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Back to "Monthly Program History"
November 15, 2006
"Shiprock and other
Classic Climbing Adventures"
by Don Liska
I am glad that George
Hurley was able to tell his story at the last meeting of the great
routes he has done all over the country, especially his astounding
record of desert climbs. Eric Bjornstad has dedicated his Desert Rock IV
climbing guide to him. George was with the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group
during our dramatic rescue of George Andrews on Shiprock in early spring
1970. This rescue involved Los Alamos climbers but the Rocky Mountain
folks were our backup. The accident resulted in the permanent closure of
the Navajo reservation to all climbing, a ban which still applies.
However, since Shiprock's standard route (IV 5.9) listed as one of North
America's fifty classics, many "illegal" ascents are still being made
each year."
Don
and Alice Liska atop Shiprock.
Photo by Ernie
Anderson , taken from a plane circling the peak, 10/14/67.
This photo also appears in Eric Bjornstad's book "Desert Rock."
"I first climbed Shiprock
in April 1959 barely 20 years after the Sierra Club did the first ascent
on Oct. 12, 1939 and seven years after only the second ascent by Tom
Hornbein et al in 1952. Ours was the last party to climb the infamous
"double overhang", first climbed by the Sierra Club using ice pitons and
just three weeks before Pete Rogowski discovered the much easier
"Step-Around" pitch. Still, already by 1959 we were the 43rd party to
summit which attests to the fact that the 50's were a time of great
fruition for high level climbing aspirations in America and also the
time of big wall ascents in Yosemite. After coming to Los Alamos and
joining the Mountaineers, we made Shiprock a major climbing objective
for the club. By the time of our third ascent in Oct. 1967 we were now
the 112th to summit. On this climb Alice became the 15th woman to make
the top which in those days frequently required a bivouac. In 1968 I
joined Harvey Carter on first ascents of many of the major towers that
cluster around the base of Shiprock. Some of these were more demanding
than Shiprock itself and most have not been repeated. Sextant, for
instance, took us three days as opposed to only 12 hours for the
standard Shiprock route, once the way is known. At any rate, by the
mid-1980's I had been involved in a record 9 ascents of the standard
route."
"Since being “guided” up
the corkscrew summit on Ancient Art in the Fisher Towers by Ralph and
Norbert in 2003 I am now going on 78 and feel pretty well “washed up”
climbing-wise except for the Knife Edge or Easy Ridge-type routes."
Los
Alamos climbers after the 106th ascent of Shiprock, 10/22/66.
Standing (L to R): Larry Dauelsberg, George Goedecke, Don Liska,
and Ernie Anderson. Sitting: L-Detzel, R-Breisch.
"Unfortunately, I
have had some bad luck by losing some excellent slides through
carelessness over the years so I will fill in some gaps with
other desert climbs, including the first ascent with Fred Becky
of "King on a Throne" in Monument Valley. This climb was done
before the climbing closure on Navajo lands took effect in April
1970."
Eric Bjornstad provides an
excellent summary of all the great Shiprock climbs in his classic
"Desert Rock" (1988) which is now a collectors item worth a small
fortune on the internet.
The Main Brazos Cliffs as seen from the South.
Photo by
Aaron Miller via Mountain PROJECT
Don Liska's
Climbing Resume: "Alice and I started climbing at Devil's Lake,
Wisconsin in 1952 using hemp ropes, tennis shoes, forged pitons
and GI surplus steel carabiners. To give a flavor of those early
days, consider that the Sierra Club climbers who first summited
Shiprock in 1939 did not know the prussik knot. We were also
primitive. We did not use harnesses or helmets and much of our
gear had to be ordered from Europe. However, the audacity of
youth reigned then as it does today and after only a few weeks
on the short quartzite pitches of Devil's Lake a few of us set
out for Colorado to climb Stettner's Ledges ( 5.7) on the east
face of Longs Peak, at that time considered a very difficult
climb. This was the period when the first 8000er, Annapurna 1,
had just been climbed by the French, and Everest was about to
fall to the British. Furthermore, the movie "Shane" revealed the
magnificent Tetons to America's astonished eyes. These were
formative years for young climbers. A draftee during the Korean
war period, Alice and I were married and torn from our mid-west
roots. After discharge we moved into a 29 foot house trailer in
Los Angeles. Climbing and travel became the pattern of our
lives, culminating after 50 years in 12 major expeditions and
numerous first ascents, many with noted climbers such as Mike
Sherrick, Harvey Carter, Leif Patterson, Fred Becky, Andy
Harvard, Eric Bjornstad and others plus our own local greats.
Our best climbs over the years were in Europe, South America,
Canada and Alaska, though Asia and Russia also entered into the
climbing picture with some significant successes."
"Since being "guided" up
the corkscrew summit on Ancient Art in the Fisher Towers by Ralph and
Norbert in 2003 I am now going on 78 and feel pretty well "washed up"
climbing-wise except for the Knife Edge or Easy Ridge-type routes."
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