Month: July 2013

Hangboards, Climbing Indoors, and Books (Lots of Books)

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

For this summer I promised Natalie that I would not complain so much about the typically miserable Mid-Atlantic heat and humidity. I was doing well until the other day thanks largely to the milder summer temperatures and the above-average rainfall. But this week I am back to swimming during my commute in the warm, muggy air.

So it’s time to go back indoors on the weekends rather than play outside with the kids, and time for me to focus on some indoor projects rather than take a long walk by the river. Thanks to these projects, when I’m focused on them, I don’t have to complain:

Training Board
I’m finally putting my oversized paperweight on the wall. Ahem, that is to say my Metolius hangboard is finally going to get some use. It took a while to have it mounted. Here is the length of my procrastination:

  • December 2007 — Received as a Christmas Present. So excited (Natalie is my witness), I uncharacteristically did nothing (which is genuinely kind of weird for me).
  • June 2008 — Started to put it up, but bigger emergency home repair and remodeling project got in the way. Bigger fish to fry.
  • March 2013 — Moved to new townhome with some easy-access exposed beams and studs. Low hanging fruit? Nope; did zilch.
  • June 2013 — In a burst of enthusiasm, bought new mounting board. (The old one got cut up for other projects.) But when do use the circular saw with a toddler and newborn always nearby?
  • July 2013 — Slowing installing (using the drill when the kids aren’t sleeping and I have a free moment — tricky) and hope to put the hangboard up for use any day now. No, really.

Climbing Library
I’ve been adopting a less is more mantra about everything, particularly about what I pack for trips and my possessions at home. The one significant exception has been my library. I sold a huge portion of it (mostly texts on American history and world events), but none of the climbing-related books. Building a solid climbing library that suits my interests and existing expertise is a major mission for me.

For now, the collection that I have is a hodge-podge of topics from the Adirondacks to the Karakorum. I’d like it to be comprehensive in the areas that interest me most. While Alaska and Patagonia are two places that grip my imagination, occasionally so do other places, like Baffin Island and the Garhwal Himalaya, or whatever interests me from time to time. This means before I can start organizing my collection and acquiring new volumes I have to make some tough decisions about where do I focus my interests. Alaska, certainly, but what’s Tier II and what do I dismiss and set-aside? I’m not rushing to make these choices.

What this is really about is a commitment to a certain topic or set of topics. It will also have a direct bearing on where TSM heads in the coming years.

Interestingly, my committment to my library is solidifying concurrently with a new development, and it might have an effect on some of those choices about Tier II topics…

Indoor Rock
So here in hot, humid, Peaklessburg, where the best outdoor rock climbing is top roping and the highest point is only several-hundred feet above sea level, I’ve been slowly embracing the pleasure of pulling plastic. It’s not just training any more.

Although I look forward to climbing outdoors much more, heading to my local indoor crag is now providing a new perspective on this time in my life. Above all, it’s my favorite way to step away from work and family to regroup and go back to my duties with greater enthusiasm.

It is possible that this new enjoyment may bring some new topics here in the coming months. Ninety percent of TSM will still be about mountaineering and the wilderness experience, but I may inject a new facet about rock and plastic climbing now and then.

Besides, climbing in Peaklessburg is all about climbing what you can. It’s better than not climbing at all.

I appreciate you stopping by for a read once again. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following The Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook and Twitter.

Climbing matters, even though we work nine to five.

Fifty Classic Climbs of North America

/ Andrew Szalay / Leave a comment

With my series on The Greatest Climbers of All Time behind us, I thought those of you interested in continuing to learn about some important climbing history that this book might be worth reviewing now. This may resonate more with North Americans, but I think these routes are worth taking a look at regardless. Coincidentally, this book was featured in Climbing magazine in the most recent issue. I hope this isn’t redudant for those of you that read that one. I like to think I have some things Climbing didn’t mention…

Over three decades ago, two climbers — Steve Roper and Allen Steck — took it upon themselves to identify some of the best climbs on the continent. Since their book, Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, was first published in 1979, the routes it canonized as the 50 classic, soon became known as the 50 crowded climbs. People clearly agreed with their choices, yet they recognized that much of their decisions could be second guessed: “Our routes are not the fifty classic climbs of the continent, but rather our personal choice of the finest routes in several major areas which differ radically in length, type of climbing, and geographic setting” (Roper, xi).

The book is a wonderful history of those routes, as well as the regions they are in to some extent. They tell the stories based on the best of sources, and list the best available agreed-upon rating for those routes. As illustrated in the Acknowledgments section at the beginning of the book (p. viii), their sources were a virtual who’s who list of north american climbers: Monty Alford, Fred Beckey, Glen Boles, Mike Covington, Jim Crooks, Harry Daley, Greg Donaldson, Clark Gerhardt, Mike Graber, Jim Hale, David Isles, Chris Jones, Steve Komito, Alan Long, George Lowe, Leigh Ortenburger, Galen Rowell, Eric Sanford, Paul Starr, the late Willi Unsoeld, and Ed Webster. They also expressed appreciation for black and white photos from Ed Cooper and Bradford Washburn.

