SALATHÉ AND CHOUINARD, 1964

     In the fall of 1964 two great pioneers of American climbing met at Camp 4.  Both were master blacksmiths.  Both visionaries, able to see the way.  Both leaders in their generations – John Salathé and Yvon Chouinard.

     Royal wrote about how deeply Salathé’s example influenced us.  He said, in addition to Salathé’s great technical skill and the forging of special carbon vanadium steel pitons, it was his “sense of style that would set a standard for generations of climbers to come. In those days, Yosemite climbing required the occasional bolt, or sometimes a string of them, to overcome truly blank sections of otherwise climbable rock.  There always existed the temptation to get out the drill before it was absolutely necessary, to take the easy way out, rather than screw up one’s courage, and work tirelessly and inventively to find a way to get up without resorting to the detested expansion bolt.

     “Amazingly, Salathé never succumbed to this temptation.  His bolts were always deemed by later parties, ‘justified.’  How hard that is to do.  How remarkable that he did it in his day, absent the goad of competition.  No one would have faulted him for placing twice as many bolts.  He was competing only with himself.  What was he thinking?  Where did he get this sense of style?  Why did he set these almost impossibly high standards for himself?  We don’t know.  He didn’t write or talk about these things.  His eloquence on such matters was pure action, and his actions were to us spellbindingly persuasive.  American climbing would have been quite different had those of us who followed in Salathé’s footholds not been so deeply impressed by the courage and commitment to excellence of this thoughtful, taciturn, Swiss blacksmith who came to California and taught Americans a thing or two about climbing, and on whose shoulders so many of us have stood, reaching for higher holds.”  (Royal Robbins, Voices from the Summit)

     Writing about John Salathé, and the Lost Arrow chimney climb they did together, Anton Nelson said:  “One thing is not an adequate motive for climbing; that is egotism or pride.  Yes, most of us who climb usually play to the crowd, as such an article as this may demonstrate.  However, mere self-assertion alone has a low breaking point.  To keep going day after day under heart-sickening strenuousness requires a bigger, more powerful faith than in oneself or in any concept of superiority.”  (Sierra Club Bulletin, 1948)

     Salathé possessed a sensitivity and strength beyond what the rest of us normally apply to life.  For example, he listened to the council of angels and benefitted thereby.  In short, he owned the most valuable attribute a traditional climber can possess – “he knew things he didn’t know.”  Salathé showed us what was possible.  He was a kind of “father” of Yosemite rock climbing.

     One decade later Yvon Chouinard also saw the need for tough, well-designed pitons; and an inspiring standard in American wall climbing.  Chouinard’s Lost Arrow pitons were patterned after John Salathé’s and his Muir Wall set a new standard on El Capitan.