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| Mount Robson, British Columbia, first ascent 1913 |
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| The Nose route at El Capitan, Warren Harding, 1957 |
Mountaineering started earlier in North America, with the Duke of the Abruzzi climbing 18,000 foot Mt. St. Elias in Alaska in 1897.
Rock climbing in North America started to emerge as a separate specialty in 1930s, with some Berkeley kids methodically figuring out the safest ways to belay (before, ropes seemed to add danger almost as much as they lessened it -- e.g., cutting the rope on the Matterhorn in 1865 saved the last three of the seven climbers). From the late 1930s to the early 1950s, modern American rock climbing was largely worked out on the 1000' face of Tahquitz Rock in Southern California. Focus then shifted to the big walls of Yosemite Valley, with a Golden Age of roughly 1957-1970.
Anyway, I'm not going to recommend you all rush out and read a 30 year out of date history of climbing. It's just something that appeals to me, personally.
And that's why I named this post "Women."
I read this old book because it was one of seven picked out for me by my old neighbor lady across the street. A surgeon at her church had died, and the heirs said they didn't want his large library of books. So she decided to give them away to her acquaintances, based on her intuitions about which books each recipient would most like.
Out of the seven she chose for me, I'd already read (and quite enjoyed) two: the memoirs of Frank Capra and Robert Novak. I'd always felt kind of guilty about not reading another: "A Bright Shining Lie," although it turned out to be overrated when I started to read it (too long). And I was absolutely blown away by this old mountain climbing book, and liked the other three books.
In other words, my neighbor did a ridiculously good job of picking out seven books that would appeal to me personally. My impression is that, in general, women are a lot better than men are at this kind of task of noticing, remembering, and applying idiosyncratic traits about individuals.
127 HOURS.
ReplyDeleteRockers sure know how to look for trouble.
Sexual selection at work: It's a useful survival skill to know how to please the larger and stronger sex when you are the smaller and weaker.
ReplyDeleteAny books on golf?
ReplyDeleteI hope you tell her how much you enjoyed them.
ReplyDelete@steve - "My impression is that, in general, women are a lot better than men are at this kind of task of noticing, remembering, and applying idiosyncratic traits about individuals."
ReplyDeletethat's why we're in charge of buying the christmas presents. (^_^)
It's also why men find women just as creepy as women find most men...but women can justify their responses much more effectively, while men just hope we don't get yelled at.
ReplyDeleteLife is so unfair.
I don't agree, I think the average difference on this trait is generally small; I've known a lot of women who were clueless in this regard. Not to mention people who use this trait professionally: conmen, psychics, people who talk to the dead, these sorts of manipulators are very often men.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she just reads this site? Based on some of the posts you've made I'd have expected you to like that rock climbing book. No brilliant insight necessary.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to show off my masculine insight here and tell you that you'll enjoy reading Deep Survival, Steve.
ReplyDeleteCan't put a price-tag on good friendships, even non-close ones. Considering a considerate person and having them consider you back, even briefly and irregularly, is a great pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of thing that flourishes in a stable, neighborly society.
Posts like this are why I read Sailer. Thanks. Thoughtful in a way the rest of the interwebs aren't.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen "Nordwand" (North Face in English) about the 1936 attempt on the North face of the Eiger? A wonderful movie that scared the daylights out of me.
http://www.examiner.com/article/portland-school-sees-racism-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches
ReplyDeleteWell, at least they didn't see any KKK in it.
Maybe you're right, Steve. But I'd bet you would have enjoyed most of the books from the surgeon's collection. When I look at a friend's book shelf, I usually think, "I've read half of those, and the other half look good," or I think, "Why does this buddy from college have books on high fashion, gardening, and the fetish-based romance?" You and the dead surgeon probably had overlapping taste, so any seven books might have been safe enough. Maybe it was astute of the lady not to give you books about church life.
ReplyDeleteAsyndetic thought incoming!
