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Moof
Big Wall climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
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BNP, JP, who taught me to climb.
Aeyal (sp?) the crazy Isrealy who in a week realy put me on the right path.
John Long who wrote all those books and stuff.
Tad who keeps it fun and light, yet serious.
Moose who let me nearly kill us a few times figuring out leading and multipitch by trial and error.
That's about it that stick out in my mind.
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GRJ
climber
Juneau AK
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Feb 24, 2008 - 12:01am PT
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Well here is my two cents or rather 22. Climbing has gone so many directions that Rock and Ice need their own lists. It is just my opinion. So here goes:
ROCK
1. John Muir
2. John Salathe
3. Royal Robbins
4. John Gill
5. Jim Bridwell
6. Ray Jardine
7. Derek Hersey
8. Lynn Hil
9. Tommy Caldwell
10. Joe Kinder
Notable Mention: Layton Kor
ALPINE
1. Fred Beckey
2. Walter Bonatti
3. Herman Buhl
4. Reinhold Messner
5. Dick Bass
6. Jim Whitaker
7. Jeff Lowe
8. Mugs Stump
9. Alex Lowe
10. Steve House
Notable Mention: George Lowe
So here's how I came to these conclusions
ROCK
1. John Muir covered more new ground for euro-americans than anyone. He sought out the vertical and got people out into the hills. It really is really hard to begin the history of euro-american climbing without starting with muir.
2. John Salathe gave us a way to "get the rope up there." His accomplishments on the big stone and at the forgery helped to make Yosemite Valley CA the single greatest rock climbing destination in the entire world.
3. Royal Robbins changed the way we approach our climbs and the american alpine ethos. He was one of the first that said style mattered. Pratt, Frost, Herbert, and that whole clan helped, but he was definitely the front man. Harding had a great influence, but his ascent of the nose was just an extension of a style that had been used for years. I was amazing, ground breaking, and gave us one of the greatest rock routes on earth, but his style has died out whereas Robbin's has not. He also helped to bring in clean aid and set standards in the Free Climbing Realm.
4. Jon Gill said why bother with ropes when you can have plenty of good hard fun on little rocks and now the country is covered with guys that can do 12 move 5.12-5.13 boulder problems but can't lead a 100ft 5.10 hand crack. He left his mark to say the least. Go Thimble.
5. Jim Bridwell was one of the first too cool for school uber badass climbers. Dope smokin hardman. His list of FA's is too long to list.
6. Ray Jardin invented cams. Enough said. Who cares about chipping and all that. The guy gave us the tool to climb splitter cracks safely and blah blah blah. The guy invented cams.
7. Derek Hersey was a soloing legend. Now he is a dead soloing legend. He did huge link-ups hard lines and died doing it. Bachar, Croft they are still around and that is a good thing. Hersey was a free spirit, he reminded us why we solo, and also the consequences.
8. Lynn Hill broke the gender barrier by not only being strong "for a girl," but doing routes that no man could. Not tough to add to the list. As a footnote she really helped develop competition climbing.
9. Tommy Caldwell brought sport the big stone. Combing super human comp/sport strength and technique with a solid gear background he has climbed more free routes on El Cap than anyone.
10. Joe Kinder? Are you kidding me. I added him and not Layton Kor, Fritz Weisner, or even Warren Harding, what is wrong with me? It's sad, but he is the ghetto blasting thug climber poster child. His gangster bravado shows up everywhere climbing and while it would be just as easy to blame Tupac, Joe stands out as the guy that thugged out sport climbing, and well lets face it there are a lot gymed out sport climbers out there.
Notable Mention: Layton Kor was a pioneer. Strong in body of mind. He found some of the greatest lines on earth (think Lotus Flower Tower). Then he vanished. He was an explorer and reminded us to go hunting for our own super routes.
ALPINE
1. Fred Beckey climbed everywhere and got there first. He has probably led more dirty mossy cracks than any other person in the history of climbing.
2. Walter Bonatti is the end all be all of alpinism. His ethos, routes, eccentric persona, and writing have inspired almost every great American in the last 30 years. He climbed on the greatest alpine peaks on earth. He went to K2, G4, Cerro Torre and had endless FA's in Europe. There have been many great Euros but Bonatti was one of the few that said style matters most.
3. Herman Buhl was a monster. He climbed like a madman and did things that are unthinkable even today. His 8000m quest got everyone ignoring beautiful lines and going for altitude above all else. I admire him, but very few rich American mountains have pictures in there offices of a guided bike tour to climb the Liberty Bell.
