Lowell_Skoog
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Posts posted by Lowell_Skoog
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There is rather a lot missing north of the border...
Certainly possible. I relied on the Beckey guides for that section (and NWMJ for more recent climbs). Where would you recommend looking for more information on winter climbs between the border and the Fraser River? Or can you provide more information directly?
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I was honored to be able to contribute to John's book by writing a historical essay on winter climbing and ski mountaineering in the North Cascades. Now that the book is out, I've posted an online version of the essay on my website. You can find it here:
http://alpenglow.org/themes/ncascade-winter/index.html
This version includes digital "woodcuts" by artist Don Smith which were omitted from the book. It also includes the complete chronology of Cascade winter climbs (including climbs outside the North Cascades) that I used in my research and writing. If anyone finds errors or omissions from the chronology, let me know and I can correct the online version.
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Strength. And friends.
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The state of exploration in the Alps was way ahead, but when you look at what people were doing locally, it seems that about 10 years elapsed before they were doing stuff similar to the 1922 Rainier winter ascent. Examples:
1928 - Giese/Strizek/Best ski-climb of Rainier
1930 - Loners/Sperlin ski ascent of Baker
1932 - Giese/Strizek/Grage/Mosauer/Lyons ski descent of Adams
1933 - Giese/Strizek ski descent of St Helens
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The Challenge of Rainier (which I clearly read too long ago) includes a great letter by Jean Landry discussing the circumstances and the climb itself 40 years after the facts.
Blynne Olivieri at UW Special Collections sent me a copy of a couple of Landry's letters to Dee Molenaar after I told her about the film. Landry was living in Ketchum, Idaho in 1963 and he had anglicized his first name to "John". It seems that he settled in this country permanently, but I don't know when. I'm sure Dee Molenaar would know.
Having researched both skiing and winter mountaineering in the Cascades, it's clear to me that the 1922 winter ascent of Rainier was some years ahead of its time. Wolf Bauer (who was born in Germany) told me that skiing in the Alps was a decade ahead of the U.S. in the early days. I think that's a pretty good estimate of how far Landry and his friends were ahead of local skiers and mountaineers in 1922.
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Do you know which way they went above Muir?
They spent their nights at the old Anvil Rock lookout (which was removed sometime after WWII) rather than Camp Muir. They left their skis at or below the lookout due to hard snow conditions. (Watching the movie you can see that their boots were not adequate for skiing very icy snow.)
They climbed the Gibraltar Ledges route to the summit.
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I guess he probably just has old fashioned strap ons, eh? They are probably made of seal skin, too.
Yes. Dee Molenaar has donated some of his papers to UW Special Collections and they include letters from Jean Landry to Dee in the 1960s, when Dee was working on the first edition of his Rainier book. Landry said that much of their equipment was made locally. The skins were made from sealskin rather hastily by a local furrier. They stretched badly so the climbers reinforced them with canvas robbed from a water hose.
Very cool, looks like they did the Gib Ledges.Yes, the Gib Ledges. Molenaar's book says this as well.
My mother was a librarian. She would occasionaly bring home old climbing literature/movies/magazines. I recall a couple of Steve Marts movies with you climbing Golden Horn and and I think another mountain. Any chance we might see these put on the web?num1mc's answer is accurate. I think the films you're referring to were episodes of KOMO-TV's "Exploration Northwest." These episodes are now being sold on DVD by Linda McCune, widow of the show's host Don McCune. I have copies of them but I won't post them out of respect for her copyright. I've written short stories about the making of these programs here:
http://alpenglow.org/climbing/golden-horn-1980/index.html
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L-R: Jacques Bergues, Jean Landry and Jacques Landry prepare to climb Mount Rainier in 1922.
In November 2003, I received an email from Steve Turner of Sacramento, California. Steve is the grandson of Charles R. Perryman, the Selznick newsreel cameraman who accompanied European alpinists Jean and Jacques Landry and Jacques Bergues to the summit of Mount Rainier to make the first winter ascent in February 1922. If you're not familiar with this climb, you may enjoy the account in Dee Molenaar's Challenge of Rainier (google books link).
Steve contacted me after finding notes about his grandfather's climb on my ski history website here. He wrote that he had his grandfather's newsreel footage from the climb. After several emails, Steve offered to donate the film to The Mountaineers in exchange for a DVD copy. This began an eight year game of email tag. Long gaps ensued. Finally, two months ago he sent me the film. It has been digitized and I've posted a digital copy on the Mountaineers website here:
http://mountaineers.org/history/notes/movie/perryman-mt-rainier.html
The Mount Rainier newsreel was accompanied by several other interesting and unusual films. You can see the whole collection here:
http://mountaineers.org/history/findaids/perryman-newsreels.html
This is a truly historic film. It was the first motion picture ever taken on the summit of Mount Rainier. It shows the first winter ascent of any significant peak in Washington, and the biggest one at that. It is the oldest climbing or skiing film I know of in this state. Since the film was made in 1922, almost 90 years have elapsed since it has been seen in public. This Thanksgiving Day, I'm thankful to Steve Turner for this one-of-a-kind gift to the Northwest mountaineering community.
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Actually you very well might die!
See the second paragraph in this link Anchors Away. If you don't have a rope to cut up BW makes some real nice dynamic prusik cord in 7mm and 8mm thickness that could do the trick.
Yeah, that Anchors Away article in Climbing magazine was the scariest thing I've read in a while. I've been using dyneema runners to clip in to rappel anchors and the article describes all sorts of nasty consequences if you fall on one of those things without a dynamic link in the chain. I need to change my habits. It seems like a soloing system should definitely use dynamic components. A via ferrata rig would be ideal, maybe.
