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elvislegs
Aug 6, 2002, 9:34 PM
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Go ED!
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wildtrail
Aug 6, 2002, 10:00 PM
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I'll go with photon on this one. However, as greatest feat, I'll chose anyone that was doing it before the application of "nylon". Steve
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marcel
Aug 8, 2002, 5:42 PM
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If you look at what Bradford Washburn did over his life time, he'd be hard to beat. All his early climbs in Alaska, to mapping the Grand Canyon, and his work on Everest. Bradford gets my vote.
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jbone
Aug 8, 2002, 6:22 PM
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Ed V. for his oxegenless ascents of the 8000 meter peaks. And because he had the guts to be in the Verticle limit movie with such a crappy plot line. J-Bone
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jmlangford
Aug 9, 2002, 4:24 PM
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I have to agree with you elcap. That is amazing! Where can I find more info on that? Hey, how about more info in your profile, like, where are you from?
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bigwalling
Aug 10, 2002, 6:10 AM
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We talked about Cedar's Baffin thing on this site. Cedar even signed up for and account and talked about the climb.
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bigwalling
Aug 10, 2002, 6:20 AM
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I found it.Baffin Speed Climbing
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jmlangford
Aug 10, 2002, 6:50 AM
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Thanks for that link. Cool story.
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bbevans039
Sep 14, 2002, 3:21 AM
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The first American expedetions to K2 and big wall exploration in remote Himalaya,
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mainline
Oct 30, 2002, 2:13 AM
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How about Jeff Lowe for introducing the world to extreme mixed climbing. Or Jeff Lowe and John Roskelly's ascent of the Tawoche wall.
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mshore
Oct 30, 2002, 2:40 AM
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Anything Dean Potter has done in the last year. Incredible
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andy_lemon
Oct 30, 2002, 5:56 PM
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I would say the first Americans to "SUMMIT" K2. Hence the movie "K2".
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JHypers
May 8, 2011, 8:03 AM
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Despite this thread being inordinately old, I noticed that there was only one legitimate guess at what the greatest mountain feat by an American was. That guess was John Waterman's 145-day solo traverse of Mount Hunter. This is the answer to that question, however I present another possibility which is deserving of consideration. Range: Canadian Rockies Peak: White Pyramid Route: The Reality Bath (VII WI6+ X, 600 m) Climbers: Mark Twight, Randy Radcliff (1988) Read Twight's book Kiss or Kill: Confessions of a Serial Climber for a discussion of this route. The Reality Bath was the first grade VII ice climb. It is considered by all rational climbing authorities to be a death route, and as such has never been repeated. As far as I'm concerned, in order to qualify for a 'greatest feat' you have to do something which is considered to be impossible by all rational assessments. The trick with these 'greatest feats' is that they tend to get overtaken every generation.
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rtwilli4
May 8, 2011, 11:47 AM
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Nice first post JH. And while not a single feat, and incomparable to the achievements mentioned above, I think the lifetime of Fred Becky is worth mentioning.
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rangerrob
Jun 16, 2011, 2:07 AM
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John Waterman solo on Hunter Schoenig's miracle belay on K2 in 1950's Bridwell and Stump onthe FA of Dance of the Woo Li Masters on the east face of the Mooses Tooth
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kachoong
Jun 16, 2011, 3:15 AM
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Twight is a machine! I'd go with him or something done by Kennedy, perhaps his ascent of Wall of Shadows with Greg Child? Or the unsuccessful attempt on north ridge of Latok I with Donini and Lowes?
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camhead
Sep 22, 2011, 11:00 AM
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Hate to bump the Frankenthread, but one of the most impressive feats, although not from the "golden age" of mountaineering, would definitely be Josh Wharton's lead of the final pitch of a new route on Trango Tower. Can't recall the details, but it involved him onsighting 5.10x slab at nearly 20,000 feet after five days of dehydration.
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buffalord
Sep 22, 2011, 1:42 PM
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Steve House and Vince Anderson...Nanga Parbat...game, set, match...
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kachoong
Sep 22, 2011, 4:19 PM
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camhead wrote: Hate to bump the Frankenthread, but one of the most impressive feats, although not from the "golden age" of mountaineering, would definitely be Josh Wharton's lead of the final pitch of a new route on Trango Tower. Can't recall the details, but it involved him onsighting 5.10x slab at nearly 20,000 feet after five days of dehydration. Don't impose your fear of runout slabs on the mountaineering community! I'm sure it tickled his taint to see that slab at the end of his ordeal.
