The Nose with Lindsey Hamm
“BRAD WAS A DILIGENT PERSON. I NEVER FELT UNSAFE WITH HIM. AND HE WAS SO FAST.”
In autumn 2019 Hamm, a guide with Sierra Mountain Guides, partnered with Gobright as he began working on freeing the Nose. Their first outing together was to rappel the entire route with Gobright’s single 80-metre line. Here, she says, “I tied knots in the rope when he wasn’t looking. I was the enforcer in that.”
The two also made several trips to Dolt Tower together, 11 pitches up The Nose. There, high on El Cap, she watched Gobright with amazement. “It was cool to see Brad not be this sketchy person that people portrayed him as. He was a diligent person. I never felt unsafe with him. And he was so fast – it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen, so efficient, not fearful, no doubts. He was always fluid. He also asked me how I was and was encouraging.”
In addition to climbing together, including difficult free routes near Yosemite Valley, Speed of Life in Lee Vining Canyon and Heart of Stone on Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, Hamm and Gobright stayed in touch via text, sending each other memes. “And I’d send him stuff about dogs,” she said; they both loved dogs.
Hamm was in touch with Gobright the week he died in Potrero Chico. “He was thinking about guiding, and I was telling him about it,” she said. “I was not expecting to lose him like that, to be honest. I expected him to fall soloing or from slipping or something. But I was never nervous about his rope work. I’m sad I’ll never get another text from him. It’s devastating to all of us.”