EDITION 02 - MARCH 18, 2025
Your window into the stories, history, and ongoing work to preserve Yosemite’s climbing legacy.
A Note from the Editor
This week, we chat with author, climber, and YOSAR veteran Rick Accomazzo about his new book, Tobin, The Stonemasters, and Me. Accomazzo's book is winner of the Bold and Cold Book Award and a finalist for the Mountain Literature Prize. Rick will speak and sign books at the Yosemite Facelift on September 24–28, 2025.
Next week's feature story is about Yosemite big wall soloist/climber Taylor Martin. This past season, Martin made two in-a-day solo ascents of El Cap, including the Nose in 22 hours 40 minutes and later, Lurking Fear in approximately 18 hours. Martin shares her thoughts on risk, first ascents, and what's next.
The following week, we profile Yosemite big wall first ascent climber Kevin DeWeese. He talks about his mentorship with Steve Bosque, some dozen first ascents/attempts he's made around the Valley, and why, these days, he's having more fun than ever.
The week after, we chat with Yosemite big wall free climber Sonnie Trotter, from Canmore, Alberta, about his new book, Uplifted. His title hits shelves on May 13 through Patagonia Books. Like Accomazzo, Trotter will speak and sign books at this year’s Yosemite Facelift.
Chris Van Leuven
Editor, Yosemite Climbing Association News Brief
YosemiteClimbing.Org
Photo by Chris Van Leuven: Rick Accomazzo at Castle Rock, Colorado.
Author Rick Accomazzo: Tobin, The Stonemasters, and Me
Accomazzo’s Award-Winning Book Now Available at the YCA Museum in Mariposa
It’s early March 2025 when I call up author, Access Fund co-founder, and Camp 4 and YOSAR veteran Rick Accomazzo at his home in Boulder, Colorado. I ring him to talk about his new book, Tobin, The Stonemasters, and Me 1970-1980; Remembering Tobin Sorenson, the Best Climber in the World. He answers while sitting on his porch, overlooking the iconic Flatirons climbing area, drinking his morning coffee between speaking gigs and his book tour.
This past winter, he spoke at the Joshua Tree Rock Rumble Royal, where “I got to talk about my book on stage with old friends and climbing legends Lynn Hill, Mari Gingery, and Mike Lechlinski— we first met as teenagers, so it felt like a high school reunion.” Next, he appeared on The Backcountry Manifesto Podcast (watch it here) and is featured on the American Alpine Club’s Podcast.
This year, he’s a guest speaker at the upcoming Yosemite Facelift, September 24–28, 2025.
“But the improbable story of Tobin Sorenson, the boldest climber of the Stonemasters, is less well known, with Tobin’s name surfacing only rarely in the murky waters of climbing lore and legend,” writes Accomazzo in the intro. “This book is partly a climbing biography of Tobin, partly an account of the early days of the Stonemasters, and partly my personal recollections of the Stonemasters and Tobin. When I tried to tell Tobin’s tale, I found it difficult to separate his narrative from mine: some of the best and worst times of my life revolved around him. So part of the book is told by me, part by Tobin, and part is told by his friends and climbing partners.”
Noted for literary excellence, Tobin, The Stonemasters, and Me won the inaugural Bold and Cold Book Award. At the 2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition, “the book was a finalist for the Mountain Literature Prize, up there along with Beth Rodden’s book [A Light through the Cracks: A Climber’s Story; available through the YCA Museum in Mariposa and Amazon] and Graham Zimmerman’s [A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains] book as well,” Accomazzo says.
Sorenson’s peak climbing years were in the late 1970s when he was at the top of his game on both hard aid and free routes, including The Shield on El Capitan and an early ascent of Astroman on Washington Column (then one of the hardest free climbs in the world). On Astroman, he led every pitch onsight using only hexes and stoppers. He earned legendary status in alpine climbing in 1977 for summiting four of the six great north faces in the Alps over four months. This included difficult new routes on the Dru and Grand Jorasses, the first alpine-style ascent of the Eiger, and a free solo of the Matterhorn in winter.
Tragically, Sorenson died on October 5, 1980, from a fall while attempting a solo ascent of the North Face of Mount Alberta.
“There’s a whole Yosemite chapter in the book, and it was obviously a really important part of Tobin’s story,” Accomazzo continues. The Incomparable Valley, Chapter Five, spans 40 pages of the 357-page book, which sells for $46.
In that chapter, Accomazzo describes a scene where Sorenson and his partner Bruce Adams ascended a horribly aged fixed line out of the Shield Roof, thousands of feet off the ground, left behind by another team. He writes, “It was bleached white and crackled when bent. Bruce had never seen a rope this bad, but its purpose was only to pull a hanging climber back to the belay below the roof, so it didn’t need to hold much weight. Tobin got to the belay. After gearing up, he announced to Bruce that he was going to climb the old rope using his Jumars. ‘What!!!??? Don’t do it!’ Adams pleaded.”
“I’ll leave what comes next to readers as a cliffhanger,” Accomazzo says. “It’s a story that has been passed down around campfires through the years, and it’s actually been written about earlier in the Stonemasters book, but I got a fresh version from Bruce Adams himself.”
Accomazzo notes that Sorenson’s advanced big wall skills were key to his success in the Alps. “It was that training in Yosemite to move fast up big walls that really set the stage for his alpine achievements.”
Speaking from his home, Accomazzo shares a story about his book that appeared that morning in The Daily Camera. “My hometown newspaper has a weekly climbing column by Chris Weidner, and I have been a fan of it for years, so it was fun to see,” he says with a grin.
As the press pours in, so do speaking engagements. “I’m still booking tours and have some exciting events coming up—from speaking at Caltech to attending international mountaineering book festivals.” He adds that his publisher plans to enter the book in Britain’s Boardman Tasker contest—probably the most prestigious English-language mountaineering book contest.”
After appearing at Facelift in Yosemite in late September, he’s planning an East Coast tour before traveling internationally again.
“I’m really excited about the upcoming book tours and events—from Yosemite to the Lake District of England,” he says.
Tobin, The Stonemasters, and Me, $47, is 357 pages long and filled with color photos. It’s available through the YCA Museum in Mariposa and at stonemasterbooks.com.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Tom Herbert on El Capitan’s Muir Blast (the Start of the Muir Wall) | Photo Taken by Chris Van Leuven