“Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.”

W.H Auden

            “A proper name is a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about, but not of telling anything about it.”

John Stuart Mill

            It is a significant matter to bestow upon a person, place, thing, entity or climbing route a name, whether done in reverence, irreverence, esteem, silliness, as a pun or insider joke, a factual geographic description or orientation, or a rebellious or cultural statement. There are consequences to names and in many cases there is pertinent information about the route contained in its name. And always there is information contained in a route’s name about the thinking, culture or mind-set of him, her or those who conferred the name. As such, the name of a climbing route is, in my view, a too-little noted and largely unappreciated aspect of the history, culture and present moment of the experience of climbing. There is a saying that words have meaning but names have power.

            Both the Muir and Salathe Walls on Yosemite’s El Capitan were named in honor of the two Johns, icons of Yosemite and the values of reverence for the natural world and simple life by which they lived. The names, the Muir Wall and the Salathe Wall have raised both the climbing and larger worlds’ consciousness about the lives of those men and what they represented in ways that cannot be measured but which can be appreciated. It is unlikely that the people who named those routes would have chosen Rockefeller Wall, Peabody Wall, Rothschild Wall or Roosevelt Wall, even though Theodore Roosevelt was crucial to establishing the National Parks, which includes Yosemite. If they had honored America’s robber barons instead of its lovers of nature, a good argument could be made that it would have changed the flavor of Yosemite (and thereby American) climbing, and without question it would have altered the nomenclature of subsequent climbing routes. The very nature (sic) of Camp 4 dirtbag climbers’ campfire conversations and rants would have been completely changed in unimaginable ways by contemplating or describing the Peabody Wall rather than the Muir Wall, or the Roosevelt Wall instead of the Salathe Wall, even if referring to the same piece of stone.

            Royal Robbins, Tom Frost and Chuck Pratt made the first ascent of the Salathe Wall in 1961 and named it, in Robbins’ words, “…to honor our beloved predecessor.” According to T.M. Herbert, at the time Salathe was as big a name in the climbing community as Robbins’ and the name was meant to describe “the whole damned wall” left of the Nose and not just a route. It was only the 2^nd route up El Capitan after the Nose route and it broke new ground in both style of Yosemite climbing and naming of routes, consistent with Robbins’ entire career as America’s preeminent rock climber of his time. “A good name for a climb is a sort of short poem,” Robbins replied to an inquiry about naming the Salathe Wall, and so it is.

            Yvon Chouinard and Herbert did the first ascent of what they named the Muir Wall in 1965. It was the 4^th route on El Cap. Herbert, who when he lived in Berkeley used to visit Muir’s home and museum in Martinez, said Muir was “….a hero of nature and conservation” and so far ahead of his time in the environmental movement that they wanted to recognize him. It is worth mentioning here that Chouinard and his company Patagonia have long been and remain in the forefront of environmental activism and consciousness raising in America. It is an interesting aside that Robbins noted that he would have named it the “John Muir Route,” not the Muir Wall, but it was not his to name.

            Other El Cap route names are simple geographic descriptions: West Face, West Buttress, The Nose, East Buttress, and The East Ledges Descent.

            These names are easily appreciated and do not require much elaboration or investigation to understand the intention of those who named them.

            Other El Cap names are not so easily grasped by the uninitiated to the culture and the time of the people who bestowed the names: Tangerine Trip, The Central Scrutinizer, Grape Race, Magic Mushroom, Bermuda Dunes, and Realm of the Flying Monkey.

            And that’s just to mention one rock in one valley in one state, though it is the iconic rock of American climbing. Every climber has his and her own realm of routes climbed and, in many cases, named in various areas all over the world. Every climbing guide book contains a wild and wide range of names of routes from the bizarre to the boring, from inspired to offensive (to somebody), from the subtle to in your face, from humorous to macabre. And often themes run through the names of an area’s climbing routes, not all of them as wholesome as honoring Muir and Salathe, but each of them affecting the consciousness and conversation of every climber ‘s campfire sermons and rants about that climb.

