Climbing Quote of the Week: Chuck Pratt
Chuck Pratt, a Yosemite big-wall pioneer in the 1960s, was a climber’s climber and an original hardman. He was the man in his day. Pratt, along with Royal Robbins and Tom Frost, did the first ascent of the Salathe Wall on El Capitan in 1961, the hardest and baddest big wall route in the world at that time. Now it's the most famous Yosemite big wall. Chuck, called by Royal Robbins as “the best climber of our generation,” was renowned for his off-width prowess. He died in 2000.
"I don't want to write about climbing; I don't want talk about it; I don't want to photograph it; I don't want to think about it; all I want to do is do it."
Photo above: Eric Hörst just doing it—rock climbing, perfect limestone at Buoux, sunshine courtesy of Provence, France.
Photograph © Stewart M. Green
Comments
I learned how to climb with Chuck in 1992, when he was a guide with Exum. He was patient with newbies and quite humble, if a bit gruff (but we all have our demons). I didn’t learn who he was until another guide told me I had learned under one of the sport’s masters. Indeed. He as one of climbing’s originals, sorely missed in this day of conformity and risk adversion.