34 They Risk Their Lives for Fun

These danger-loving chnibers seldom concilier lofty mountains, just "impossible" cliffs in their own neighborhoods. For extra thrills, they test their ropes by leaping into space.

By HAL BURTON

derway of wooden cleats, by any tourist free motîg the more recondite methods of dangled their feet in space, since there was not from vertigo and willing to essay a rock slope spending a summer weekend in Yo- enough room to lie down. As a sensible pre- of tnoderate steepness. The northwest face is Semite National Park, California, per- caution, they were anchored to the northwest something else again. Sheared and polished by haps the ultimate was achieved last June by face of Half Dome by a nylon rope .seven erosion., it soars 2(X)0 feet above a mass of tum- four young men who willingly sat out the sixteenths of an inch in thickness. A .sitting bled boulders, tilted ledges, and trees clinging night on a ledge eighteen inches wide, 30(X) man may doze, even if poised halfway between to crevices in the rock. The boulder slope rises feet above the crackling campfires, the dance heaven and eajth; and to doze unprotected on another 3000 feet. Bestor Robinson and Rich- music and the other civilized amenities to be .so airy a perch could lead to results not pleas- ard M. Leonard, who pioneered rope climbing enjoyed with minimum effort on the grassy ant to contemplate. on the Yosemite clifTs in 1931, dismissed the floor of Yosemite Valley. More comfortable Had anyone spread the word, no doubt a northwest face long ago as "so awful it might accommodations are plentiful in the park, good many of the 11 ,{X)0 vacationers crowding as well be forgotten." Millions of casual vis- which is geared to handle 1,(KX).(XK) tourists a the park would have tried, tlie next morning, itors, endowed with less precise knowledge, year, but no^four visitors could have been as to pick out four tiny figures crawling up a clifT have looked upward from the valley floor and blissfully contented, with less obvious reason. thai experts had dismissed as totally impossi- arrived at the same conclusion. j The young men in question sat with their ble. The back of Half Dome can be sur- backs pressed against a wall of granite and mounted, between waist-high cables on a lad- There are, however, stubborn people in this ^ world who refuse to admit that anything is im- possible, among them a few thousand Amer- icans who pursue the delicate and exacting Although hc is over fiftyyear s old, businessman Fritz Wiessner finds "an escape from the pressures of the world" sport of rock climbing. The figure is necessarily in rcxJt climbing. Here, Wiessner ascends the forniidabic Indian Face, in New York's Adirondack Mountains. flexible, since advancing years and increasing prudence cause a certain number of rock climbers to retire annually to less strenuous pursuits. There always arc replacements, who carry on the tradition that a cliff is to be es- teemed more highly than a mountain summit. Among this grouR, the northwest face of Half Dome is regarded as one of the most tantaliz- ing climbing problems in the United States, demanding a re.spectful approach and a pains- taking reconnaissance. Rock climbing, a Brit- ish authority on the subject once observed, "is a game played slowly, which goes not to the swift, but to the skillful and levelheaded." The men oh Half Dome, who had already scram- bled up the boulder slopes now were crawl- ing up the sheer cliffs of the northwest face at the rate of only 2ÍK) vertical feet per day, or about one seventh the height of the Empire State Building. To storm the cliff in one sublime burst of speed would have been suicidal, for the rock was far too difficult. A more sensible conclusion was reached —to search for a possible way to the top and to make the assault later, after careful planning. At the end of two and one half days. Royal Robbins, Warren Harding, Jerry Galwas and Don Wilson had managed to rise exactly 450 feet through a (Continued on Page 99)

Don Claunch (right) belays Pete Schoen- ing as he clambers up Crooked Tower, an inhospitable little peak on the side of Ca- thedral Mountain, in eastern Washington. 35

Expansion bolts and rope stings arc L'ssrntial. So are pitons, caiabincrs [hanging from belt) and tattered tennis shoes.

