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My, how times have changed!

Original Post
Kyle Taylor · · Broomfield CO · Joined Sep 2017 · Points: 0

I'm so triggered! 

https://youtu.be/CeYCVX_Z6zo

Not really. But found this gem after listening to her on a podcast. Climbing commercialized in the 80s, sex jokes to boot!

enjoy.

S2k4 MattOates · · Kremmling, CO · Joined Sep 2015 · Points: 126

Even today, Lynn hill is a babe

Chandler Lee · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2017 · Points: 0

Oh god, the cringe is real. At least when Honnold was on Kimmel it wasn't this bad.

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

Before Lynn Hill, there was 

Bonnie Prudden
 -- who has the FA of one of the great 5.9s of the Gunks -- still highly prized now sixty years later.

Bonnie was more popularly famous than Lynn Hill. Arguably the most well-known American climber until Alex Honnold.

She had her own Television show -- sponsorship of a famous breakfast cereal -- appointed to the U.S. President's new council on physical fitness.

Sexual exploitation in the style permitted in the 1950s . . . Bonnie on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine in a skin-tight leotard.

Reason climbers don't remember Bonnie Prudden is because her public career and her dedication to public service -- like her frequent climbing partner Hans Krauss (FA Gunks - High Exposure) -- didn't leave her time and energy to keep up climbing seriously.

Ken

David K · · The Road, Sometimes Chattan… · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 423

My favorite part of the whole thing is that she gets tired of teaching him to belay and just free solos it, including downclimbing because she doesn't trust him to lower her.

Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0
David Kerkeslager wrote:

My favorite part of the whole thing is that she gets tired of teaching him to belay and just free solos it, including downclimbing because she doesn't trust him to lower her.

Not sure I would call that free soloing... our boulder problems go up higher in our gym. That and she was already someone who free soloed and what is on the wall is easier than a V0.

David K · · The Road, Sometimes Chattan… · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 423
kenr wrote:

Bonnie Prudden
 -- who has the FA of one of the great 5.9s of the Gunks -- still highly prized now sixty years later.

The route in question.

wivanoff · · Northeast, USA · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 674
David Kerkeslager wrote:

The route in question.

Steve Grossman's comments here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1458145/Norton-Smithe-and-the-First-Modern-Standard-Angle-1950

"When Hans Kraus was first trying to aid climb up Bonnie's Roof, he got stopped and decided to come down. After a lengthy debate Bonnie insisted on giving the route a go after a very heated "What harm could it do if I try?"
Bonnie pushed right on through to bag her best lead on the ultra classic route that bears her name. What she had as a secret weapon that Hans did not was a Smithe angle. She showed it to me proudly when she was telling the story. Bonnie's Roof went up in 1952"

Mark Says · · Basalt, CO · Joined Jul 2017 · Points: 395
ViperScale wrote:

Not sure I would call that free soloing... our boulder problems go up higher in our gym. That and she was already someone who free soloed and what is on the wall is easier than a V0.

Thanks for clearing that up. I think we all thought it was definitely a V9 problem with a .14b/c crux and ground fall potential. *phew* Good to know she was safe the whole time.

David K · · The Road, Sometimes Chattan… · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 423
wivanoff wrote:

Steve Grossman's comments here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1458145/Norton-Smithe-and-the-First-Modern-Standard-Angle-1950

"When Hans Kraus was first trying to aid climb up Bonnie's Roof, he got stopped and decided to come down. After a lengthy debate Bonnie insisted on giving the route a go after a very heated "What harm could it do if I try?"
Bonnie pushed right on through to bag her best lead on the ultra classic route that bears her name. What she had as a secret weapon that Hans did not was a Smithe angle. She showed it to me proudly when she was telling the story. Bonnie's Roof went up in 1952"

I just realized; looking at the route page, it appears she aided the route. The first free ascent was led by Dick Williams.

wivanoff · · Northeast, USA · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 674
David Kerkeslager wrote:

I just realized; looking at the route page, it appears she aided the route. The first free ascent was led by Dick Williams.

Yes, that was always my understanding. Still, cool accomplishment.

