Warren Harding

 

Warren Harding (June 18, 1924 – February 27, 2002) was one of the most accomplished and influential American big wall climbers of the 1950s to 1970s. He was the leader of the first team to climbEl Capitan, Yosemite Valley, in 1958. Theroute they climbed, known as The Nose, ascends 2,900 feet (880 m) up the central buttress of what is one of the largest granite monoliths in the world. Harding made many first ascents in Yosemite, some 28 in all, including The Wall of Early Morning Light (later The Dawn Wall).

He was nicknamed "Batso", a reference to his penchant for spending days living on vertical cliffs and his exuberant and iconoclastic character. Harding developed specialized equipment for climbing big walls, such as the "bat tent" for sleeping, and "bat hooks" used to hook precariously on small cut-out bits of granite—examples of his B.A.T. or 'Basically Absurd Technology' products.