Yosemite Valley has been arguably the most popular climbing destination in the world for over 60 years. It was where modern climbing techniques were born, and many of climbing’s greatest pioneers lived in the Bay Area. They found unique ways to train for climbing around the Bay. Many frequented Mortar and Indian Rock in North Berkeley, climbing the comparatively short rocks to build strength and technique.² An even more accessible training ground to those in Berkeley was Cal’s campus, where buildings offered some of the tallest structures around to climb on. The hand-sized cracks that stretched along the height of some buildings replicated the thousand-foot cracks of Yosemite, and the bold climbing style of the time led to building climbing becoming common practice.

Despite its popularity among climbers, climbing buildings on campus was illegal. Those who climbed mostly did so at night, and even then, they risked fines, arrest, and their personal safety. Even with these threats, building climbing persisted.

This disregard for rules and regulations is characteristic of climbing as a whole, but it is especially representative of climbing in the 1960s-90s. Climbing has always been a sport on the fringes of society. Those who felt at home on El Capitan, Half Dome, and other large mountains of Yosemite often did not fit into normal society off of the walls. Warren Harding, a rambunctious, free-spirited climber of the 1960s was the first to complete a particularly difficult new route up El Capitan, Yosemite’s tallest rock face, and he submitted the cliff to a sea of reporters. One asked “Why on God's green Earth do you guys climb mountains?” Warren responded "Because we're insane, can't be another reason.”³

Because of this shared mentality about climbing, climbers often were well aligned with the counterculture movement of the 60s. Laura Martínez-García’s article about the history of climbing and gender conformity in Yosemite Valley describes the distinctions between the climbers that existed in different time periods of Yosemite Valley climbing and how they all shared certain traits. In particular, she writes that “the Beats, the Stone Masters and the Stone Monkeys share one very basic similarity: as separated as the Valley may be from mainstream society, the influence of counterculture could still be felt within its borders.”⁴ Paul Hollander mentions the “unconventional ways of dressing and grooming, and verbal assaults of the authorities” that characterized the counterculture movement and, quite accurately, climbers of the time period.⁵

While climbers flocked to Yosemite Valley for the rocks, they were far from the only ones who enjoyed the National Park. Other tourists appreciated the peaceful beauty of the park, a scene that climbers tended to disrupt. The park rangers targeted climbers for this, as they spoiled the image that the park sought to preserve.³ This created tension between climbers and rangers, which spread to general tension between climbers and authority. Climbers believed that they were simply practicing their craft in a way that felt natural to them, but at times often was at odds with societal norms and, occasionally, the law.

1. Wills, Colin. Various Photographs and Videos, 2019-2022.

2. Joseph, Pat. “The Legend of Indian Rock, Berkeley's Bouldering Haven.” Cal Alumni Association, January 25, 2022. https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/summer-2020/legend-indian-rock-berkeleys-bouldering-haven.

3. Valley Uprising. USA: Sender Films, 2014.

4. Martínez-García, Laura. “Transgressing Geographical and Gender Borders: A Study of Alternative Manhoods in Yosemite’s Climbing History.” Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 62 (2020): 49–68. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20205151.

5. Hollander, Paul. “Explaining the Counterculture.” Academic Questions 31, no. 1 (2018): 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12129-017-9681-1.