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skiclimb
Sep 23, 2011, 5:13 AM
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N Ridge Latok 1 Lowe, Lowe, Donini and Kennedy. 20+ attempts later and still no one has done better. Seems like a good entry. Honnold Free solo of HD Reg NW Face. Pretty decent. Johnny Waterman? Hmm hard to say.. certainly the craziest ascent I've ever heard of in mountaineering. WTH throw it in for good measure.
(This post was edited by skiclimb on Sep 23, 2011, 5:29 AM)
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potreroed
Oct 1, 2011, 3:22 AM
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Though technically a Brit (born in Rhodesia), Rusty Baillie has lived in the USA since 1967. He and a partner are the only ones, ever, to have climbed Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro in a day!
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areyoumydude
Oct 3, 2011, 8:25 PM
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One of them has to be Hummingbird Ridge on Mt Logan by Dick Long, Allen Steck, Jim Wilson, John Evans, Paul Bacon, and Frank Coale. It still hasn't seen a second ascent. Or Jason "Singer" Smith soloing the second ascent of the Midgard Serpent (A5) on Mt Thor in Baffin Island.
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maldaly
Oct 3, 2011, 10:02 PM
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I guess that when someone asks me what the "greatest" was I look for events that changed the paradigm. The fastest will always get faster, the gnarliest will get more gnar and the most dangerous will always be the luck of the draw. When I look at climbing as a whole, the stand-outs to me are Chouinard, Robinson and Frost's adoption of and promotion of clean climbing, Batso's ascent of El Cap, Jeff Lowe's climb of Bridalveil and Long, Bacher and Westbay's 1-day ascewnt of the Nose. The changed changed the world of climbing in unique and enduring ways. When Messner and Habler climbed an 8,000M peak without oxygen the shook the world. So did the first party to climb a mountain by the most difficult route or cleanest line rather than by a route which would deliver them the summit. Perhaps when Croft soloed Astroman, the world changed. Or maybe that was Bachar, who was the first to solo hard. I don't know...each person has to look at this history as an individual and ask herself, who has done something that made me look at climbing in a different way? Alex Honhold is an amazing and talented climber who is blowing the roof of of standards, but has he changed the climbing? No. He's just pushed the envelope. John Waterman really did break new ground with his ascent of the SE Buttress of Hunter but did it change the way people climbed or looked at climbing? I don't think so. If it had we'd see others hauling 17 haul bags weighing 1000 lbs over months to climb badass buttress. It just ain't happening. Keep thinking... Mal
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skiclimb
Oct 5, 2011, 2:23 PM
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Excellent post Mal.
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dynosore
Oct 5, 2011, 3:31 PM
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The sourdough expedition that was the first to climb Denali gets my vote. Four totally green guys traveled hundreds of miles through grizzly infested wilderness and swamp and climbed it on a bet. "The climbers did not use ropes because as Taylor said later ‘We did not need them.’ This was typical of the Sourdoughs’ style. With the exception of the fourteen-foot flagpole, they choose to travel light." Yeah....they lugged a 14 ft spruce pole to the top with them so they could put the American flag up and leave a testament to their climb. "The summit party consisting of Taylor, Anderson and McGonagall set out at 3.00 a.m. - a true Alpine start. For some reason or other Lloyd had returned to Willows Camp: he may have been suffering from altitude sickness. Without the protection of a rope the three climbers surmounted the Karstens Ridge, traversed the Harper Glacier and scaled a steep couloir since known as the Sourdough Gully. Not far from the summit McGonagall stopped explaining later, ‘No, I didn’t go clear to the top. Why should I? I’d finished my turn carrying the pole before we got there. Taylor and Pete finished the job. I sat down and rested, then went back to camp.’ As with Lloyd he may have been suffering from altitude sickness. The other two, Taylor and Anderson, climbed on still lugging the flagpole. At 3.25 p.m. on April 3rd, 1910 they were standing on the North Peak. They had made the summit push from 11,000 feet (3352m). Encumbered with the flagpole they climbed more than 8,000 feet (about 2500m) and then returned to their camp site in eighteen hours. An extraordinary feat of mountaineering." Nothing done in this day of goretex, ropes, and weather forecasts will ever impress me this much. http://irishmountaineeringclub.org/...id=128&Itemid=89
(This post was edited by dynosore on Oct 5, 2011, 3:34 PM)
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