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Roger Breedlove
Trad climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Jul 25, 2006 - 08:34am PT
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I don't know if it matters much, but I think Warren was very much appreciated during his time in the 50s and 60s. It was only in the end that he was on a different path with climbing blank walls--Firefall Face ("But Warren, there aren’t any cracks up there," was Galen's first response to Warren's invitation.) in 1969 and the South Face of Half Dome in 1970, also with Galen, and finally the WEML in 1970.
After that, the old bonds were broken and people got pissed at each other and really mean spirited. It was also very public with published articles and slide presentations, that dragged on for a few years. Warren was funny, but everyone else took the bolting issue seriously, and increasingly Warren sounded shrill.
But it was short lived. While the 60s climbers thought that WEML was the harbinger of a new dark age, it turned out that it was the last gasp of the 'Golden Years'--the climbing world had moved on. By 1970, Robbins and Harding were no longer the cutting edge of big routes--Heart Route in 1970, Aquarian Wall, Son of Heart in 1971, Cosmos, Shield, Magic Mushroom, Zodiac in 1972--the old world was ancient history.
So, if ST had existed in the spring of 1971, it would have been all about the bad blood about WEML, bolts, and "Valley Christians." But by the summer of 1971 it was all about 5.11 and new El Cap routes.
I wasn't in the Valley when Warren started coming back, but I am glad to hear that he did and made friends with newer climbers that weren't part of those darker days. He deserves to be remembered for his good humor and great contributions to Valley walls.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 12:51am PT
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bump
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Fletcher
Trad climber
Max V02
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Nov 12, 2008 - 01:39am PT
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I'm not one to look back and regret things. But it sure would have been great to meet Warren. Thanks for all the great stories. They are heartwarming in a WH kind of way!
Fletch
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Nov 12, 2008 - 01:11pm PT
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My own brush with Warren wit:
It was around 83-84 and I found myself buying drinks for the legend at the mountain room bar. I thought, "This is my chance, I HAVE to go climbing with this guy!"
I told him how much I was aching to get back up Higher Cathedral Spire and would he join me. He said "sure, but all I've got is these tenny shoes here." I told him no problem, that we had plenty of rock shoes around to get him into.
He looked at me with a mischievious gleam and said "Do I need to know any special knots for this?" and then began giggling to himself while I was laughing. He cracked himself up!
I made all the necessary preparations that night, and was super stoked. I went hunting for him in camp in the morning after he didn't show up at my truck at the agreed time.
When I saw him wobbling toward the bathroom with half his hair sticking straight up and full of leaves, I knew my dream was not to be. I tried to nudge him into it anyway, but he said "I really want to, but I promised this little sweety that I'd meet her for breakfast and I don't want to be late.."
I pleaded "But, you promised me first!" He grinned and said "There are spires...and then there are spires.." and walked into the john cackling to himself.
Oh well, I had some great fun hanging out with him a bit and got a good story out of the deal.
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:18pm PT
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batso is and always will be my hero. did not care for the status quo and always did it his way...
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:41pm PT
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I met Warren Harding in around 1969. I had saved up for a pair of the famous Royal Robbins Rock shoes (the blue monstrosities like ski boots, only worse) which had just come on the market. I went over to the Mountain Store, and a gnomish, devil of a character who was working there asked me what I wanted. I mentioned the rock shoes, and he kindly fetched them out of the back room and knelt there on the floor helping me try them on. All the while, he was exuding VERY POWERFUL vibes similar (in retrospect) to Marty Feldman as Igor in Young Frankenstein. "Yes young sir, do they fit your pretty feet? How else may I serve you sir", etc, etc, etc.
Certainly broadcast on the psi band if not actually aloud. Somewhere along the way I realized that I was being served by non other than the infamous Warren Harding himself, but I was too shocked to actually introduce myself and have a real conversation.
He was actually very nice to me, although the indignity of having to sell me shoes named for his rival and arch-nemesis probably grated his soul (assuming he still had one...). Anyway, I still have those awful shoes, and whenever they float to the top of my giant shoe collection, I still remember the thrill of association with a true legend of human endeavor, even if only for the few minutes it took to fit and buy them. A great memory!!!
