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A history lesson
with Tony McKenny...
When did it all start?
The early records of climbing in Tasmania as a recreational activity are scant. Newspaper accounts of mountaineering exploits in the European Alps had begun to appear in the colonial press in the mid nineteenth century and, following the acclaimed “first” rock climb on Napes Needle in the United Kingdom in 1886, rock climbing diverged from traditional mountaineering as a separate sport, with its own ethical rules, history and language. Interestingly, an early letter to the Hobart Mercury newspaper referred to an ascent on Van Diemen’s Buttress on the Organ Pipes on kunanyi/Mt Wellington by R.D Power and F. Turner as far back as 1884, (two years prior to the Needles ascent), while various reports at the time in the Illustrated Tasmanian Mail and the Mercury described serious rescues of “climbers” on Mt Wellington.
The first detailed account of a rock climb in Tasmania, (and probably Australia) was the traverse of Cradle Mt by the Austrian Malcher brothers in 1914 and between the two World Wars there was continuing media interest in climbing, both here and overseas. Locally, in August 1929, the Mercury reported the formation of the first Tasmanian specific rock-climbing club based in Hobart, with an aim to “explore the nooks and crevices of Mt Wellington”, while coincidentally in the same year the legendary Fred Smithies, an early pioneering mountaineer based in Launceston, formed the Northern Tasmanian Alpine Club with a focus particularly on skiing.
Five years later, a young Max Angus, the distinguished Tasmanian artist, referred to the southern club in a letter to the Mercury concerning a particularly noteworthy accident on the Pipes. The newspaper even ran an article on a solo climb by a visiting English pianist Yelland Richards in 1934 (who died in a fall in Wales four years later), and another explaining the safe climbing methods in use at the time in Europe with an emphasis on the role of the leader – “the rule is, the leader must not fall”.
The first giants
But it wasn’t until well after the Second World War that we have any written records of any “club” as such. The first ascent of Australia’s most isolated and technically difficult mountain, Federation Peak, had been made by a mainland team in 1949, and Everest had finally been climbed in 1953in time for the Coronation, creating much local jingoistic interest.
It was also around this time that Jim Peterson , Pat Conaghan, Ron Cox, Keith Lancaster, Barry Higgins, Darryl Weber, and Max Cutcliffe made the first of a number of pioneering climbs including Nicholls Needle (1954), Skyline Minor on kunanyi/Mt Wellington (1958) and the traverse of Mt Geryon; certainly by 1960 there existed a loose, even anarchic, association of very tough, adventurous climbers and "hard" bushwalkers known collectively as the Van Diemen Alpine Club (VDC). It had no constitution, no rules and apparently never officially met, though paradoxically it had a bank account.
Another talented group founded around this time was the Tasmanian University Mountaineering Club (TUMC) with regulars Mike Douglas, John Fairhall, Jim Spinks and Peter Sands. Routes on the Pipes such as Pegasus, Sentinel Ridge, and the enigmatic Whose Route all date from this period.
Climbing in the 1950s
From The Viking Rope Manual - an early “climbing bible” circa 1950.
From 1960 for the next two years, the TUMC and VDC were very active, although in those early days there was a very small nucleus of local climbers, many of whom probably belonged to both groups. A number of these “locals” were originally from interstate and overseas, climbers who brought with them new gear, skills and ideas and who were influential in establishing new attitudes to climbing locally that reflected the revolution in standards and ethics particularly in the UK.
During this period at least 19 new routes were added to the Pipes, climbing instruction sessions were held, and several long and serious climbs were completed on Frenchmans Cap, Geryon and Federation, often with visiting mainland climbers. Members made a Cradle Mt winter traverse, explored the Thumbs and Needles, Gunners Quoin, the Walls of Jerusalem, Rocky Tom (Beginners Chimney and Trembles actually date from as early as 1957), and inevitably, there was an annual summer pilgrimage to NZ.
