Tobin Sorenson (June 15, 1955 – October 5, 1980) was an American
rock climber
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...
and
alpinist famed for establishing bold first ascents on
Yosemite
Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
big walls, in the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
,
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...
, and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Early life and education
A California native, Sorenson was the son of a minister, Lee Sorenson, and was raised in
Covina, California
Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley. The population was 51,268 according to the 2020 census, up from 47,796 at the 2010 census. The city's slogan, " ...
.
As a teenager he played the guitar at church and sang in the choir, and continued to emphasize faith and spirituality throughout his life.
Sorenson graduated from
Biola University
Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor's, ...
in 1980.
Career
Sorenson honed his climbing skills at
Tahquitz Rock
Tahquitz Peak (pronounced , sometimes ) is a granite, rock formation located on the high western slope of the San Jacinto mountain range in Riverside County, Southern California, United States, above the mountain town of Idyllwild. Tahquitz ha ...
,
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to t ...
,
Suicide Rock
Suicide Rock (once Suicide Peak) is a granite outcrop () near Idyllwild, California, which is popular with rock climbers. Over three hundred climbing routes have been described. It is located near Tahquitz Peak.
According to legend, the name of ...
, and
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California. The valley is about long and deep, surroun ...
.
Later he turned his attention to the European Alps, and conquered several dangerous
ice climbs in the
Mont Blanc massif
The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...
and the
Eiger
The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends a ...
north face.
Sorenson is considered by some to be the best all-around climber of his time.
A contemporary of
John Long and
John Bachar
John Bachar (March 23, 1957 – July 5, 2009) was an American rock climber. Noted for his skill at free soloing, he ultimately died during a free solo climb. A fitness fanatic, he was the creator of the climbing training device known as the Bach ...
in a group they called the
Stonemasters
The Stonemasters were a group of rock climbers and adventurers in the 1970s, roughly 1973 to 1980, who originally climbed in Southern California—principally Tahquitz, Suicide Rocks, Joshua Tree—and later, Yosemite National Park further north. ...
putting up daring new routes in the
Idyllwild, California area, Sorenson pushed risk standards in the realm of rock climbing and alpine mountaineering.
Death
Sorenson died from a fall during a solo attempt of the
Mount Alberta
Mount Alberta is a mountain located in the upper Athabasca River Valley of Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. J. Norman Collie named the mountain in 1898 after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta. It is the most difficult of the 11,000ers from ...
's North Face on October 5, 1980.
Further reading
* Long, John and Fidelman, Dean. ''The Stonemasters: California rock climbers in the seventies.'' Santa Barbara, California: Stonemaster Press/T. Adler Books, 2009.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorenson, Tobin
American mountain climbers
American rock climbers
Biola University alumni
Mountaineering deaths
Free soloists
1955 births
1980 deaths