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Their uphill battle

By Carmen George / Special To The Sierra Star

(Updated: Thursday, July 17, 2008, 5:29 PM)

For Ron Kauk, Ken Yager and others, there's nothing like climbing in Yosemite National Park

He reaches up and grips onto a tiny knob of granite with his fingertips, his body suspended hundreds of feet off the ground against a sheer face of vertical rock. This hold wouldn't look like anything significant to most of us, barely a bump on the side of a Yosemite wall, but to rock climber Ron Kauk, 50, who lives in El Portal, this small piece of protruding stone is everything.

It is the way up, a necessary piece of the puzzle he must fit together to reach the top.

"It's never just climbing a rock; it's more than that," Kauk said. "We are all climbing through life in one way or another, always looking for that next move," he continued, adding that maybe the important thing is "how connected are you to these moves through life."

Kauk's now world-renowned climbing feats were set in motion largely by a bet he took as a young teenager in the70s, scrambling up a rock face in Yosemite to prove he could and earn a milkshake.

That seemingly unimportant encounter with Yosemite's granite revealed a connection to climbing that he couldn't ignore. Soon after, Yosemite would become his permanent home, and the "heaven on earth" where he established many climbing routes that are considered classics today.

A true pioneer, Kauk's résumé is as exciting as his legendary first ascents, including doubling for actor Sylvester Stallone in the movie "Cliffhanger," and currently serving as a climbing ambassador for the outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia.

But talking with Kauk, he barely skims over a few of his experiences spent in the spotlight of being filmed and photographed, and only after someone else brings them up.

"As you go through all of that it becomes somewhat of an illusion," Kauk said. "Power comes from humbleness and appreciation. Anything based on competition will be short lived."

What seems to matter more to Kauk is what's at the core of it all.

The WHY.

What inspires him everyday to continue to ascend his rope into the sky?

For Kauk, that "why" relates to learning how to live in harmony with the natural world and appreciating what he has.

"We've tricked ourselves into wanting so much, wanting more than we have," Kauk said. "The thing is slowing down," he added, "a very important aspect of life is to observe," and when you're climbing "you can only make one little move at a time."

In our fast-paced world this idea can often seem as monumental and mystifying as El Capitan itself.

But he's not alone.

Ken Yager, president of the non-profit Yosemite Climbing Association, and the man responsible for putting together the rock climbing exhibit in the Yosemite Museum, related this idea to his climbs on El Capitan.

"If you look at the whole thing it's overwhelming" he said. "You have to start at the bottom and break it down into little sections, to what's in front of you."

Dave Bengston, director of the Yosemite Mountaineering School, said that unlike other unavoidably fast-paced sports like white water kayaking, in climbing you can "slow things down and allow yourself to make good judgments."

Appreciation

Climbing has also strengthened these climbers' appreciation for the natural world.

"These kinds of activities can help to bring people into the mountains and to begin to appreciate the mountains," Bengston said.

He added that this appreciation is a necessary part of the park's continued preservation.

Kauk stated that climbing puts "yourself into nature's terms -- it generates respect."

And with millions of visitors pouring into Yosemite every year, and a rapidly growing climbing industry, these ideas of respecting the natural world may be as important as ever.

Yager said that "climbers have always been stewards" and hopes that people will continue to "care for the rocks and to preserve them for future generations to enjoy."

Marty Anderson, 20, a new Yosemite resident from a small town near Mount Hood, Ore., stated that, "I like the good adventurous spirit of the place. I've been here two months, and I've done things most people will never do in their life."

Anderson came into the valley without knowing anything about climbing, and said that now he's hooked.

For Anderson, an eventual goal is El Capitan.

"I don't really care if it takes me a week," Anderson said with a laugh. "I just want to get up alive."

"It's the largest granite monolith in the world; it's the captain," he said. "It's an iconic rock formation."

For all of them, El Capitan seems to radiate a magnetic aura, and brings back memories of their first aspirations as climbers. Kauk described it as standing "monumentally in the middle of space and time."

Yager said he first came to the park more than 30 years ago to climb it, even living in a cave for two years just so he could stay in Yosemite. Bengston found his appreciation for big wall climbing while hanging from one of its faces.

And with the 50th anniversary of its first ascent this November, its mystique will undoubtedly continue to attract and inspire climbers world wide.

"It's a sense of freedom mixed in with challenge," Kauk said of his climbing experiences.

"You really have to believe in yourself," he said. "It's dreaming up something and doing it."

He's etched many of those dreams on Yosemite's granite walls and will continue to look for more invisible lines that lead up toward the sun.

And while Kauk's path hasn't been a normal one, it's been his own.

"Everybody has something to offer the world," Kauk said. "Find that, and you'll be happy."