Is she ïcaitd? Maybe—but she likes il that way. Mar>' Ann Matthews crosses a mounuinecr's rope bridge in Yoscmitc Park. Man on ledge holds a lafcty line. February 26, 1956 99 ford medicines. We cannot even buy milk." Much later that afternoon, I called Suzy I sat back. I was appalled. "Suzy, you to my office. I had just come back from a should liavc told us this before. Don't you visit to the other divisions of our section. realize we can " "Suzy, we have something for you here," "No, no," she said hastily, "Notreaaon I I said. "I don't want you to be embarrassed tell. I explain Miss KcUcr." about it. It's from all of us—everybcMÍy in "Oh?" the section. It's for your father. You under- "Miss Keller is like Occupation. Miss stand? So he can go to the hospital." Keller is like America. She is new way to She stared at the envelope. Though she look at things. She is new hope." didn't know it, it contained more ihan I thought about it for a moment and GO.OOO yen—almost a year's salary. "Cap- dien gave up; the connection \^'as beyond tain, I didn't mean " me. But I realized that I had tortured Suzy "I know you didn't, Suzy," I said. "You long enough. "I see, Suzy," I said. "I un- were talking about something else. But derstand. Thank you." never mind that, We want you to tell us She returned to her desk. Again I saw where he goes. You understand? And we that look of stoic patience come into her want to follow it up—make sure he has young face. The mîntjtes ticked by. All at medicines, X rays, milk. The things he once I rose. needs." "Come on," I said. "We're going down- Trembling, she took the envelope. Tears stairs." came in her eyes. Slie struggled to control "But the office " herself. "You see?" she said. "It is same "The hell with the office," I said; and thing. Same as Miss Keller." locked the door behind us. "What do you meiin?" A tremcndotts crowd of Japanese and "Alwap we accept cur troubles. It is Americans had gathered in the lobby. Every tradition. We shrug our shoulders. We say Japanese in the building seemed to be nothing can be done. .-Americans not [lie there. The atmosphere was electric. It same. Americans like Miss Keller. ¡í'aka- communicated itacLf to Suzy and me, and in nmaska? " the last few minutes, when the motorcycles I siared at her. And all at once I under- on the street roared back to life, we almost stood. held our breaths. This was the one gift we could say we had Then she came, I had never seen Helen brought them. All their lives, for ceniurit-s Keller before, and I was totally unprepared past, tiiey had iicccpied their misfortunes. for the experience. Guided by her com- They had endured poverty, illness, mal- panion, Polly Thompson, she cainc quickly nutrition, Tamine, e.irthcjuake, typhoons out of the Public Health and Welfare of- nnd wars. They had resigned iheniselves; fices. In her eyes was a light so bright, so the miscrj'nfilK-irlives WÜS beyond remedy. happy, so radiant it took our breaths away. Now they had a new hope. It w;is some- VVitliout even thinking, we burst into thing iliat came to ihem from the New applause. World. They didn't yel fully understand it. Thiawas not ordinary applause. This was But the cs-ienct' uf il was this simple action a tribute lo a moral and spiritual triumph. by a handful of Americans to do something At once a wonderful smile spread over her about her father. And the symbol of it, for face. It illuminated ihe heart. Ii was the Suzy and ihe counilcss millions of her most beautifid, heart-warming smile I had countr>'men, was Miss Helen Keller—who ever seen. had not jusL accepted blindness, wliu lud She looked around at all of us with not just accepted deafness, who had not just joy. I couldn't believe ihat she could accepted a mute tongiie, but who had neither 9ee our faces nor hear our spon- learned to sec, to hear, to apeak, and tu fill taneous, heartfelt tribute; she could only ever^' human heart whu saw her with pride feel it on the air. For a moment longer she in the human spirit. Keep friendships alive smiled around at us, a loving, grateful, "Go along with you, Suzy," I said, happy woman. Then she was gone. It was She started lo bow. Then, by a whisper as if a light had gone out. The motorcycles that came to her from anuther way of life, roared away. We returned lo our work. she stood up straight and siiook my hand. by telephone

