The Stettner Way: The Life and Climbs of Joe and Paul Stettner

The Stettner brothers were legends within the early mountaineering community , putting up some of the most difficult routes in North America during a career that spanned the beginnings of modern rock climbing in the 1920s, to well into the big-wall climbing era of the 1950s. Often considered the first true sport climbers in America, contemporary and fellow climbing legend Paul Petzoldt called them "the human flies" for their bold and acrobatic style. Fleeing Germany after their father’s brutal murder by early Nazis, the Stettner’s brought their advanced skills and new techniques to the virgin rock walls of the Rockies. Soon they were establishing routes far beyond what anyone had attempted before, on Colorado’s Longs Peak and in Wyoming. Following their service with the Tenth Mountain Division, the brothers again returned to the mountains to put up big climbs. The 1947 climb of the spectacular East Face of Monitor Peak in Colorado was the first big-wall climb in America, several years before the flowering of big-wall climbing in Yosemite. In their adopted home of Chicago, they were instrumental in starting the Chicago Mountaineering Club and they became mentors for several important climbers of our age.