Warren Harding

Also known as: Batso

Quick Info

From: USA 🇺🇸
Date of birth: 18th June 1924
Age: 77 years old
Date of death: 27th February 2002
Gender: Male

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CbFlRcHNdSw/

[2] Extract from the film Valley Uprising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw9emEs55tM

[3] The Life of Warren J. "Batso" Harding by Burr Snider, originally published in The San Francisco Examiner 9th March 1986. Republished by climbing.com 15th June 2012 https://www.climbing.com/people/the-life-of-warren-andquot-batsoandquot-harding/

[4] Warren Harding 1924 - 2002 by Colin Wells, On The Edge 116, page 18.

Contributors
16 contributions since 26th May 2021.

Quick Info

From: USA 🇺🇸
Date of birth: 18th June 1924
Date of death: 27th February 2002
Age: 77 years old
Gender: Male

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CbFlRcHNdSw/

[2] Extract from the film Valley Uprising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw9emEs55tM

[3] The Life of Warren J. "Batso" Harding by Burr Snider, originally published in The San Francisco Examiner 9th March 1986. Republished by climbing.com 15th June 2012 https://www.climbing.com/people/the-life-of-warren-andquot-batsoandquot-harding/

[4] Warren Harding 1924 - 2002 by Colin Wells, On The Edge 116, page 18.

Contributors
16 contributions since 26th May 2021.

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Ascents

2 recorded ascents.

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Climb Grade Style Ascent Date Suggested Grade
The Nose 8b+ Aid | worked 1958
First ascent.

A huge multi-season ascent which involved numerous partners, lots of fixed gear and an incredible final 15 hour push through the night to complete the route.

Initially the team compromised Harding, Mark Powell and Bill Feuerer but when work resumed on the route in the autumn season Powell and Feuerer dropped out while Wayne Merry, George Whitmore, and Rich Calderwood joined the main team.

[Chris Jones, interviewing] The first ascent of the South Buttress of El Cap - the Nose - has been described, but is it true that you started this because you had been beaten by Robbins and party on the North Face of Half Dome?

Yes, it is true. The previous Fall, I was a member of the party that made the first serious attempt on the North West Face of Half Dome. I was not particularly impressed with the leader of this group (not Robbins), so I decided to form a party of my own. This turned out to be a truly splendid team: Powell, Harding, Dolt. However, when we reached the Valley in mid-June, we were taken aback and rather disgruntled to find that an excellent team of climbers, now led by Royal Robbins, had the matter of Half Dome North West Face well in hand.

In a fit of egotistical pique, we grumbled around the Valley for a couple of days, trying to figure out what to do. The solution was quite simple: any climb less than Half Dome was beneath us; only a greater climb would do 1 Our objective was rather obvious!

It soon became obvious, too, that we were getting in over our heads with the difficulties presented by El Cap. [1]

References

[1] Mountain 9 (1970), page 16

Climb Grade Style Ascent Date Suggested Grade
Climb Grade Style Ascent Date Suggested Grade
Climb Grade Style Ascent Date Suggested Grade
Wall of Early Morning Light A3 Aid | worked Between 23rd Oct 1970 and 19th Nov 1970
First ascent. With Dean Caldwell.

References

[1] Mountain 13 (1971), page 8

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Fp_gpsULI