Name Your Favorite Mag Based Climbing Lit Pieces and Why

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Chiloe

Trad climber

Lee, NH

Apr 25, 2006 - 09:29pm PT

Tar...Chuck Pratt..."The View from Deadhorse Point". The piece was so visual. You just had to go to the desert after reading that.

Totally agree, this was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title. Not long after it came out, I took that Ascent issue along as inspiration and guidebook on my first desert trip. 35 years later I've still got the mag, with all the damage it sustained on that trip.

Largo

Sport climber

Venice, Ca

Apr 25, 2006 - 10:00pm PT

The Deadhorse is good but Pratt's article on Watkins has an even more developed tone and feel to it. One of my favorites. Tillman also had some really great stuff--fricking funny as well. The older stuff tends to be stronger, IMO.

JL

jclimb

Trad climber

Durango, Co

Apr 25, 2006 - 10:30pm PT

Thanks for the Chuck Pratt, Deadhorse Point links - that was a much appreciated read. Night Driving is awesome, one of my favorite's for sure!!! I've read some pretty great stuff in Mountain Gazette in the past few years. I'll dig out some of the issues I have packed away and try to relay some titles and issue numbers. Thanks for the good topic!

Trad climber

Apr 26, 2006 - 12:16am PT

Largo, you're so right- that Pratt piece on Mt. Watkins was sensational! Two of my favorites are your own memorable account of soloing the Left Ski Track (the butterfly's wing...), and Russ Clune's thought-provoking tale of soloing Supercrack. Does anyone remember "The Art of the States" and "The State of the Art"?

Jaybro

Social climber

The West

Apr 26, 2006 - 12:20am PT

Sissyphus

the Soloists diary (¿Diary of the soloist Climber?) -'72(?) ascent

"Ronald, I am Fatigued!" West face, not Nose

The Mt Watkins one is superb, but the View from Deadhorse Point get's my vote.

The Only Blasphemy only gets more relevent

If anyone missed it, check out Ed's list below only one dud

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Apr 26, 2006 - 12:29am PT

steelmnky posted up a few articles, and I also contributed a few...

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Apr 26, 2006 - 12:50am PT

I love well written climbing stories, not just for the pleasure of reading but because they can spark the kindling within me and light the fire to go out and climb.

There are two magazine editions which initiated adventures, an article:

Yosemite's Other Valley by Galen Rowell which appeared in Ascent, probably one of the best climbing magazines ever published.

This article was directly responsible for my first visit to Hetch Hetchy in the early 70's.

The cover of Mountain 102 is a fantastic photograph, caption: "Renato Casarotto leading teh Pomme d'Or icefall, Malbaie, Quebec, Canada" lead to a trip up to the Laurentides in the winter of 1986-87. This edition also has the story Flint Hard and Flawless by John Long, an account of freeing the Lost Arrow Spire juxtaposing the history of climbs made on the spire. Mountain is also one of the all time great climbing magazines.

dougs510

Social climber

down south

Apr 26, 2006 - 01:12am PT

I liked "Kiss or Kill" by Mark Twite (sp?). Anyhow, Wickwires, "Addicted to Danger", was a pretty good read... left me wondering though.... lot's of folks bought it climbing w/ him... No disrespect Wick. I'll also put in a plug for Arno's "The Rock Warriers Way"... good "out of the box" thinking, with much Buddest wisdom and practice to enhance your climbing psych.

I think my all time favorite, though not a climbing read, is John Muir's "Mountianeering Essays". Very good.

Elcapinyoazz

Mountain climber

Anchorage, Alaska

Apr 26, 2006 - 01:15am PT

Most of the Ascents had some really good tales in them. The one about some German (IIRC) dudes doing Son of Heart was nice, just rang true. And about every other Alpinist has a good one, although some do suffer under translation.

That said, the one mag-based thing that sticks in my mind wasn't for it's lit qualities. It was in Climbing maybe around 8-10 years ago....JayBro will probably know the one. It was an article on hardest OWs in the States. Crazy and inspiring pics in that one. That was the fist time I'd seen pics of someone on Bellyfull. Gnarly.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 26, 2006 - 01:29am PT

wow, this is rolling nicely!
now we need to get all this slapped into a binder so to speak...

yes jay sissyphus.

Jaybro

Social climber

The West

Apr 26, 2006 - 01:30am PT

I think it has Bridwell on the cover, I'll check the archieve next time I'm back at the ranch.

jack splat

climber

Apr 26, 2006 - 01:57am PT

I think it was "Future Chock" (not "Future Chalk"). Was the writer Ronald Headly? I always wondered if that was a John Long pseudonym, the style was so similar.

Anyway, that was a brilliant short, it would be great to read it again and see how much has come to pass.

BrentA

Gym climber

estes park

Apr 26, 2006 - 02:10am PT

Does "Confessions of a Serial Climber" count.

Kind of compulation of mag based stuff.

Any alpinist piece.

Chaz

Trad climber

So. Cal.

Apr 26, 2006 - 04:34am PT

I remember the one Mr Fosburg talks about. I think it was called "Easy Day". "We'll piss right up this, then we'll have a few".

One I liked was, I think, called "Tugley Wood", which chronicled a road-trip to Colorado and Wyoming by a couple guys from Wisconson or Minnesota. They played a game called "Tourist Baiting" which was a high-stakes, Bull Crap Spraying competition with Tourons as the targets.

kevin Fosburg

Sport climber

park city,ut

Apr 26, 2006 - 08:39am PT

How about all those gems in Games Climbers Play? I especially recall, It's a 5.10 Mantle into Heaven Brother as being way funny and seeming to anticipate future trends like heavy handed NPS regulation, ASCA folly, sport climbing clones etc.

426

Sport climber

Buzzard Point, TN

Apr 26, 2006 - 08:41am PT

Ah yes, Tulgey Wood; a classic- I've used that line "hollow as a rotten log and filled with water" in El Cap Meadow before.

kevin Fosburg

Sport climber

park city,ut

Apr 26, 2006 - 09:25am PT

Who wrote that Tulgey Wood story? I met some literary-type climbers from Minnesota once at Devil"s Tower where I think there's also a route by that name.

Zetedog

Trad climber

PGH, PA

Apr 26, 2006 - 09:25am PT

There are two from the mid to late-nineties that have stuck with me. Neither were of the best quality, but both were creative. I wish I would have save the articles, or remembered more.

This first was about 2 guys that climbed some Hueco Tanks wall in "big wall" style after being told by some barfly they weren't real men until they had done one. IIRC, they took with them a 30ft piece of webbing, a case of beers, and a single crampon. There was a line in their that just cracked me up, something to the effect that the narrator looked ino the sky and didn't see a cloud, and although he was no expert, figured the weather pattern was stable. Since the temps were near 85, he figured he wouldn't need to pull out the crampon yet.

The second was a fictional piece about some young climber that was talking into leading some desert monolithic tower by some old guy in a local bar. the description of the climbers was pretty decent, and the story had a couple of twists (I don't remeber whether the old guy told the younger he had climbed it in his youth, which he actually had not done, or the other way around).

Any how, both stuck with me, and there are times when I am out clibing when I can vividly remember the sensations of both stories.

ToddE.