History

Missouri Rock Climbing History:

This page is a work in progress. For now, today, I will type what I know. This is more an essay than a historical record. I have provided some external sources for further comprehensive study on the subject, as well as my own primary ones. This is not a guidebook, though guidebooks are good sources. Also, this is not a historical artifact for climbing in southern Illinois. While many Missouri climbers are part of that history, this study here is concerned primarily with Missouri rock and native Missouri climbers.


Rock Climbing Routes in Missouri, United States | Rockclimbing.com
Mountain Project: Climbing Missouri
Climber's Alliance of Mid-Missouri
Mizzou Rock Climbing Club
John Gill: master of rock - Pat Ament, John Gill
Elephant Rocks State Park | Missouri State Parks
Stone crusade: a historical guide to bouldering in America - John Sherman
Rock 'n' Road: An Atlas of North American Rock Climbing Areas - Tim Toula
Missouri Limestone Select/Rock Climbing & Bouldering Guide - Pebble Publishing
Sandstone Warrior - Matt Bliss (updated Elephant Rocks guide)
ECHELMEIER CLIMB: Classic Guidebook Rediscovered!



4th March, 2011, Chesterfield, Missouri

I hope to make this page a resource for all from Missouri, or, climbing simply in Missouri. The page can be moveable. It is not so much as about are whos doing what as whos are doing. Think Whoville. We have great rock. Big caves and cliffs to ancient old boulders. Go climb them. That is a preliminary before this course.

John Gill at Elephant Rocks (source) 

Meriwether Lewis climbed the Tavern Rock Bluffs in 1804 above what is now Tavern Rock Cave. It was a 300 foot climb, treacherous, and not yet dynamited by the Chicago, Rock Island Railroad, and Pacific Railroad many years later. This is rock climbing, on a historical record, in Missouri.

The Daughters of The American Revolution Marker
commemorating the Lewis and Clark visit to the area
sits near the post office in St. Albans (Source)

Michael Haynes' portrayal of Meriwether Lewis
Escapes Death at Tavern Rock,
May 23, 1804 (Source)



Bouldering and rock climbing are the same thing. What I love about climbing

Wherever the terrain is suitable, we have adventure, we have sport.

Most of what I know of Missouri climbing stems from the St. Louis area and the Ozark region of Missouri. That will certainly make my bias, as I cannot pursue researching all of Missouri's other town communities as well as I can tell of what I have been a large part of and know best. A few early and important key players from the St. Louis area of Missouri's eccentric, limited, untold rock climbing history who have shaped the image and history of Missouri climbing include: Jim Thurmond, Rick Thomas, Greg Echelmeier, Dean and others who began climbing at Labadie, and some important others who's faces I remember and names do not. These were the years of 1992 and before. There are more, yes ... I forget many names. I began climbing hard in southern Illinois, and elsewhere. Thurmond discovered numerous climbing areas throughout the state. Rick Thomas opened the first climbing gym in St. Louis, and began taking people out climbing to local and far places.

"Girls Are So Stupid" at Labadie, 1991

A lot of us began climbing at places like Labadie, Johnshon Shut-ins, Makanda Bluff (aka Shelter 1) at Giant City in southern Illinois, Jackson Falls, Drapers Bluff, a few nearby quarries, or the gym. Then many of us moved on or elsewhere, while others continued to climb at the same areas, and some started to explore more in Missouri. I hear of good sport climbing over the Osage river, near Bourbon, and of horizontal full pitch roof climbs out caves. I have been exploring, and discovering much, in recent years, in remote oft difficult access and sensitive places. Elephant Rocks continues to see more and more climbers and is full of bouldering wealth. I've given Thurmond many hangers, and he finds places that use them!

Jim Thurmond

Rick Thomas

Labadie circa 1992

Myself climbing
"Frankenstein"
at Labadie

In the early nineties, Rick Thomas opened the first climbing gyms in St. Louis, at  a time when there were only a few gyms in the entire country, the 9th Street Gym and later, the Cordage Mill Rock Gym. Rick guided many trips to nearby areas to climb, as well as trips out west and east. We were a small group of folks, and we all knew each other by first name. The first climbing competition in Missouri as far as I know, of which I was a contestant, was held at the Ninth Street Gym in 1991. The Good Life Climbing Gym soon opened, just before Upper Limits in 1995, and soon a new school of young strong climbers came into being.

The first Good Life Climbing Gym ad

Why have so many from Missouri moved move out west, given such good rock as found in southern Illinois, let alone Missouri? Is it that there is less rock or less climbers, that attracts Missouri natives elsewhere? How much have magazines played a role in shaping the (midwestern) Missouri climber's paradigm over the actual nearby rock? Are climbers from Missouri less adventurous? Or perhaps, more?

Missouri climbing history is full of legend and lore. Does anyone remember the legendary Clay Frisbee? Questions remain that may be more interesting to ponder than to necessarily directly answer. Why has Jim Thurmond's St. Louis Climbing Areas only been a backshelf book, a favorite for only a select few? Why did the Good Life Climbing Gym really fail? Was the 9th Street Gym ahead of its time? Why did John Gill visit the boulders at Elephant Rocks in the 60s? Why, in almost 20 years, has Missouri not seen more 5.14 rock climbers or V10 boulderers? Matt Bliss, Greg Echelmeier, Brian Capps why them, all around the same age and from the same suburb of St. Louis (Chesterfield), beginning climbing at relatively the same years (early-mid 90s)? And then Luis Benitez, also from Chesterfield, would go on to become one of the world's foremost mountain climbers? Good climbers all from Chesterfield!? Interesting. And now we have the very young and talented, strong, Peter Thomas Hill, also from Chesterfield! (Well, Ballwin, actually, just a stone's skip over the lawns). It would take almost ten years as I understand for Missouri climbers to catch up with early efforts. Now, finally, in maturity, we can say Missouri breeds good strong rock climbers!

