A name matters. Naming something is an action full of significance and statement. The namer tells a story in the name about him-or her-self, his or her relationship to the named and about other things as often as not unnamed.
This is as true for climbing routes as it is for streets or gated communities.
When Royal and Liz Robbins did the first ascent of the fine route “Nutcracker Sweet” on Manure Pile Buttress in Yosemite in September 1966, it was a milestone in American climbing. This beautiful, five pitches 5.8 route was the first ever put up in North America using only nuts for protection.
Thus, the name.
Within the month the Robbins’ and two British climbers also put up a thousand foot route near Sentinel Rock that became known as “Nuts to you.” The 5.9 route involved a bivouac and Robbins considered it the hardest route of that length done in America without the use of pitons. These were bold, innovative (visionary even) climbs that opened the way to clean climbing in America. They were landmark climbs with cute names.
Royal has something of a reputation as a punster. (A route he and I did on Half Dome in 1970 had certain aesthetic difficulties and half way up Half Dome I asked him what we would name the route. “The Dog,” he replied, but when he wrote up the climb in “Summit” he called it “Arcturus,” which means Bear Watcher, which is what dogs do. I kept the original and traditional “The Dog” when I wrote up the climb with less punning for “Climbing,” but “Arcturus” it is in the guide books.) But the name of “Nuts to you” was taken from a remark Chuck Pratt made when Royal first included some of the new, alien, strange, non-traditional pieces of metal called ‘nuts’ on his rack for a climb the two of them were going to do. “Nuts to you,” said Pratt, a traditionalist at heart.
Royal, of course, was the undisputed King (or, perhaps, CEO) of Yosemite climbing of the time, and, as such, an irresistible target for the barbed, earthy witticisms of the dirt-bag denizens of Camp 4, for whom monarch was a kind of butterfly and air something better for breathing than wearing.
Chuck Pratt was a King of a different sort in Yosemite climbing of that time. A natural intellectual with the soul of a poet, the social conscience (and lifestyle) of a hedonist, a shy personality and a wicked, wicked sharp and earthy wit, Pratt was as different from Royal as, say, Hunter S. Thompson was from Tom Wolfe.
As J. Taylor of Simon Fraser University in B.C. writes in “Mapping adventure, a historical geography of Yosemite Valley climbing landscapes,” “Examining climbing guidebooks for Yosemite Valley also reveals a cultural shift during the 1960s in how climbers represented themselves and their deeds. New trends in route descriptions and naming practices reflected shifts in social mores, environmental conditions, and sporting behavior. Guidebooks produced since 1970 suggest a coarsening progression in sport and an altered community demography, yet these texts also illustrate how change reinforced climbing’s values and customs.”
A coarsening progression. An altered community demography. Pratt says to Robbins, “Nuts to you” when Robbins wants to introduce clean climbing to the piton hard traditions of Yosemite. Robbins does a major route using just nuts and calls it “Nuts to You,” undoubtedly making his point with Pratt.
In response, Pratt, who reveled in the cultural shifts of the ‘60s, put up a lovely three pitch route on Manure Pile Buttress, a variation of “After Six” to the left of “Nutcracker Sweet.” It is a great route, though it has some run outs. He named it “Cocksucker’s Concerto,” undoubtedly making his point as well, though in the guide books it is listed as “CS Concerto.”