4. Reinhold Messner got them all first. He did some solo, some alpine style, but he climbed all 14 8,000m peaks first. Then he wrote 627 books about it......
5. Dick Bass was the great white conquerer. He climb the 7 summit and drank bubbly in basecamp. A lot of people have followed suit.
6. Jim Whitaker climbed Everest for America for Peace and pretty much made REI. I would say he helped to get Americans in the mountains by making good gear available to everyone. On a personal note it was a assembly at my elementary school, after the peace climb, where he had all his equipment and pics from the trip that first drew my attention to mountaineering.
7. Jeff Lowe took ice technique to a new level. He traveled the world climbing new routes in Asia, South America and all over North America. His book ice world was a staple of alpine climbing libraries for years. Oh and there was this little mixed thing he really kick in the ass. I here a few people do that now.
8. Terrance "Mugs" Stump was a visionary. The guy just climbed hard. He was and still is an inspiration to the alpine world. The Cassin, the Moonflower and his bold leads in the SW set him apart from the climbing world. Move fast, climb clean. He fathered light and fast.
9. Alex Lowe was the professional. "The Mutant," "the Lung with Legs," he had many nicknames, but lets face it he was a freak. He was the ultimate all-arounder and professional climber. His passing sent tremors throughout the entire climbing universe.
10. Steve House is the modern master. Big sure, hard alright, both now you are talking. The guy just crushes at the highest level and if it just below well he is home by 5. He has had many great ascents M16, Rupal Face and so on but what I find truly amazing is he and Rolo's 25 hour ascent of the Infinite Spur. That route isn't really that difficult technically, but it is huge and covers a lot of ground. Go Steve have fun on Makalu.
Notable Mention: George Lowe was the North American pioneer of the 70ish generation, but he kept his mouth shut and lets face it not too many climbers have followed suit.
Anyway, there you go.
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Anastasia
Trad climber
Califlower
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Feb 24, 2008 - 12:28am PT
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Norman Clyde
John Gill
Royal Robins
Bob Kamps
Jim Bridwell
Jeff Lowe
John Long
John Bachar
Lynn Hill
Peter Croft
Plus one new addition that I am adding for his extreme competence in various sports and ability to catch people's imagination about all the extreme sports (including climbing...) *He is the "present" influence...
-Will Gadd-
"Plus, his wife Kim Csizmazia is just as fantastic!"
AF
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Anastasia
Trad climber
Califlower
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Feb 24, 2008 - 12:40am PT
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Thinking about class acts...
Tom Frost
Bob Kamps
John Gill
Jeff Lowe
(I really admire them.)
------------
The ultimate wild man...
Warren Harding
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 24, 2008 - 02:15am PT
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"Fred Beckey climbed everywhere and got there first. He has probably led more dirty mossy cracks than any other person in the history of climbing."
werd
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jstan
climber
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Feb 24, 2008 - 04:55pm PT
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When you really get down to the heart of the matter, this thread is a celebration of how interconnected we all are, and of the hope that we may, together, yet continue to build good things. When you look at what Ken Yager is doing, and when you look at the fact something like Chris’s ST can even exist, you know. You can’t doubt we are all moving together. I was very lucky and got a chance to watch people coming together to make the 70’s happen. Much of what I see now, reminds me of those days.
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10b4me
climber
hanging by a thread
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Feb 24, 2008 - 06:40pm PT
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Thinking about class acts...
Tom Frost
Bob Kamps
John Gill
Jeff Lowe
(I really admire them.)
I was fortunate enought to meet Jeff a few years ago.
You are correct, he is a very classy person.
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Feb 24, 2008 - 07:48pm PT
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Dude Knott to piss in your weaties but Krakouer was a c#&% on everest, He had some serious Alaskan Climbing under his belt( albeit 20 years previous, but if you know the gig?) and If any of my partners pulled that crap on me.... We all go home or no one does, read about Shackelton( The first shack).
What about Rene Desmaison between him and Pierre Mazeuad the euros were kicking our soft assess. Until Robbins and Harding and Those folks started doing Grade VI's in the valley....
Hardings eyes were dark( you looked into them and got scarred, even though he was 5' something) and even almost to the end he was a ladies man, much better looking then that gentleman, but kinda similar.....
