John Salathé

John Salathé ( born June 14, 1899 in Niederschöntal at Füllinsdorf in Switzerland; † August 31, 1992 in California ) was a pioneer of big wall climbing in Yosemite Valley.

Life

Hans (John) Salathé, son of a much -headed worker and peasant family, learned blacksmith, spent four years as a sailor at sea until he married in 1929 in Montreal. In the same year he emigrated with his wife Ida in the U.S., where he in 1933 in San Mateo, California, own blacksmith shop opened, the Peninsula Wrought Iron Works. He was a vegan and came to Tuolumne Meadows in contact with the Sierra Club.

In 1945, he began climbing in Yosemite Valley, but he noted that previous pitons were too soft for the hard granite of the Sierra. He developed hooks made ​​of hard chrome vanadium steel, including so-called Lost Arrows, the fabricated today and be used. The indispensable climbing aid climbing, the so-called Sky Hooks, also go back to Salathé.

From 13 to October 14, 1946 he succeeded with Ax (Anton) Nelson made ​​the first ascent of the West Face of Half Dome - with the first bivouac in a Yosemite wall. The climb required 150 hooks.

On September 5, 1947 Salathé and Nelson reached the top of the granite peak of the Lost Arrow Chimney by the route after five days of hard climbing with four bivouacs. They also placed bolts. The route set new standards by the difficulty and the long duration of the first ascent, it was repeated until 17 years later.

From June 30 to July 4, 1950 he succeeded with Allen plug the north face of Sentinel Rock, now a classic route. On 5 and 6 September 1951 him with Cliff Hopson succeeded in the south wall of the Sugarloaf Dome. 1953, after a mental breakdown, he left his family, returned to Switzerland and became a member of the religious community Spiritual Lodge Zurich. In 1958 he ascended the last climb of the Matterhorn.

In 1963 he went back to California and took 20 years to trying to hitchhike around the country and among other things to feed on rice, beans, barley, herbs and plants. The end of his life he spent in various nursing homes in California. In his honor, called a great classic route on El Capitan Salathé Wall. He is considered one of the great pioneers, as the " grandfather " of Bigwallkletterns in Yosemite.