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orangekyak
Dec 16, 2002, 3:30 PM
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The history of New England climbing includes a lot of colorful characters. Of all the people I've heard of, one makes me curious. Anytime I see a bolt scar from Connecticut to Gloucester (I've even heard his name whispered at Rumney), someone is there beside me to curse or praise Ken Nichols.
I'm wondering if anyone can regale this thread with stories or information about his involvement in pushing grades, establishing routes at various area, and the general controversy that seems to linger around his name.
To be fair, please clarify if your info is firsthand, secondhand or rumor.
Thanks,
Jeremy
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tim
Dec 16, 2002, 4:22 PM
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Maybe there should be a Ken Nichols Propaganda award to go along with the Ken Nichols Award:
http://www.mindspring.com/~bjfaber/pipe10.html
I dunno, he seems to have taken it to the extreme, but sometimes a backlash is just what an area needs. Rumor has it that Ken very nearly got jail time for some of his heroic actions.
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orangekyak
Dec 16, 2002, 9:23 PM
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hmm, that's a cool rumor. I hope someone can tell us more. Tim, I notice you're in DC. Does anyone know how far Mr. Nichols' influence has spread?
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jhump
Dec 16, 2002, 9:28 PM
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There's a bolted route at Lisbon Ohio quarry entitled "Nichols is a Weenie." It is a dangerously bolted 5.12b.
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orangekyak
Dec 18, 2002, 9:24 PM
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I've been trying to find info around the net, but all it ever says is like "guidebook author, very controversial practices, bolt clipper."
can anyone enlighten me?
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tcollins
Dec 18, 2002, 9:34 PM
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Jer, have you searched here yet? I assume you have, I just remember reading some threads on him some time ago. I'm pretty sure it could have been here, but quite possibly I was on a cyberspace tangent, in which case I doubt I'll be able to find it.
edit:
Found it, but I remember finding more too. I'll look some more later.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=8145&forum=23
edit2:
Haven't looked at all of this yet, as I'm running out the door, but...
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ken+nichols+&meta=group%3Drec.climbing
[ This Message was edited by: tcollins on 2002-12-18 13:36 ]
[ This Message was edited by: tcollins on 2002-12-18 13:43 ]
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styndall
Dec 18, 2002, 10:50 PM
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This is second-hand, of course, but from my understanding, he puts the "fsck" in "immature fscknozzle."
Arrogant, vengeful, assinine, and with no regard for area ethics.
That's just what I hear, though.
stephen
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orangekyak
Dec 19, 2002, 3:34 AM
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td, you're the man.
i always laugh my arse off when people hit each other with the "try google, ya schmuck" post. i assumed that yahoo and google were the same but they are not. altavista is not good either. so i'm checking out that google search you did. thanks.
lots of good opinions, for and against ken nichols. fun to read.
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clmbng_addict
Dec 19, 2002, 4:01 AM
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I've never met Ken Nichols, so i can't say much about him without potentially spreading inaccurate rumors, but several of my friends have met and climbed with him. It seems to me that each person's opinion of him is generally based on his or her stance on the bolting issue. Purest trad climbers who are opposed to bolting tend to see him as a guy who protects the cliffs and keeps climbing the way it should be, while many ppl less opposed to bolting see him as more of an arrogant a--hole. What i've gathered that i can be reasonably sure of is that he's a very strong climber (i think he climbs in the area of consistent 5.13s) who has been climbing several decades and devotes most of his time and energy to climbing, he is extremely opposed to bolting and is notorious for chopping bolts around new england and esp in CT, and most ppl see him as someone who is rather arrogant yet can be a reasonable guy if approached right. He has written several guidebooks including the primary guidebook for Ragged Mtn in CT, and has been banned from at least one climbing area for chopping bolts (i want to say Rumney, but i'm really not sure about that). Beyond that i'm really not sure about the validity of what i've heard, but if you climb much in New England and esp in CT, you will most likely hear his name come up repeatedly.
