Flamboyant rock climber Bridwell dies

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Jim Bridwell, a hard-partying hippie and legendary climber who lived his life vertically on some of the toughest peaks in Yosemite National Park, has died. He was 73.

Bridwell died Friday morning at a hospital. He had liver and kidney failure from hepatitis C that he may have contracted in the 1980s when he got a tattoo from a headhunting tribe in Borneo, his wife, Peggy Bridwell, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The flamboyant Bridwell was idolized by some and labeled reckless by others, but no one disputed his sheer skill on a rock face.

He made some 100 first ascents in the California park and on peaks in Alaska and the Andes. In 1975, Bridwell, John Long and Billy Westbay became the first climbers to ascend a route called The Nose on Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan in a single day. A photograph of them afterward with Bridwell shirtless in a psychedelic vest and smoking a cigarette became famous.

Bridwell also helped establish the first formal Yosemite search-andrescue team, pioneered rescue techniques and invented climbing gear.

Bridwell, who loved birds of prey and was nicknamed “the Bird,” began climbing in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he was part of an outlaw group of Yosemite climbers who took on the hardest, steepest and most dangerous pitches, using minimal gear and aiming for style, precision and speed.

Climbing “was his life,” Peggy Bridwell said. “He didn’t care if you were a good climber, if you were a bad climber, if it was your first climb. He was always willing to help. He was a great teacher.”