One June morning, I was looking at the so-called Dan Wall of El Capitan, the fog coming out of the field around me. The wall, a particularly neutral surface, was first climbed in 2015 by Kevin Jorgensen and Tommy Caldwell, set aside by a man who did not allow half of his trunk finger to be electrocuted. As I looked up, I thought of Caldwell’s refusal to complete the climb on his own, got off at the coach and let Jorgensen go through a difficult ordeal.
I crossed the long vertical ridge, splitting the face of the L-Cap in two, which, for obvious reasons, is called the nose. I looked at the free-climbing part of Alex Holland in 2017. “I would never do anything like that climb – and I’m fine with that,” said Honald, the focus of the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.”
Yosemite has fascinated generations of invaders – and worshipers of them. Now Mariposa, Calif. A small museum in, not far from the park’s granite walls, tells part of the story. Ken Yager, 62, founder and veteran mountaineer who made the first 300 climbs to his name, dedicated decades and $ 250,000 to a collection of art objects and photographs that would provide a window into this unique world.
Photos and gear on display at the Yosemite Climbing Museum.
(Dean Fidelman / Yosemite Climbing Museum)
The Yosemite Mountains were a different race in the 1950’s and 60’s. Yvonne Choinard, founder of Patagonia; The late David Brower, once executive director of the Sierra Club; And Royal Robbins, who founded his own outdoor brand, is one of the most popular names.
Yager accurately presented the story of the climb, combining technical, business, and humanitarian aspects into the museum’s three rooms. “It has everything you would expect from it and much more,” said Joseph Taylor, in his 2010 book “Pilgrims of the Vertical,” a history of climbing Yosemite. “I don’t know exactly how he got it, but it’s all there.”
Old hand-made pits used by half-dome climbers in the mid-20th century.
(Dean Fidelman / Yosemite Climbing Museum)
The works of art show the innovations that have helped the climbers to manage the once impossible. There are pythons made of steel by a climbing blacksmith who developed them to work in Yosemite’s unique vertical fissures. There are early cannabis ropes and then other high-tech ones, so light and strong. The bending against the Plexiglas glass case is a zoom, clamp attached to a fixed rope, worn by Mark Wellman, the first paraplegic offering to make it an L-cap in 1989.
Climbers who set up a large gear and clothing business are featured in photographs on the walls. In one, Choignard, the founder of Patagonia, appears to be climbing, linked to a display of hand-made equipment from the 1960s.
The museum also focuses on outsiders who have stood up against the high walls of the valley. There are stories of Yager and his fellow doctors, mainly climbers, helping to bring the photos to life.
On a recent visit, Yeger pointed to a photo of a man with bloodshot eyes gleaming from a wall. “It’s Warren Harding [the climber, not the former president]”It simply came to our notice then. Harding and his team used extensive support to do so, Yager said. It took 45 days in two years, during which the climbers ate Thanksgiving dinner in a bivouac on the wall. “That was, too,” Yager added, “the first hurdle I ever took. Looking at him, I can’t believe I did that. He looks like he’s going to kill you soon.” Teach me to drink – it’s not wise to try and stick with it. “
The rope used by climber John Slathe.
(Dean Fidelman / Yosemite Climbing Museum)
Harding’s great opponent, the relatively clean Robbins, appears on another wall. Robbins and his team were the first to climb Yosemite’s other great peak, the northwest face of the Half Dome. Robbins, I learned from Yager, believed that how you got to the top was as important as what you did. In one of Pick’s fits, he overtook Harding’s L-Cap route, pulling out the bolts and pits used by Harding – “ad climbing” they now say what Harding did – not a free climb where you can stop falling. Use ropes for, no. To help you get up
The Yosemite Climbing Museum displays classic climbing boots.
(Dean Fidelman / Yosemite Climbing Museum)
Yager knew many of the climbers on display at the museum. He spoke at Harding’s funeral and invited the late Robbins to his birthday party each year. He pointed to an Ansel Adams portrait of John Slathe, a blacksmith who climbed a huge massive rock pillar in 1947, knocking down a climbing companion.
“When he died in 1992,” Yager said, “Salatha’s contribution was unrecognized. I asked a friend to write a tribute and started asking people of his generation for stuff in their garages. I promised them I would do something about it, and finally we kept our promise. ”
Most of the people who climb these walls are men, but one wall is dominated by a photograph of Lynn Hill spread over the L-Cap. She became the first person to climb El Cap’s nose in 1993, famously, when she reached the top, “It goes, boys”. Boulder, who arrived at her home in Colo. By phone, recently said, “People like it, mother-in-law.”
Climber Lynn Hill.
