John Gill (climber) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John Gill is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

who has achieved recognition for his rock-climbing. He is considered the Father of Modern Bouldering
Bouldering
Bouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It is typically practiced on large natural boulders or artificial boulders in gyms and outdoor urban areas...

by many climbers.

Early life and professional career

As a child, Gill lived in several Southern cities, including Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, where he graduated from Bass High School http://johnhaas.us/bhs/ in 1954 and attended Georgia Tech 1954-1956. He graduated from the University of Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

with a degree in mathematics in 1958, and entered the USAF as a second lieutenant. He attended a special graduate meteorology program at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

1958-1959, then was assigned to Glasgow AFB, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, until 1962. He resigned from the USAF Reserves as a captain several years later. After obtaining an MA in mathematics from the University of Alabama

University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

in 1964, Gill became an instructor at Murray State University

Murray State University

Murray State University, located in the city of Murray, Kentucky, is a four-year public university with approximately 10,400 students. The school is Kentucky’s only public university to be listed in the U.S.News & World Report regional university top tier for the past 20 consecutive years...

1964-1967. In 1967 he enrolled as a graduate student at Colorado State University

Colorado State University

Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...

, and received his PhD in classical complex analysis

Complex analysis

Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and applied mathematics; as well as in physics,...

in 1971. In 2000, Gill retired as professor of mathematics from the University of Southern Colorado. During his academic career he published a number of research papers in the analytic theory of continued fractions and related topics, and started a minor mathematical journal entitled Communications in the Analytic Theory of Continued Fractionshttp://www.mesastate.edu/mathstat/CATCF.html,http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Career.html

Bouldering: chalk, controlled dynamics, gymnastic style

John Gill began mountain and rock climbing in 1953 as a traditional climber

Traditional climbing

Traditional climbing, or trad climbing, is a style of rock climbing in which a climber or group of climbers places all gear required to protect against falls , and removes it when a passage is complete...

. By the mid 1950s he had begun to specialize on very short, acrobatic routes on outcrops and boulders, establishing problems

Bouldering

Bouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It is typically practiced on large natural boulders or artificial boulders in gyms and outdoor urban areas...

in the 1950s and early 1960s considerably harder than those existing at the time. Being a gymnast and thinking of climbing as an extension of gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

, in the mid 1950s he introduced the use of gymnastic chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

into American rock climbing (the use of chalk then spread throughout the climbing world). At the same time he introduced controlled dynamics (see dyno

Glossary of climbing terms

This page describes terms and jargon related to climbing and mountaineering.-A:American death triangle : An anchor which is created by connecting a closed loop of cord or webbing between two points of protection, and then suspending the rope from a carabiner clipped to only one strand of said anchor...

), recommending it as a technique of choice, as well as one of necessity.

Gill's climbing style showed the influence of formal gymnastics. He emphasized form and grace of motion over simple efficiency, the cornerstone of contemporary climbing. His performances, as recorded on film taken when he was forty (Disciples of Gill

Pat Ament

Pat Ament is an American rock climber, musician, and artist who lives in Fruita, Colorado. Noted for first ascents in the 1960s and 1970s, he is the author of many articles and books....

, 2009), demonstrate straight lines and minimal contact with the rock. He preferred an application of strength and sometimes avoided efficient moves like the heel hook

Glossary of climbing terms

, which he considered unaesthetic. Gill's approach to bouldering - artistic style being on a par with difficulty - was rarely followed by climbers of his generation and is considered unusual today, difficulty remaining paramount. He also practised bouldering as a form of moving meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

.

Although certainly not the first serious boulderer — his notable predecessors include Oscar Eckenstein

Oscar Eckenstein

Oscar Johannes Ludwig Eckenstein was an English rock climber and mountaineer, and a pioneer in the sport of bouldering...

(1859–1921) and Pierre Allain

Pierre Allain

Pierre Allain was a French alpinist who began climbing in the 1920s. In the 1930s he was joined by several others at Fontainebleau, where his group of "'Bleausards" developed a love of bouldering that went beyond simple training for the Alps. The famous , done in 1934, is a testament to their...

(1904–2000) — Gill was probably the first climber in the history of rock climbing to make bouldering his primary specialty and to advocate acceptance of bouldering as a legitimate sport in its own right, to be pursued wherever the terrain is suitable. His focus on bouldering and the high difficulty levels he established inspired a number of traditional climbers to take a more serious view of the sport, which, for the most part had been seen merely as training for longer roped climbs.

