Yosemite Big Wall Climbers Will Love These Books

Many serious climbing historians have relied, at one time or other, on John Middendorf’s research, and I was delighted to hear it was going to be published in these two richly illustrated books (Mechanical Advantage: Volume 1 and Volume 2) which are indispensable for any reader of climbing history. The use of tools for ascent is older than the sport of climbing in the order of millennia.

Chimpanzees climb in teams to pass holdless sections of walls and trees. 8,000 years ago, a painting of a forager descending vines to gather honey was added to the walls of Arana cave in Spain. The reason the addition of new tools to climbing tends to cause such an uproar, writes Middendorf, an engineer, climbing historian and El Capitan pioneer, is that new tools are signs of change. Change, however, as Middendorf shows, is inevitable.

Middendorf is an extensive reader in several languages with a refreshingly global view of climbing. He’s an engineer who knows tools and has a sensitive eye for the subtleties of history playing out through climbing as different ideas enter, leave and overlap. He delves. He follows minutia that will delight the curious with a whole new take on climbing history and leave them with questions of their own. Is the pistol that Carlo Garbari used to force Nino Povoli to lead the crux pitch of the Campanile Basso a climbing tool?

For example, his history of carabiners, the device that made modern ropework possible, joining piton and running rope flawlessly, is a relentless inquiry into old pictures, journals and records. It illustrates how a device with humble origins was ubiquitous and in use by climbers outside of the dominant region of the Alps for decades before a famous climber, Otto Herzog, was credited with inventing it. Similar detail is included on a range of topics, from ropework to forms of protection. Richly illustrated with maps, photos, journal pages, drawings and other materials, this is a complete tour de force on the subject of climbing tools unlikely to be equalled anytime soon, and a must-have for climbing history buffs.