RRC Archives

At the start it was just Dieter and myself that consistantly went out to try new routes, tecniques, and equipment. Right away we found that a lot of the equipment that the rest of the world was using did not work very well with the sandstone/conglomerate that was in the Gorge. I reluctantly brought ...

When we returned from climbing we immediately posted an article describing the route and suggested that folks rappel from the overlook rather than bothering the landowner for access. As far as I know, this was the first recorded climb with a claim of first ascent on a formation in the Gorge. After t...

The day arrived when we were to attempt Chimney Top Rock. The wife (mother?) of the land owner allowed us to pass through her garden on the way to their bridge crossing the Red River. "Watch out for Rattlesnakes; I killed one in my garden a couple 'o days ago" she said. We assured her we w...

All of our efforts were directed towards caving until I met Dieter Britz. I don't recall now how we met but, it was instant friendship. Dieter had come to UK from Australia on a two year Visa. His degree was in Electro-Chemistry and his passion was climbing. He worked out doing gymnastics but was ge...

That area does not sound familiar to me. It may well have been some cavers or someone from UK bringing techniques from out of state. Are there any names associated with the article that I might recognize? There were a number of places everyone went to practice, i.e. Wind Cave area,some places along ...

(Sorry about that! I had to break off unexpectedly) Later, when I was the adviser of my own Post, I passed my experience on to the young men I was leading. I had to keep up with the latest trends so I started reading all I could about the climbing going on in California, etc.. Even ordered some clim...

I hope this info will be of some help in understanding the history of climbing in the RRG. First, my name is Ron Stokley. I was born in Lexington and spent my first 30 or so years there. I moved to Colorado in 1976. There is a lot of "meshing" of different groups in the story, i.e. the Sie...

Several months ago I asked if anyone would like to know about the early history of the Cumberland Climbers and climbing in the Gorge. I tried to submit a few paragraphs but they did not go through. Would someone help an old-timer out and tell me how to submit a note so anyone who wants can read it? ...

I'm not sure how to go about this; anyone interested in history of the Cumberland Climbers? I was pretty much around from the begining.

Ron Stokley