Royal Robbins
My Life

Friday, November 6, Noon
Donald Cameron Hall Dining Room
All tickets $20 (includes lunch)

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Royal Robbins' accomplishments as rock climber are legendary. An early advocate of boltless, pitonless, clean climbing, Robbins did much to transform the climbing culture to minimize the human impact on the vertical wilderness and protect its natural features. As a rock-climbing pioneer, he broke through existing standards to create wholly new skill and difficulty levels. In the 50s, 60s, and into the 70s, Robbins established one daring new climb after another, among them many revered classics on Yosemite's Half Dome and El Capitan. An entrepreneur and prolific author, Robbins brings volume I of his autobiographical series to Banff.

It’s not uncommon for dedicated climbers, mountaineers, and paddlers to get involved with improving their sport’s gear. Most of the successful companies selling equipment, technical gear, and outdoor clothing, grew from the athletes and adventurers who modernized expeditions, making equipment lighter, more useful, more efficient, and making money with their expertise. Royal Robbins is one of those athletes and adventurers who was able to improve his sports with innovative design and a great sense of a growing marketplace, eventually creating an outdoor clothing company that still bears his name.

But before becoming an entrepreneur, Robbins was a pioneer in Yosemite climbing, and an avid outdoorsman and kayaker. With Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia), Robbins was one of the earliest proponents of light, clean climbing in Yosemite, helping to evolve a style that left little trace on the rock. Among his first ascents in the park were the northwest face of Half Dome, and the Salathé Wall and North America Wall on El Capitan. He added first ascents on Mount Logan, Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower, Proboscis on the remote Cirque of the Unclimbables in the North West Territories, Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park, and on Mont Blanc in the Alps, among many others.

With his wife Liz, an accomplished climber herself, Robbins started an acclaimed climbing school based in Modesto, California, called Rockcraft, while both continued to climb and put up new routes. At the same time, Robbins wrote two early bibles of clean climbing, Rockcraft and Advanced Rockcraft.

In the early 1970s they started a business importing and selling climbing and outdoor equipment, and soon after started Royal Robbins, which designed and sold high-quality outdoor and travel clothing. The company was an early proponent of applying a percentage of profits to conservation projects, and of developing products that made use of recycling.

Once the business was launched, and gaining success, Robbins took up adventure kayaking, racking up as many early accomplishments as he had in climbing. Among his first descents – multiple rivers in Chile, the San Joaquin Gorge and Upper Kern in the Sierra Nevada, and the Tuolumne Grand Canyon in Yosemite. After retiring from Royal Robbins in 2003, Royal and Liz Robbins have continued to pursue adventure around the world, and have traveled to speak on the subject of lightweight mountaineering, donating speaking fees to outdoor organizations like the Yosemite Fund and the American Hiking Society.

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Photo credit: Royal Robbins, 1969 © Glen Denny