Most inspiring climber in history?

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 141 - 160 of total 168 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Jun 25, 2012 - 02:16pm PT

Cheers for aBoukreev, Riley.

The guy's book and the consequent failure of it, in the monetary sense, broke my heart. Here is jKrakauer raking it in, no question, while Anatoli was, in my book, ignored and placed on the back-list (in BN's inventory anyway) so quickly it made my head spin. I read all of his book, cover to cover, in a couple of days (and it shames me I can't recall the title--oh, The Climb, duh). I feel that he was a climber writing for the interests of climbers, while Krakauer, God knows, was a climber writing for the public (money) at best a journalist climbing for a story?

To give jK his due, I can't speak to his motives, honestly, because I have not read any Krakauer books: there was no time, as I had millions of titles I could check out from the bookstore to read at home, so why bother reading a book about the same thing I just finished reading? It's good to switch up if you need to read things in order to sell books better, you should not get stuck in a genre rut, keep an open mind, read a few romance novels, even (a conversation-starter par excellence, if you get my drift).

This perquisite was the best thing about working for "The Men" (as Barnes and Noble is called in certain of their outlets, tongues firmly in cheek). I owe it to myself, I suppose, to read Into the Wild, of course. Only so many days, too many books, and certainly too few women to read to in bed.

Yeah, read:
"What would you say to a paragraph tonight, babe?"
"Oh, let's put a bookmark in it, if you don't mind. I got my period."
etc., etc.

I have a dilemma I have been dealing with while here at my friend Jim's, house-sitting. There are hundreds of books, half of which are classics of the mountaineering genre, and which appear in the list from the other book thread. It's the same, but different from the one I had as a BN seller. I just can't decide. Fortunately, I got hold of the Gervasutti and I am at least savoring it, not devouring it, for it is one of those gold mines, like TM's brain.

Of those hoary old Gollancz titles we sold at TNF, BITD, Tom Patey's One Man's Mountains was my most memorable read, and I just found a quote by him in Classic Rock, compiled by kWilson, which almost made me snort my coffee.

"From here to Sgurr a'Mhadaidh was no more than a walk. That is to say, you could have fallen and escaped with your life."

I realize this could all have gone somewhere else, I suppose it doesn't matter.

I am compiling a list of reads based on what you guys have said you are currently involved with or just finished based on the recent thread of that ilk. I am a bibliophile, just can't afford them, and why bother collecting them,

cuz I'm gonna die,

and who knows what would happen to them, why trouble my relatives any more than they will be? I would see books handed off to others, myself, and this is what I have done, mostly, though some would call it re-selling, it's not if you turn in books for credit as we do in the used book business. Buying books back is no longer an option for small stores, unfortunately.

I appreciate that a person has a library because it's there, because you will want to read some of the volumes over in the future, or want them to use as reference for whatever, and that it's nice to have a legacy for someone who will appreciate it. I have none of these reasons, so I have few books as I age.

Forgive the rambling, but I try to keep it interesting and informative.

ydpl8s

Trad climber

Santa Monica, California

Jun 25, 2012 - 02:57pm PT

"Most" of my early inspirations were Brits, cuz that was who we were reading about. Bonnington, Patey, Scott, Brown, Fawcett, Livesey, Tasker and of course...Whillans. This might also, in part, be because we were being inspired by British music at the time.

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Jun 25, 2012 - 04:24pm PT

General bad-ass - Ammon

I'd agree with that.

I walked up to him at the Bridge this weekend and told him that I thought he was a full-on whack job but that he was still my hero! He laughed his ass off!

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Jun 25, 2012 - 05:26pm PT

Silver, you may have just trumped everyone. Thanks. Very definition of inspiring.

little Z

Trad climber

un cafetal en Naranjo

Jun 25, 2012 - 05:43pm PT

Hot Henry

and them rock climbers in action in Snowdonia

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Jun 25, 2012 - 10:23pm PT

I bumped this thread a few days ago while looking for a Tobin Sorensen interview. And I did so by listing Dick Cilley as the most inspiring climber in history; in the moment I was sort of joking ...

But the more I think about it and the more of your contributions I read, he fits just fine. Particularly because he has stuck to his principles and he is still doing it.

In general we are inspired by the all-rounders and those who fix themselves up smartly with longevity.

So many of us are inspired directly by our close friends. Frankly, if we are not then one must ask what is not right with the world? (In fact, we have another thread, which deals with this idea of who influenced us most directly … Must find and bump THAT thread).

