Muir Wall in a grueling nine day effort.
May 1969
Royal Robbins and Glen Denny climb the Prow on Washington
Column making it a
Grade V testpiece for the aspiring El Cap climber.
October 1969
Robbins and Don Peterson climb Tis-sa-ack on the North face of
half Dome. The men do
not get along and they spend eight days and place 110 bolts. This
is, by far, the most
bolts that Robbins has ever placed on a single route. This
embarrasses him because he
has always spoken out against Warren Harding's bolting.
April 1970
Chuck Kroger and Scott Davis establish the Heart route on El
Capitan in an eight day
push after fixing the first three pitches and placing a modest 27
bolts.
May 1970
Royal Robbins solos the 1st ascent of In Cold Blood on Sentinel's
West Face in two days.
He places eight bolts. This is the first time a new route of this
length has been soloed.
July 1970
Dick Dorworth joins Royal Robbins and they climb another Grade VI
route on the North
Face of Half Dome. They christen it Arcturus.
July 1970
Warren Harding and Galen Rowell complete their south Face Route
on half Dome in six
days. They had made six previous attempts, one of which ended in
a dramatic rescue by
Royal Robbins after the pair nearly drowned from the runoff during
a downpour (two
other rescues have been performed on the South Face of Half Dome
due to similar
circumstances). Harding and Rowell drill 180 holes on the blank
upper section of the
South Face rekindling once again the bolting controversy.
November 1970
Harding and Dean Caldwell climb the Wall of the Early Morning Light
in a single push
spending 26 consecutive days on the rock and drilling close to 300
holes. Near the top,
the climbers are offered a rescue but they stoutly refuse. The climb
becomes a media
sensation and once again, Harding is in the spotlight.
1971
Clean climbing is introduced in a publication written by Doug
Robinson, John Stannard,
Chouinard, and Frost.
1972
Jim Dunn solos a new El Cap route calling it Cosmos.
Charlie Porter establishes the Shield on El Capitan with Gary
Bocarde.
Charlie Porter solos the 1st ascent of the Overhanging El Capitan
route, the Zodiac.
1973
Hot free climber, Henry Barber, climbs the Steck-Salathe route on
Sentinel Rock without
a rope. Next, he teams up with George Meyers to establish
Butterballs, a hard Cookie
Cliff testpiece to this day.
Sybille Hechtel and Bev Johnson do the first all female ascent of El
Capitan climbing
Triple Direct.
1975
Jim Bridwell, John Long, Kevin Worral, Mike Graham, John Bachar,
and Ron Kauk free
climb the lower third of the Salathe Wall on El Capitan naming it the
Free Blast.
John Long, John Bachar, and Ron Kauk free climb Hardings
overhanging East Face route
on Washington Column naming the free route Astro Man.
Jim Bridwell, John Long, and Billy Westbay climb the Nose in less
than 24 hours
establishing the first one day ascent of El Capitan.
May 1975
Jim Bridwell, Bill Westbay, Jay Fiske, and Fred East establish an El
Cap aid climbing
testpiece called the Pacific Ocean Wall.
1975
Henry Barber free climbs the 120 foot Fish Crack at Cascade Falls
bringing the 5.12 free
climbing grade to Yosemite.
1976
Jim Erickson and Art Higbee free climb the Northwest Face of half
Dome at a 5.12 grade.
1977
Ray Jardine establishes the 5.13 grade in Yosemite by doing
Phoenix at Cascade Cliff.
Using his secret cams for protection. Jardine and regular partner,
John Lakey, do many
hard free 1st ascents during this time. Jardine has invented the
Friend and they test them
thoroughly on extreme routes like Hangdog Flyer, Crimson Cringe,
and the Owl Roof.
Jardine patents the Friend and puts them on the market. Later,
Jardine sells the patent to
Wild Country and buys a sailboat and disappears from the Valley
scene. Jardine's hang
dogging technique of hanging and then practicing hard moves after
falling until he could
piece together the parts in a single free push were at that time
controversial with most of
the Valley locals. Up until then, climbers has always lowered down
and pulled their
ropes before trying the climb again. Jardine tries to free climb the
Nose but receives a lot
of negativity after he chips artificial holds on a blank traversing
section.
1978
Bev Johnson becomes the first female climber to solo El Capitan
after doing the Dihedral
Wall.
1978
Ron Kauk climbs the Midnight Lightning, an extremely hard boulder
problem on
Columbia Rock in Camp IV. (Midnight Lightning is well known
around the world and is
looked at or tried by many of the visiting climbers.)
May 1979
Ray Jardine, with Bill Price, free climb the West Face of El Capitan.
1980
Bill Price puts up the 5.13 testpiece, Cosmic Debris at Chapel Wall.
September 1981
Jim Bridwell returns and establishes another aid climbing testpiece,
Zenyatta Mondata,
with Peter Mayfield and Charlie Row.
1986
John Bachar climbs the Phantom, a 5.13 free climb at Reed's
Pinnacle.
John Bachar and Peter Croft climb the Northwest Face of Half Dome
and the Nose of El
Capitan in a single day.
Dave Schultz with Ken Yager and Jim Campbell climb the route
Karma on the South
Face of Half Dome during the month of July. The route involves
bold, runout face
climbing on terrifying terrain that would be difficult to retreat from.
1987
Jim Beyer solos the West Face of El Capitan in a single day.
Dave Schultz and Walt Shipley do the first ascent of another bold
face route on the South
Face of Half Dome naming it Southern Belle. Schultz a year later
returns with Scott
Cosgrove and do the route free.
Peter Croft free solos (no rope) Astroman on Washington
Column
1988
Todd Skinner and Paul Piana camp on the Salathe Wall of El Capitan
and through
rehearsal, free the climb at a hard 5.13 rating. This ascent and his
free ascent of the
Stigma (aka the Renegade) using hang dog techniques and pre-
placed gear stirs up
jealousy and dissention among the Valley locals.
1989
Paraplegic, Mark Wellman climbs the Shield on El Capitan with Mike
Corbett. They
redesign the jumaring (mechanical ascenders) system to
accommodate Mark's special
needs. The media follows the climb from beginning to end, making
it worldwide news.
Not since Harding climbed, has there been such a media frenzy.
History is still being made in Yosemite. The walls' challenges continue to be met with new innovations and bold styles. We encourage today's climbers to continue pushing the envelope.
Climb on.
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