Last fall I had the pleasure of hosting two of my climbing heroes, David Roberts and Ed Ward, at Hampshire College where they presented some slides of their incredible first ascent of Shot Tower via the West Ridge. Seats in the lecture hall were filled as expected and conversation carried on at the High Horse Brewery in downtown Amherst. These guys crush. In 71′, after Hampshire’s inaugural year, they took a group of Hampshire students all the way from Western Massachusetts up the AlCan Highway to Bettles where they took a bush plane into Alaska’s rugged interior, the Brooks Range. They taught good judgement and the rudiments of climbing on the virgin granite of the Arrigetch and claimed several first ascents–Disneyland, Badile, and a beautiful 16 pitch spire called Shot Tower. The slides were so crisp–they are

seared in my mind. Their trip was adventurous, courageous–full of risk and exposure. Although, Dave jokingly admits that the most dangerous thing they did “was let the Hampshire students drive that van to Alaska.”  The trip set the foundation for a strong Hampshire climbing legacy. Many others  have followed and continue to follow the ambitions of Dave and Ed with the same spirit and enthusiasm. People like Jon Krakauer, Pete Ward (founder of NE2C), Pete Clark, Earl and Glenna Alderson and a coalition of dedicated climbers come to mind.

Shot Tower is etched in my mind. I fantasize about climbing the iconic route in 2021, the 50th anniversary of Dave and Ed’s first ascent, to raise money for the Hampshire Outdoor Program. You can read about the 1971 trip into the Brooks Range in Dave’s book, On the Ridge Between Life and Death.