Acmesalute76 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2016 · Points: 71
David Kerkeslager wrote:

My favorite part of the whole thing is that she gets tired of teaching him to belay and just free solos it, including downclimbing because she doesn't trust him to lower her.

I figured they had gone over it earlier, but it didn't seem like it. 

My favorite part was the burly campus move she does over the roof! 

Eric Engberg · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 0
wivanoff wrote:

Yes, that was always my understanding. Still, cool accomplishment.

In those days there wasn't as much of a distinction.  If it was going to be quicker to aid a move then that is what you did.

David K · · The Road, Sometimes Chattan… · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 423
wivanoff wrote:

Yes, that was always my understanding. Still, cool accomplishment.

Yeah, I didn't say that to downplay her accomplishment. Given the gear that existed at the time, aiding was a much scarier endeavor.

rgold · · Poughkeepsie, NY · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 526

Wiessner came from the extreme free-climbing tradition of the Elbsandsteingebirge, but Kraus came a Dolomite aid-climbing context. Free climbing as, in some sense, a higher goal didn't  really start to take hold in the U.S. until the 1950's at Tahquitz, and even then the transition to the goal of eliminating or avoiding aid took many years to evolve.  You have to understand that Kraus and Prudden and others were looking for climbs to aid in the Gunks to practice for anticipated overhangs elsewhere.  And the hardware they had was almost pathetically limited compared to our present stuff.  They didn't have anything for small cracks and they didn't have anything for big cracks. (The Norton Smythe angle Prudden mentioned as the key to the aid ascent of Bonnie's Roof was slightly larger than the ring angles that were the usual equipment of the day.  The ring angles were approximately 3/4" angles---roughly purple camalot size---and the Smythe was approximately a 1" angle ---roughly green camalot size.  Most of the extensive wideness up at the roof on Bonnie's Roof was not aidable with the gear they had.)

Jim Titt · · Germany · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 490
rgold wrote:

Wiessner came from the extreme free-climbing tradition of the Elbsandsteingebirge, but Kraus came a Dolomite aid-climbing context. Free climbing as, in some sense, a higher goal didn't  really start to take hold in the U.S. until the 1950's at Tahquitz, and even then the transition to the goal of eliminating or avoiding aid took many years to evolve.  You have to understand that Kraus and Prudden and others were looking for climbs to aid in the Gunks to practice for anticipated overhangs elsewhere.  And the hardware they had was almost pathetically limited compared to our present stuff.  They didn't have anything for small cracks and they didn't have anything for big cracks. (The Norton Smythe angle Prudden mentioned as the key to the aid ascent of Bonnie's Roof was slightly larger than the ring angles that were the usual equipment of the day.  The ring angles were approximately 3/4" angles---roughly purple camalot size---and the Smythe was approximately a 1" angle ---roughly green camalot size.  Most of the extensive wideness up at the roof on Bonnie's Roof was not aidable with the gear they had.)

You mean they hadn´t worked out how to use wooden wedges?

brenta · · Boulder, CO · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 75
Jim Titt wrote:

You mean they hadn´t worked out how to use wooden wedges?

I'm also curious.  Bonatti had wooden wedges in 1951 on Grand Capucin, and I've read that Comici already used them in the 1930s, but otherwise I know very little about the early days of wooden wedges.

Jim Titt · · Germany · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 490

I´ve seen a reference to them being normal equipment in Austria before 1926 but imagine they go a fair way back before then. After all bolts were a standard item in some areas in those days!

rgold · · Poughkeepsie, NY · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 526

 I've never encountered a wooden wedge in the Gunks.  Kraus surely knew about wooden wedges, but either didn't have them or didn't want to use them, perhaps because he didn't want to leave such things in place. 

rich perch · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2010 · Points: 10

The last pitch of Proctoscope used to have a few wooden wedges but I think that is the only place I've seen them in the Gunks.

Funny!  I just noticed that rgold did the first ascent of Proctoscope in 1969.  He also did the first free ascent the same year.  Either a faulty memory or someone added them later.

rgold · · Poughkeepsie, NY · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 526

I definitely didn't do the first ascent, but may, as credited, have done the first free ascent.  I sure don't recall any wooden wedges, but rich may be right about my memory.  It seems very

 unlikely that anyone would have used wooden wedges after 1969...

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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