The years ^nd the miles need not dim old friend- ships. The wai-mth of your voice over the telephone * They Risk Their Lives for Fun can keep them alive. (Continued Trom Pugc 34) So why lose touuh with friends you'd like to see maze of cracks and aloi^g tïvo ledges, each spring, when the snows have melted from more often but can't? Whether they're a hundred or a of which provided somewhat rudimentary- the valley floor and the nights are warm thousand miles away, call them up and talk things lodging for the nighi. Where holds were enough so that a man can sleep on a clifF, scant for hands or feet, they hammered in Robbins intends lo lead thr first complete over personally. It's easy lo do. And the cost is small. thin pegs of steel, called pitons—pro- climb of the northwest face. At bcsE, (here Isn't there someone you'd like to call right now? nounced "pce-lons"—to which the climb- will lie six bivouacs—now arid then with ing rope could be attached for safety. From space enough to sit down, but mun: often time to time, to the annoyance of everyone, Standing upright in ro|ir slings, The re- the cracks ran out and only a smootli wall bulged above. Rock climbers have a way of ward, if you wish to call il that, will be the dealing wilh sueh problem.i. When pitons conquexi uf ihe iin|X)^ibk-. LONG DISTANCE RATES ARE LOW Siiinctliiiig S(i close to sheer misery, with arc useless, there is always the expansion Here are nome examptes: bolt, equipped with a ring on iu outer end such an element of calculated ri.sk, is and a collar of lead on the inner end. Six scarcely the .'iveragc man's dish of lea. But PiLtaburt'b to Clevolnnd 45^ limes, standing in slings of rojîc, Robbins rock climbers are a pariicularly tenacious Detroit to IntlinnapolLs 65ff used a bammer and drill to l»re into the breed, who gei thenwelves iniu the most Diillns to New Orlunns 95¿ cliff, and then hammered in bolts. The lead hair-raising jiredicamenis in order to get Atlnntn to Nuw York $1.20 collar, expanding as the bolt was tightened, otit uf them triumphantly. The Voscmite scaled iisclf solidly to tlie rock. The result tliffs—smooth, s[X"ctiicular and handy to Los Angtilca tti RoHton $2.00 was a virtual ladder of steel up walla so the highways—have inspired some prodi- TtlBK. „ro IhD SüiLioii-l.,-Sü,l,on ruto, for the Ii™t Liuw mmultH, ufUîr 11 «VIIH:!, uvri-y niichl nnd nit il»y SiiiiUuy. sheer and holdless that most mountaineers giou.4 climbing, based on a lavish use of They tlo not intludo Ltiu 10'.; rcitornl tXL-isc lax. would have given up in disgust. artificial aids. I'urists, who refer to the Yosemite cragsmen as "rock engineers," Cali £ry Number. It's Twice as Fast. The supply of food, the water in the can- somewhat patronizingly talk of "mecha- teens and the time available all gave out nized climbing," conducted up a ladder\\'ay simultaneously the third morning, but the of steel. party had found what it sought: A route that would "go," as nearly as a praeticed eye Whichever faction possesses the true gos- could tell. A ane tracery of cracks led up to pel, both agree that Yosemite exerts an BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM the top, The climbers turned back. This overpowering attraction for rock climbei-s. This ia txrst (Cominucri on PaRc 101) February 25, lOl (d from Page W) demonstrated climb is being conducted in pitch-darkncu California, bought steaks for an outdoor Sircam tumbling down the cliffs opposite over the Nfcmorial Day \ieckend, when with occasional aid from a liaslitight, "He picnic in one of the campgrounds, told his Washington Column. In ihe same pool of hundreds of Californians show up \sîth ropes was in the midst of his last and biggest companions. "I'll be back before dinner." water were an initialed watch and an old and rucksacks for the annual rock-climbing 'Help!' "said Henneberger."when I finally and set out on a hike from which he never hat imprinted with the name of a store in ouung of the Sierra Club, an organization stepped out from behind a tree and tapped returned. The result was one of the most Phoenix. Arizona. With the help of the of approximately io,ooo mountaineers. It him on the shoulder. We got him up to the concentrated searches the park has known. I-^I, the owner was established. Park head- il an incorrect assumption tliat mast rock top of the Arches and walked him down The next day, bloodhounds were put on quarters called his mother in Phoenix to dimbera are teen-age daredevils with no over a foot trail, but I'll bet that boy hud a Gordon's trail. They led the rangers up extend condolences. visible means of support. Of the men who sore throat for a month after." the path to Glacier Point which overlooks "That's strange," she said. "He just left reconnoilcred Half Dome, Rubbins was a Two other rescue expeditions last year the valley, and down the Four Mile trail to for school. But he did come back from