". . . his introduction of chalk and dynamic movement marked the beginning of modern climbing in America."

Early climbs

In the Tetons, in 1958, John Gill climbed a short route on Baxter's Pinnacle that lies in the 5.10

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

realm, before that grade was formally recognized — one of the first to be done in America. By the end of the 1950s, Gill had reached what would now be considered V9

Grade (bouldering)

In the sport of bouldering, problems are assigned technical grades according to several established systems, which are often distinct from those used in roped climbing. Bouldering grade systems in wide use include the Hueco "V" grades , Fontainebleau technical grades, route colors, Peak District...

or V10

Grade (bouldering)

levels on a few eliminate

Glossary of climbing terms

boulder problems, but claims he probably never progressed beyond that. Two of his problems in the Tetons — a V8

Grade (bouldering)

in 1957 and a V9

Grade (bouldering)

in 1959 — set new standards of bouldering difficulty, and his 1961 route on the Thimble (Needles

Black Hills

The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...

of South Dakota) — an unrehearsed and unroped 30-foot 5.12a

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

free-solo climb (or V4 or V5

Grade (bouldering)

highball)— is considered one of the great classics of modern climbing, and — if considered a climb — may well be the first at the 5.12

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

grade. Gill climbed the route without the benefit of modern climbing shoes, significantly increasing the difficulty of the climb.

John Gill received the 2008 American Alpine Club

American Alpine Club

The American Alpine Club, or AAC, was founded in 1902 by Charles Ernest Fay, and is the leading national organization in the United States devoted to mountaineering, climbing, and the multitude of issues facing climbers...

's Robert & Miriam Underhill Award http://www.americanalpineclub.org/award/6 for outstanding climbing achievement.

Grading system for bouldering

John Gill introduced, in the 1950s, a very early - if not the first - grading system specifically designed for bouldering and not restricted to a particular area. The system, (B1, B2, B3)

Grade (bouldering)

, had two subjective levels of difficulty, and one objective level, and was predicated on prevailing and future standards attained in traditional rock climbing

Traditional climbing

. The introduction of sport climbing

Sport climbing

Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock, and possibly bolts, for protection,...

some twenty years later and more intense competition weakened the philosophical underpinnings of the three-tiered structure, although climbers such as Jim Holloway

Jim Holloway

----Jim Holloway , an American, was one of the first of a new generation of boulderers for whom the sport was a lifestyle rather than a recreation. He began bouldering in the early 1970s in Boulder, Colorado, and in 1973 established his first notable route, Just Right...

adopted personal three-level systems similar to Gill's. Today, Gill's B-system is rarely used, abandoned in favor of open-ended scales of difficulty.

Gymnastics and strength exercises

As an amateur gymnast in the 1950s, 6'2" and 180 pounds, Gill specialized in the competitive rope climb

Rope climbing

Rope climbing is a sport in which competitors, usually men, attempt to climb up a suspended vertical rope using only their hands. Rope climbing is practised regularly at the World Police and Fire Games, and is enjoying a resurgence in France, where competitions are held in shopping centres...

and the still rings

Rings (gymnastics)

The rings, also known as still rings , is an artistic gymnastics apparatus and the event that uses it. It is traditionally used only by male gymnasts, due to its extreme upper-body strength requirements...

, achieving a time of 3.4 seconds for the 20' rope climb (from seated position on the floor, arms only) and accomplishing a number of difficult stunts on the rings, including inverted and olympic crosses, giant swings, and slow pulls from hang to handstand. He also engaged in what are now called bodyweight

Resistance training

Resistance training has two different meanings. A broader meaning that refers to any training that uses a resistance to the force of muscular contraction , and elastic or hydraulic resistance, which refers to a specific type of strength training that uses elastic or hydraulic tension to provide...

exercises similar to gymnastics, achieving seven one-arm pullups with the right arm and five with the left, several one-finger one-arm pullups, one-arm pullups carrying twenty pounds, one-arm pullups on a one-half inch ledge, and one-arm front levers. http://www.johngill.net.

Historical research

After retiring, Gill spent several years researching the origins of rock climbing, particularly bouldering. He also compiled a chronicle of bodyweight feats associated with climbing. These results, along with a history of gymnastic rope climbing

Rope climbing

, may be found on his website http://www.johngill.net.

External links

John Gill's personal website
John Gill on training
http://www.palatinum.info/articles/Gill_interview.shtm on palatinum.info
Interview on theshortspan.com
Interview on Climbing.lu

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.