Columbia, as I understand. has a climbing community. So does Springfield. Please submit info. At Elephant Rocks a couple months ago, I met a few climbers who were visiting from Springfield. I understand there is a good gym there. Great!

Climbing the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, circa 1991

What are the climbing areas in Missouri? Where is the rock?! One may ask. (See Tim Toula's book Rock n Road" for a great resource). Elephant Rocks has a ton of bouldering, thanks to John Gill, and later Jim Thurmond and then gang Matt Bliss, the Chancellor brothers, and more. I remember climbing in a quarry. I have toproped at Johnson Shut-ins. Rumors of new sport climbing areas I have heard. And I imagine there is a lot more crags that can have good sport climbing, or, adventure climbing. I have been climbing a lot in the backwoods of the Mark Twain National Forest on rhyolite and granite boulders, discovering much new, recently.

Missouri is geologically very diverse. Both igneous and sedimentary rock exist and within arm's reach of each other.

In terms of community, with bouldering's explosion of popularity in recent years, how does Missouri fare? Is there a community that climbs in Missouri, outside of the gym? In my experience, I have seen very little in over 15 years since Labadie was closed. Who are discovering climbing in Missouri, and climbing exclusively in Missouri, without need for travel (including southern Illinois)? Why go away somewhere else if rock is in your back yard? Elephant Rocks is not for the squeamish. What is rock climbing to Missouri's climbers?

Mom & Dad enjoying it at Elephant Rocks

There are those who avoided gyms all together, and those who began climbing in gyms. Many of us climb on home walls. Certainly its easiest to go to the gym in Missouri than rock in your backyard, which there is little in complex density of (with the exception of the dense Elephant Rocks.) It takes a certain spirit to become a true rock climber from Missouri. What is that you may ask? I believe it is a longing to climb rock both near and afar with the same passion and enthusiasm for both, following the drive and with the experience and background on rock to do such. And this spirit is wonderful when its presence occupies a climber, crag, or series of moves. I have found several kindred spirits from this State who possess these qualities, and I am beginning to see more (which in time, we will have to promote stewardship and resolve access issues with inevitable growth).

Missouri yields rock, climbers have been far and few, but gyms are growing exponentially as are climbers. Two new big gyms will be in St. Louis this year alone!

On the trail at Elephant Rocks

St. Louis is a large metropolitan area, and there is little unified climbing community, instead there are clicks and disperse groups, and with that comes some disconnect, and even quarrel and competition. Lacking full-circle community support and camaraderie, positive stewardship of our popular climbing areas becomes less possible. Labadie closed as a result of such disconnect and carelessness.

This year I will begin a new effort of stewardship for climbing in Missouri. I have plans to work with some key organizations and businesses, in hopes to keep Missouri climbing areas open, wild lands wild with freedom to climb in the hills, and educate climbers on the importance of little impact use. We can climb a lot here, enjoy solitude, good-fellowship, and keep the lands free as they are and do inspire us and offer resources to many living things and people.


There have been some interesting characters who are climbers from Missouri. St. Louis has many climbers, but none more prevalent in defining the history of the areas and difficulties to come, as the above named. And if some were just crazy, were they any more crazy than Paul Larson's first baked climbing holds? Or the woodie problems on St. Louis' strongest's walls? There is a rich history here, actually, just untold. Perhaps never told. Certainly spoken, perhaps not written.

And then there are the climbs! Is there a single climbed 5.14 in Missouri? What was the first 5.11 ever climbed? 5.10? Is Ant Man at Labadie a great climb or what?! Well, a few notes... From the top-ropes at Johnson Shut-ins, to the highballs at Elephant Rocks, to the 5.12 sport climbs at Labadie, to the V-hard projects at Zombie Wall, to the secret areas, just what exactly is a climb in Missouri? What I certainly know is it is adventureous to climb in Missouri, not the usual magazine-esque portrayal can be found here. With the exception of the great Elephant Rocks, most climbing is either cliffband limestone much like can be found at crags in England perhaps, but much over waters, or groves of or single disperse remote igneous rock boulders and cliffs hidden in beautiful parts of the vast Mark Twain National Forest. One may ask, are there enough climbs to warrant Missouri as a place on the map for climbing? Well I find enough to climb here, but I sure do explore to find more!

Our future
Children learn so much from bouldering outside!

If you had to name your top ten favorite climbs in Missouri, boulder problems or routes, what would they be? And where are they? This makes great news!

I welcome your information so I can best create this compiled page, and therefore tell some great history of climbing rocks us from Missouri can tell!

Do tell. And do share and respect what we have to climb here with our future generations! Feel free to comment or send me anything to contribute to this page, corrections, criticism, or just anything good. You may comment here (moderated), or email me directly to the address below.

I could certainly use more pictures and stories you'd be willing to share!

echelmeier@gmail.com

Happy climbing!
Greg


Last updated: 9 November, 2011