Yo- banker, Harding an engineer, Wilson and were less humorous. On April eighth, Ann the highway. There the scent apparently semite last year without his hat." The bones Galwas graduate students. /Vmong seden- Fottinger. nineteen, a student at Stanford vanished. As many as thirty rangei'S black- apparently were those of a man who had tary sports, the bestcountcrpart is a rousing University, set out with two boys to climb ened the clifTs, searching for Gordon's body, vanished twenty years earlier. game of chess, which calls for intense cere- the Lower Cathedral Spire. A snowstorm and for da^'S a helicopter Hew up and down The sport of rock climbing, already bration and an almost psychic knowledge threatened and the rangers at park head- the valley while spotten stared through flourishing in the East, was introduced to of what lies ahead. There is one subslaniiat quarters had warned the party—which field glasses. The search was hopeless; Gor- California in li)3l by Robert L. M. Un- difference. A wrong move on ihe chess- registered in advance for the climb, as re- don is still missing. derhill, a professor at Harvard University board is seldom more than humiliating; a quired by park regulations—to turn back and a mountaineer of distinction. The idea wrong move on a cliff may be fatal. if the weather wonened. At l0:3O that Ihree months later, on October 9, 195-v, of lying on a rope to go up difficult cliffs Tlie point of divergence was never more night one of the climbers staggered into another University of California student had not heretofore occurred to the mem- clearly illustrated than in August, i^-Ui, headquarters again and said, "I'm afraid was walking along a footpath near the bers of the Sierra Club, but once it caught when Jack Arnold, Anton Nelson and Frit2 Ann is in trouble. We had to leave her at Ahwahnee Hotel with his wife, father-in- on, the response was immediate. "The di- Lippmann climbed the Lost Arrow, a the foot of the Spire and come down for law and mother-in-law. "That looks inter- rectors were horrified when we proposed knife blade of rock 1300 feet high, sticking help." By midnight, in a blinding snow- esting up there," said Or^ar von Laas. thai the club establish a rock-climbitig sec- out from the cliff midway between Yosem- storm, a rescue team reached the girl. She thirty, motioning to the upper part of the tion." recalls Bestor Robinson, now retired iie Point and Upper Voscmite Falls. was dead frotn exposure—probably be- Royal Arches cliff. "I'll see you a little as a rixk climber, who practices law in (See: WE CLIMBED THE IuFosstDLE PEAK, cause her clothing consisted of cotton jeans, later." He walked oH into the underbrush Oakland, California. "They said we'd be by Fritz A. Lippmann, The Saturday Eve- a cotion shirt and a light poplin jacket, and oblivion. Within thirteen hours llie sued into bankruptcy in case of an acci- ning Post, June 38, lO+T.) This smooth and At the end of May. the rescue crew faced bloodhounds picked uphisscent.it tlicbiLsc dent, and added that the charter didn't seemingly unattainable spire had been at- its most severe test. Helene von Rycker- of the Royal Arches climb, and tried franti- make any provision for it. But six months tempted eleven times previoaily. After five vorsel, D graduate student .it the Univer- cally 10 scramble up the rock, Rescue teams later we had a rock-climbing section." days, ihe climbers finally managed to laMo sity of California, was leading a climb un ruped up and covered tlic whole elifl. with Robinson and friends romped joyfully the summit from a point on the valley walls. the Royal Arches. This wall, rising directly negative results. A helicopter flew along- over the California mountains, studied pon- Two of them descended to a notch ÜOO feet above the Ahwahnee Hotel, is one vast side the Arches. Rangers searched for two derous German texts explaining assorted deep, separating the Lost Arrow from the slab of rock inclined at seventy to eighty solid weeks, keeping an eye peeled for a wa>-s of holding onto a rock or of wriggling main rock mass, and then up to the dan- degre«. with few places where a climber concentration of carrion birds tliai migltl up a cmck, ordered pitons from a sporting- gling ends of the rope, ascending it to the can hold on In such a situation, an expert pinpoint the location of a body. One gocidi shop in Munich, and proceeded to top. After the rope was made fast, in tlie flattens his feet and hands on tlie rock and climbing party discovered a bear, which set up a training area on Cragmont Rock, a manner of the circus performer staging a moves ahead to tite nearest solid ledge. This departixl w'nh a startled snort, but nubody cliff in one of the Berkeley' parks. This led "slide for life," Lippmann croised over the il known as friction climbing. The pressure found von Laas. The FBI. tr^illi-d in to some complications. A lady whose liome v-oid and joined his companions atop tlie uf rubber soles and barr ])iiltn.i on the rock because ^'ost'înlle is Federal property, lay directly bclnw the rock called the park /Vrrow. Four years later, in June. I'.i.Vt, il sufficient to prc%cnt a sli|j—in miwt riwcs. clieiked ever\' possible lead without mult, department lo say. "I don't wanl any bod- .