(Dean Fiddleman)
Considered one of the world’s best mountaineers of his time, Hill was one of the first people to be considered a star in mainstream culture. She appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman”, and even performed in the studio. “To be honest, I think he was a little scared of me,” she said.
The story of the museum ends with too much hill. It sticks to climbs from the 1950s to the 1990s, a harbinger of the extraordinary upsurge that followed.
If you go
Yosemite Climbing Museum near Yosemite National Park, Mariposa, California. Is in
(Dean Fidelman / Yosemite Climbing Museum)
Yosemite Climb Museum, 5180 Highway 140, Mariposa, Calif .; yosemiteclimbingmuseum.com. Call (209) 742-1000 or email [email protected] For information on when the museum is open. Tours available upon request.
Yosemite Mountaineering School and Guide Service, 9020 Curry Village Drive, Yosemite National Park; (209) 372-8344, travelyosemite.com. The school was established in 1969 The park offers lessons for beginners (climbing up and down 60 feet from a rock base), intermediate (crack climbing) and experts (large-wall climbing). Guides are available for individuals and groups. T-shirts with the school’s “Go Climb a Rock” slogan are one of the park’s best-selling monuments.
Hill Shop at Curry Village, 9020 Curry Village Drive, Yosemite; (209) 372-8396. Stock route maps, ropes, carabiners and the required sticky-rubber boots – as well as that cool collection of climbs, went wrong, “Out of the Wall: Death in Yosemite.”
Yosemite Overnight Climbing Permit, (209) 354-2025. Climbers are required to register for a free permit for a pilot project launched this year if they plan to spend the night on the walls of Yosemite. You can apply 15 days before the start of your ascent and four days late. You must get a permit when you enter the park. yosemite.org/climbingpermits
Tavern at Evergreen Lodge, 33160 Evergreen Road, Groveland, Calif.; (209) 379-2606, evergreenlodge.com Adjacent to the park, this 100-year-old resort is an ideal place for retro, wooden panel bar bar stories. General Manager Nick Simon is a former mountaineer who has a soft spot for type. evergreenlodge.com
Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort, 6979A California 140, Midpines, California; (209) 966-6666, yosemitebug.com. Off the park, the hill resort offers berths in bunk rooms, single rooms and cabins; Also good for groups. The dining hall serves the best food in the area, centered on a large fireplace. It’s full of chatter, kids, board games and old Yosemite Brick-a-Brake. The mixed hostel and inn atmosphere reminds you of European mountain towns. Dorm room bed from $ 49, cabin from $ 85, suite from $ 160.
Stroenhold Climbing Gym, 650 S. Ave. 21, Los Angeles; (323) 505-7000, strongholdclimb.com. Most climbers practice at the local gym before testing their skills on Yosemite’s granite walls. The couple who own the Lincoln Heights Gym, climbers Katherine Mullen and Peter Steadman, have been regular Yosemite regulars as well as many of its instructors. It uses the Yosemite Decimal system to illustrate the problem, the same system used in the park. Chelsea Griffie worked at this ventilated 1904 power plant before improving the El Cap, becoming the first black woman to do so.
A brief history of climbing Yosemite
1905: First climbing death (approximately 130 date) recorded in Yosemite National Park. Experienced climber Charles Bailey, 60, slipped off a cliff west of El Capitan when his climbing companion spotted him.
1950Blacksmiths John Slathe and Alan Stack are the first to climb the northern face of Sentinel Rock, using steel pitten slats made to fill the long parallel cracks in the faces of Yosemite rocks.
1957: The Royal Robbins-led team became the first to climb the Northwest Face of the Half Dome.
1958: Warren Harding leads the team on the captain’s nose.
1973: Yosemite climber Yvonne Choinard discovers Patagonia, an extension of her business of making metal climbing gear. It becomes a multinational company with total sales of 6 356 million in 2018, according to the Statistics website.
1978: Experienced mountaineer James Adair, 20, tries to free the lonely, lonely Sentinel Rock from appearing on the cover of a climbing magazine. She slipped and fell 300 feet to her death.
1989: Mark Wellman, paralyzed in a climbing accident several years ago, has become the first paraplegic to climb El Capitan.
1993: Lynn Hill becomes first person to climb El Capitan’s nose in one day
2003: Yosemite’s Camp 4, a long-standing mountaineering stumping ground, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
2004: Ken Yeger discovers the Yosemite Facelift, which has become an annual event in which mountaineers clean up rubbish from the base of rocks and along common routes.
2015: Tommy Caldwell and bouldering star Kevin Jorgensen have become the first people to climb L-Captain’s Don Wall for free.
2017: Alex Honold becomes the first (and still only) person to reach the top of El Capitan by free-solo climb (without ropes).