Climbing to the sky: Royal Robbins’ Half Dome Ascent

Royal Robbins and Tom Frost-El Capitan, North American Wall

In terms of facing fear, focusing on an obstacle and claiming victory there is hardly a more compelling example than that of Royal Robbins 1957 first ascent (with partners Jerry Gallwas and Mike Sherrick) of Half Dome’s northwest face in Yosemite National Park.

I had the opportunity to talk to Royal about his climbing adventures and asked him what enabled him to believe that he could achieve such a monumental climb when people had been staring up at that cliff for thousands of years and never considered it possible. Royal went on to say that he had achieved progressive successes on other climbs in the valley and that his climb on Sentinel Rock’s Steck-Salathe route gave him the confidence to believe that he could climb Half Dome.

Here’s a great link showing details of the Steck-Salathe route

Cheers to Royal, one of my heroes!!

Courage on the field of battle: Joshua Chamberlain

 

A friend of mine recently referred me to the story of General Chamberlain and his feats leading Union troops during the civil war.  The July 1863 engagement of Union and Rebel forces at Gettysburg is considered by many historians the turning point in the war. Here is an account of the battle at Little Round Top as told by the National Park Service archive:

Great gaps also appeared in the ranks of the 20th Maine. Chamberlain’s men were holding their own, though the position was becoming more precarious as the frightful minutes dragged by. Then an officer spied Confederates moving toward the regiment’s left flank. “I immediately stretched my regiment to the left by taking intervals,” Chamberlain wrote. “My officers and men understood my wishes so well that this movement was executed under fire, the right wing keeping up the fire, without giving the enemy any occasion to seize or even suspect their advantage. They renewed the assault on our whole front and for an hour the fighting was severe. Squads of the enemy broke through our line and the fight was literally hand to hand. The edge of the fight rolled backward and forward like a wave.” Shouts for ammunition filled the air as cartridge boxes emptied. Some men had a few cartridges left while others had none, even after rifling the boxes of the dead and wounded. Knowing that the next charge would break his thin line, Chamberlain decided to take the initiative away from the 15th Alabama: “At that crisis I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man and rose to a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away.”

Battle of Little Round Top: final assault

With bayonets fixed, the 20th Maine charges down Little Round Top into the 15th Alabama. The hillside echoed with the distinctive metallic click of hundreds of bayonets on rifle barrels. With a cheer, the 20th Maine rushed down the body-strewn slope. The exhausted Alabamians were caught off guard by this audacious move and scattered. Those who ran eastward were caught in a hail of bullets from the 20th’s detached Company B, lying behind a stone wall 100 yards away. Confusion reigned as the 15th Alabama melted into the trees. “We ran like a herd of wild cattle,” Oates lamented. “On the top of the mountain I made an attempt to halt and reform the regiment, but the men were helping the wounded and disabled comrades and scattered in the woods among the rocks. The dead literally covered the ground, blood stood in puddles on the rocks. The ground was soaked with the blood of as brave men as ever fell on the red field of battle.” Assisted by soldiers from the adjacent 83rd Pennsylvania, Chamberlain’s men rounded up 400 prisoners from the 15th and 47th Alabama regiments, including a number of officers.

Thirty years later, Chamberlain received a Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read that it was awarded for “daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top”

Leadership Bio: Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell has become well known primarily due to two books that have become hits in management and leadership circles. His initial book The Tipping Point discusses the idea that there is a certain mysterious point where in the midst of working towards a goal the floodgates break open and an idea takes hold, Gladwell discusses several examples of this phenomenon with the encouragement that we never know when the next breakthrough may occur. His second book Blink discusses the positive and negative aspects of relying on gut instinct in decision making. His premise is that oftentimes people get bogged down in the details when our subconscious helps us sort through a variety of information, assess current situations based upon past experiences and in the end make the best decision.

From Gladwell’s Website:

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996. His 1999 profile of Ron Popeil won a National Magazine Award, and in 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. He is the author of two books, “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference,” (2000) and “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” (2005), both of which were number one New York Times bestsellers.

From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business, science, and then served as the newspaper’s New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York City.