ReplyDeleteEspecially in northern Italy and, of course, among the Alpini in the Italian army, climbing history is a really big deal. Yeah, they're from the north where the Lega Nord roam (in hiding, lol).
Admiring old and obscure, black and white books about famous climbers, done with lots of grappa poured by tough-guy, old Alpini sergeants is a great memory. And lots of cigarettes. Well, remembering stuff like that makes me happy that I'm not growing up in this experientially stunted age.
HBD Chick, too, has noticed the diffs between north and south there in IT. And that HBD Chick/Princess Leia cartoon at Hoover Hog?! Raised me eyebrows...
Wow Steve, this is right in my wheelhouse. I spent a great deal of my time between 18 and marriage at 37 climbing around the continent. I remember looking at Mt. Robson in 1990 or so and just turning around and heading for the van. Mountains are SO big. In the words of some famous climber whose name I don't remember (David Roberts maybe), I don't want to climb the Eigernordwand, I want to have climbed the Eigernordwand. I still wish I had at least given it a try. Anything by David Roberts is worth reading, any of the old Everest or K2 books are as well. The previous commenter was right, this is one of the best sites on the internet, both for the posts and the ensuing comments. Thanks for what you do.
ReplyDeleteI spent a night in Grindewald at the base of the North Face of the Eiger. It's just an evil mountain. All afternoon in summer you can hear the rocks cracking off the Eiger as the ice melts and rumbling down on the heads of anybody stupid enough to be trying to climb it. I guess dawn in January is the only safe time to climb it.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Mount Robson in person, but in a book full of full page pictures of magnificent mountains, it's the peak that stands out.
ReplyDeleteAn article titled "Women" opens with a picture of their breasts, or rather a mountain that looks like a five year old's drawing of women's breasts!
ReplyDeleteIt's just an evil mountain.
ReplyDeleteBetter not let Ceausescuport hear that!
Nice neighbor.
ReplyDeleteSteve's right about women, but this has been captured by folk wisdom for eons, most famously with the term "feminine intuition".
ReplyDeleteNewsflash: it means women are "uncannily" intuitive.
What the hell with the spergs?!
Are y'all not embarrassed that you are whining and/or showing bitterness? Why do you call your own selves lesser men or "betas"? You stew in your own loserdom and loudly proclaim it!
Your dads and families did you guys a huge disservice by not kicking your asses HARD when you began feeling sorry for yourselves and wallowing in self-pity.
I'm embarrassed for you. I'm embarrassed that we're here at Steve's together.
"An article titled "Women" opens with a picture of their breasts, or rather a mountain that looks like a five year old's drawing of women's breasts!"
ReplyDeleteGood thing she didn't give Sailer a wonderful book on pigs.
Imagine a post titled 'women' with a picture of hogs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3H9X-Yl2k
ReplyDeleteKitsch on steroids.
Steve, if you love the look of mountains you should go to the Canadian Rockies. Start in Banff and drive the Icefields Parkway north to Jasper. Mount Robson is west of that route, and Mt Assiniboine is south of it, but it's as good as Switzerland. I went to Grindelwald too, back in the mid eighties and felt the palms of my hands begin to sweat. Hard to believe the average slope of the north face of the Eiger is only around forty degrees. When I climbed Mt Rainier, we arrived in Seattle way after dark. I still remember waking up and seeing how huge that mountain looked from eighty some miles away. Strange what memories are tucked away.
ReplyDelete"Steve, if you love the look of mountains you should go to the Canadian Rockies."
ReplyDeleteWhen I had cancer in 1997, the topic of taking one (presumably last) summer trip came up and where I'd want to go. I said: Canadian Rockies.
As it turned out, I'm still here and I still haven't gotten there.
"As it turned out, I'm still here and I still haven't gotten there."
ReplyDeleteOh no, Steve! Btw, great post.
Between my earlier biting sarcastic comment, and getting confrontational and calling out a liar at Agnostic's blog this morning (plus noticing my husband has been acting as if I've been a bit harsh) I think it just miiight be time to get off the interwebs (and be extra nice to my sweetie).
