Doug Robinson

Doug Robinson, born in 1945 in California, is an iconic figure in American mountaineering, internationally recognized for his achievements in climbing and cross-country skiing, as well as for his writings on the intimate relationship between humans and the mountains. Nicknamed "the father of clean climbing" in Yosemite Valley, he played a central role in the clean climbing revolution, a practice that prohibits the use of pitons in order to preserve the integrity of the walls. Adopting the use of nuts—removable protective equipment brought back from England by Royal Robbins—in the late 1960s, Robinson became their most ardent advocate and contributed greatly to their technical perfection. The 1972 ascent of the Regular Route on the northwest face of Half Dome, completed alongside Galen Rowell and Dennis Hennek without pitons, heralded this new era. The feat, immortalized on the cover of National Geographic, catalyzed a radical transformation in the Californian mountaineering community, which now embraced a more respectful approach to rock climbing. Doug Robinson discovered the vertical world at an early age thanks to long summers spent in Tuolumne and Yosemite, guided by his nature-loving parents. In the 1960s and 1970s, he made a number of firsts on granite, ice, and mixed terrain in the Sierra Nevada: among other things, he achieved the first ascent of Dark Star on Temple Crag, a now legendary 30-pitch route, and the first ice ascents of V-Notch and Lee Vining Icefall with…