Rock Climbing In Nh - 1968

ROCK CLIMBING IN NH : the early years ~ 1968 - 1990(78) images

While not literally true, it's not an exaggeration to say that in the early 70s the climbing community was small and everyone was at least acquainted with each other. The meeting place besides the cliffs were the two climbing shops in North Conway : EMS and IME. Franconia climbers had their own scene at Skimeister's in North Woodstock. Additionally there was a group of AMC employees/climbers who were partial to Limmer's in Intervale - who at the time also sold some European climbing gear. This enviornment was about as different as you can imagine from today's climbing community. North Conway in 1972 had one fast food joint - Micky D's ... that's it. EBs, which would change everything, had just arrived on the scene. Pitons were still king, but some ex-pats from the UK were working at Outward Bound in ME and brought with them machine nuts - the sort of precursor to hexcentrics that Chouinard Equipment would introduce shortly. We were on the cusp of 'clean climbing'. If you were into aid climbing RR's were the boot to wear. They were stiff and not at all sticky, but some of the local talent was climbing 9 and 10s with them. It's fair to say that the Gunks were more well known than Mt Washington Valley in those 'halcyon days'.