            Idaho’s City of Rocks has Decadent Wall with a range of names guaranteed to offend or at least bring a blush to somebody recognizing explicit human organs and intimacy, chauvinism and crassness, or homage to past relationships. The National Organization for Women took some hostile interest in the sexist flavor of Decadent Wall and some names were provocative enough that they were eventually changed. Dave Bingham’s latest guide book to the City includes this caveat: “In the early 80’s Utah climber Jay Goodwin coined the ‘decadent’ theme, using sexually-oriented names for about a dozen climbs. I decided to omit some names because they are idiotic and were not given by the first ascentionists.” So much for the first amendment. Later censored/altered City of Rocks guidebooks lists these names: Dykes on Harleys, Carol’s Crack, Divine Decedance, Flesh for Fantasy, Adolescent Homosapien, FDC, Bestiality, Kibbles and Bits, Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll, Life Without Sex, Estrogen Imbalance, Sexual Dysfunction, Frigidity, Testosterone Test, Impotence, Stiff Vegetables, Box Lunch, Just Hold Still, Self Abuse and Shaved in the Shape of a Heart. A bit of raucous imagination and licentious license will allow the reader to trace Bingham’s somewhat staid names back to the original ‘idiotic’ones. But for those of a less decadent droop of mind, the original guide book lists these routes on Decadent Wall: Dikes on Harleys, Watersports, Submission, Carol’s Crack, Flesh for Fantasy, Devine Decadence, Adolescent Homo, FDC (which is reported to stand for Fucking Dead Cows), Beastiality, Rancid Virgins, Dimples and Tits, Nipples and Clits, Preteen Sex, Abortion on Parade, Life Without Sex, Estrogen Imbalance, Sexual Dysfunction, Frigidity, Testosterone Test, Impotence, Stiff Vegetables, Box Lunch, Just Hold Still, Self Abuse and Shaved in the Shape of a Heart. (A few weeks ago I encountered Goodwin having dinner in Almo, the closest community to the City of Rocks. He was enjoying looking through the charming homework papers and drawings of his six year old daughter, and I neglected to solicit his thoughts about the transformation of names of Decadent Wall routes or whether he thought his daughter would better appreciate Dad’s original names or Bingham’s tidied up ones.)

            The drug culture has made a significant impact on American climbing and expanded its possibilities and standards in ways both subtle and obvious, including the naming of routes. It continues to do so. The double-entendre in the name of the group of climbers who called themselves The Stone Masters is one of my favorites and their contribution to pushing the limits of climbing is certainly mind-expanding. Among the many well known routes with drug inspired names (and, perhaps, first ascents) are Left, Right and Middle Peyote Cracks in Joshua Tree, Columbian Crack and White Line Fever at the City of Rocks, Tangerine Trip, Mescalito, Magic Mushroom and Pyschedelic Shack in Yosemite, and Drug Nasty (a.k.a. Dean’s Dream), Lethal Dose, Panama Red, Cocaine Crack and Powder up the Nose at Smith Rocks. And the popular Tuolumne route Oz is not named after the famous wizard of, but rather is the accepted abbreviation for ounce. Oz is on Drug Dome and connects to Gram Traverse.

            Like every climber I have my own realm of experience, knowledge and perspective concerning the naming of climbing routes. Some of it is included here because I believe my own experience is not so different from that of other climbers, and if history matters (and I think it does) then clarifying history is crucial. If a name has power, then the more one understands about the name the more power it has and the more satisfying the experience of doing the climb. Climbers name routes for different reasons and to contribute different legacies to the world of climbing.

            At one time we were taken with naming routes according to a message hidden within the given title. For instance, in 1972 Sibylle Hechtel and I named a route on Mt. Mitchell in the Wind River Range “Ecclesiastes.” Joe Kelsey, who might be called the John Muir of the Wind River Range, was not amused, pleased or in favor of the name because of the precedent it might set. But neither Sibylle (I believe) nor I are Bible students or, at least in my case, even Christian. We named it because of the great line in Ecclesiastes, “It is all emptiness and chasing the wind,” an apt description of climbing itself and, one might say, much else in life. The author of Ecclesiastes did. The name of the route had nothing to do with Bible thumping or Christian theology, though it did (and does) pay homage to the wisdom of it being all emptiness and chasing the wind. The name stuck in certain circles, but so far as I know it has never been included in a guide book by its proper name.

