UKC

Royal Robbins, the premier American climber of his generation, and the person most responsible for the spirit of American climbing, has died at 82.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2956648/Royal-Robbins-RIP

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2956629/RR-Rip

https://www.mountainproject.com/v/a-sad-day-for-the-climbing-world-we-have-...

In reply to rgold:

RIP, true legend.

In reply to rgold:

Iconic character, real sad.

In reply to rgold:

Thanks for posting, just glanced at those supertopo threads, brought back many memories.

In reply to rgold:

I only watched "Valley Uprising" last Sunday .
I loved it and had to watch it twice in a row. I would never have known who he was otherwise.

Legendary chap.

TWS

In reply to rgold:

Very sad, a hero gone, RIP.

In reply to rgold: Sad news, but his legacy will outlast him - his routes, his ethics, his books.

My hardback copy of Fifty Classic Climbs of North America has a prominent place on my bookshelf although I am suitably embarrassed to admit I still don't own a copy of his Advanced Rockcraft.

In reply to rgold:

RIP. A bit of a hero of mine. With a bunch of mates, we kayaked what we thought were some fairly remote and untraveled rivers in Chile in the early 90s. I was amazed to learn years later that RR had made the first descent of many of them, along with his wife. Legend.

Does anyone know how often he visited the UK? He was involved in the first Old Man of Hoy broadcast & there's an article where it mentions him visiting Glencoe (maybe the same visit?) although I can't remember who wrote it or where it was published. But was that all ?

In reply to Doug:

Was he involved in the Hoy broadcast? He wasn't in either of the three featured climbing teams [Brown/MacNaught-Davies, Haston/Crew, Bonington/Patey]. In the support team, perhaps? He was certainly involved in the first Gogarth broadcast [not the Spider's Web/T Rex/Wen one] the previous year [1966], when Television Route was climbed.

In reply to Ian Parsons:

I think you are right - I confused Hoy & the first Gogarth broadcast.

In reply to Doug:

This is very sad news.

He came to Britain several times, the last probably being when he spoke at the International Mountain Literature Festival at Bretton Hall in 2004.

I was fortunate enough to meet him and talk to him for a while. But he was very taciturn, very modest in demeanour. Here's a picture:

http://www.gordonstainforthbelper.co.uk/images/RoyalRobbins2004.html

This is the talk he gave to the Festival about his favourite climbing authors:

https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_2005_files/AJ%202005%202...

In reply to rgold:
A quiet legend. When I first started climbing we had a suspicion that all American climbers were wimps, because the sun always shone and they pegged everything. Well, I was only 15 at the time.

I obviously didn't know about the free climbing on Salathe Wall ('Neither of us had a clue how the pioneers had been able to place the bolts which we so thankfully grabbed' - D Scott); or forays into Patagonia; or The South Face of the Fou, about which Robbins laconically said something like 'Not much adventure climbing granite walls anymore, as we knew what we were doing.' Hmmm.

A true legend and, what's more, an aficionado of grit! 'Your climbs here are little inlaid jewels...'

In reply to rgold:

One of my all-time climbing heroes. His Basic Rockcraft and Advanced Rockcraft were superb books. Not the greatest athlete/gymnast, but a master technician - and, much more importantly, such immense strength of mind and will.

In reply to Chive Talkin\':


Excellent documentary available on Netflix. Highly recommended.

RIP Royal Robins - one of Yosemite's legends.

In reply to rgold:

Sad news indeed.

John Gill made the highly pertinent point that Royal Robbins truly was, in the title of Pat Ament's biography, 'The Spirit of the Age'. Pat will have been hit hard by this; their friendship went back over 50 years.

Of all the encomia, your later one, pertaining to the passing of the man and his era, is for me the most elegiac. I don't want to reproduce it without your permission. Would you be willing to do so? I'm sure people on here would love to read it.

Mick

In reply to Doug:

I know that he visited the UK on a number of occasions and loved it. I believe that after climbing on the grit during his first (?) visit he described those climbs as "little gems". Most significantly it was during that visit--mid/late '60s that he was first introduced to the use of 'nuts' and quickly saw their many advantages--both practical and ecological, especially in light of his desire to use 'equipment' in a way to maximize adventure and commitment. On his return to the States he began to 'evangelize' about the advantages of nuts and what came to be called 'clean climbing'. He was the first to do so (in the UK climbers used nuts as a way to avoid placing 'forbidden' pegs but at that time didn't really consider their use as part of a 'bigger picture'), writing articles, giving lectures, publishing photos of peg-damaged cracks, and putting up 'all-nut' climbs such as Nutcracker Suite" in Yosemite. At first his was a lonely voice, but within a very few years others followed suit and soon the placing of pitons became virtually obsolete in the US.

In reply to Mick Ward:

Mick, I've posted to several threads at this point, including a comment on the official UKC memorial which I won't reproduce here. Here is some of what I've said; for folks of my generation Robbins' passing is of great emotional significance.

1. Many of us grew up in his long and imposing shadow, as he lived at a time when it was still possible for a single person to dominate the scene. Pete Sinclair, in his beautiful and mysterious memoir We Aspired---The Last Innocent Americans, likened Robbins to Achilles. Robbins was larger than life, and no one else in his time had more to do with shaping the spirit of American rock climbing.

2. Robbins was a god in a time when it was possible to have them. With his passing, the curtain on the era he represented draws closer to its final closing. In addition to mourning the departure of the man, those of us who were privileged to attend the show are mourning the dimming lights of a certain time and spirit. The sun sets today on an era that will not see many more sunrises.

May the mountain zephyrs transport Royal's spirit to a dwelling place of rest and peace.

Rather more of the same here:

3. I didn't know Royal personally (although we did do a climb together in the Gunks), but it was impossible to grow up as an American climber in the sixties without being shaped by Royal's influence. His time was the Heroic Age of American climbing, and he was first among heroes. Although we have contemporary climbing accomplishments of astonishing virtuosity, both climbing and the world encapsulating it have evolved in a way that has nearly eliminated both heroes and perhaps even the heroic virtues that define them. And so Royal's passing signifies the setting of the sun on an entire era, surely in climbing, and perhaps well beyond.

Just re-read Robbins' essay on A Dream Of White Horses from Hard Rock, which he climbed with "Whiz", who sadly passed away last year.
Also, his account of their first ascent of Fantasia at Lover's Leap http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP17/ascent-robbins
Both excellent articles.
Steve

In reply to rgold:

It was the second. I thought it was brilliant.


Mick

In reply to Doug:
He figured in one of Tom Patey's fine stories, collated in 'One Man's Mountains'. Titled 'The Greatest Show on Earth' it is an account of the first ascent of Red Wall on Gogarth I think. What comes to mind is Patey arriving at the top of the route festooned in slings and etriers, with his hands all torn and bloody from the aid climbing. Royal says to him
'Back home in the States you can tell an aid climber by his hands'.
Patey, 'Lots of scars?'
Royal, gently, 'No scars'
One of the greats, RIP.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

I read my Dad's copy which he picked up from an airport book shop towards the end of 'the noughties', I found it really interesting, it has lots of little tips and the book has the feel of something which could only come from a very experienced climber. I thought it seemed like a book which was written by somebody who was wise as well as an experienced climber.