Advanced Rock Climbing: Expert Skills and Techniques
Topher Donahue Mountaineers Books, 2016
In 1980,
writing a few years after the introduction of Friends, the author of
viewed their adoption as a step backwards, in the direction of pitons – requiring less sensitivity and skill than the chocks then in vogue. They degraded “frontier” routes to put them within reach of the practitioner unwilling to see climbing as a craft.
There’s something to be said about this approach to the sport with its emphasis on movement over strength, the inner journey supplanting the raw quest for difficulty. But, the world has moved on. Cut-offs aren’t quite a thing anymore, and neither is a gear sling dominated by hexes racked with oval biners. Not only that, even the notion of a book has become quaint as the post-truth epoch dawns. It’s into such a world that
arrives, aspiring to bring a contemporary perspective to serious climbing. In so much as it must compete with forums, blogs and YouTube it raises the bar considerably in terms of coherence and continuity of perspective. Based on discussions with two dozen leading climbers it presents a view of climbing as a multi-disciplinary activity where ideas from bouldering translate to big wall free ascents. In a sport of endlessly evolving subgenres, suggests vectors of creativity between them. Runouts aren’t to be thought of as metaphysical journeys of self-discovery but rather exercises in risk management. Hard-coded tactics form the basis of the quick improvisation that’s required in many climbing situations. For example: one should be able to shift from full verbal contact between leader and belayer to silent mode without hesitation. The harder they send the more the outcome is determined by the belayer or spotter.
When specific approaches are recommended, they’re made in context. Pros, cons and alternate viewpoints inform the book; encouraging readers to critically evaluate accepted wisdom. A significant portion of the book is devoted to success techniques on long, hard routes where all facets must come together. Simu-climbing is covered extensively, as is leading in blocks, and working in teams of three, all topics not typically covered by instructional books. While the book promotes a healthy disregard for orthodoxy – encouraging, for example, the use of crack climbing gloves – it’s necessarily conservative on issues of environmental impact and access. provides the confident intermediate climber with an outlook to take them to big objectives. Concomitantly, it suggests to the long-standing “expert” new ways of doing things, and, in so doing, inspires them to get back in the game.— the TV. He was enthralled however and after the film had finished he proceeded to tell us in encyclopedic detail about all the trips Norman had ever done. And then exclaimed he himself still had a project left he wanted to do in Alaska. “You guys should come along. I already got the permit. Here I’ll go get it,” he exclaimed. We looked at each other in disbelief as Fred hobbled out to his car and returned with a file box of papers, alaska in block caps written on the side. He pulled out a yellowed piece of paper from the U.S. National Parks Service dated 1973. “Dear Mr. Beckey…” it began.