\lan Steck and John Salathc completed But Miss von Rycker\orscl fell ninety feet. hi c|tiiet hours, which are infrequent, the ie-a fallitig in my back yard!" None ever what Steck calls "an ordeal by piton." Shir was held by the second man on the rangers are apt to speculate about Gordon did. but one climber took a moderate tum- spending four nights and five days un the rope, who had braced himself on une uf the and vun Laas. Perhaps, they think, the ble, involving abrasions and contusions. IfiOO-root nordi wall of Sentinel Ruck. This few available outcroppings. It took sti|x-r- bodies lie somewhere on the Yosctnite Since the accident occurred on ciLy prop- tnodest project used up 150 pitons and nine vising ranger John Mahoney and the rescue cliffs, wedged behind a rock which nobody erty, Robinson liad to report it to the police. expansion bolts, and "I'm still not quite ctew of five men most of the night lo reach will pass for tivi years. Such a time lapse sure why I did it," Steck told me recently. her. i.i not out uf llie question. In September of Ihc training climbs grew more and more In tcnm of tinne spent and results achieved, "1 have never seen such injuries," said ifW'J Marjoric Farquhar. Julia Eiilihnrn elaborate until the Sierra Club felt com- Sentinel Rock was notable, but Half Dome park naturalist Glenn Gallison, a member and Richard Leonard, of the .Sierra Club, ixrllcd to set up a system of classiBcation, still holds the record for the number of of the rescue ere^v. "There was a hole in rnade the first attempt to climb Washington based on European standards. Clasa I overnight gui:sts accommodated. the back of her head, and there were so Column. "Way up thereon the cliffs," s.i^'S climbs were simple hikes; Class II were The volume of vertical traffic in Yoiem- many bones fractured that I'm surprised Leonard, "we found part of a human skull. rock scrambles; Class 111 required the oc- ite Park forced the National Park Service she didn't die right there on the clifT." Our guess was that it dated from prehis- casional use of a rope; Class IV called for to establish a rescue team of ten rangers, The rangera dragged a mesh-and-alu- toric tim« But when we took ii to the De- ropes and careful support from above; all of whom are trained in the most compli- minum rescue litter up lo the scene of the partment of Anthropology at the Univer- Class V required pitons, and Class V'l—as cated rock techniques. "The experienced accident, tied themselves on to the rocks sity of California. ihe>- said tJie skull lud on Half Dome—demanded pitons or bolts ctitnbcrs rarely cause us much trouble," while they administered first aid, and in bi-en there about a hundred years—just fordirect aid. Some hundreds of California lays R. N. Mclntyrc, administrative av two and a half hours brought Miss Rycker- about the time ibe first fur trappers were climbs have now been meticulously classi- littant to the park superintendent. "What vorscl down to the valley. exploring the High Sierra. I have often fied and bound into a guidebook. gives us a headache is the lost children and Rescues, though dramatic, intrigue the wondei-cd who the poor fellow WM who From the experiments of the club, it may the people who decide to take a short cut Yosemite rangers less than the case iif the lost his fuoiing and died, all alone, up there be accurately said, the LTnited States Army olT the trails. They're the ones who always Two Mwsing Men. On July -Jn, \;ir,K Wal- above Yosemite Valley." A few years later a developed much of its climbing equipment get themselves stuck on a clifT—can't go ter Gordon, a student at the University of climber found some human bones in ii litlle ;ind a cuherent doctrine for teaching green down; can't go up—at ¡ust about dark. It's soldiei'R how to get up a cliff, if need be. lucky for us that this valley is so small. Any- This data was fiist imparted to the loth one who hollers for help, once people have Mountain Division, which fought bril- gone to bed, can be heard for six miles liantly in Italy during World War II. Be- around." It is possible to overdo a good fore th«' end of the war. some •J.'i.fXX) other thing, however, as one rescue established soldiers had been taughi how to climb in last June. Michael Simon, sixteen, was hik- such assorted places as Lincoln. New ing along the top of the clifTs with a group Hampshire; Natural Bridge, Virginia, and of friends when he decided—what else?