For me it was the original Stonemasters, Largo being so inclusive for anyone within earshot. Directly by guys like Kevin Powell, Dave Evans, Erik Eriksson, Hensel: who inspired me by propping my carcass out there on lead. Go back one to splitter’s post at the top of the page and you get that picture. Yep, it's actually this great big list of the entire community from which we were hatched.

I dig Mouse's paraphrased contribution with the climber's name left open for us to discover. Whomever that is, he/she fits the bill. And I take it on faith that we will reveal the undiscovered country of that hero before the thread is done.

Moving forward, for inspiration we also do well to reach beyond for those outside of our circle, for most of us this means super alpinist's and the great movers and shakers of the 8000 meter peaks.

I have to pause and mention Lyle Dean. Salt of the earth guy. Check out his 8000m CV sometime, if you can get him to cough it up. And of course Jeff Lowe, Alex Lowe, Mugs Stump, now, Conrad, and Steve Swenson a great all-rounder who is still at it.

Yes Riley, the Polish dudes are so sincere and so burly. In the end most of us find out about these inspirational human beings through literature, and this thread has taken that slant which is apropos. (Or back stepping a bit, more geographically relevant legends attained through oral history, … when I was young and hitting it in Yosemite, this would've been Frank Sacherer, plus all those Brits on Grit -geographically relevant because we are after all their colonies and spiritual heirs!).

Moving in that literary direction, reading about some of these euros: Christophe Profit, Pierre Beghin, "it was like a piece of existence, cut off from existence itself." (Hautes Altitudes via Alpinist 38), we begin to see these guys express themselves in a sort of narcoleptic-poetic-rapture. ... Entering a state of hyperreality. And they get away with it wonderfully!

So, at the top of my list and with that last bit characterizing the leverage point of my inspiration I'm going to concur with SteveA's assessment and go with: VOYTEK KURTYKA. Read his account of Gasherbrum IV. He pulls it off with panache seemingly inaccessible to us Yanks. Dude is a mythical luminary, really for real, and still alive ... ALIVE.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Jun 26, 2012 - 04:35pm PT

How could one ever leave out the comic prince of climbing, TM HERBERT!

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Jun 26, 2012 - 05:11pm PT

While I'm at it, Herbert contends that Mark Powell was probably the best climber in Yosemite until his leg injury. "He would have been better than all of us!!"

TWP

Trad climber

Mancos, CO

Jun 26, 2012 - 07:26pm PT

Sir Edmund Hillary.

Inspiring both for the first ascent of Everest which of course inspired countless people to become climbers.

And for what he did with the legacy. Return to Khumbu and build what the Sherpas wanted: schools.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Jun 26, 2012 - 07:50pm PT

Lauria, I do agree with you on Mark Powell. And of course your point is often made those last fifty years by many! And it is important to point out here Mark is still with us, not too far from Bonnie Kamps who visits them some. Mark is a terrific man.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Jun 26, 2012 - 09:03pm PT

Lauria:
Looks like Powell on Lembert, any idea which route on that particular day?

We were ruminating on who the proto-Stonemasters were and all roads clearly point to Kamps and then Powell. Were they contemporaries? Does Powell predate Kamps a bit? Would you say Powell trumps Robbins for free climbing, specifically, in the 50s and early 60s?

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Jun 27, 2012 - 12:40am PT

Not one vote for George Lowe? Are you kidding me? Badazz plus he found
time to get a PhD. Geez...

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Jun 27, 2012 - 01:50am PT

Well, I keep that great photo of Leavitating Leavitt on my wall for a reason. He's got to be the most inspiring UPSIDE-DOWN CLIMBER in history!

Roy, I will come clean, because I want to hear you guys howl when you realize how close your guesses were with Paul Preuss (PP) and Tin Tin (TT).

I am probably not the only one who appreciates this Italian from the Carnic Alps. Lucien Devies wrote the forward to the book by

Giusto Gervasutti.

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07-08w/wfeature-inspirations-simon-richardson-gervasutti/2

GG. Died climbing in 1946 on Mont Blanc du Tacul.
Nicknamed "Il Fortissimo."

Out_of_bounds

climber

Jun 27, 2012 - 02:22am PT

Another Inspiring climber from Canada, David P. Jones and his partner Joie Seagram.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Jun 27, 2012 - 02:35am PT

Tarbuster,

Yeah, that picture was taken at the top of the Water Cracks. Powell (with Beverly) had taken me up there with my wife for my first exposure to Tuolumne in 1965.

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Jun 27, 2012 - 02:45am PT

Tarbuster,
Kamps and Powell were close friends. Powell did just pre-date him in Yosemite and Robbins probably would agree that Powell was THE supreme Yosemite climber in the late 50s in the Valley.