In early 1963, the VDC group suddenly dispersed. Most of the members left to go overseas or interstate – to NW Canada, European Alps, England, Canberra, France, New Guinea and NZ - and the VDC, such as it was, petered out...
The birth of the CCT
…to be replaced in 1965 by a new grouping – the Climbers Club of Tasmania (CCT). The driving forces behind this reincarnation were Tim Christie, Tom Terry, Greg Hodge, Allan Keller, John Sutherland, and Geoff Wyatt, along with Sydney-sider Brian Proudlock. Membership was made up of the remaining members of the VDC and the TUMC and individuals mostly from the mainland.
The roles of the new club back then were simple – it was where climbers could meet other climbers (no Facebook, X, Instagram or Zoom then), exchange route “beta”, organise weekly trips, arrange transport and/or accommodation, share scarce gear, and provide training and advice to newbies. Monthly meetings were at the Victoria Tavern before moving to the Wheatsheaf in South Hobart for like-minded souls to brag and bull-shit about their latest adventures.
The inaugural meeting was held on 4th Aug 1965 with an original membership of just 11, rising to 32 members by end of the year. Most, but not all, were from the south, although an enigmatic reference in one of the club’s regular newsletters alluded to a “Launceston Mountaineering and Rescue Club” at about the same time, while another comment a year or so later on a club forming on the west coast indicates there may have been others …
It is pertinent to remember just how male dominated the scene was back then. This quote from the very first newsletter sums it up:
“Bring Own Grog, steak and wife (Trimmings and pud being provided by wives)”
Hmmmm…..
From the outset the new club continued the traditions of the VDCs with the emphasis still very much on adventure climbing and mountaineering rather than on just technical grades. Members climbed in NZ, Patagonia, North America, Europe, the Himalaya, Antarctica and of course the UK. There was a continuing emphasis on exploration including track cutting to isolated peaks and coastal cliffs; in Tasmania at the time the acronym “FA” could still refer to the ascent of a mountain as well as a rock climb.
In that first year a syndicate of club members bought the “Good Ship Venus”, a retired 17-foot cray boat, which was then moored in Lake St Clair for quicker access to Mt Ida and the Du Cane Range at the north end of the lake; by the end of the year there were 16 leaders, leading 22 club trips, and three preliminary guidebooks were published.
Through the ‘60s and much of the ‘70s the CCT was a generally an organised, close-knit group with regular club trips and activities, although there were the inevitable rumbles of dissatisfaction about certain hard-core members being too close-knit, and more than once an imminent total collapse of the club was predicted.
The program was varied and wide ranging … the club made films for television at Rocky Tom and on the Organ Pipes, and earned money working with the ABC on climbing the Candlestick*; installed the first rap station on Northern Buttress in 1967; started the tradition of an annual state-wide “meet” at Coles Bay, first at a campsite just south of Honeymoon Bay below Mt Amos and later at White Water Wall; published excellent guides and a regular news circular; explored many wilderness crags and areas including Cathedral Rock, Cape Pillar, Eldon Bluff and the Freycinet Peninsular, Stacks Bluff, the Guardians; and added more long routes on Geryon, Federation and Frenchmans Cap; organised a very efficient rescue team; provided education to police and teachers…and climbed hard and often.
Insights and Influencers
Not surprisingly, given our colonial history, the development of climbing was influenced by the changing scene in UK in particular. For many years, the club actually had a subscription to overseas magazines (particularly Mountain and Climbing) from 1969 onwards to share among members before the advent of our own Aussie magazine Rock in 1975.
Visitors to the state have had a continuing significant input as well. One such early influencer was a young English immigrant, John Ewbank who in 1968, gave club members a major boost in enthusiasm and skills with ascents of climbs like the Shield (20), Centaur (17) and the stunning crack line, Icarus (20), and of course, the Totem Pole (originally A3, now freed at 27) with Tasmanian Allan Keller. The near fatal accident to Phil Stranger in the same year on the Organ Pipes further galvanised the club into establishing a training program in rescue techniques for members, a need still recognised today.