— Mouth of Seneca. West Virginia. Tlie old to take a short cut to the valley. He wound doctrines still are carried on in the can- up in a citister of trees and sheer ledges yons of Cheyenne Creek, outside Colorado known as "the Jungle," in the middle uf Springs, Colorado, where tlie Army main- the Royal Arches, one of the most difficult tains a mountain-training area. One great clilTi in the park. contribution was the nylon rope for clitnb- iiig Until just before the war, no climber Unable to go either up or down, Simon would con.sider risking his life on anything proceeded to scream for help «o long and but a 1 'JO-foot hunk of Manila rope. Nylon wi loudly that the rangeis were unable to Tit\n; which had just come on the market, break in on his monologue to lei him know was regarded with suspicion by Eastern Ihat rescue was at hand. The cacophony climbera, but the Sierra Club decided to lasted until midnight, when he fell into an try it out. exhausted sleep on a broad and safe ledge, The method of testing was somewhat but it started again in the morning. A res- unusual, Robinson. Leonard and David R. cue team headed by ranger John Henne- Browcr, now the club's secretary, found berger, meanwhile, was conducting a most "The judge tncanl anyone else. It's all right themselves a suitable rock, about thirty delicate climb of the Arches. The rangers could hear Simon, but they couldn't hear to discuss the case willi us, Mrs. Spencer." feet high, in a Berkeley park. One man each other—a difficult situation whet» a would sit down, bracing himself solidly, and pass tlie rope around his body for a be- 102 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST

lay—meaning a position from which be till. Now in his fifties, he has a nice letter The Shawangunk climbs were developed nes to nature, the realization how imallwc could stop the fall of another climber. The from the Great Northern and the satisfac- by Fritz H. Wiessner, now president of a humans are compared to the big moun- second man would tie into the rope and tion of having completed one of tlie most chemical company in Stowe, Vermont. A tains. 11 is something you can enjoy with the jump ofT tlie edge of the rock. As he fell, difficult climbs of his era. short and balding man in his early fifties, eye, the brain and the whole body. And it Íi the rope was allowed to slide, and then In the Northwest—a country of limitless Wiessner was—until he began to slow his an escape from the prcssuita of the world. gradually lightened until the second man forests, huge glaciers and dozens of un- pace—the best rock climber this coimtry When tho»e great walls of rock arch out came to a stop not fur above level ground. climbcd peaks—there are stilt plenty of ever has known. As a young man in Ger- above you, it is like sitting in tlie quiet and After t\s-cnty tests, the Manila rope broke, conquests for those who have nerve and many, he ted—without pitons—some of the calm of a Gothic enthcdral. with some discomfort to the second man. skill. The best illustration was provided, classic rock climbs in the Alps. Rock climb- "The man who leads a rock climb muit The nylon rope, however, was still going several yeara ago, by a Seatde chemist ing in Europe and England, as distinct from recognize that there is danger involved strong after aoo practice falls. Tlie test crew named David Harrah. In 1952, while the ascent of great snow-and-ice mountains, and he must keep it in mind, but if he has g:rew so proficient tliat at the end of the climbing Mt. Yenipaja, one of the highest began in tlic i«90's, but the sport of scaling the talent, he can win through. He needi experiment the second man could leap in Peru, Harrah's feet were frostbitten. He difls did nol become a science until 1910, judgment as well—the ability to know what eighteen feet into space before he was lost most of his toes—a disaster, it would when the piton was invented by an Austrian one ought to be able to do in a difficult halted in his flight, and then lowci-ed slowly seem, lo a rock climber, who must depend climber named Hannes Fiechtl. As a young spot. A good man climbs up and down such to earili. The nylon rope was adopted as so thoroughly on delicate