Climbing Beliefs

“Earl and Valerie”

BS

May 21, 2020

Informant Data:

BS is a 22-year-old student in his Senior year at Dartmouth College. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, United States on January 30, 1998. B has two older brothers who are twins and graduated college in 2017. His parents are both psychologists. His family origins are Russian, Italian, Irish, and English. His family is culturally jewish, but he does not personally identify as religious. He started climbing his freshman year of high school. He started climbing on a 9th grade class retreat, climbing was the bonding activity of the day. He and his brother started climbing together after this trip. Only him and his brother climb in his family. He was a competitive climber for all of high school. His climbing team summer camp focused on outdoor climbing. Once he was In college he transitioned to outdoor climbing. He climbs sport and trad climbing, but has spent more time sport climbing. He is also an ice climber. He was chair of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club. He teaches beginners how to climb outdoors. 

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Before large trips or ascents climbers are most worried about weather, since it is much more dangerous to be on a cliff side in bad weather than in good weather. This is especially true in big wall climbing, where it will take teams multiple days to ascend a route, meaning they will sleep on the cliff face in hanging tents. If large storms come in during this time it can be deadly. 

Social Context:  Dartmouth Mountaineering Club (DMC) has graduated a majority of the best mountaineers in history and is responsible for many first ascents. One of The DMC’s advisors started a climbing handbook with main characters Earl and Valerie. They also created a tradition of christening trips before they went with a prayer to Earl and Valerie and the pouring out of water, orange juice, and beer. These traditions were later combined into a christening and prayer to the weather gods and therefore patron gods of climbing. Later, when DMCers went to put up their own first ascents they paid homage to this tradition and named a route “A prayer to Earl and Valerie” spreading this lore to from Dartmouth to modern American climbing. This christening is done before large trips or ascents. Polymodal folklore solidifies the climbing community and keeps central values to the identity consistent. Having knowledge of these beliefs and practices helps members of a group remember and understand their origins and identity. This experience of christening is also a bonding experience for members.

Text:    

I have recorded “Earl and Valerie” as closely as I could to the way BS told it. The following description is from the notes I took during the interview, and are paraphrases of what he shared during it. 

Earl and Valerie are characters in a handbook written by a former advisor to the DMC and are Weather Gods and thus patron gods of climbing. The characters in the book teach you everything you need to know about climbing as they learn themselves. There is a lesson surrounding that you can’t climb if you don’t respect the weather, this is likely how the characters turned into Weather Gods later on. The christening is said as follows:

“water for sustenance, beer for revelry, and orange juice for good health and vitamin C!”

Each of the liquids is poured out as it is said. Some would consider it bad luck to do a large route or trip without this christening. It is also said that Earl and Valerie must be smiling on you when you attempt the route named in their honor. 

Roxanne Holden, 21

Dartmouth College

Russ 13

Spring 2020

Climbing Route: An Ode to Earl and Valerie