Dave Rearick

David F. Rearick (1932 to 2024) was an American rock climber and mathematician. He belonged to the golden age of climbing in Yosemite and, often climbing with Bob Kamps, helped move American climbing from aid climbing toward free climbing in the 1950s. In 1959 he and Royal Robbins climbed the Vampire at Tahquitz Rock in California, a route that demanded 5.10 climbing although some aid was still used, and a year later the pair made Yosemite's first 5.10 climb, the East Chimney of Rixon's Pinnacle. In August 1960 he and Kamps made the first ascent of the Diamond, the huge headwall on the east face of Longs Peak in Colorado, which newspapers across the United States reported. He earned a doctorate in mathematics at Caltech in 1960 and taught mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder until the 1990s.