Longs Peak, long ago
Climbing pioneers tell of early ascents after ban lifted in 1960
boulder » The hallowedwalls ofNeptune Mountaineering reverberated with history over theweekend as the pioneers of Colorado climbing gathered to share, celebrate and detail the earliest technical ascents of Rocky Mountain National Park’s Longs Peak.
“This is America’s premier rock wall. This one is really the crown of the Rockies,” said event organizer Stephen Grossman, who is gathering images, artifacts and stories from climbing’s vanguard for his nonprofit North American Climbing History Archives.
Climbing’s greatest generation — the adventurous heroes who revealed new possibilities that stretched beyond stone walls — was well-represented Friday night at Boulder’s institution of climbing. The indelible characters who sparked Colorado’s climbing scene — opening previously unfathomable opportunities for generations in their wake— detailed their earliest exploits with a humor and humility that has outlived their climbing prowess.
“I feel very humbled up here today, because everythingwe didwas so old-fashioned and so easy compared towhat they are doing today,” said Dave Rearick, who in 1960, at age 27, joined Bob Kamps in the historic first ascent of the Diamond on Longs Peak.
The August 1960 feat, which came a month after the National Park Service dropped its long-standing ban on climbing on the Diamond, landed the California duo on newspaper covers. They led a parade in Estes Park that day after their momentous climb. More than a dozen climbers had died in the previous decade on Longs Peak, and the formidable Diamond was considered a daunting, if not impossible, face.
“It was the first time … and we broke the ice. We showed that the Diamondwas feasible,” Rearick said of his famous three-day ascent, which he remembered as wet and cold and included a bivouac without sleeping bags on a “comfortable” 2-by-7-foot ledge. “All in all, itwas memorable for the fact thatwe made a good impression on the Park Service, and the Diamond was officially opened after that.”
Kor a myth-buster
Kamps and Rearick opened a floodgate that saw climbers notching variations of the Diamond throughout the 1960s. Leading the charge was Layton Kor, the influential climberwhose first ascents inCalifornia, Utah, Boulder’s Eldorado Canyon, the BlackCanyon of the Gunnison and on Longs Peak made him one of the most revered climbers in history.
The weekend’s celebration served as an informal memorial toKor, who died in April after a lengthy illness at age 74.
RayNorthcutt, who joinedKor in a first ascent of the Diagonal on the lower east face of Longs Peak belowthe Diamond in 1959, described Kor as “absolutely the most tenacious” and “absolutely the most voracious climber I’ve ever dealt with.”
After spending a summer working for Yvon Chouinard making high-quality pitons and climbing gear in 1961, Kor was armed with top-notch gear and led a siege on the Diamond. In 1962, Kor planned the second ascent of the Diamond, a route he would name Yellow Wall, but his climbing partners fell ill on the approach. Charles Roskcosz, a young graduate student at theUniversity ofColorado who was working support for Kor, volunteered.
“I told Layton I’d do it, and he said ‘Let’s go.’ I said, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Roskcosz said, culling a roar from the crowd Friday night. “Iwould followthat guy anywhere. He was so much better than any of us.”
The next summer Kor enlisted icon RoyalRobbins and Floyd “Tex” Bossier in pioneering two routes on Longs Peak: the Jack of Diamonds and the harrowing Diagonal Direct.
“To climb with him as an equal required one to climb at their limits,” Robbins said in a videotaped reading detailing his 1963 climb with Kor.
Battling the elements
Weather played a prominent role in the early stories of climbing on Longs Peak, where sudden, late-summer storms could encase the entire peak in ice in a matter of hours. Kor and Bossier’s ascent of the Diagonal Direct saw avalanches, snow and a fight for survival. It would be more than a decade before the route was repeated by renowned climber MichaelCovingBob Kamps, ton. above, joined
Pat Amentwas 13when David Rearick Kor recruited him for on the historfirst and second ascents. ic climb. The Neptune crowd reveled in Ament’s tales, such as when his hands suffered serious rope burns trying to save Kor during a rare fall and his mentor hauled him into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison days later. Or when Ament beat up Kor’s car driving it without a license from Boulder to Rocky Mountain National Park for a climbing mission.
“Wewere all so jealous for his love. We wanted to be with him because he made us all laugh,” said Ament, whose hastily snapped photos of Kor from the 1960s and 1970s serve as treasures for both him and the climbing community. “I don’t know anyone in my whole life who was widely loved as Layton Kor.”