If i happened to say something inaccurately, please feel free to correct me .
Dave
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luke
Feb 21, 2003, 4:37 AM
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Ok, so I cant be the only one here to have met and climbed with Ken a number of times, but here's my two cents.
The first thing to know is that this man is hardcore. He is somewhere in his 50's I'd say and still climbs hard (at least gunks 12 - he went easily up "Supercrack" for example) so maybe soft 13. He also climbs often, like all the time. One time I was talking to him he had been out 260-some days in a row, and we're not talking weenie west coast weather here. It was early march then and we'd had an ice-storm a few days before. Ken was out running laps on his favorite 5.11, Dol Guldur, at East Peak near Meriden CT. He was trying to set a new record of 65 laps on this 80ft route, with his previous best being 50. If I recall he has also been known to lead in excess of 100 trad pitches in a day, though I would have to get my book to look up just how many.
Maybe you are getting the correct impression that Ken is also a complete climbing fanatic (not there's anything wrong with that now is there?). He has a deserved reputation for being an anti-bolt crusader and that colors most peoples impressions, but he is also an approachble guy who is always willing get out climbing. He has taught a lot of beginners how to lead and set safe gear, and you can't knock his trad skills, which are damn honed.
OK, before we get to the bolt war bit, it is also worth noting that he wrote the huge tome "Hooked on Traprock" which any CT climber really needs a photocopy of. Dont be fooled by the pissant other guides; most of the climbs were left out of them. Note I said a photocopy not a copy - it is out of print. Since Ken holds the copyright, if you can find him you can ask him for permission to copy it for personal use. He also has written a newer guide just to Ragged Mountain. Again, contact him directly for a copy. While I'm on the subject you might notice that this book lists Ken as FA or FFA on maybe 70% of the around 2000 routes (numbers from my unreliable memory).
So Ken and bolts huh? Well, the deal is that Ken hates them with a passion. He gets into fights about them and will travel long distances to chop them. He is banned from Ragged Mountain (CT's premier climbing area, such as it is, and Ken's favorite place to climb), and maybe from other places too, though this is the only one I know of. The way I heard it, the owners of the land (a federation of climbers) decided to replace some old bolts placed by first ascensionists (probably in around 1960ish?) because they were dangerous (I climbed one of the routes before and after, and they were scary enough before that I didnt clip them). Ken didnt agree with that decision, and got into an altercation with one of the land managers, which maybe got physical (I'm not sure). They banned him. Simple case of "land owner decides" in my opinion. If he is banned from anywhere else, other than the climbing gym "Prime Climb" where he is very unwelcome, it may be because he has done some more outrageous things in the past. One time a few climbers came down from Rumney and bolted some lines in central CT. I dont know for sure if the routes had already been done, but Ken went ballistic, and in addition to chopping those bolts he drove up to Rumney and chopped a bunch there. I have to say that I didnt agree with that, especially because I dont know whether the lines he chopped at Rumnney were bolted by the same people or were just randomly chosen, but I will throw in that the people who came in from out of state and put up bolts without talking to the locals were way out of line. Let it be a lesson to you all - talk to the land owners and the local climbers or chances are everything will get all f*cked up.
Summary - Ken is a good guy if you are on his good side. Dont mention bolts and you shoud be fine. Lots of folks hate him with a passion, but they have generally been people who tried to impose their own ethics on an area he considered his own. In some cases this was their right (land owners etc), and in others it wasnt. I personally just climb and leave the ethics wars to others. Extremists from both sides will always want to slug it out.
Oh, and dont underestimate Ken's grading. It is consistent, but if you expect soft modern grades from a traditionalist like Ken you're just begging for a sandbag.
Luke
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danl
Feb 21, 2003, 5:21 AM
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Word to most of the things said about mr. nicols.
I've met him and climbed with him. A bit of an extremist in his own right. Very anti bolting but he has mellowed with age.
While I don't agree with him or his methods as a person he seems like a decent human being and i wouldn't and haven't blinked when tying in on his line.