I spent the majority of my time reading (and rereading) the sections on Alaska and Western Canada. I was a little disappointed that the walls around the fjords around Baffin Island weren’t included in any way, but then again they were just coming into “popularity,” as much as popularity gets with climbers, in the 1980s. I had long known that the Cassin Ridge on Denali was one of their 50, where Riccardo Cassin,  Gigi Alippi Luigi Airoldi, Giancarlo Canali, Romano Perego and Annibale Zucchi made the first ascent in 1961, a climb I knew well, historically speaking. But I was suprised that Roper and Steck chose to call the mountain McKinley exclusively; I wondered it Bradford Washburn had anything to do with that.

As you might have realized from previous posts, I have a mountain-crush over Mount Huntington in the Alaska Range, yet I didn’t know it was listed. The route named by Roper and Steck was the west face of Mount Huntington (12,240 ft./ 3,731 m.), which was first ascended by David Roberts, Don Jensen, Ed Bernd and Matt Hale in 1965. It was also the ascent that inspired Roberts’ book The Mountain of My Fear. 

In Canada, one that I have admired for years because it’s in the Cirque of the Unclimbables is Lotus Flower Tower (7,500 ft./2,286 m.) The vertical wall was first climbed in 1968 by Jim McCarthy, Sandy Bill and Tom Frost.

Layton Kor recently passed away — fortunately in old age, albeit in poor health. One of his legendary climbs, and a tower I’d like to reach the top of, is the Titan (5,600 ft./ 1,707 m.) in the southwest.He made the first ascent of the 650-foot climbing route with George Hurley and Huntley Inglalls. It’s listed as number 38.

Copies are still for sale but mostly on the collectors block only. Some are going for several hundreds of dollars though worn and beat up copies may be acquired for as little as $40US. The American Alpine Club Henry S. Hall Library has copies for lending to its members and if you’re out west (unlike me) your library might even have its own copy.

Here is the list, which amounts to the table of contents without the page numbers. Enjoy…

ALASKA AND THE YUKON
1. Mount St. Elias, Abruzzi Ridge
2. Mt. Fairweather, Carpe Ridge
3. Mt. Hunter, W. Ridge
4. Mt. McKinley, Cassin Ridge
5. Moose’s Tooth, W. Ridge
6. Mt. Huntington, W. Face
7. Mt. Logan, Hummingbird Ridge
8. Middle Triple Peak, E. Buttress

WESTERN CANADA
9. Mt. Sir Donald, Northwest Arete
10. Bugaboo Spire, E. Ridge
11. S. Howser Tower, W. Buttress
12. Mt. Robson, Wishbone Arete
13. Mt. Edith Cavell, N. Face
14. Mt. Alberta, Japanese Rt.
15. Mt. Temple, E. Ridge
16. Mt. Waddington, S. Face
17. Devil’s Thumb, East Ridge
18. Lotus Flower Tower

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
19. Mt. Rainier, Liberty Ridge
20. Forbidden Peak, W. Ridge
21. Mt. Shuksan, Price Glacier

22. Slesse Mountain, Northwest Buttress
23. Mt. Stuart, N. Ridge
24. Liberty Bell Mountain, Liberty Crack

WYOMING
25. Devil’s Tower, Durrance Rt.
26. Grand Teton, N. Ridge
27. Grand Teton, Direct Exum Ridge
28. Grand Teton, N. Face
29. Mt. Moran, Direct S. Buttress
30. Pingora, Northwest Face
31. Wolf’s Head, E. Ridge

COLORADO
32. Crestone Needle, Ellingwood Ledges
33. Hallett Peak, Northcutt-Carter Route
34. Petit Grepon, S. Face
35. Longs Peak, The Diamond

THE SOUTHWEST
36. Shiprock
37. Castleton Tower, Kor-Ingalls Route
38. The Titan

CALIFORNIA
39. The Royal Arches
40. Lost Arrow Spire
41. Sentinal Rock, Steck-Salathe Rt.
42. Middle Cathedral Rock, E. Buttress
43. Half Dome, NW Face
44. El Capitan, Nose Rt.
45. El Capitan, Salathe Wall
46. Mt. Whitney, E. Face
47. Fairview Dome, N. Face
48. Clyde Minaret, SE Face
49. Charlotte Dome, S. Face
50. Lover’s Leap, Traveler Buttress

Thanks for dropping by again. If you enjoyed this post, please consider following the Suburban Mountaineer on Facebook or Twitter. Climbing matters, even though we work nine to five.

Source: Roper, Steve and Allen Steck, Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, San Franciso, 1979.