Corbet and Camel
For the last 20 years of Barry Corbet’s life, he was one of this nation’s most thoughtful and forceful advocates for people with disabilities. Writing in the April 1999 issue of New Mobility Barry asked, “Would you have done anything differently in years past to protect your health now?” His answer: “Several people wish they had wised up earlier about smoking ...” That’s why I was troubled to find Dick Dorworth’s tribute to Barry in your April issue headed by the cigarette ad Barry made following his return from Everest in 1963. Barry may not have realized he was promoting the world’s most disabling product when he posed for the ad, but by the end of his life he understood all too well the pain disability causes. While his own disability was due to a helicopter crash, not smoking, he came to recognize that smoking causes five million deaths worldwide annually, and is a greater cause of disability than any single disease. I am confident that had a cigarette company invited him to promote its product in 2004 he’d have thrown its representatives out. The Barry Corbet who wrote “Do not go gently. Fight the loss of every friend and lover,” cherished life and wished mightily for health. That Barry made the cigarette ad is a fact. But it is a disservice to your readers and to Barry’s memory to present his uncharacteristic lapse of judgment in posing for it as a harmless indiscretion. Barry should be remembered for his compassion and personal courage, his many outstanding accomplishments as an athlete, writer, and filmmaker, and his advocacy for the disabled.

Keep it clean
I wanted to congratulate you on having the balls to take a stand against the littering of routes by technical climbers [Editorial, June]. Nice work. There needs to be more attention to such things, and more people willing to speak out. Other backcountry users are well-attuned to Leave No Trace and Minimum Impact techniques, so why do technical climbers think they’re immune to the rules everyone’s taught as a kid?: “If you make a mess, clean it up.” There will always be some impact, and there are safety concerns that arise and cause people to litter, but fixing a bunch of ropes and camps and just bailing seems inexcusable. Shouldn’t that be part of the definition of success — being in control enough to not wreck the place?Keep up the good work.

The April issue
Thank you for this issue, particularly the information about the Indian Ocean tsunami. As climbers, and mostly Westerners, we sometimes forget how fortunate we are.
The supposed controversy over ownership of the rights to the Polish film Odwrot seems exaggerated. It appears that Alex Bertulis at worst made an honest mistake as to his rights. He seems to have done the mountaineering community a great service by obtaining and restoring a copy of the film, at considerable expense which it seems unlikely he will recoup.
The article on Barry Corbet might have mentioned that he played a key role in the 1963 American Everest expedition’s ascent of the West Ridge. He and Al Auten, with five Sherpas, made the carry that established Camp 5 at about 27,200 feet in Hornbein Couloir, enabling Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein to reach the top the following day.
The article on “Vergrass” was excellent. The sidebar on the north face of Kazalnica contained one gem - its first ascent was by Lapinski and Paszucha in 1942. Poland was then in the middle of a savage occupation by Nazi Germany — the country was devastated by World War II, and between 10 and 20 percent of its population died as a result of the Nazi and Soviet occupations and the Soviet offences that led to the end of the war. It is astonishing to think that in the midst of this horror, two climbers had the spirit to make a formidable ascent.

Bareback’s bogus
Regarding the “bareback” Hot Flash in the June issue ... Whatever. I’m always amazed at the hypocritical nature of some climbers who like to profess that the old way (i.e., their way) of getting up something is the “pure” way, and using certain technological advances is somehow cheating. Sheesh, try some of the latest fancy testpieces with hobnail boots and heavy wooden picks if you’re so pure. Or for that matter, how about a naked, tool-less, protection-less ascent — wouldn’t that be climbing in its purest, non-cheating form? Or, as a less extreme comparison, just use the standard crampons and tools from 10 years ago. Evolve with it, people — it’s all part of the game. Like Ansel Adams once said when asked late in his life about all the fancy new photographic equipment at the disposal of the modern photographer, “It’s wonderful — you’d be a fool not to use it.”

Will Gadd responds:
Who said anything about “cheating” or “pure” climbing? Mixed climbing is to rock climbing as cage fighting is to boxing. Most obsessed mixed climbers (Evgeny, Bubu, etc.) get the idea that sitting your ass on a cammed tool for a rest or hanging by a bolted-on heel spur (think Gravity Boots hooked on ice tools) makes any steep mixed route about as interesting — or challenging — as hanging a rocking chair from every bolt. Note that an M12/13/5.13+ route may still be hard for an M10/5.12 climber, even with a chair on every bolt.
Normal rock routes are down-rated when new knee-bars or monster jugs are found; spurs provide the same kind of new rests. “Bareback” style is pretty close to the historical mixed ratings, but spurs and tool trickery efforts deserve their own ratings — that’s why we rated ’em differently. As for new gear, hell yeah. I work on prototypes all the time. We have to decide as individuals what feels like climbing and what doesn’t. Supercrack is a little easier and more fun with cams and sticky rubber instead of Hexes and old-school shoes, great, but sitting with your leg through a sling on every piece would change things a lot more. As would climbing it naked under a full moon, while chanting the Tibetan Book of the Dead.