            A year earlier Chris Vandiver and I named a route on Lembert Dome in Tuolumne Meadows Truckin’ Drive. It is next to the older route Rawl Drive, named after the Rawl drill which was used in the early days of placing bolts (and which was used in the placing of the original bolts on both routes). Truckin’ Drive was named after the Grateful Dead song “Truckin’” and particularly for the famous verse:

            Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;

            Other times, I can barely see.

            Lately it occurs to me…

            What a long, strange trip it’s been.

            In the guide books Truckin’ Drive is misnamed Truck ‘N Drive, a misnomer that matters mostly to those who named the route and to those curious about the significance of the name and of the long, strange trip between the two very different names with totally different meanings and possible connotations. A truck and truckin’ are as different as a pair of pants and pantin’.

            That same Tuolumne summer of 1971 Wayne Merry and I named a route on Daff Dome “El Condor Pasa” from the then popular song of that name by Simon and Garfunkle on their album “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and, more specifically, the line written by Paul Simon and Jorge Milderberg, “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.” The music for this lovely song was actually written in 1913 by the Peruvian Daniel Alomia Robles. Wayne was on lead and not very happy about his pro and his run out when he yelled with great relief that he’d found a chicken head. After he tied it off and clipped in he said that it wasn’t a chicken head, it was a condor head. The condor allowed us to pass and we would rather be hammer than nail, and as with Truckin’ Drive there is much lost in the Tuolumne guide books that call the route El Condor instead of the original El Condor Pasa.

            There are undoubtedly names of other routes that have gradually and perhaps inadvertently, or, in cases like Decadent Wall, suddenly morphed into something quite different from what the original name intended. Poetry in the raw turned to poetry dressed in a mistake or the censor’s morality or good citizen’s sense of good taste.

            There used to be a rock formation at the City of Rocks called Hershey’s Kiss because its top resembled one. On the left side of its west face is a 5.12 three star overhanging jam crack route. Tony Yaniro is credited by Bingham as doing the first ascent of this fine route, but Stan Caldwell disputes this. According to Caldwell, Yaniro started the route but couldn’t complete it and Caldwell found the key to the route in a hidden hold at the crux that one ‘ought to see’ in order to get through. Through a process that can be imagined but probably never completely tracked, both the rock formation and its best route are now known as Odyssey, though for personal reasons my favorite routes and route names there are Driving at Night and Just Another Mormon on Drugs.

            Yosemite’s Crack of Doom was first climbed and aptly named by Pratt in 1961. This led to another intimidating route of a different flavor being named Crack of Despair soon after and even another Crack of Doom named by George Lowe at the City of Rocks. These names are poetry eliciting the feeling of beginning such routes and, of course, inspiring puns. Many years and several states away in Colorado’s Unaweep Canyon is a far easier route named Crack of Don, though I have been unable to find out anything about Don.

            Every guide book and even climbing areas without them contain names to suit every taste….intriguing, offensive, inspiring, descriptive, confusing, dumb, clever, incomprehensible and sappy. A guide to Oregon’s Smith rock includes Vomit Launch, Victory of the Proletarian People’s Ambion Arete, Virgin Slayer, Shark-infested Waters, Silly Boy, Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book and Darkness at Noon.

            Climbers in Utah’s Wasatch Range have named routes like Satan’s Corner, St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast, Nipple Remover, Shadow of Death and Mind Blow. There is also a plethora of religious themed names including, Final Prayer Variation, Garden of Eden, Holy Grail, Judas Priest, Lazarus, Missionary Jam, The Rosary and Celestial Ascension.

            The point is that every route has a name (except, of course, the few orphaned, nameless ones looking for adoption or at least discovery), and a name has significance and power, history and personality, thoughtfulness and thoughtlessness. Understanding or at least contemplating both the significance and the power in the name of a route adds to the meaning and experience, even the poetry, of doing the climb. Check it out next time you do a climb. Discover the stone poetry at the root of the name of the route.