Russ Clune, Legendary Gunks Climber, Talks About New Book

Russ Clune started climbing in 1977 in the Gunks and quickly became a leading first ascensionist and free soloist in the Gunks. Clune went on to be a prolific writer in the climbing media, reporting first-hand on his wide-ranging rock climbs.

When 80s Australian ace Kim Carrigan told Clune “you’ve got to climb with as many great climbers as you can, and climb on as many different types of rock as possible,” Clune took him seriously. He’s climbed in more than 60 countries, sticking to the local styles wherever he went.

Clune knew and climbed with most of the top climbers of the 80s and beyond. He was once trying a route called Kink at Stoney Middleton when the legendary Jerry Moffatt came by and asked for a go – Moffatt used a hold Clune hadn’t seen, but when Clune tried Moffatt’s sequence, he ripped that hold off. Clune also bouldered with John Long, sport climbed with Wolfgang Güllich in Frankenjura, tackled the scary sandstone pillars of east Germany, witnessed the birth of American sport climbing at Smith Rocks with Alan Watts and competition climbing at Bardonecchia, Italy.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also had a career in the climbing industry, starting at Chouinard hardware and helping to found Black Diamond, where he watched the industry and sport’s exponential growth from inside one of its most influential companies. Clune writes well and has a fresh take on a lot of the classic issues, from climbing style to mass participation in the sport. His insights into his notable, and less notable, climbing partners are often humorous and always revealing.

“If you’re a climber,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winner William Finnegan, about The Lifer, “you’ll love this memoir. Russ Clune has been everywhere, climbed everything, with a tremendous cast of partners and friends, and he has the natural storyteller’s ability to keep you with him every step of the way. There is a close-grained history of modern climbing here as well as his own pilgrim’s progress. If you’re not a climber, welcome to a full-blown obsession. Feel the burn, the fear, the joy, the horror, and learn a new language without risking life and limb.”

Clune’s The Lifer: Rock Climbing Adventures in The Gunks and Beyond, published by Di Angelo Press, will be out in 2023. We talked with Clune about writing, climbing and his new book, which you can order here.

When did you start working on the book? I retired in 2018 and started writing. I had no contract, no deadline. I got serious and got a publisher last fall. A lot of the stories started out as vignettes. I had about 65 to begin with. I have massive collections of notes and publications. The crux is distilling it down into chapters, culling pages of carefully kept notes, snapshots and so on.

What was special about climbing in the 70s and 80s compared to today? There has been a tremendous metamorphosis. In the 80s, everyone started traditional climbing and sport climbing was for the high-end grades. Also, everyone knew everyone. There aren’t a lot of lifelong climbers anymore, people do it for a while and move on. Climbing was based on respect for boldness. Climbers turned the sport into a mainly gymnastic pursuit where harder things are not defined as much by boldness as difficulty. But it’s bullshit to say people who climb hard now wouldn’t have stood a chance back in the day.

How do you keep the psyche going after so long in the game? I focus on meeting people. I love the travel. I don’t really work routes so much anymore. Finding routes I can do in a couple of tries is exciting. I’ve tried to morph with the sport and not get stuck in the past.

What is something you really like happening in climbing today? Gyms that are in range of the Gunks have done a really good job with programs preparing people for the outdoors. Everybody who climbed when I started was already an outdoors person. That’s no longer the case, but these education programs have worked really well to give people some of the background they need to climb outside responsibly.