As far as his ability goes. He's a fair climber. I don't like that he poaches super crack during the high season but that's his choice to endanger access to a closed crag. On routes he has dialed he's good. On new routes he's fair for his age and physical shape.
Historically he has chopped bolts all over the US for his own reasons, in coversations with him recently he is still opposed to bolting but I believe that he has mellowed a little. Has some interesting stories and opinions if you get a chance talk to him and form your own opinions
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piton
Feb 25, 2003, 2:14 PM
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danl the sprayer
i would say Ken is better than a fair climber. go climb creation of the world or whitenight in the daks! how many FFA's do you have?
I've climbed with ken also, great guy!
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the_pirate
Jun 6, 2003, 9:03 PM
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I learned of the name Ken Nichols several years ago. I was a college student who had just taken up climbing, back at my parents house in CT for the summer. My buddy and I were looking for places to climb and stumbled on East Peak. Big cliff (east coast standards :wink: ) visible from the road so we decided to hike up and try some obvious lines. We thought it was an undeveloped area. The guide to Connecticut we had looked through didn't even mention the area. There were no bolts or fixed gear of any kind. This was just perfect with us being as we were new tradsters learning to lead. The first couple times we went there we didn't even run into any other climbers. As it got full into summer we started seeing other climbers at "our" crag. One of them pointed out to us that there was actually a guide book to the area. Hooked on Trap Rock by Ken Nichols. I rushed out immediately and found it at the local Barnes & Noble. It was, and still is, the thickest guide book I have ever seen. I knew of the classic climbs at Sleeping Giant and the sport routs at Ragged, but was blown away at the shear volume of other areas listed. Pretty much every crack on every cliff I had been climbing in southern CT had a name. Most also had FA by Ken Nichols. I went through the book, checking out one area after another. Every where i climbed, I heard stories about Ken. Ken is the greatest climber ever. Ken is the biggest asshole ever. Ken is a hero, protecting the old-school ethics of the Connecticut climbers. Ken can climb 5.12 and he'll let you know it. Ken is single handedly ruining the future of climbing for everyone. Any climber that saw the fat blue guide book and read the name on the spine suddenly had a Ken Nichols story that they just couldn't wait to pass on. At the time rec.climbing was erupt with talk of bolt wars and regional ethics and being new to climbing, I was a sponge, taking it all in. I remember hearing that Ken was, in his early days, a bolter and that it was being kicked out of the Ragged Climbers Clique that turned him on his vengeful bolt-chopping rampage. The story went that he chopped everyone's bolts, even his own. All the climbers at Ragged whispered the tale of Ken traveling to Rumney to chop bolts after some New Hampshire climbers came to CT to sink bolts. It is really a good tale if you step back from it. Kind of a West Side Story for climbers.
In two summers of climbing all over Connecticut I saw a handful of bolt scars. Some were obvious and crappy, some I would never have noticed if someone hadn't pointed it out. Every one of them was attributed to Ken. It was also told that removed not just bolts, but any fixed pins.....even ones used by Fritz Weissner on various first ascents. I did see a few fixed pins on some of the more historic climbs so maybe if that story is true, Ken really needs glasses.
I never actually met Ken though and with the benefit of hindsight have come to realize that most of the climbers spouting off about Ken never had either. Maybe 1 in 10 had ever laid eyes on him. (1 in 50 at Ragged) A climber told me once that if I wanted to meet Ken all I had to do was sink a bolt and sit down and wait. Ken would be by within an hour to chop it. Never tried it though. Ken Nichols was always the Keyser Soze of Connecticut climbing.
I thought the bolt wars had finally fizzled out several years ago, but I guess with each new year and fresh newbies on the rock we have to rehash all the old battles. Gives people a chance to categorize themselves as sport or trad or boulderer....whatever. Personally, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to climb at places that at least seemed wild. There is something to be said for topping out a climb and having to construct an anchor rather than just clip into the chains. I hope the legend of Ken Nichols survives for a while longer.
