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Happy Birthday to Chuck Pratt, Pioneering Yosemite Climber

Tom Frost, Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt and Yvon Chouinard on the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley at the end of the first ascent of the North America Wall route.

^ Photo: (L to R) Tom Frost, Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt and Yvon Chouinard on the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley at the end of the first ascent of the North America Wall route.

Yosemite climbing legend Chuck Pratt died in 2000, but he would have been 73 today, March 5.

Chuck Pratt’s notable climbs (links to go beta and photos of each route):

1958 - FA of North Face of Fairview Dome, Tuolmne Meadows, CA
1959 - FA of East Face of Washington Column (later renamed Astroman), Yosemite, CA
1959 - FA of North Face of Middle Cathedral Rock, Yosemite, CA
1960 - Second ascent of The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite, CA
1961 - FA of the Salathé Wall, El Capitan, Yosemite, CA
1963 - FFA of Kor-Ingalls on Castleton Tower, Utah
1964 - FA of South Face of Mt. Watkins, Yosemite, CA
1964 - FA of North American Wall, El Capitan, Yosemite, CA

In his obituary of Pratt, Yosemite climbing patriarch Royal Robbins called him “The best climber of our generation, and the best climbing writer as well.”

[Source]

Quality of Climbs vs. Quantity of Climbs

I bolted a new route the other day. It’s on a little 40-foot cobble cliff in a canyon near my house. Once it’s cleaned up a bit more, it will be a good route and clock in at 5.9ish. Not a great or classic route; just good. Not terrible or crappy, but good.

The overwhelming majority of climbs I’ve done in my life have been good. Sure, there have been some outlier uber-classics and some never-again death traps, too. As I was bolting that route that was destined for mere goodness, I asked myself what was more important to me: climbing a classic route or climbing multiple good routes. In other words, quality or quantity?

This is a strange thing to admit, but I don’t really care too much about quality. Of course, all other things being equal, I’d rather climb a classic route than an obscure, chossy one. But I’d rather climb 10 “good” routes that I haven’t done before at my local little crag than a single amazing route like Supercrack at Indian Creek.

Why is that?

I think it’s because, well, I just love climbing. I enjoy the actual act of climbing, regardless of the “quality” of the route. I love being outside, I love the quiet, I love the physical challenge, I love the mental challenge, I love the feeling of accomplishment, I love the freedom. None of that is dependent on route quality, and the more routes I can get in, the more I can enjoy all of those things that I love about climbing. There is a difference in my enjoyment of classic routes versus non-classic routes, but that quality differential can be overcome with a healthy dose of quantity.

Good is good enough for me.