Valley Uprising and my memories of Camp 4

Valley Uprising, a documentary about this history of rock climbing over the past 70 years, particularly in the famous Campground 4 in the Yosemite Valley, has extraordinary archival footage that the filmmakers expertly incorporate into a contemporary narrative, including interviews with many of the great climbers from the 60s and 70s. It's a terrific summary of the evolution of the sport from a challenge dependent largely on strategic use of equipment (ropes, pitons) to almost unimaginable free climbing. from the first methodical multi-day ascents up Half Dome and El Capitan to the record-time sprints up the face today with gravity-defying leaps and twists and ridiculously dangerous hand-holds. Cool film with great soundtrack, and I'll just add a personal note: Friend AW and I stayed at Camp 4 for a few days in 1972; we were just looking for a campground that was younger and more hip and stumbled into this one, knowing nothing about the climbing culture. I can tell you that, unlike some of the earlier generation of climbers, the guys (they were all guys) from the 70s had no interest in the outdoors per se - they were there for a sport, not to commune w/ nature. We befriended quite a few of them and it was mainly because we (I should say I, sorry AW) knew how to build a campfire. This was unimaginable to them! They gathered round, asked how we did it, etc. We said we needed more firewood and one of them went off and came back dragging an entire tree! There was a definite hierarchy, and the top-tier climbers set up for the entire summer in VW campers (in this winter, a lot of them we ski instructors, or maybe ski bums, out in Colorado), where their girlfriends set up kitchens complete w/ spice racks, etc. Guys at the bottom end of the tier came w/ bare essentials, all they wanted to do was climb - one guy I still remember came w/ a 20-pound bag of rice, and his dinner every night was "grains again." We tried to supplement his diet a little bit. Amazingly, AW and I told some of the guys that we planned to take some inner tubes and float down the Merced, to which they said, in all sincerity: Be careful! All told a great experience and a look into a completely different culture.

Postscript: AW points out that he was once a Boy Scout (true) and that he can make a fire (probably true), and that his memory is that more than "Be careful!" the guys in the camp were truly terrified about our plan to float down the Merced. Go figure.