Shiprock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shiprock | |
|---|---|
 Shiprock |
|
| Elevation | 7,178 feet (2,188 m) |
| Location | New Mexico, USA |
| Prominence | 1,583 ft (483 m) |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | USGS Ship Rock Quadrangle |
| Type | Volcanic breccia and minette |
| First ascent | 1939 by David R. Brower, Raffi Bedayn, Bestor Robinson, John Dyer[1] |
| Easiest route | technical rock climb[2] |
Shiprock, or Shiprock Peak or Ship Rock (Diné: Tsé Bit' A'í, " winged rock") is a rock formation rising nearly 1,800 feet (540 meters) above the high-desert plain on the Navajo reservation, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the northern New Mexico town of Shiprock, which is named for the peak.
[edit] Name
The name "Shiprock" derives from the peak's resemblance to an enormous 19th-century clipper ship. However Anglos first called the peak "The Needle," referring to its topmost pinnacle. USGS maps indicate that the name Ship Rock dates from the 1870s.[3]
The Navajo name for the peak refers to the legend of the great bird that brought them from the north to their present lands.[3]
[edit] Religious and cultural significance
The peak and surrounding land are of great religious and historical significance to the Navajo People. Beyond its role as the agent that brought the Navajo to the southwest, other legends are attached to the peak. One legend has it that Bird Monsters nested on the peak and fed on human flesh. The Warrior Twins (or in some versions, Monster Slayer) were summoned to rid the Navajo of the Bird Monsters.[4]
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
[edit] Geology
Shiprock is composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock called "minette." It is the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano, and the volcanic breccia formed in a diatreme. The exposed rock probably was originally formed 2,500-3000 feet (750-1,000 meters) below the earth's surface, but it was exposed after millions of years of erosion. Wall-like sheets of minette, known as dikes, radiate away from the central formation. Radiometric age determinations of the minette establish that these volcanic rocks solidified about 27 million years ago. Ship Rock is in the northeastern part of the Navajo Volcanic Field; the field includes intrusions and flows of minette and other unusual igneous rocks that formed about 25 million years ago. Agathla, also called El Capitan, is another prominent volcanic neck of this field.[5] [6]
[edit] Climbing history and legal status
Shiprock's sheer walls make it tempting for serious mountain climbers. After years of standing as one of the continent's great unsolved climbing problems, it was first scaled in 1939, by a Sierra Club party including David Brower. (There was a widespread rumor of a $1000 prize for climbing the peak, which inspired "dozens of attempts by the experienced and inexperienced alike."[1]) Since then at least seven routes have been climbed on the peak, all of them of great technical difficulty. A modification of the original route is still regarded as the easiest, and it is rated at Grade IV, YDS 5.9, A1.[1]
However, questions of legality, ownership, safety, and religious significance have made the issue of access to Shiprock a complicated story. Some sources report that climbing the peak was declared illegal in 1970.[3] However Cameron Burns reported in 1995 (after a careful, albeit limited study of the matter) that, contrary to these reports, there was no general ban on climbing, and permission of the local permit holder was the determining factor. [7]
A report in 2000, from a person denied a climbing permit, noted that there had been a resolution passed as a result of a recent climbing accident on Shiprock encouraging the authorities not to give out permits.[8] However it was unclear if this became law.
While these reports shed a little light on the legality of climbing Shiprock, they do not make completely clear the current legal status of climbing on the peak, except that some sort of permission is necessary, and that that permission is at best unlikely to be given. (However it was certainly given as recently as 1994.[7] Whether this permission ought to have been given is unclear.) They also do not address the separate ethical issue of whether climbing Shiprock is appropriate (even if legal), given the peak's importance in Navajo religion and culture. The idea of climbing Shiprock is said to be repugnant to many Navajo people.[citation needed]
[edit] In Fiction
Tony Hillerman's mystery novel The Fallen Man centers on the discovery of a long-dead climber found atop Shiprock. Hillerman touches on the conflict of attitudes and values between the climbers and the Navajo people. Also, the Helgrind of Christopher Paolini's novels is based on it.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Audrey Selkeld, editor, World Mountaineering, Bulfinch, 1998.
- ^ Climbing Shiprock may be prohibited; see the History section.
- ^ a b c Butterfield, Mike, and Greene, Peter, Mike Butterfield's Guide to the Mountains of New Mexico, New Mexico Magazine Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-937206-88-1
- ^ Shiprock on Dark Isle
- ^ Steven C. Semken, The Navajo Volcanic Field, in Volcanology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 18, p. 79-83, 2001. ISSN 1524-4156
- ^ Paul T. Delaney, Ship Rock, New Mexico: The vent of a violent volcanic eruption, Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide -- Rocky Mountain Section, p 411-415, 1987.
- ^ a b Cameron M. Burns, "Shiprock", American Alpine Journal, 1995, pp. 66-72.
- ^ Jim Beyer, "Shiprock", American Alpine Journal, 2000, p. 192.
[edit] See also
[edit] Images