balance. Not long man in Dresden, Wiessner absorbed the a spot a few times, always a Hitle bit higher, standard by the Quartcrmasier Corps, in after, he led a climb up the 5000-foot north- fine points of the sport, and brought to until he knows how he can safely get which both Robinson and Leonard served west face of Mt. Johannisbcrg, in the Cas- America in 1930 an entirely new technique, through it. Many men, not strong or pa- as officers. The practice fall, spectacular to cades, spending one night on the cUfT. involving delicate and rhythmical move- tient enough, try to rush a clifT, and those watch, still popped the eyes of new recruits Last summer 1 walked from the end of ment on cliffs with nn visible holds for the are the ones who fall. They lake chances, the last time I visited the Mountain and the road into Cascade Pass and looked hands and feet. A man wbo believes in and they lose. A leader has to be able to Cold Weather Cominand at Canip Carson, across the valle>' at Johannisberg. The "clean" climbing as a greater test than the fight against his own ambitions; be able to Colorado Springs. The sliding, or d>Tianiic, "eas>" route leads up an almost vertical lavish use of pitons, he made the first ascent tum around and to go home if the dimb ii belay has now virtually supplanted the gullcy of snow, wilh no sound place for a of Devil's Tower, in Wyoming, with only too much for him. There are those who race method originated by lhe Swiss, which waa belay. Harrah's route zigzagged up a but* one piton, where later climber? used them to climb the big faces or who hunt for no- to hook llir rope nrmly around a p rojee lion tress to the left, high into the clouds, so by the dozen. He also climbed I.S.260-foot toriety, but in five or six years you don't of rock. Too often, the rope brc^e. sheer thai I had to crane my neck. I ha\x Mt. Waddington, in British Columbia, sec thrm around any more. Nfost of than The Army developed few ne^v climben rock-climbed in my time, but this cliff was which had been attempted fourteen times quit. The real climber sticks with it all his of lhc ñnt rank, but a good many young- too rich for my blood. Not too rich for a previously. Wiessner is that rare being, an life. When the big ones are too difficult for sters with prior mountain experience man wiih abundant will power, however. articulait- climber. him—well, he alwayH can do the smaller emerged from the 10th Mountain Division The tenacity displayed by Harrah is to "Rock climbing," he feels, "is the most cliffs and be just as happy." as mature and keen mountaineers. The be found, to a greater or less degree, in ev- satisfying and fascinating spori in the world. most impressive veteran is a climber in his ery rock climber. Perhaps this explains why The landscape of mountains, the architec- It was on one of these smaller diflj, a early thirties, named Fred Bcckey, who has a climbing club in Iowa will spend its week- ture of mountains, is something too few of few day.s later, that I saw this philooophy Jed more than ^tx) first ascents of elifTs and ends on fifty-footclilT s along the Mississippi us know. It is a sport and not a competi- put 10 the test. Wiessner and 1 had met in rock spira in the Pacific Northwest. By River or why some thousands of cragsmen tion—matching yourself against something Chapel Pond Pass, near Keene Valley, in virtue of gelling there firet, Bcckey has been in the East will work happily on rock faces much bigger than any human being, tlie Adirondack Mounuins of Ne^^• York able to name a number of peaks hitherto ranging in height from 100 to bOO vertical against nature. It is a way of enjoying what State. Above us, fissured and seamed, rose identified only by altitude. Since tliousands feet. one's own body can do, much as our ances- a rock wall 4O0 feet high. No one had were already christened, he had to use in- The most notable and most populated tors who lived in trees must have enjoyed climbed it, but Wiessner was ready todo u, genuity. One range in the northern Cas- area is a wall of cliffs in the Shawangunk the cas>' movement of s\^iDging from limb We tied in to the rope, and Wicamer cade Mountains, named by Beckey, reads Mountains, about ll>C miles north of New to limb. You are away from ever>'thing started swiftly up through a narrow crack, like the wine list of a de luxe hotel. Chianti, York City, on the west side of the Hudson mechanical, and it makes you feel like a the classic rock climber in action. Above Pemod, Burgundy, SauCênK and Chablis River. Here the New York Chapter of the king, perched on a little spot up in ihe sky. him the wall leaned outward, for a space of are among the titles to captivate a thirsty Appalachian Mountain Club has developed You have overcome ph>-sical as well as perhaps fifteen vertical feet. I could see a climber, though Beckey is no winebibbcr fift>' sepárale routes rising a ma.ximum of mental difficulties. few tiny handholds, but no eas>' way past himself. 