List: $19.99
| Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99
High Drama
The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of American Competition Climbing
Author: John Burgman
Narrator: Kyle Tait, Kynan Waggoner
Unabridged: 9 hr 25 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: HighBridge
Published: 03/03/2020
Category: Sports & Recreation - Mountaineering
Synopsis
One afternoon in 1987, two renegade climbers in Berkeley, California, hatched an ambitious plan: under the cover of darkness, they would rappel down from a carefully scouted highway on-ramp, gluing artificial handholds onto the load-bearing concrete pillars underneath. Equipped with ingenuity, strong adhesive, and an urban guerilla attitude, Jim Thornburg and Scott Frye created a serviceable climbing wall. But what they were part of was a greater development: the expansion and reimagining of a sport now slated for a highly anticipated Olympic debut in 2020. High Drama explores rock climbing's transformation from a pursuit of select anti-establishment vagabonds to a sport embraced by competitors of all ages, social classes, and backgrounds. Climbing magazine's John Burgman weaves a multi-layered story of traditionalists and opportunists, grassroots organizers and business-minded developers, free-spirited rebels and rigorously coached athletes. Deeply reported and compellingly told, this is a celebration of climbing and the pivotal figures who made its growth possible, from the rock faces of Yosemite to urban bouldering gyms and beyond.