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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 29, 2008 - 02:01am PT
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El Capitan, Wall of Morning Light. On October 23 Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell started up the Wall of Morning Light on what may have been the most difficult rock climb yet accomplished. The climb, which lies between the Nose and the North America Wall, was completed 27 days later in a blare of newspaper, magazine and television publicity. The American Alpine Journal was promised an article, but as we go to print, it has unfortunately still not materialized. Therefore we can merely give a few details gathered from the press. The pair set off with 300 pounds of food, water and gear, enough for 20 days. They rejected the line farther left, nearer the Nose, used on previous attempts, as not sufficiently direct. This doubtless led to the use of many more bolts (some 300 are reported to have been used), bat hooks and rivets than might otherwise have been the case. For this they have been criticized, but it enabled them to keep a more direct line. It was twelve days before they were as high as the other previous attempts. There they were trapped in the “bat tents” by a four-day rainstorm. The next section was the very smooth “blank dihedral”, which was slow work and where they gained only 100 feet a day. On November 11 the National Park Service decided they needed to be rescued but two days later it was called off when Caldwell shouted, “A rescue is unwarranted, unwanted and will not be accepted.” They were now two-thirds of the way up the wall. Finally on May 18 they climbed over the edge at the top for a champagne lunch. The editors very much regret that their article did not arrive, for they could best have presented their own case in the controversy which has sprung up about the ethics of the climb. We point out Royal Robbins’ defense of their tactics in Summit of December. We also present here without comment TM Herbert’s remarks.
Wall of the Morning Light, El Capitan. On February 4, 1971, Royal Robbins and I completed the second ascent of the Wall of the Morning Light. Short days, cold nights, and hot tea characterized the six-day ascent. (The Editor calls attention to this most remarkable ascent so modestly summarized by the Assistant Editor for California.)
DON LAURIA
Comment on the Two Ascents of the Wall of Morning Light. After 14 years of rock climbing, I have finally been moved to written comment. What prompted this? One of the most important events I have witnessed during my years of climbing, an event which was completed on February 4, 1971, when Royal Robbins and Don Lauria without fanfare made the second ascent in 5 1/2 days. What now could be more important than raising American rock-climbing standards? What about the fine first ascents by Robbins, Frost, Kor, Chouinard, Pratt and others of the golden generation in an age when new lines fell one after another? I often wonder if anything anywhere in the world could ever top the solo ascent of the Muir Wall. I have seen fine free and artificial climbers pushing themselves to their limit using runners, nuts, pitons, and a rare bolt occasionally for protection. Many of my companions have risked nasty falls, even their lives, trying first ascents without placing a single bolt. In the 2000 feet on the west face of El Capitan, Robbins and I kept the bolts down to one.
In November, amidst helicopters, reporters, rangers and tourists, two climbers came bolting, bat hooking and aluminum riveting over the summit of this mountain of rock which in the past has given me the finest climbing experiences of my life. It seemed to me that everyone I met, climber or not, was talking about the two on El Cap. I felt like screaming, “But they bolted the damned thing, and then they sold it to millions on television!” I wonder if the British and American teams waiting to get onto Cerro Torre felt like this when the summit was reached recently by an obsessed man with a mechanical bolt-gun who used something like 1000 bolts to bag the top. There are no laws against drilling a few holes in the rock, or even 550 holes at five-foot intervals, to eliminate all the nasty pitons and put in a super direct (not just a direct) route on El Capitan. There are dozens of new routes to be done, and on many of them we could avoid using any devious zig-zaggy cracks.
What was this most important event I witnessed in February? It was not a climb which raised American climbing standards, but rather it was the elimination of a climb which had lowered the standards. This winter Royal Robbins and Don Lauria chopped the first 300 feet of bolts out of the bolt-ladder route on El Capitan, while completing the second ascent in five-and-a-half days.
TM HERBERT
[url="http://www.americanalpineclub.org/AAJO/pdfs/1971/usa1971_325-381.pdf#search=%22Yosemite%22"]AAJ 1971 p360[/url]
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WBraun
climber
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Nov 29, 2008 - 02:13am PT
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I believe it was Barry Bates that was lowered to Harding and Caldwell's position from the top for the rescue attempt.
Barry told me something to the extent;
Warren emerged from his Bat tent yelling at Barry that he will bash him in the head with his hammer, if you even get near me.
LOL
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 3, 2008 - 10:25am PT
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I was asked last night who re-equipped/re-engineered WOEML after the bolts were chopped. I thought I used to know the answer to this, but I was probably fooling myself, no names came to mind....
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Ed,
can you find and post the visionary letter to Mountain by Lito Tejeda Tores about the WOTEML?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 3, 2008 - 07:30pm PT
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HI Ron,
my volumes of Mountain don't go back that far.... maybe Steve can post that?
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cintune
climber
the Moon and Antarctica
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Here's Caldwell's account, in the Readers Digress version of a Northwest Magazine article, from March 1971. Hope the scans are legible.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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May 16, 2009 - 05:08pm PT
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Ron,
Here is Lito's letter along with ones from Galen, Ansel Adams and Chris Jones. All from Mountain 16-July 1971
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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May 27, 2009 - 01:37am PT
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Just speaking with Barry and he confirmed that was indeed he that was charged with yelling down to Dean and Warren. He said all the climbers involved in the non-rescue knew it wasn't needed, they were just doing what the NPS ordered. They were happy to be collected pay to sit around the top of El Cap!
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