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Nov 12, 2008 - 09:21pm PT
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He had 4 cans of beer, 2 wine glasses and a bottle of red wine, a package of hot dogs with coat hangers, a full loaf of bread, and a large jar of mustard
how great is that?
thanks for sharing
murf
I never got to climb or drink with Warren.
My Warren story removed one degree
We were up on the WFLT and my friends were going to try the South Face of Wash Column but they bailed AND that day they saw Warren hanging out in the amphitheater area. they ask if hes Warren Harding and Warren says "you got a six pack?" They went and bought one and had a great afternoon
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Nov 12, 2008 - 10:47pm PT
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Ed and others...thanks for bumping so many old threads I have never heard about not arriving on the Taco until @ 9 months ago.
This one is great. Also Peter Haan's gear and crack climb....The off width tips and the twilight zone and Do the Wide with pride.
Had plenty of time to read the past couple days. This has been great! Again Thanks. lrl :D
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Nov 12, 2008 - 10:59pm PT
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Some people who knew him for a long time (going back to the 50's) seemed to have the opinion that Warren was a really good guy when sober but kind of a nasty drunk.
Any comments?
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Dwain
Trad climber
Apple Valley, California
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Nov 12, 2008 - 11:03pm PT
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Warren Harding = Oliver Moon!!!
Dwain
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Dwain
Trad climber
Apple Valley, California
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Nov 13, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
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BUMP
for Warren Harding.
Because, any person with Warren in their name
has to be a COOL and WITTY Dude!!!!
Dwain Warren :)
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 13, 2008 - 10:23pm PT
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hey there chicken skinner, all... say, i really enjoyed reading all this...
just as lynne said... for us new folks, we have NO CLUE as to the treasures that lurk here at supertopo, shut off in the attic, for now...
we MUST someday find our way through them all...
:)
naturally, "choice bumps" will do it...
:)
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 15, 2008 - 02:04am PT
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Warren Harding
Semper Farcissimus
June 18, 1924 - February 27, 2002
“Warren Harding? Well, what can I say?”
That’s exactly how Warren would have started his own obituary. His usual demeanor was self-deprecating: To the question, “Are you the famous Warren Harding?,” he would retort, “Well, I used to be.” He believed that people are never what they were. They all grow… older.
Harding died at home in Anderson, California, well aware that the end was near. He had been in failing health for over three years and refused to exchange his lifestyle for an extended life span. He approached his end with the same wit that he exhibited throughout his life. From his bed, just days before he died, he quipped that he was definitely never going to buy any more 50,000-mile-warranty tires.
Warren was introduced to climbing at the age of 27 in 1952 and within a year had found his niche in Yosemite Valley. Most of us remember Harding as the Yosemite pioneer -- the prime mover in the first ascent of El Capitan in 1958, via the Nose, a milestone that marked the first time a wall of such size and difficulty had been climbed anywhere in the world. His first ascents of El Cap, the East Buttress and North Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock, the West Face of the Leaning Tower, the East Face of Washington Column (later freed as Astroman), the South Face of Mount Watkins, the Direct Route on the Lost Arrow, and the South Face of Half Dome spanned the next two decades. In the Sierra high country he established first ascents on the East Face of Keeler Needle and the Southwest Face of Mount Conness.
Beyond his groundbreaking ascents, Warren was characterized variously as a rebel, iconoclast, and rogue. In his outrageous book Downward Bound, published in 1975, Harding described himself as “an undersized individual … [with] neither any outstanding physical attributes nor burning ambition. But I have a mind of my own and a love for the mountains.” Despite this self-description, Harding was a dashing figure in his heyday, well known for his penchant for good-looking women, classy sports cars, and Red Mountain wine.
And he did have a mind of his own and used it in formulating his climbing philosophy. He looked upon climbing as “an individual thing, not some kind of organized religion.” He was unimpressed and refused to be intimidated by admittedly “better climbers” when they espoused certain “climbing ethics.” Warren never hesitated to take on those whom he referred to as the “elite” of the climbing community and didn’t mince words in his castigation of “these gentlemen who, in effect, presume to tell me how to do my thing.” Climbing to him was something he did because there were no rules.
