Royal Robbins

Birthday: February 3, 1935 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA

Royal Robbins (February 3, 1935 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 14, 2017 in Modesto, California) was an American rock climber and mountaineer. He was one of the figures of the golden age of t ...Show More

Royal Robbins (February 3, 1935 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 14, 2017 in Modesto, California) was an American rock climber and mountaineer. He was one of the figures of the golden age of the conquest of the Big Walls in Yosemite in the 1960s. Along with Yvon Chouinard, he was one of the promoters of the clean climbing ethic in the early 1960s. 1970.Royal Robbins first worked in a bank, then set up a business importing and selling mountain equipment and finally devoted himself to climbing. He is also the inventor of a bag hoisting system using pulleys and jumars.He acquired his technique and his style on the Tahquitz cliff near Los Angeles and quickly imposed his supremacy in Yosemite, where almost all major routes had been climbed by Robbins, including in 1957 the North-West Face of Half Dome in Yosemite, with Mike Sherrick and Jerry Gallwas: first degree VI in the United States. In 1960, he made the second ascent of The Nose at El Capitan in Yosemite. In 1961, the first ascent of Salathé Wall at El Capitan, with Tom Frost and Chuck Pratt. In 1962, he opened the Directe Américaine on the west face of Les Drus in the Mont Blanc massif in France, with Gary Hemming.In 1971, Robbins made with Don Lauria the second ascent of the Wall of Early Morning Light (also called Dawn Wall), opened the previous year by his rival Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell, and which had sparked controversy because of the 300 peaks at Used expansions. Robbins originally intended to "clear the way" by cutting expansions as you climb. After two lengths, Robbins stopped because, according to Lauria, "the standard of aid climbing was much higher than he would have expected from Harding or Caldwell and, of course, because it was so horribly long cut off all those damn spits"Royal Robbins died on March 14, 2017 at the age of 82. Hide