In depth beta on the 140 best Yosemite bigwalls routes, free and aid.

A sumptuous historical survey of "The Road" that also offers itineraries, practicalities, and the whereabouts of top-rated related museum collections.

Half a century ago a rag-tag group of innovators was building a foundation for modern American rock climbing from a makeshift home base in Yosemite. Photographer Glen Denny was a key figure in this golden age of climbing, capturing pioneering feats on camera while tackling challenging ascents himself. In entertaining short pieces enlivened by his iconic black-and-white images of Yosemite's big wall legends, Denny reveals a young man's coming of age and provides a vivid look at Yosemite’s early climbing culture. He relates such precarious achievements as hauling water in glass gallon jugs up the east face of Washington Column, nailing the 750-foot Rostrum in a punishing heat wave, and dangling overnight on El Capitan’s Dihedral Wall in a lightning storm. Each true tale captures the spirit of historic Camp 4, where Denny and others plan the next big climb while living on the cheap and dodging park rangers.

Hans Florine embodies the genius of "and"—collaborative and competitive, fast and safe, audacious and disciplined, visionary and quantitative. The themes that run through Florine's 101 ascents of Yosemite's most iconic route can benefit people who will never climb a rock, indeed anyone inspired by the idea of a passionate, lifelong quest of any type. —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great Hans Florine is a big-wall climbing legend in his own time. He holds the speed record on the Nose route of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot granite cliff in Yosemite Valley that’s considered the Everest of the rock-climbing world. Ascending the Nose takes most climbers anywhere from 12 to 96 hours. Florine, along with climbing partner Alex Honnold, does it in an astounding 2.5 hours. But Florine’s story is not one of super-human athletic prowess; it’s one of persistence and dogged determination. In 30 years of climbing, he's ascended the Nose a mind-blowing, death-defying 100 times, more than anyone else ever has, and most likely ever will. In On the Nose, Florine describes the most dangerous, pivotal, and inspirational of those climbs, providing a rare look inside the adrenaline-charged world of competitive climbing in Yosemite Valley. He tells of his very first attempt on the Nose, which ended in failure after 14 hours, his friendships (and rivalries) with climbing’s most colorful personalities, and his battle with Dean Potter to secure the definitive speed record on the Nose—an endeavor that’s been called the wildest competition known to man. Perhaps most interestingly, Florine attempts to answer the question why. Why would anyone undertake one of the greatest adventure epics on earth 100 times? His answers provide unique insights on how to live a satisfying life, how to achieve big goals, and how an otherwise ordinary guy can become a rock star.

"Most of Yosemite's nearly 4 million annual visitors leave the park without a scratch. For a few, however, a vacation in this world-famous land of cliffs and waterfalls takes a turn for the terrifying. That's where the YOSAR team comes in ... [In this book], Butch Farabee relates epic tales of endurance and survival, misadventure and fatal consequences"--Amazon.com.

CLICK HERE to download the section from Big Wall Climbing on "First Ascents" * Skills and strategies unique to big walls -- illustrated in full color * Includes modern speed and free climbing tactics that have revolutionized wall climbing * Key training exercises (practiced near the ground) and real life examples reinforce instruction Dangling sweaty-palmed from a 3000-foot cliff for days on end, Jared Ogden taught himself to climb his first big wall by trial and error. Why should you have to do the same? Ogden, who has climbed El Capitan's Nose in less than twenty-four hours, wants to jump-start your education. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a full-on wall addict, you'll learn the tools of the trade and how to use them; different leading and hauling scenarios and why some are better suited than others; multiple following set-ups for different terrain; how to choose your partners and routes; staying on route; how to live on a wall; the steps involved in doing first ascents; big wall style and ethics; and more. Ogden will have you racked and ready for prime big wall climbing destinations in North America including Yosemite, Zion, Rocky Mountain, and the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Parks; the Alaskan Range; and the Bugaboos of British Columbia.

* Includes stories of such greats as Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Allen Steck, and Warren Harding * Captures the raucous, outrageous, innovative spirit of climbing in Yosemie during this period * Portrays the advances in equipment and style that revolutionized big-wall climbing In the 1960's, California's Yosemite Valley was the center of the rock-climbing universe. Young nonconformists -- many of them the finest rock climbers in the world -- channeled their energy toward the largely untouched walls and cracks. Soon climbers from around the globe were coming to Camp 4 -- gathering spot for the creators of the Golden Age of Yosemite climbing -- to see what all the fuss was about. Climber and author Steve Roper spent most of 10 years living in the Yosemite Valley with its intriguing inhabitants. Camp 4 is his take on the era's top climbers and the influences behind their achievements. The text is full of stories both hilarious and revealing about the likes of bolt-disdaining Royal Robbins; fun-loving, big-wall expert Warren Harding; free-climber Frank Sacherer; multi-talented Chuck Pratt; master craftsman Yvon Chouinard; and ill-fated Mark Powell. Roper also tips his hat to the elder statesmen of the 1930s and 1940s who pioneered early, important climbs in the valley. Camp 4 looks at the most significant climbs, and the most riveting controversies of a legendary era. With more than 50 fascinating historical photographs, most never before published, Camp 4 is the definitive history of Yosemite climbing during this period.

Companion to the classic Yosemite in the Sixties, this book uses the words of the climbers of the time and artfully restored photographs to chronicle the historic first ascents of Yosemite's "mile-high" granite walls, the legendary personalities who risked their lives to climb them, and how their endeavors initiated the birth of adventure sports. Better than half a century after the first ascent of El Capitan, the deeds of Yosemite's 1950s-era Iron Age are no longer viewed as climbs or mere adventures. Rather, they are assaults on the human barrier, pushing that much higher. Yosemite in the Fifties gives the stage almost entirely over to the original source material, the first-person narratives, archive photos (artfully restored), and memorabilia particular to the seminal ascents of the era. These words, images, and design, when cast from critical angles, all reach across generations to resurrect vanished worlds. Yosemite in The Fifties is fashioned not so much as a book but as a wormhole back to an enchanted time in the history of exploration, and a classic era of Americana now lost in time.