Noted Colorado climber Pat Ament has recently completed a short film that profiles both John Gill and the disciples he influenced. This weekend the film has its Eastern debut. The short video includes clips from "The Disciples of Gill" as well as information about the Eastern screenings. One of the highlights of my climbing career was taking Treetops West kids to the Needles in the Dakotas and I managed to do 2-3 Gill problems. I also remember doing the bottom 12-15' of the Thimble, trying to psych myself to take a stab at it, but I knew the cojones were not there.
I cut and pasted a quick profile below:
John Gill was so far ahead of his time the best climbers of the day didn’t believe the stories they heard. Rumors had a man able to fly through air from one finger-hold to another. People came across small white chalk arrows drawn below impossible-looking faces of rock. The mysterious Gill moved through the forest of various climbing areas, leaving not only the chalk arrow but chalked holds up rock no one else could begin to ascend.
A competitive rope climber at the University of Georgia Tech, Gill could climb a rope to the top of a tall gym in 3.8 seconds. That’s faster than a normal person can pull a rope of that length through the hands. Gill taught himself the one-arm, one-finger pull-up and invented the one-arm front lever. He was not simply a show of strength, however. Along with balance and technique, Gill has always been a man of virtue and humility.
When Pat Ament, a university gymnast and pioneer boulderer himself, wrote the book “Master of Rock,” Gill’s Biography, the climbing community learned what it would take to reach the highest echelons of pure rock climbing and, at the same time, aspire to being – as Gill – the highest quality of person. (Click on this text to access a link to a discussion of Gill's solo adventure and highball bouldering exploits.)
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