Steve Roper's 1964 Red Yosemite Guide- Classic Photos

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Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Feb 23, 2011 - 12:46am PT

btw, my green book's glue is decomposing. What's the best way to fix this?

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Feb 23, 2011 - 07:23am PT

Mungie, take your book to a bindery. There are some in Berkeley even--- go online, you'll see a ton of them. As a further encouragement, that is what Boche did with his Red---- in that thread about the Red and the Green, he began the thread about how his mom, being a librarian, grabbed his little Red as it disintegrated, and had it rebound. Both of these books now are rare enough to deserve preservation plus for you it must have a lot of meaning as well.

Prezwoodz

climber

Anchorage

Mar 1, 2011 - 02:44pm PT

Thanks JMC for the link. Just got my 1964 Red guide in the mail today and its strange. Looks like its never been opened or something although the cover jacket is quite warn.

Sweeeetttt book though. Oh and it was $27

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 27, 2012 - 08:01pm PT

Red Guide Bump...

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 12, 2012 - 01:30pm PT

Winter of Our Discontent bump...

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Feb 12, 2012 - 01:35pm PT

Bee-yumping for the brave souls who will do the new Comprehensive!

currygirl

Trad climber

Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Ketchum, Old Snowmass

Feb 20, 2015 - 04:59pm PT

Hey Guido, maybe I beat you to it, but here is my 1964 copy that is one of my family treasures!

Love the inscription!

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Feb 20, 2015 - 08:01pm PT

Yes, Patsy, that is certainly a wonderful heirloom from you. Thanks for sharing. Roper in his magnificent short-schrifting perennial life-on-the-run schtick, at its best. Love him to bits. Stevie, don't ever change, see you next year in geometry class!!

currygirl

Trad climber

Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Ketchum, Old Snowmass

Feb 20, 2015 - 08:32pm PT

Peter,

We need to reconnect! Andy and I were in New Zealand earlier this winter and we had a nice visit with Joe and Nancy.(He posted a photo in the Fritz Wiessner- A Man For All Mountains topic section)...Ever since then, I have been putting together the pieces of a puzzle and it occurred to me that you are the perfect person to connect the dots.

Listened to your soundcloud interview today - fabulous.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Feb 20, 2015 - 08:36pm PT

Thanks for those remarks Patsy. Joe did send the marvelous photo/portrait of you and Andy W. on the Shanachie. It was a huge surprise and deep treat for me, seeing how far far back we do go and over such delicate terrain. And how the Shanachie is some magical sort of vessel containing so much as well, carrying many of us forward within her hold.. When you are ready, let it flow; write to me. I am completely open to this.

scuffy b

climber

heading slowly NNW

Feb 20, 2015 - 10:29pm PT

Hi Patsy,
long time no see, 35 years or so.
Hope you're doing great.
I'm in Santa Cruz now, still to my surprise.
Steve Moyles

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Topic Author's Reply - May 27, 2017 - 04:42pm PT

Red Guide bump...

Ledge Rat

Trad climber

Michigan

Feb 21, 2018 - 02:52pm PT

I recently acquired a copy of this awesome guide. Does anyone know the significance of this date stamp and doodle on the front fold of the dust jacket?

Jeff

Don Lauria

Trad climber

Bishop, CA

Feb 21, 2018 - 03:23pm PT

Just discovered this thread and was prompted to search my bookcase for my copy. Alas, it's nowhere to be found. Now, I never throw anything away, especially books. I know it will turn up somewhere, sometime. Therein lies the crux ... time!

Tamara Robbins

climber

not a climber, just related...

Feb 21, 2018 - 03:45pm PT

Here are some notes Dad made on the last page of the first edition of Roper's guide. Also, Don, do you know a Don Bird? I have one of these with that name inside..... maybe it's yours? :)

P.S. yup, I smashed my finger in a door a few months back...

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Feb 21, 2018 - 04:34pm PT

Can't let the importance and relevance of Roper autographing the Red Guide for John Curry. During that era John Curry ran the Curry Company that pretty much ran everything in the Valley outside of Degnans. John Curry was approachable and climbing and climbers had a certain mystique from the early years with such pioneers as Leonard, Robinson, Nelson, Salathe and certainly David Brower and Ansel Adams.

Yes, there were major conflicts between climbers and the Curry Company and climbers and the Rangers, but it was nothing like the later years when things got more confrontational and nasty. What was the major turning point?

Perhaps the mid to late 60s with a significance increase in the climber population, The Fury Freak Brother mentality (I loved them), LSD, Pakalolo and wider and more concentrated groups of rebellious don't-give-a-f*#k youths and a certain unbending police mentality with the NPS. I saw it from both sides and enjoyed the ride.

As a side note, currygirl is Patsy Batchelder and John Curry was her uncle. Patsy's boyfriend for years was Tom Carter, aka Fuzzywuzzy on ST. That was a fun era in Santa Cruz in the early 70s when Haan, myself, McLean, Carter, Bard Rick Barker, Bill Denz, and Patsy and numerous other bandits and outlaws made Santa Cruz our base.

Following is a photo of Patsy and Andy Wiessner in NZ several years back.

Roger Breedlove

climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Feb 21, 2018 - 05:04pm PT

Tamara, thanks for posting your Dad's notes in the back of his copy of Roper's Red guide. This looks like a list of the first free ascents reported by Chuck Pratt in an early Ascent--1967 or 68, I think. This connection is important for climbing history buffs like me since it shows that Royal was keenly aware of what Sacherer did to climbing in 1964-65.

While Royal and Chuck Pratt had done the hardest free ascents in the early 60s, they were not exclusively interested in only free ascents. Sacherer, after a short period of which included some aid climbing, committed himself to all-free ascents. He and Eric Beck also did some of the fastest ascents of long climbs, carrying on what your Dad had started in speed ascents.

Everyone I have known from the 60's was awed by Frank's ascents. No one believed that the climbs he picked out were possible to climb all free. Eric Beck, who was friends with Frank and climbed with him, saw the list on which Frank had written down possible all-free ascents and didn't think they would all go. As Eric told me, "I think he did them all."

However, Frank didn't make his mark on his peers in the middle 60s, he made his mark on the climbers who came to the Valley in the late 60s to do all-free ascents, principally Barry Bates and Mark Klemens, who with Jim Bridwell's mentoring picked up where Sacherer left off: in this sense, Sacherer was the first 70s climber. Just knowing that all of those routes could be climbed free pulled everyone up.

Bridwell said that his biggest influences were Sacherer and Kor. Sacherer for fearless free-climbing and Kor for a 60s version of "just do it." I think more importantly, Jim is indebted to your Dad, an assertion I make from personal knowledge watching and talking to Jim as he was adjusting to being the best climber and what it meant. Sacherer and Kor were great climbers, but your Dad defined what it took to be a leader, from the front: You cannot push a string. There have always been great climbers, but only a few step into a leadership role and drive a whole generation. You Dad did it for many years, but by the late 60s Valley climbing was adrift and not much new stuff was getting done. When Klemens and Bates showed up to climb all-free, Jim pulled on the mantle left by your Dad, with his leadership lessons, and added the climbing rigor Sacherer had pioneered 5 years earlier and built the 70s Valley climbing community.

Tying this all together with Royal's notes on those early ascents is a very cool window in Royal's thinking.

Here is a table mixing the Valley classics from the 50s and 60s and the dates and climbers who free-climbed them.