Pinnacles Climbing Mentioned In Austrian Alpine Club 1967 Journal

[climberdude]

Yesterday I was reading through a set of old Austrian and German Alpine Clubs journals that I recently purchased.  I was pleasantly surprised to see in Jahrbuch des Oesterreichen Alpen-Vereins, Band 92, 1967 ("Journal of the Austrian Alpine Club, Volume 92, 1967") an the article Berge und Bergsteigen in den Vereingigten Staaten von Nordamerika ("Mountains and Mountain Climbing in the United States of America") by Richard Hechtel which mentions climbing at the Pinnacles.

Translation the section to English:

A nice and sought-after climbing area is the Pinnacles south of Hollister which is only a two and a half hour drive from San Francisco.  There are a hundred or more free-standing pinnacles that are 25-50 meters high and have climbs of every difficulty.  The rock, a volcanic breccia, is relatively strong, as long as one stays on the many travelled routes.

Dr. Richard Hechtel lived in Redwood City at the time of the publication.  Is anyone aware of an earlier foreign country mention of climbing in the Pinnacles?

[mynameismud]

I think Noal knows a few stories of this.

This does not surprise me though since the Pinnacles is the best climbing in the world.

[clink]

 Schnitzel and Pinnacles climbing have much in common. Tender.

[NOAL]

Did you get the climbing journals from Harrison on Supertopo?  If so, they are from Richard Hechtel's study.  I helped his daughter Sibylle sort and clean out her parent's house in Redwood City.  Sibylle 's climbing accomplishments are more well known to American climbers than her father's German ascents.  She did the first all female ascent of El cap with Beverly Johnson via triple Direct.

Richard is very well known in Germany for doing many 2nd ascents of peaks in the alps in the 1930's. He wrote an autobiography which you can pick up rather inexpensively.

Richard has a couple of FA's at Pinnacles.  I believe there is one on Goat Rock that he did with Bruce. 

[F4?]

World class destination!

And Middendorf would not go to the Pinnacles with Mungie.
Sign

[climberdude]

Noal,

Yes, I did and I was wondering where they came from.  They have a lot of notes written in the margins in German which I can read.  Seems like he was researching for climbing in the Dolomites.  Yes, I recognized the Hechtel name and immediately thought there may be a relationship to Sibylle.  I was also aware that there are some first ascents in the Pinnacles by Richard Hechtel.

[NOAL]

I delivered the journals to Harrison at the first Oakdale climbers conference.  Also donated some  of richards climbing gear to Ken for the ysa museum.  I still use some of his gear like gaiters, Lowa boots, fleeces etc.

Richard's FA's at Pinnacles might be his only ones in the U.S.  He climbed until he was in his 80's

Nice to see you are getting some enjoyment from the journals. Sibylle and I put a lot of effort into trying to find new homes for most all of the stuff in the house vs. throwing it away. Small world.

[mynameismud]

And Middendorf would not go to the Pinnacles with Mungie.

I heard that guy is kind of soft...

[mungeclimber]

Very cool those found a good home.

Which routes are Hechtels?

[NOAL]

I thought there was two but I just looked through the new route list and there is only one.  Up a Crook Without a Paddle 5.9R.  From the description Hechtel never knew he did a FA because they thought they were on Pieces of Ewe.