Gary Hemming was a noted American mountaineer. Together with Royal Robbins

Royal Robbins

Royal Robbins is one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite...

 he made the first ascent of the American Direct route on the Aiguille du Dru

Aiguille du Dru

The Aiguille du Dru is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps, lying to the east of the village of Les Praz in the Chamonix valley.The mountain has two summits:...

 in Chamonix

Chamonix

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...

 in 1962, and was widely known in France for his role as a rescuer of a party on the same mountain in 1966.

Hemming was also part of the group which put up the first ascent of the south face of the Aiguille Du Fou (with John Harlin, Tom Frost

Tom Frost

Tom Frost is a rock climber from California, best known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He is also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer.-Rock climbing and mountaineering:...

 and Stewart Fulton

Stewart Fulton

Stewart Fulton was an accomplished mountaineer from Scotland who climbed in the heyday of the "wild ones" in the sixties. This group was credited with putting up many new routes in the Alps during that time, most significantly the first ascent of the south face of the Aiguille Du Fou a smooth...

) a spire of sheer rock long deemed to be unclimbable.

Hemming died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside the Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake is located in Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The lake was formed approximately 12,000 years ago by glaciers pushing rock debris which carved Cascade Canyon during the last glacial maximum, forming a terminal moraine which now impounds the lake. The lake is...

 campground in Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park located in northwestern Wyoming, U.S. The Park consists of approximately and includes the major peaks of the long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Only south of Yellowstone...

 in 1969. Hemming is widely thought to be one of the models for the character named Rand in the James Salter

James Salter

James Salter is an American novelist and short-story writer. Once a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force, he abandoned the military profession in 1957 after successful publication of his first novel, The Hunters.After a brief career at film writing and film directing, Salter...

book Solo Faces.

Quotes about Hemming

• "Hemming. The name is singular, like the man." — Jack Turner

• "Gary was big, rawboned tough, and light-haired and had uncannily blue eyes. His most arresting physical feature was his grin. It combined the innocence of a friendly, lively eight-year-old and the cynicism of an old satyr who has seen it all. He was reckless with his passions, had an insatiable appetite for what he (and I) called life, and an alarming capacity for suffering." — Pete Sinclair