Charlie Porter

Charlie Porter (1950 to 2014) was an American rock climber, mountaineer and climate change scientist who became one of the leading big wall climbers of the 1970s. He is best known for first ascents of major routes on El Capitan in Yosemite, including Zodiac and The Shield in 1972 and Mescalito and Tangerine Trip in 1973, and for solo ascents that were far ahead of their time, such as his nine day solo of New Dawn in 1972, the first solo of the Cassin Ridge on Denali in 1976, and the first grade VII big wall route, climbed alone on Mount Asgard on Baffin Island in 1975. His climbing was also influential through the innovative equipment he created. Away from the rock he was an adventurer, the first person to kayak around Cape Horn in 1979, and later lived in South America guiding marine and climate scientists.