John Long (climber)

American rock climber and author

John Long (born July 21, 1953) is an American rock climber and author. His stories have been translated into many languages.

Long is a 1971 graduate of Upland High School in Upland, California, Long studied humanities at the University of LaVerne (graduating with departmental honors), Claremont Graduate School and Claremont School of Theology.

John Long joined teenage climbers John Bachar, Rick Accomazzo, Richard Harrison, Tobin Sorenson, Robs Muir, Gib Lewis, Lynn Hill, Jim Wilson, and Mike Graham as members of a group of climbers in Yosemite Valley, known as the "Stonemasters". As the result of the group's exploits, from the French Alps to the North Pole, combined with Long's popular writings, the Stonemaster ethos was central in the "extreme" adventure sports culture. While Long and the Stonemasters branched out into diverse disciplines including caving, river running and first descents, extreme skiing, big wave surfing, trans continental traverses, BASE jumping and Himalaya alpine climbing, the original renown sprang from establishing scores of daring new rock climbs—throughout the 1970s and 1980s—in Southern California and Northern Mexico, most notably at Tahquitz and Suicide Rock in Idyllwild, Joshua Tree National Park, and Yosemite Valley, all in California, and El Gran Trono Blanco, in Baja, Mexico.

Long's many climbing feats include the first one day ascent of the most sought after rock climb in North America, the 3,000 foot Nose route on El Capitan, on Memorial Day, 1975, with Jim Bridwell and Billy Westbay. The following year, partnered with Dale Bard, Long made the second one day ascent of El Cap via the West Face, in the remarkable time of five hours. He followed this with blitz ascents of Leaning Tower, Washington Column, Half Dome and Ribbon Falls, precipitating the modern speed climbing movement so popular today, both in Yosemite Valley and beyond. A skilled free climber, Long popularized "free soloing" (climbing with no rope) during his high school days out at Joshua Tree National Park, first introducing John Bachar to the practice in 1974 with their now fêted ascent of Double Cross, at Joshua Tree. Bachar would soon establish himself as the world's leading solo rock climber. In 1977, Long and Bachar toured the Western States, repeating most of John Gill's notorious boulder problems at Horse Tooth Reservoir, Ft. Collins, Split Rocks, Estes Park, the Badlands, Pueblo (all in Colorado), and at the Needles of South Dakota. Long's two seminal photo articles, "Pumping Sandstone," in 1976, and "Pumping Granite," in 1977, both featured in Climbing Magazine, inspired an entire generation of free climbers throughout the US and Western Europe, and helped establish bouldering in general, and "High Balling" (high bouldering sans rope) in particular, as a valid and extreme expression of traditional climbing. Long's 1973 ascent of Paisano Overhang (5.12c) at Suicide Rock in Southern California, helped to firmly establish the 5.12 grade and was likely the most technically difficult free climb in the world at that time. His 1978 ascent of Hangover at nearby Tahquitz Rock, was initially considered (5.13b), one of the first ever at that grade in the world (and a year before Toni Yarino's Grand Illusion), but is now considered (5.13a). In 1975, along with Ron Kauk and John Bachar, Long became the first to free climb a legitimate big wall with the first free ascent of the East Face of Washington Column, in Yosemite Valley, later dubbed Astroman, for two decades widely considered "The World’s Greatest Free Climb." The following year, also in Yosemite, and with British climber Pete Livesey, Long free climbed the second big wall in history – the 1,700 foot Chouinard/Herbert route on Sentinel Rock. On June 15, 2011, Alex Honnold free soloed the Chouinard/Herbert for CBS News, with Long hosting alongside 60 Minutes correspondent, Lara Logan. Starting in 1980, with a kayaking expedition to Baja California, Long transitioned into international exploration. Many notable expeditions followed, including the first coast to coast traverse of Borneo, transcontinental traverse of Irian Jaya, discovery and exploration of the world's largest river cave, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, First Descent, Angel Falls, Venezuela, First Descent of the Kayan River, Kalimantan, Indonesia, as well as expeditions to the Troll Wall, Norway, Hand of Fatima, Mali, West Africa, Mt. Asgard, Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island and the North Pole.

Starting in 1980, Long began working for David Frost Productions, writing and producing ABC and BBC specials, including the International Guinness Book of World Records, which also became a long running syndicated series. Moving into feature films in the 1990s, Long worked on the second unit for dozens of motion pictures, including the Rambo series. His novella, Rogue’s Babylon, was the basis for Sylvester Stallone's hit movie, Cliffhanger. During this time Long also worked for Bennett Productions, in Santa Monica, writing and producing action sport shows for TBS, NBC, CBS, FOX, HDTV, RUSH and others. Highlights include the Emmy nominated Red Bull Cliff Diving World Championships in La’nai, Hawaii, and the International Monitor Award (International Emmy) Winning show, Hawaiian Waterman (big wave surfing), for Asahi (Japanese HD TV). Later work with New Wave Entertainment involved writing and producing long form shows for Discovery, History Channel, Showtime, A&E, Lifetime, and HBO. His 2008 documentary for Code Black Entertainment and Ebony Magazine, Why We Laugh: The History of African American Humor, was a featured documentary (Spectrum Series) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. His most recent (2010) DVD, Who You Callin’ Crazy? featured comedian Katt Williams. In September 2013, Long and Jeff Jackson, were signed by Steven Schwartz and Chockstone Pictures to write Chico Jones (working title), based in part on Long's previous short story volume, Gorilla Monsoon. One Night Stand (also written with Jeff Jackson), a new television series, is currently in development with producer Randy Cordray, longtime producer of the hit series The Office, and current producer of the series Dads (Fox).

Long wrote a screenplay from which the screenplay for Cliffhanger was based. He received a credit of "premise by" Long. Long, along with some of his fellow stonemasters, were among those interviewed in "Valley Uprising". Long was among those interviewed in “The Dawn Wall”. His commentary was the narration of the film's main body.