High Drama: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of American Competition Climbing

by John Burgman Narrated by Kyle Tait

Overview

One afternoon in 1987, two renegade climbers in Berkeley, California, hatched an ambitious plan: under the cover of darkness, they would rappel down from a carefully scouted highway on-ramp, gluing artificial handholds onto the load-bearing concrete pillars underneath. Equipped with ingenuity, strong adhesive, and an urban guerilla attitude, Jim Thornburg and Scott Frye created a serviceable climbing wall. But what they were part of was a greater development: the expansion and reimagining of a sport now slated for a highly anticipated Olympic debut in 2020.



High Drama explores rock climbing's transformation from a pursuit of select anti-establishment vagabonds to a sport embraced by competitors of all ages, social classes, and backgrounds. Climbing magazine's John Burgman weaves a multi-layered story of traditionalists and opportunists, grassroots organizers and business-minded developers, free-spirited rebels and rigorously coached athletes. Deeply reported and compellingly told, this is a celebration of climbing and the pivotal figures who made its growth possible, from the rock faces of Yosemite to urban bouldering gyms and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A regular contributor to Climbing and Climbing Business Journal, Burgman details the growth of the niche sport of competitive climbing from the early years as an outdoor challenge that appealed to antiestablishment rock climbers to the growth of climbing clubs and the booming business of indoor climbing gyms. His easy-to-read historical account highlights the numerous men and women who led the way in competitions as well as the grassroots movement to grow the sport. Coverage includes the first International Federation of Sport Climbing Championship at Snowbird, Utah, in 1991, the rise of sponsorship deals to fund the sport, courting mainstream media like ESPN, and the evolution of national and international governing organizations. Sport climbing has come a long way from the days when a couple of guys created a climbing wall on a California highway on-ramp. Climbing will make its debut in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics with a format that will judge sport climbing (based on difficulty), speed climbing, and bouldering. This timely volume is sure to appeal to climbing fans interested in the history of the sport." —Booklist

Library Journal

03/01/2020

Leading up to the debut of climbing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Burgman (Why We Climb) presents the untold and rocky history of the sport, from the 1970s to present, exploring how it went from a niche sport to the mainstream, evolved not to include actual rocks but human-made rock fabrications, and how its carefree roots made way for it to be a competitive sport. While the work primarily focuses on the U.S. sports scene, a common theme throughout is insight into the long-standing elite European tradition and how the desire to compete against athletes abroad has motivated American climbers. Burgman details the key players who organized climbing organizations and competitions with varying degrees of success, the creation of youth programs to foster homegrown talent, the rapid spread of climbing gyms, being showcased (albeit as extreme) in TV specials and movies, and the controversies that threatened to derail the sport's momentum, all of which contributed to U.S. climbers succeeding on the world stage. VERDICT Leaving no stone unturned, this exhaustive history will find an audience with climbing enthusiasts.—David Miller, Farmville P.L., NC

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172425462
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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