No one can say I'm a dude, at least!
We_ are _omniscient.
ReplyDelete(but we can't read the damn "prove you're not a robot sequences...which say nothing, really, about our omniscience.)
Dahlia said...
ReplyDelete"As it turned out, I'm still here and I still haven't gotten there."
Oh no, Steve! Btw, great post.
Between my earlier biting sarcastic comment, and getting confrontational and calling out a liar at Agnostic's blog this morning (plus noticing my husband has been acting as if I've been a bit harsh) I think it just miiight be time to get off the interwebs (and be extra nice to my sweetie).
No one can say I'm a dude, at least!
___________________________________
Dahlia, please go to that thread at Ag's. The poster you "called out" was me.
I've driven past Mount Robson quite a few times on my way to visit my son in Edmonton. I usually make a pit stop there--there is a gas station and gift shop. Often you can't see the top of the mountain because it in clouds. It is a big mountain, that's for sure. If you keep driving east from there you come to Jasper, which is fair sized town. I usually make a pit stop there too. There are a lot of European tourists there in the summer. Someday I should visit these places as a tourist, instead of just stopping to use the facilities.
ReplyDeleteA train called the Rockie Mountaineer goes through my town on its way to Banff, and it has tourists from all over the world on it. I've driven through Banff a few times, but never as a tourist. I should do that sometime. It is only a four hour drive away.
Steve, it's a shame you didn't stick to climbing. The climbing world (especially in So Cal) would give you a lot of fascinating insights into the interplay of class--and, to a lesser extent, race--in an environment beyond the urban and suburban.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, climbing is almost exclusively white and Asian. And the few blacks I've met at the crags would definitely be charged with 'not being down with the struggle' by the same people mad at Robert Griffin III.
However, you get a lot of interesting class mixing that you wouldn't find anywhere else. You'll see a foul-mouthed blue collar welder paired up with a physics professor, and the two are just the best friends ever . . . in the wilderness. But they'll rarely get together in a social setting that doesn't involve climbing.
Oh, and in terms of gender, you won't find a sport that's more 'equalitarian' than climbing. Some of the best climbers in the world are female, and there's never, ever been any kind of denial of the fact (partly because climbing came of age post-women's rights era). But there's also never been any kind of 'feminist' movement in climbing. Women can compete with the men, so there's simply no reason for it. In fact, it was being heavily involved in climbing that made me reactionary when it comes to gender issues. The climbing world is a great example of the fact that, when women can compete at the same level as the men, women don't see a need to get up in arms about the fact that they can compete with the men. It's only when women CAN'T compete or AREN'T competing at the same level as men that they start getting uppity.
ReplyDeleteI think women give (far) more gifts than men do. For that reason alone the volume of astute female gift-givers will be higher than the male equivalent, but I'm not convinced the ratio will be higher.
ReplyDeleteA lot of intra-female gift giving seems to me to be little more than status games. The gossip surrounding who gave what to whom, and why, and how much it did or didn't cost, and whether she wrote a thank-you letter, etc etc etc, fuels many a girls' get-together.
i've noticed women are really good at a couple things. they have a natural fashion sense. they can dress up and make themselves look better with almost any available clothing. it's impressive how most of them can throw random stuff together and come up with an aesthetically pleasing look.
ReplyDeletemost women seem to have this ability to some degree and few men do. probably a genetically developed ability to improvise to improve their appearance so they're more attractive to men. like men and a sense of humor, making themselves more attractive to women. most men seem to have this ability to some degree and few women do.
I'm so surprised that you Yanks even heard of the Canadian Rockies.
ReplyDeleteSteve, it could be that you're just so weird that others can easily pick out junk for your eccentric taste. In general women are more likely to give away useless bizarre stuff than men.
ReplyDeleteI think this is why female authors write better characters. Most of great literature is written by men and men are generally better at moving a plot along, but their characterization (and to a lesser extent dialogue) is often lacking or unrealistic in comparison.
ReplyDelete