On Sunday afternoon, the 16th August, the American Alpine Club will hold a memorial service at its headquarters in Golden, Colorado, for the well-known American climber Craig Luebben, who died recently.
The American climbing community has been hit hard this year by the deaths of some of its most accomplished players: Jonny Copp, Micah Dash and John Bachar. Sadly, there is now one more to add to this list.
On the 9th August, Luebben, a Golden resident and member of the American Mountain Guides Association, was climbing in the North Cascades with the well-known Argentinean guide and mountaineer, Willie Benegas. The two were preparing for an AGMA Alpine examination by making the Torment-Forbidden Traverse, starting with the South East Face of Torment.
The rimaye at the start of the climb was open, and Luebben, in the lead, attempted to bypass it by a short section of rock to the right. As he stepped back left onto the ice, a huge chunk of it collapsed.
Luebben fell around 30' and was held by a cam, but was then hit by residual falling debris, some of which also gave Benegas minor leg injuries.
Benegas lowered Luebben to a safe stance and tried to stabilize injuries. Luebben was alive but complaining of back pain and leg numbness, so Benegas headed away from the area until he could get a phone signal and then contacted the rescue services.
The response was rapid and a helicopter was soon at the location. However, as the team was preparing the helicopter for a short haul evacuation, Benegas phoned again to say Luebben had died.
Although 49-year old Luebben was an accomplished climber, particularly when it came to off-widths, he may be best known internationally for his many contributions to the American magazines, Climbing, and Rock and Ice, where he wrote extensively on equipment, safety techniques and some of the exotic climbing destinations he had visited.
He served on the Board of Directors of the AMGA and also wrote seven instructional books: his late '90s research into ice screw placement revolutionized the way climbers would begin to think about the angle a screw should be placed in different types of ice.
Luebben graduated in mechanical engineering from Colorado State University and the same year (1984) invented the specialized BigBro Tube Chocks for protecting wide cracks, the specialized terrain where he would eventually make on-sights to 5.13a.
Apart from his first ascents in the US, he put up many new rock routes around the world, in areas such as China (Yangshoo), Cuba, France (notably partnering Stevie Haston on the 7b+ off-width Thai Boxing), Madagascar (where with his wife, also an excellent climber, he put up the F7a Life in a Fairy Tale on Tsaranoro Atsimo) and Puerto Rico.
Luebben was also an accomplished ice climber, making a free solo enchainment of Bridalveil Falls and the Ames Ice Hose (both WI 5+) and, most notably, becoming the first to develop the hard ice climbing of the Shuanqiao Valley in China's Signuniang National Park, where he climbed new lines up to WI 7 and M8.
The photo, courtesy of Luebben's website, shows the man on the V4 Red River Gorge off-width, When Doves Cry.
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