When he and Dean Caldwell completed their 27-day first ascent of the Wall of the Early Morning Light (a.k.a. the Dawn Wall) on El Cap in 1970, their placement of 330 bolts re-ignited a controversy that had smoldered in the Valley since Warren drilled his first bolt-hole. Was Harding putting up routes where no route existed or should exist? Excessive bolts and fixed ropes were being judged as “unethical.” To that sentiment Warren replied, “Climbing requires many disciplines, not the least of which is plain old ass-busting work, which is what bolts amount to!”
Royal Robbins, in concert with a few other well-respected Yosemite climbers, decided that the route should be erased. Two months after the first ascent, Robbins and I started up for the second ascent, chopping the bolts as we climbed. On the first bivouac, after four pitches, the question of interfering with an established route -- especially one with some admirably difficult nailing -- began to eat at Robbins. By morning we agreed to quit chopping. Robbins later wrote, “[It’s] good to have a man around who doesn’t give a damn what the establishment thinks … Harding stands out as a magnificent maverick.”
By the late 1970s Warren put serious Yosemite climbing behind him and dedicated his time to writing, lectures, slideshow tours, and the occasional sojourn into the mountains. Never giving up his union card, he worked off and on as a surveyor for the State of California. As he put it, “I’ll just plug along. Climb, work, climb, have an occasional glass of wine.” Into the 1980s there was a lot less climbing, a lot less work, and finally retirement -- and a lot more glasses of wine. He did, however, return to the Nose in 1989 to become, at that time, the oldest person to ever climb El Capitan.
Harding’s affinity for Red Mountain wine was his eventual and inevitable undoing. By the time he reached his 70s, he had been warned that his liver would not last if he continued to imbibe. When the end was near and his body began to shut down, he became confused and a little delusional. He wanted to know what was happening to him. The conversation led to discussing the Buddhists’ belief that the soul leaves the dying body and enters an embryo to emerge anew in a child. Harding pleaded weakly, “But how will you find me?”
During these last days, many of Harding’s old climbing friends began to visit. On one occasion it was planned to videotape Warren and some of his friends while they swapped stories of the golden era of Yosemite climbing. When his friends arrived they spent an hour or so greeting one another. Warren became impatient and whispered to the cameraman, “Do they realize there’s not much time left?”
During one of these story-swapping sessions, someone asked Warren which of all his bivouacs was the worst. He answered without hesitation that the storm-bound bivouac on Half Dome’s South Face route was his worst. Immediately he was asked which was his best. He grinned, and almost in a whisper, answered, “You’ll have to ask my girlfriends.” Finally someone asked what he would do differently if he had it to do over again. He replied, “I would be taller, smarter, and less nasty.”
Warren Harding? Have we said enough?
 Don Lauria
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Nov 15, 2008 - 03:04am PT
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Thanks Don,
Even though some parts of your post are part of the well known lore, you tied it all together with lesser known moments and many more examples of his fine wit. And you being one of those who knew him best (At least in here..) You've stolen the show.
It's good to have you here with us.
Thanks again,
Bruce
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 16, 2008 - 05:50pm PT
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I only did one climb with him. A failed adventure with Hennek, TM, and Warren. It was all his idea and and the first two pitches required a ton of gardening - we should have suspected as much since Warren insisted on bring two rather heavy gardening tools.
I led the second and last pitch. My mouth was so full of mud I had to scrape it out in order to talk. That was enough for TM & Hennek. They quit, so Warren & I did so, too. Warren always respected me for not wanting to quit and for swallowing so much mud.
I spent a lot of time with him in his non-climbing years - there's another anecdote that will come from those times.
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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Nov 16, 2008 - 07:31pm PT
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I love that two of my good friends who now have two beautiful children and have been married for many years, were introduced to each other , by Warren, at the mountain room.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 16, 2008 - 07:35pm PT
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"My mouth was so full of mud I had to scrape it out in order to talk."
There is a great joke in there, Don.
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 16, 2008 - 08:49pm PT
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Breedlove, I'm not sure I want to hear it.
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 16, 2008 - 08:56pm PT
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When Warren was younger back before he quit climbing, he could be a very nasty drunk depending on who pissed him off, but in his old age he was very mellow - even while inebriated.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 16, 2008 - 09:32pm PT
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That is good to hear, Don. I only knew Warren in the 70s.
Regarding the joke, sometimes the incomplete anticipation is better that the realization. Just like....
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