Peak Histories

A place to explore the natural setting (geology, flora & fauna), people, constructed infrastructure and historical events that play and have played a part in shaping the Sierra Nevada as we know it today.
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RoguePhotonic
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Peak Histories

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Another source of information I cannot seem to find that some of you may have is where is the listing for all the peaks in the Sierra and their summit records? Such as when each peak was climbed. We all know all the peaks of the Sierra have been climbed before but a great deal of remote ones have only been climbed once or a few times. What source do we have to know who and when these peaks were climbed? Such as when I climbed the highest peak on Windy Cliff and there was only one signature in the register from 1980 how can I find if they were the 1st ascent or if I was the second?

This is all of course under what is actually recorded and not accounting for people not signing registers or not reporting their ascents. Who knows just how many peaks Indians had the first ascent.
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maverick
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by maverick »

This may help: http://www.climber.org/data/SierraPeaks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by RoguePhotonic »

I'll try to dig deeper in that site. I went to it but it seemed to only have named peaks. I'm mostly trying to find all the unnamed peaks and their ascent records. I remember reading about a group of guys that set out in the 70's to climb all the unclimbed unnamed peaks in the Sierra. The question still remains how do we know who or how many times an unnamed peak has been climbed?
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maverick
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by maverick »

The question still remains how do we know who or how many times an unnamed
peak has been climbed?
We don't. I have climbed a few peaks and do not not registered, and know many others
also who don't care to too either.
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Hmm that's certainly interesting. So when people set out to climb unclimbed peaks in the 70's it was simply try to find anyone that had climbed it and if you couldn't climb to the top and if there is no cairn you claim 1st ascent. :-k
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by artrock23 »

RoguePhotonic wrote:Hmm that's certainly interesting. So when people set out to climb unclimbed peaks in the 70's it was simply try to find anyone that had climbed it and if you couldn't climb to the top and if there is no cairn you claim 1st ascent. :-k
I think Mav's point is that we may never know the details regarding true FAs of many Sierra peaks (especially unnamed ones). If you think about it, any evidence of unrecorded climbs from long ago is probably long gone. Let's say, for instance, that Norman Clyde or one of the other climbers from the early 20th century climbed a peak and left no record, or maybe only a note on the summit. Or in even earlier times, an indian climbed a peak to prove his manhood/etc. Many years later, s omeone climbs the peak, there's nothing on the summit to indicate it's ever been climbed and no other known record. Voila... he (or she) claims first ascent. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case with a number of FA claims. We just need to be content with what IS known, and the occasional bits of info that do surface, on occasion.

Having said the above, however, i'm certainly curious to know if there are records of Sierra FAs collected in one place.
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Well I understand all the unknowns but every named peak at least has an official first ascent noted normally. I would assume at what ever point the other peaks would have some sort of record for the first ascent even if it's not completely true. An example is last year when I climbed a peak and the register showed I was the 5th ascent. The people that signed it in 1971 noted first ascent how exactly did they know that?

We always hear that every single peak in the Sierra has been climbed. How exactly do we know that if there are no records? How can we not know there is 100 peaks unclimbed?
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Re: Peak Histories

Post by RoguePhotonic »

A bit of interesting history to me anyway about peak 11,151 (Windy Cliff) is that the 3 men that signed the register in 1980 are also 3 of the people that signed the first ascent of White Fork Peak that I did last year. They are also credited in Secors book as the first ascent of a couple other peaks around the general area of Observation Peak. Secor's book notes for Windy Cliff that the East ridge was climbed by Douglas Dooley in 1979. I do not know if that means Peak 11,151 though. So I think it's safe to say that I either got 2nd or 3rd ascent.

The names are: Frank Yates, Bill Schuler and Andy Smatko.

Andy has a rather impressive list of climbed peaks on peak bagger
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