Downward Bound: A Mad! Guide to Rock Climbing

Downward Bound is Warren Harding's offbeat and inventive climbing classic. Harding gives readers an introduction to climbing and recounts his first ascents of the Nose and the Wall of the Early Morning Light on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. The introduction to rock climbing and big walls is farcical. The tales of his ascents are vivid. And throughout he strives to return some of the fun to climbing through humorous story telling of the climbing culture of the 60s and 70s. Downward Bound is a testament to the rebellious and magnetic Batso.Excerpt:Why do people climb? How the hell do I know? Answers to this perennial question range from Mallory’s rather facetious (I think) “Because it’s there” to (again) Mallory’s enigmatic “If you ask the question, there can be no answer.”Personally, I dig another version of Mallory’s statement. Like, “We climb because it’s there and we’re mad!” How else could you explain freezing your ass off, battling heat and thirst, scaring yourself to death just to get up some rock face or mountain peak. Rock climbing is especially questionable in this respect. In basic mountain climbing the object is to reach the summit by any or the easiest route possible. In rock climbing it’s not really necessary to reach a summit; the game seems to amount to finding the most difficult ways of getting nowhere.Selected Text from the IntroductionIn the fall of 1970, newspapers, television, and the other news media carried a continuing account of how (according to the media) "two men played out a tense drama of life and death struggle on a mountain ..."I am one of those two men (the short, clean-cut looking fellow).The amount of press coverage and public interest in this climb was simply amazing! Why? In this present day, when great climbing exploits are becoming almost commonplace, what was the big deal? No one really knows. Sure, the Wall of the Early Morning Light on El Capitan was a damned impressive route, on perhaps the best-known rock face in the United States, if not the world; there had been three previous unsuccessful attempts by other parties. Also true that our ascent took more than twice as long as any previous rock climb. But still, this shouldn't really account for the unprecedented wave of public interest. Perhaps it was the storms, the desperate situation with the food. More likely, it was the unasked-for (and firmly refused) rescue thing that caught the public fancy.Some felt that it was merely a result of a slack period in the overall news scene. Then, of course, there's a certain leading figure in the so-called climbing community who made dark comments about "Harding's adroit use of the press"—apparently he believed that I had actually rigged the whole thing with the press! If only that were true—I'd surely be in great demand for high-paying jobs in public relations! There was considerable reaction from climbers in the United States and Europe—rock-climbing "purists" were outraged by some of the techniques and equipment we employed on the wall, and some found the attendant publicity most offensive.Whatever prompted it, the interest was definitely there. Still is for that matter! In the years since the climb I've answered thousands of questions from the media and from audiences at university and outing-club lectures, not only about the El Cap climb but also about climbing in general. Why do you climb? How do you get started? Is it dangerous? What's this thing about climbing ethics—the controversy about bolts? How do you sleep hanging on a sheer vertical wall? What's the sense in all this? Or even the darkest secret of all: How do you go potty up there?In Downward Bound I'll try to shed some light on the fun and games known as rock climbing. ...