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mungeclimber
Jun 6, 2003, 11:03 PM
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In reply to: Ken Nichols was always the Keyser Soze of Connecticut climbing.
my new signature
thanks
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tenn_dawg
Jun 7, 2003, 1:18 AM
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I've had more fun reading this thread than any other in a long time. Good Work Guys, and keep the stories coming.
Travis
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bkboyd
Jun 7, 2003, 1:36 AM
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I lived in CT for two years, climbed with ken regularly, including some first ascents in CT and Mass. It was a long time ago, but here is my two cents (trivia question: can anyone name the anti-ken themed route that also used currency in the name?):
Ken was a very principled guy, but certainly stood out as a little different. He was once profiled in a local paper when he turned down a raise at his job, saying that he was making enough money, and the extra cash could be better used elsewhere in the organization. A fanatical collector of trash as well, although partially motivated by Connecticut's bottle and can deposit law.
Ken did a tremendous number of FA's, ranging from evil and unaesthetic to the absolutely outstanding. Beating him to a FA, especially in an area that he thought was climbed out, was always fun: I found new lines in places like Spider Wall, and it was a great treat to point out a line that he had missed.
I put in a couple of bolted routes, and it was the fear of Ken's reprisal that made me bolt them on the lead versus rappel. So, in that sense, he did force people to higher standards. Drilling by hand in hard rock, poor stances, once in the rain, our thoughts at the time were rarely in the form "Boy are we thankful to Ken for the opportunity to better ourselves..." I placed fixed pins in a couple of places when it made a big difference in safety, and, for the record, ken never pulled those.
One of the more interesting aspects of ken was his experimentation with hooks as a form of lead pro. Rather than placing bolts on poorly protected faces, he would use skyhooks for gear. The process ran like this: Climb up the face, find a good spot for a hook. Tie a separate rope to the hook, then downclimb. The rope would get clipped in at the base with a lot of tension, in the hopes of keeping the hook from falling off. Each hook required a separate rope, so some routes would have a maze of ropes on them. He wrote to people like Chouinard and Ed leeper, suggesting that they build stronger hooks for this future direction in climbing. He also had an array of homemade hooks, some quite massive. Having done a number of FA's with Ken this way, it was always scary just to be the belayer.
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rockitjeff
Jun 18, 2003, 4:02 AM
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very kewl thread..
yea BK.. i recall an article in climbing.. .'78? where ken wrote about his hooks on tension thing... photo showed about 8 seperate ropes running from the hook/pro to the tension line at the bottm... very wild, very committing... but the sort of thing people believed in back in the late 70's.. (well. thems who had skilll.. i was and am purely armchair.... ) reminds me of an old mt mag article in '77 on a frenchman .. christain guymar? (sp?) leading free and aid onsight using HOOKS for pro.. damn... HE got stampeded flat as a pancake by them french surrender-weanie rap bolters
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jhwnewengland
Jun 18, 2003, 4:17 AM
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In reply to: One time a few climbers came down from Rumney and bolted some lines in central CT. I dont know for sure if the routes had already been done, but Ken went ballistic, and in addition to chopping those bolts he drove up to Rumney and chopped a bunch there. I have to say that I didnt agree with that, especially because I dont know whether the lines he chopped at Rumnney were bolted by the same people or were just randomly chosen, but I will throw in that the people who came in from out of state and put up bolts without talking to the locals were way out of line.
Good to hear from someone who knows Ken. I wanted to clarify something about what you said above, Luke. I believe I read somewhere that it was Gunks climbers, not Rumney locals, who bolted the lines in CT, leading to Nichols' bolt chopping at Rumney. I think he had promised, before the offensive lines were bolted in CT, that if any of the Gunks climbers bolted in CT he would chop Rumney. I don't get the logic, but that's what I heard.
Of course, this is heresay and you know him personally. Just wanted to know if you had actually heard from Ken that Rumney locals bolted in CT, or if that's also heresay. Thanks,
Jan
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