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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Never wore one myself, but I always thought it was Robbins who popularized it.
McCarthy in the Winds sportin' the look:
The Vulgarians and their predecessors had their own take on headgear:
Hans Kraus:
Art Gran and Claude Suhl (compare Art's headgear to Hans'):
Al DeMaria:
Helmets have pretty much killed headgear fashion for climbers.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2013 - 09:29pm PT
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So we're standing around Camp 4, probably circa 1960 plus one? and Art "dah"move" Gran is here for the first time and he is wearing this thing he called a Skull Cap (like the previous photo?) and he says, " In dah Gunks, we judge are climbers by dah Skull Cap they wear." To which Bitchin Bill Amborn, better known as BBA says: "We judge our climbers here by the climbs they do." It was hilarious!
I got to climb with Gran but on one venture, he knocked a large block off on the approach to Arrow Head Arete and I ended up in dah hospital.
Friggin Vulgarians were fun, if not a wee bit crazy.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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That "scull cap" was called a Turswiry hat. It is indeed the one on Kraus and Gran in the pictures. I believe that Kraus brought it over from Austria, and it became all the rage among the Gunks locals.
The nomenclature is not Austrian however, but strictly home-brewed, and in the extended tradition of Vulgarian word play. An account of an expedition to Schoolhouse Cave had described the leader as "terse and wiry." The Vulgarians decided that climbing leaders might strive for analogous endowments by the ritual donning of the Turswiry cap. Although wiry-ness might have been (ever so briefly) achieved, the cap utterly failed to convey anything like the verbal reticence required for terseness, as Art Gran---a wearer of the Turswiry cap as the photos show---proved beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The story of the Camp 4 Turswiry interchange has been told and retold, with different characters (I've heard it was Robbins, for example) identified as the responder to Gran's declaration. We Easterners were always amazed that anyone took Art's satiric remarks seriously and felt the need for an earnest retort.
After the the scorn heaped upon it by the Gang of Camp Four, the Turswiry went into witness protection and now lives a life of obscurity as a helmet liner.
As for the Halibut Hat, its official name is the flat cap, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cap for full description and history.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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Fantastic Thread Guido! You always look so rakish in your hat. Now I know the history behind it.
I agree, think this is one of the best threads in a while. Wonderful pictures of climbing history.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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A couple of distinguished gentlemen--one with the required cappage--, one gentleman who is decidedly less distingued and a couple of young 'uns waiting to have some fun on the Apron a few summers ago.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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This thread makes my knee jerk when i see the famous Robbins hat...There was this local grumpy, neurotic , contractor who always wore one of the halibut hats on the job sights...He had done some climbing but wasn't really like a die-hard , dirtbag , climber...His employees , who were usually climbers , made fun of his Robbins hat behind his back , knowing that doing so to his face would incur the wrath of a short , insecure man...One day , a fellow Supertopian and i got the nerve to walk into this guys custom home...The first thing we saw in the mudroom was a coat rack with 3 spotless Robbins hats in tight formation , waiting to be worn..When we exited the house , my friend looked at me and without saying a word , started laughing...Guido...You look good in that hat...RJ
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2013 - 10:59pm PT
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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American teenage fashion circa 1900:
What goes around comes around.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Being used for its intended purpose and, most assuredly, there were halibut
beneath the keel as this was the Seward Fjords.
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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I posted a reply and deleted it cause I didn't want to muddy the water with an off topic comment. Now that someone posted several other modes of head dress I will make my preference known.
Not that it is really a secret as it is difficult to pry the damn thing off my head. A Tam o' Shanter is the only way to go.
Once you go that way you will never go back.
photo by Ed Hartouni.
Thanks Ed. I think you captured the look.
Plaid
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Some old climber hack with a flat hat.
Some other old climber hack. Joe Brown again.
Hamish McInnes.
Apparently Rebuffat's hair was too bitchin' to consider it.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Would you not know it?
I went to the photo search looking for Mike Farrell, who never failed to appear in his white flattie.
And Guido magically appears as well. Boom!
If I didn't know better, I'd say I been hat.
edit: I didn't see this pic on the first page, so I definitely feel I've been hat. Got it covered now.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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they're "caps,"or "bonnets," not "hats," and it matters.
caps had a short front brim. hats had a real brim of whatever length. in the 19th century, flat caps of wool or cotton were worn mostly by working class and boys. or as country wear by the bourgeoisie and aristos. in town, and at work, fur felt hats with 360 brims dominated.
it wasn't until after ww2 that affecting a working class style, or going hatless, became common. it was a big deal when jfk, aka "hatless jack," went w/o a fedora in public. and it was a big deal when , in the sixties, baseball caps replaced fedoras (and even engineer's and stormy kroner caps).
when i was a kid, my uncles wore fedoras hunting. my grandpa wore an engineer's cap farming. and my youngest uncle was the rebel who wore a baseball cap and an undershirt-- no collar --under his overalls. except for haying, when everyone wore collars and longsleeves.
men's hats are actually a pretty good guide to social and political history in the last century and a half. the irony is that when royal-- and other american climbers --picked up the flat cap from the brits like whillans and brown (two very self-consciously working-class brits), and brought it back to the states to replace fedoras, tyrolians, and skullcaps, the class connotations went haywire.
for americans, that weird poofy flat-brim cap suggested continental or british flair, and that mean that the hats were snooty. today, in the states, they seem to be associated with golf and european sports cars. or in guido's case, sailing. (why would you wear a cotton hat sailing? isn't the greek fisherman's versions wool?)
i never, personally, saw a man in public wearing one of those deals until i got to the west coast many years later. i tried to wear one of those deals because i'd seen pix of whillans, robbins, and gill wearing them. didn't work for me. too much hair. and i never got comfortable in a baseball cap.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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I don't know who Hamish McInnes is but I love his hat and his smile. :D
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Lynne, he was arguably the best-loved Scottish climber ever.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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Thanks Reilly, I'll try to find a book about him......
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Gilroy
Social climber
Bolderado
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Grab a copy of Patey's 'One Man's Mountains' if you're lucky enough to have access to that modern classic of English/Anguished climbing or lay yr hands on Alpinist 41, the current issue, which has a one page photo and profile on the 'Fox of Glencoe.'
A worthy subject.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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In the pub and at the crag the "flat at" was standard issue for Hamish. I really liked the stylee wool chapeau but it was instant malaria in warmer weather. All cotton much mo betta and cheaper too!
That guy again on True Grit.
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