Announcing TO BE BRAVE by American climbing legend Royal Robbins Now available for review and purchase

A Quiet American Adventurer

Royal Robbins will probably never be mentioned in the same breath as 20th century American adventurers like Charles Lindbergh or Colonel John Glenn. While he was not the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean or orbit the earth, his adventures were just as spectacular, and frightening, in their own way.

Robbins’ many daring exploits include the world’s first ascent of Yosemite’s famous Half Dome Face in 1957. It was on this and other magnificent granite towers that Robbins invented his own form of rock climbing. His technique was environmentally friendly, personally challenging and today would be described as an ‘extreme sport’. The rock faces he climbed were preserved and not scarred by pitons and bolts that were typically used by climbers.

Today, Robbins is a legend in climbing circles and with good reason. TO BE BRAVE, the first volume of his autobiography, makes for fascinating reading as we peer into the mind of a mixed-up kid from the streets of 1940’s LA, who teaches himself how to become an ace climber. The book reaches a crescendo when Robbins finds himself dangling treacherously high from the West Face of the Leaning Tower in Yosemite. There was no Sherpa Tenzing around to assist Robbins. This was a lone adventurer facing the most daunting of personal challenges, cheating death, and grappling with his innermost demons. When Robbins topped out in May, 1963, he became the first person to solo a Yosemite big wall, spending nearly four days alone on the wall exposed to stormy weather.

In the book’s Foreword, noted climber and author Steve Roper states “His Leaning Tower exploit, explored at length in this volume, stands forever as the boldest solo climb of early North American climbing”. Robbins went on to climb many more mountains, all in his unique way, quietly and forever changing the ethic of climbing worldwide. Weaving courage and self-doubt into living truth, TO BE BRAVE introduces us to the complex, nuanced young man at the heart of the myth.