1Î00 feet, but embodying the most hair- "To be a good rock climber, you have to this obstacle. A man of great ph>-sical strength, Beckey raising dilemmas lo be encoumered in the put e\'erything inio il—to figure out your With lhe utmost preciseneu, Wiessner decided last year to dimb tbe w «i tower of Rockies, the Sierra Ntr\'ada and lhe Dolo- mo\-« as you would in chess, except that on worked his way upward, paused for a mo- Mt. Goode, a spire «Tl)O feet high, rising mites of Italy. If regulations did not forbid a cliff you are playing with the biggest meni, leaned out from the rock and craned 3500 feet from its base near the head of it. New York mountaineers would do their queens, bishops, rooks and pa\^'n3 on the his n'- Too many loose rocks, rolling down movements imposed on a climber. The ment, and started up again, this time se- the foot of Cascade Pass at live P.M. The on strollers along the riverside, caused the mechanical stuff—the pitons and bolts— lecting a slightly different collection of two climbers then walked up over the pass, authorities of Palisades Interstate Park to you can enjoy for a while, but in the long holds. Again, he paused to study the prob- down tlie other side, and in to the base of close the area to rock climbers years ago. run you get your values from your closc- lem, and again came carefully down. "It the peak, a distance of sixteen miles, arriv- will go now," he called cheerily to me. So ing at I 1:30 P.M. They slept until «rven A.M., rapidly my eye could not follow his move- Sunday, made the first ascent of the west ments, he flickered up the ledge, hooked tower, climbed back over the pass lo thtir three fingers over a thin flake of rock and car, and reached Seattle at two A.M. on disappeared over lhe ledge above. Monday. Beckey then went lo work in the I folk)wrd, but not with such ease. From advertising deparanent of the Seattle Pojt- his stance above, Wiessner was exerting a Intelligencer at eight A.M. On a later week- firm but steady pull un the rope, With thil end, twrcd with lhe walk over the pass, he assurance of safely, 1 managed to claw my loaded a eatamaran on a trailer, drove to way through a maze of totally inadequate the foot of Lake Chelan, and blithely sailed holds and to crawl on my belly over the top up to Stehekin, the starling point of his of the ledge. Off to the right a second wall dimb. The weekend finished, he sailed led up to a projecting piece of rock hroad down the lake again to rest himself. Bcck- enough for a man to sit on. How to gel cy's record of first ascents is now being chal- there? This one was easy for Wiessner. He lenged by Pete Schoening, another Seattle moved upward on scant foot- and hand- climber, who distinguished himself in an holds, turned his right hand so that It attempt on K2, in ilie Himalayas, a few rested palm down on the projecting rock, ycara back. fingen facing outward and wrist facing in- ward. Then he gently swung out ovTr space, reversing his body, and sat comforubly Climbers in the Pacific Northwest are a down. When I followed, it was the triumph little las scientific than those in ihe Sierra of brute strength over an obstacle that de- Nevada. The informal approach was epit- served more gentle treatment, I made a omized in 1929 by Lionel Chuic, who led lunge for the rock, hung on for dear life and the firai climb of the North Peak of Mt. hauled myself up. Index—elevation .OHM feet—on the inter- esting tlicory tbat a cash reward was in- The rest was eaiy. A few more ledges, a volved. The rumor had long persisted that few cracks to be climbed by jamming moit the Grrat Northern Railway, whose tunnel of the body into them and inching up- under ilie mountain is one of the longest ward, and we were on top of lhe cliff, with in the country, Avas prepared lo pay from the Adirondacks spread out in front of u*- $1000 to$5000 for the first climber to reach range after range of hills dark with spruce the top of the North Peak. Presumably, this and pine. , . would be profitable advertising. Chute, ap- "Offhand, I'd say tt was the mainspring." "Look, Hal," said Wiessner. jweepinghis arm lo encompass the horizon. "Doesn't it plying for the reward, found the railroad TIIB BATUKD«« KVIKIHC TOtt affable, but noi prepared lo dip into the make you feel like a king?" THE END