Author | Steve Roper Allen Steck |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | Climbing |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Sierra Club Books |
Publication date | 1979 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
ISBN | 0-87156-292-8 |
Fifty Classic Climbs of North America is a 1979 climbing guidebook and history written by Steve Roper and Allen Steck. [1] It is considered a classic piece of climbing literature, known to many climbers as simply "The Book", [2] and has served as an inspiration for more recent climbing books, such as Mark Kroese's Fifty Favorite Climbs. [3] Though much of the book's contents are now out of date, it is still recognized as a definitive text which goes beyond the traditional guidebook.
The first edition was published in 1979, by Sierra Club Books in the United States and in Great Britain by the now-defunct Diadem Books. This was followed by a paperback printing by Random House in 1981. Two subsequent editions (with the same content) were published by Sierra Club Books in 1982 and 1996. Between 1979 and 1999 it sold nearly thirty thousand copies, a considerable achievement for a climbing guide book. [2]
Reviewing the book in American Alpine Journal , Fred Beckey wrote: "Roper and Steck have presented a profile of what could be considered the Great American Dream climbs with a writing style that provides much Lebensraum for speculation and meditation. While reading, one is tempted to meditate: the challenge of the alpine adventure is always there; the dreams of the various pioneers sometimes filter through the narrative." [4]
Roper and Steck received the American Alpine Club's 1995 Literary Award for the book and for their other works such as The Best of Ascent. [5]
To choose the list of climbs, the coauthors solicited opinions from a number of leading climbers of the era, narrowing a list of more than 100 climbs according to three basic criteria: that the peak or route appear striking from afar, have a noteworthy climbing history, and offer climbing of excellent quality. Precedence was given to climbing quality over appearance and appearance over historical significance. In order to judge the historical significance and continuing popularity, routes were limited for the most part to those first ascended before 1970. A lower limit on the length of the route, at 500 feet, was also established. Steck and Roper had personally ascended or attempted most of the selected routes. [6]
The list of fifty climbs has served as a challenge to climbers, providing them with a "tick list" of challenging routes that span a wide section of western North America. Author Steve Roper has emphasized that the climbs were chosen from a list of about 120 climbs he and Steck considered classic, and are simply '50 classic climbs', not 'the 50 classics'. [2] Nevertheless, the book brought great popularity to many of the routes it featured, and prospective climbers pursuing one of the "fifty classics" often found crowds on the more accessible climbs and unexpected company on the more remote routes, earning them the nickname "Fifty Crowded Climbs". [7]
No one person has yet climbed all fifty routes. This has been attributed to the difficulty of some of the Alaskan and Canadian routes (the Hummingbird Ridge of Mount Logan has never been repeated by the original route [8] ).
The fifty climbs included in the book are listed below, along with their grades as given in the first edition, which may differ from those found in a modern guidebook due to changes in climbing standards or route conditions.
Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey, known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of some of the tallest peaks and most important routes throughout Alaska, the Canadian Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. Among the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, seven were established by Beckey, often climbing with some of the best known climbers of each generation.
Mount Edith Cavell is a mountain in the Athabasca River and Astoria River valleys of Jasper National Park, and the most prominent peak entirely within Alberta.
Mount Temple is a mountain in Banff National Park of the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada.
John Randall Durrance was a pioneering American rock climber and mountaineer.
Grand Teton is the highest mountain of the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park at 13,775 feet (4,199 m) in Northwest Wyoming. Below its north face is Teton Glacier. The mountain is a classic destination in American mountaineering via the Owen-Spalding route, the North Ridge and North Face.
Mount Moran is a mountain in Grand Teton National Park of western Wyoming, USA. The mountain is named for Thomas Moran, an American western frontier landscape artist. Mount Moran dominates the northern section of the Teton Range rising 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above Jackson Lake. Several active glaciers exist on the mountain with Skillet Glacier plainly visible on the monolithic east face. Like the Middle Teton in the same range, Mount Moran's face is marked by a distinctive basalt intrusion known as the Black Dike.
Steve Roper is a noted climber and historian of the Sierra Nevada in the United States. He along with Allen Steck are the founding editors of the Sierra Club journal Ascent.
John Salathé was a Swiss-born American pioneering rock climber, blacksmith, and the inventor of the modern steel piton. In his later years he promoted Christian spiritualism and vegetarianism.
Slesse Mountain, usually referred to as Mount Slesse, is a mountain just north of the US-Canada border, in the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia, near the town of Chilliwack. It is notable for its large, steep local relief. For example, its west face drops over 1,950 m (6,398 ft) to Slesse Creek in less than 3 km (2 mi). It is also famous for its huge Northeast Buttress; see the climbing notes below. The name means "fang" in the Halkomelem language. Notable nearby mountains include Mount Rexford and Canadian Border Peak in British Columbia, and American Border Peak, Mount Shuksan, and Mount Baker, all in the US state of Washington.
Layton Kor was an American rock climber active in the 1960s, whose first ascents and drive for climbing are well known in the climbing world. His routes included many climbs in Eldorado Canyon, near Boulder, Colorado, The Diamond on Longs Peak, towers in the desert southwest, and Yosemite National Park, among other locations. Notable among his first ascents is the Kor-Ingalls Route on Castleton Tower and The Finger of Fate Route up the Fisher Towers' Titan; both routes are recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.
The Salathé Wall is one of the original big wall climbing routes up El Capitan, a 3,000-foot (900 m) high granite monolith in Yosemite National Park. The Salathé Wall was named by Yvon Chouinard in honor of John Salathé, a pioneer of rock climbing in Yosemite. The route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and is considered a classic around the world.
The East Face of Mount Whitney is a technical alpine rock climbing route and is featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous United States.
Lost Arrow Spire is a detached pillar in Yosemite National Park, in Yosemite Valley, California, located immediately adjacent to Upper Yosemite Falls. The structure includes the Lost Arrow Spire Chimney route which is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. The spire is the location for a dramatic Tyrolean traverse, which has since become an iconic slackline.
Terry "Mugs" Stump was a noted American rock climber and mountaineer, active in establishing difficult first ascents in the Alaska Range and the Canadian Rockies. He died from falling into a crevasse while descending the South Buttress of Denali on May 21, 1992, while guiding clients Bob Hoffman and Nelson Max.
Allen Parker Steck was an American mountaineer and rock climber.
Robert Lindley Murray Underhill was an American mountaineer best known for introducing modern Alpine style rope and belaying techniques to the U.S. climbing community in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Thomas "Tom" M. Frost was an American rock climber known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He was also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer. Frost was born in Hollywood, California, and died in Oakdale, California.
Charles Marshall Pratt was an American rock climber known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He was also a long-time climbing instructor and mountain guide with Exum Mountain Guides in the Grand Tetons.
Liberty Bell Mountain is located in the North Cascades, State of Washington, United States, approximately one mile south of Washington Pass on the North Cascades Highway. Liberty Bell is the most northern spire of the Liberty Bell Group, a group of spires that also includes Concord Tower, Lexington Tower, North Early Winters Spire, and South Early Winters Spire.
Chris Jones was a British–American rock climber, photographer, climbing historian, author, and alpinist. He is known for establishing difficult and influential, alpine style climbing routes during 1965–1980 in the Andes and the Canadian Rockies. He is the author of Climbing in North America, one of the earliest books on the history of climbing in North America from the 1800s to the 1970s.
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