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goldiechick30
Nov 21, 2005, 8:10 PM
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I am an outdoor recreation major at Southeast Missouri State and I am doing a project on Trad Climbing and I am having difficulties finding the history. If you would please lead me in the right direction. Thank you.
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raymondjeffrey
Nov 21, 2005, 8:28 PM
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Get the DVD called 'Vertical Horizon' narrated by Tom Brokaw. Gives a good bit of history concerning Yosemite climbing.
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jgill
Nov 24, 2005, 12:04 AM
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Pat Ament's Wizards of Rock is a pretty good take on the history in America. 8^)
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vegastradguy
Nov 24, 2005, 1:13 AM
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In reply to: Get the DVD called 'Vertical Horizon' narrated by Tom Brokaw. Gives a good bit of history concerning Yosemite climbing.
actually, i believe its called Vertical Frontier. good video though.
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elron
Nov 24, 2005, 1:15 AM
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Pretty broad topic... in my opinion, if you're looking at the early history of trad in the US, you're talking about the climbing history of Yosemite, the Grand Tetons, the Gunks, and North Conway, NH. Others may disagree, but these places probably had the most impact on early trad climbing. That being said:
"Vertical Horizon" (mentioned already) is great. But go one step further and read "Camp 4" by Steve Roper. Excellent book
Ed Webster's White Mountain climbing guide has a pretty good history of climbing in NH
I believe that both the Swain and Williams guides have lots of good stuff on the history of climbing at the Gunks.
There is a great book on the history of the Tetons, but I can't think of the name.
Google!!!
Devil's Tower may warrant a quick look, as there were some early ascents there. The Durrance Route specifically comes to mind. Also, you may look into old (very old) Sierra Club and AMC publications.
Good luck,
Kevin
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tattooed_climber
Nov 24, 2005, 1:16 AM
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dude...this can be as big or as small as you want....
focusing by area may be a better way of going about this...different areas have different trends...as well how they were first explored...
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jv
Nov 24, 2005, 1:47 AM
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Defying Gravity: High Adventure on Yosemite's Walls, Gary Arce
The Vertical World of Yosemite, Galen Rowell
I think you'll have to go back to the 1800's, ascents in Britain and the Alps, to find the first use of ropes to protect a climber. Was it Robert Underwood who first used the belayed leader method in the U.S.?
John Gill's (jgill) website has some interesting historical references. Click on his name above.
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raymondjeffrey
Dec 21, 2005, 11:54 PM
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Oh yea, Vertical Frontier. My bad
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toml
Jan 25, 2006, 2:23 PM
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"Ways to the Sky: A Historical Guide to North American Mountaineering" is a new book by Andy Selters you should get, though it doesn't touch on trad climbing so much.
You should also have your library get you a book, I think called "Yankee Rock and Ice", about the history of climbing in New England, where much early climbing took place and where some of the most fervent "trad vs. sport" ethics are. Authors are Laura and Guy Waterman.
"The Whole Art of Natural Protection" by Doug Robinson is a key article kick-starting the clean climbing revolution.
Wild Country recently put out, and you should find on their website, a booklet all about cams, with the history and so forth.
Depending on the size of your project, there are some other resources you might find helpful, like old classic guidebooks ["Fifty Classic Climbs" by Roper and Steck would be the first that comes to mind], but start with those and the other resources mentioned like the Brokaw Yosemite DVD.
The old AMC journal "Appalachia" will be a great primary resource, like articles on research into new belaying techniques in the 1930s.
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toml
Jan 25, 2006, 2:34 PM
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Rereading your post, I'm realizing you weren't talking USA-specific.
No discussion of trad climbing can be complete without touching on UK climbing ethics. Those folks were absolutely critical in developing some ideas about not harming the rock. Other regions, like the Dresden sandstone crags, had similar ideas (and in particular influenced key figures you'll need to cover like Paul Preuss and Fritz Wiessner), but were less important in 'exporting' those ideas to the Alps, say, where a different culture took hold.
Take a look at somewhere like France or Austria, where the preponderance of limestone crags and a philosophy more concerned about 'recreation' than 'wilderness' led to a fairly small 'trad' climbing setup.
I can't direct you to too many useful resources there, except maybe the books "Classic Rock" and "Hard Rock" which cover some old classic UK trad routes.
In continental Europe, Michel Piola is the only lead I can give you - he got a lot of acclaim, and a lot of disdain, for bolting long classic alpine FAs, starting maybe in the 80s? Say what you will, but climb some of the routes first; the bolts are well placed and generally make the routes PG-rated.
No leads on Australia but there's plenty of trad action there.
I can't emphasize enough how much you need to research UK climbing ethics.
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tradman
Feb 20, 2006, 4:14 PM
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I think you'd probably have difficulty finding a "start" to climbing history.
As an example, ropes have been around since at least the thirteenth century and sheep and goats have been farmed in mountain areas for a lot longer than that, so you can be sure that ropes were used for rescuing trapped animals from cliffs, harvesting birds' eggs and so on.
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j_ung
Feb 20, 2006, 4:24 PM
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In reply to: I think you'd probably have difficulty finding a "start" to climbing history. As an example, ropes have been around since at least the thirteenth century and sheep and goats have been farmed in mountain areas for a lot longer than that, so you can be sure that ropes were used for rescuing trapped animals from cliffs, harvesting birds' eggs and so on.
True, but I think you can trace the history of climbing as a recreational pursuit. And if I'm not mistaken, one would be tracing it to your neck of the woods, would one not? :)
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dingus
Feb 20, 2006, 5:16 PM
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The single best book I have read as to the origins of climbing as a sport would have to be
Fergus Flemming's "Killing Dragons - The Conquest of the Alps" which tracks the rise of mountaineering. It doesn't touch on the advent of British cragging but that came later anyway. All reading, no pics that one.
Another incredible resource in this respect is the English version (for me anyway)
A History of Mountain Climbing by Roger Frison-Roche. Gives great credit to the early cragsters like Pruess and Dulfer, et al. Takes it through to the modern era of climbing.
On the north American side no history would be complete without starting with
Climbing in North America by Chris Jones.
Setlers Ways to the Sky and Ament's Wizards of Rock are complimentary and build upon Jone's groundbraking work. If interested climbing history buffs have not read these three books, they are missing out.
Course all this has been said before on this group, about 10 times at least.
DMT
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roth
Aug 30, 2010, 3:46 PM
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While this thread is pretty old, it's worthwhile for those who want to know that the full text of "The Whole Natural Art of Protection" by Doug Robinson is available at http://www.climbingaction.com/...t-of-Protection.html
For those unfamiliar with the classic article, it was pivotal piece that brought the thinking of a generation from pitons and hammers to silent and non rock damaging climbing.
If you've never read it, now's the time.
(This post was edited by roth on Aug 30, 2010, 3:47 PM)
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