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Double D
climber
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Feb 24, 2008 - 10:50pm PT
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I’m surprised that Randy Leavitt has only been mentioned once or twice on this thread. I mean, how many guys have put up A5 & 5.14’s? The diversity of climbing and climbing areas he has done hard routes in, is incredible. Anyway…just my humble 2 cents worth.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Feb 24, 2008 - 11:11pm PT
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in terms of influence on American climbing - remember the impact Edlinger and Moffat had...seemed huge at the time. I'd include one of those guys for top ten. Pioneers not necessarily the most influential, how many climbers of the 80's were really influenced by the early pioneers? Underhill? A guy from the books - a heavy weight for sure but hey, we're talking influence and when you say that, numbers matter. Guys like Bachar, Moffat - huge influence.
But, if you really wanna go modern - then Lynn Hill for sure - her influence on (womens) climbing (and womens athletics in general) huge, hard to calculate.
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 24, 2008 - 11:17pm PT
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Yeah Dave D
They left out guys like Kauk and Potter
Threads like these are mostly popularity contests.
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goatboy smellz
climber
लघिमा
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May 11, 2014 - 12:19pm PT
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Bump for the old farts with long term memory loss.
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Flip Flop
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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May 11, 2014 - 01:38pm PT
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Conrad Kain
John Muir
Norman Clyde
David Brower
Yvon Chouinard
John Salathe
The Underhills
The Mendenhalls
Ray Jardine
Lynn Hill
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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May 11, 2014 - 01:55pm PT
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I'm not sure it is time to decide who had influence... obviously as we do better history the names change... take Frank Sacherer, for instance, who seemed to have been very influential in Yosemite, and that influence grew and spread beyond his direct contributions.
But if I think of who influenced me in climbing, by which I mean evoked the thought "what would he/she do?" the list is much shorter:
Eric Shipton - the idea of just going anywhere in the world and climbing anything in a small team, and doing it on the local terms was hugely influential in what I wanted to do as a climber.
Doug Robinson - who was an early influence through his writing in the '72 Chouinard Equipment catalog, where his appeal to go to the mountains with a "light hand" fused climbing style with ecological ethics. Later, his hand in writing Climbing Ice influenced my entry into that aspect of our sport.
John Bachar - who was a late influence, on how to climb, I think "what would John do?" when pushing myself outside (as meager as that is).
I have derived a lot of inspiration and motivation from many climbers, many of them listed above, but influence is something that is different, influence is not only a driver, but a map of what direction to drive in.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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May 11, 2014 - 03:19pm PT
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Who got in peoples heads the most? Who is still clearly there?
Muir
Bonatti
Mesner
Salathe
Robbins
Brown/Whillans
Bridwell
Jeff Lowe
Stump
Gill
These seem like more key people who changed complete paradigms and who's ethos are still clearly present today, such that most others you could place on this list derive from them.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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May 11, 2014 - 03:57pm PT
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one more, but it is "climbing related"
Galen Rowell - for his approach to climbing photography. As I read him he was an advocate for capturing an image "in the moment" which is difficult to do, and while he has a number of very good "staged" climbing shots, the ones which were captured in that fleeting moment were ones that affected me the most.
it was through these sorts of considerations that I came to understand, more fully, making images in nature. In particular, to appreciate the subtle dynamics that play out in an otherwise seemingly static environment. Ansel Adams was very formal, to me, before Rowell.
When shooting a climber, I am often aware of anticipating what the climber might do, how they might move, and react to, the climbing, and wait for that image to compose itself to be captured.
Rowell influenced my approach to representing climbing, and especially that attribute where we are in that moment. That carried over to the climbing itself, where sometimes it is just the experience of that moment that matters, unrecorded except in memory, unrehearsed, intimate.
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Oldfattradguy2
Trad climber
Here and there
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May 11, 2014 - 05:03pm PT
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Rich Romano
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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May 11, 2014 - 05:19pm PT
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Only one post (John E) has mentioned Sacherer, who was not only incredibly skilled and bold (judging from his FAs and FFAs), but perhaps a bit too far ahead of his time in advancing the game of free climbing big Yosemite walls. A decade or two later, he'd have been doing Astroman or the free Salathe. And I'd have to assume Lowes (at least 3), House, etc., trace their super-alpine exploits back through Bonatti and Messner. My 2c.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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May 11, 2014 - 05:43pm PT
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If you mean influenced with impacting the most people...Alan Watts and few others who started sport climbing in the early 80's.
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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May 11, 2014 - 06:00pm PT
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Mark Twight
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