By the beginning of 1969, the club membership had risen to 44, including the legendary Reg Williams, a youthful John Moore, Val Kennedy, Les Woods, Di Batten, Lyle Closs, Mike Douglas, Glen Kowalik, Col Hocking, the list goes on and on…
What is often forgotten is just how dramatically an increase in the standard of living and technological innovation have impacted local climbers over the decades. For example, back in the mid-1960s, communication was face to face at the pub or via the news sheets printed on a spirit duplicator; there were only line topos (many beautifully drawn by Peter Jackson), no GPS, no internet, few cameras – and of course, no mobile phones or access to any phone at all for most young climbers.
To help find climbs on the Organ Pipes and to share knowledge, the Climbers Club even labelled every track and numbered every climb on the Mountain in white paint. You can still see one clearly at the base of Starseeker. Contact between climbers was via a hollow tree stump in Franklin Square in the centre of Hobart where climbers could leave messages midweek detailing the location and plans for a weekend of climbing delights for others to read and pass on. News of new routes, international developments, epics and accidents were all learned of via the monthly CCT newsletter, or from the handwritten guides, already well out of date before they could be circulated.
Transport in those early days was by motor bike, car or bus, hitch hiking was relatively safe and still possible back then, and it was common practice for climbers, especially financially strapped students, to walk from say, Fern Tree to the Pipes and back again...
Another wave of change particularly through the 70s onwards was in the availability of better and more affordable equipment. By today’s standards much of it that was available back then was still primitive and in short supply (Col Hocking and Geoff Batten had actually turned entrepreneur in the 60s and brought in gear from UK for resale locally to club members in Hobart). Climbers walked and climbed in basketball shoes, with strong canvas uppers and soles of thick rubber, unsuitable for small holds on steep rock. On the upside they did have good frictional adherence in dolerite chimneys.
Common gear for a Pipe’s climb back in the late 50s was 40m of nylon hawser-laid rope, a hemp waistband (soon to be replaced by the ubiquitous swami belt), a couple of rope slings, a few Stubai mild steel pitons, a hammer and three or four steel karabiners. A few homemade pegs and wooden wedges were also used, and some still remain jammed deep in cracks and off widths on the Pipes. When you next slot a cam into the Third Bird crux, spare a thought for Lyle Closs and Ian Lewis back in 1973. There were no cams then, nor polycentric hexes as we know them, or comfortable harnesses or light weight helmets or…
Hard trad climbing was in vogue among club members on through the 70s and standards improved out of sight as the potential of the new equipment was explored particularly on the Organ Pipes, where the focus was on new hard crack climbs. But it was in the mid-80s and early 90s that there was a particular period of rapid change in the climbing community, and this was ultimately to have a profound influence on the future of the club.
Change in the Air
Activities in the south had actually surged in the mid-90s as the club welcomed in both the first wave of sport and gym climbers and boulderers, with a membership in 1994 of over 40 active climbers. The Club ran the first Tasmanian bouldering competition, a climbing writers’ competition, a photography competition, and numerous other social events.
The Club Circular changed its name not once but three times – first there was “The Waddy Move” in 1993 and then hot on its heels, “the Climbers Brag”, followed by the more sedately named ‘Krank’ in 1994. Interestingly, there were still regular trip reports as members ventured world-wide to Alaska, Peru, Yosemite, Nepal, the European “Grand Tour”, Antarctica and of course, NZ.
But the culture of the times they were also a-changing. Climbers were now organising their own trips as transport became easier and cheaper (just look at the swish 4-wheel drives parked up at the Pipes and Hillwood nowadays). The club had always been Hobart centric (and white and male) but now there was a growing number of very talented groups operating in the North and Northwest, and a re-energised Tas Uni club in the south.
Gear was easily accessible (no need to trace round your footprint to send off to a supplier of rock boots in the UK) and was lighter, safer,