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If you had skis, the glacier link-up would be a neat way to do it. I'm sure the Skoogs have done it.
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=13536.0
http://www.greatoutdoors.com/blogs/gordys/20090615/skiing-the-dakobed-traverse-tools-or-toys
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Now I know that I need to waterproof my pack better . . .
I don't even try to waterproof my pack. Instead I line my pack with a garbage bag. The white "trash compactor" bags are the best, because they're the strongest. Everything that needs to stay dry goes in the trash bag. Usually I put my water bag outside the trash bag in case it leaks.
I carry a second trash compactor bag for camping. As stuff comes out of the pack it goes into the second trash bag. Helps keep things together and dry.
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In light of the noteworthy ski season on Mt Rainier this year, I've created topo diagrams of all major ski routes on the mountain that I know about. This page complements the previous one I created for Mt Shuksan, which was announced in this thread:
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1017921/Mt_Shuksan_Who_skied_that#Post1017921
Here's a link to the new Mt Rainier page:
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-rainier.html
And here's a teaser:
These diagrams are intended as a historical record not a guidebook. Please send additions and corrections.
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Thanks Lowell and Buckaroo! Maybe the answer is to climb up and then down climb the 1972 north face route. Perhaps there is enough snow so that the schrund is covered or otherwise easily passable. Wishful thinking perhaps. With luck, we shall see.
John
With reasonable snow cover (likely this year) the 1938 south route is quite reasonable. It's mostly a snow gully.
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Lowell and Le Piston: Thank you both for your replies -- it is most helpful. Lowell, when you say "looker's right," do you mean the gully to the right of the rib as seen from the top and looking down? If so, "looker's left" would be the 1938 route, right? Le Piston, if we are fortunate enough to be standing on top, we will take into account your descent advice. Now we just need some high pressure!
John
Sorry, I meant "when looking at the mountain from a distance" (opposite of skier's right). So I guess that would be the 1938 route.
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The route to Cache Col is skiable at present:
http://skisickness.com/post/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=251&p=1356#p1356
Best to descend one of the south side gullies on Spider and return via the Ptarmigan Traverse route. There is a major rock rib on the SW face of Spider. You want the gully on the looker's right of the rib, not the one on the looker's left. They both go, but the one on the left is a lot crappier.
The 1972 route is enjoyable. I climbed it in June 1979 and we had to do a little rock climbing (on the right) to pass the bergshrund at the bottom of the gully. Don't know what it's like now. In dry summers the north side routes on Spider are melting out pretty badly these days.
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With all the interesting routes being skied on Mt Shuksan lately, I decided to start something new in my ski history project. I've created topo diagrams of ski routes on Shuksan to clarify written descriptions and seek corrections. I suspect that more diagrams will eventually be needed for other major peaks. Here's the link:
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-shuksan.html
And here's a teaser:
These diagrams are intended as a historical record not a guidebook. Please send corrections. That's what it's for!
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Is the NW Arayete in that photo?
I believe it is the second rib to the right of the couloir. I haven't climbed it.
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I emailed Rene Crawshaw and he confirmed that he skied this line "back in I believe 1997."
I need to pick his brain to figure out what else has been skied on this side of the mountain.
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I would check with the WDSOT before heading into that area this time of year. They are trying to get the highway open and may be doing avalanche control. Let’s not force them to stop their work to avoid injuring anyone.
Yeah, they'll be working up there every weekday from now until the highway opens. Here's a story about their work:
http://mountaineers.org/NWMJ/10/101_Chinook.html
and another:
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=13394.0
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Wahoo! Great video. Thanks.
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A paid notice for Tom Miller is in today's Seattle Times:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-w-miller&pid=149768188
Thomas W. MILLER Born 8/12/1932, Hibbing, Minnesota Died 3/21/2011, Seattle, Washington. Tom is survived by wife Nancy Bickford Miller, children Brian Miller and Heather (Teresa) Miller, all of Seattle, and sister Kay Jones of San Antonio. Tom and Nancy celebrated their 50- year anniversary in February 2010. Raised in Seattle, Tom graduated from Franklin High School,the University of Washington (mechanical engineering, 1954), the California Institute of Technology (M.S. structural dynamics, 1957), and attended Columbia University's Executive Program in Business Administration in the summer of 1981. In his nearly 40 years at the Boeing Company, Tom worked as a chief engineer or project manager on the Jetfoil, Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), Peacekeeper (MX), Airborne Optical Adjunct (AOA), and SRAM programs.He retired as an Aerospace vice president in 1990. Mountain climbing, skiing, hiking, and photography were an important part of Tom's life, which included trips to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Europe, India, and New Zealand. Among his notable climbs were first ascents of Johannesberg's Northeast Buttress route (North Cascades, 1949), and Mt. Cook (Alaska, 1953). His book The North Cascades, published by the Mountaineers in 1964, was a factor in establishing North Cascades National Park. Tom and Nancy served on the original editorial committee for Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, first published by The Mountaineers in 1960 and now in its 8th edition. Tom also provided editorial and design assistance for The Mountaineers Literary Fund Committee. He served as executive editor for 100 Hikes in Western Washington (1966). This led to a series of very popular Mountaineers guidebooks. He designed and chose the photographs for The Alpine Lakes (1971), which helped establish the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. No services will be held. Memorials can be sent to The Mountaineers (mountaineers.org) or Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (fhcrc.org).Published in The Seattle Times from March 29 to April 3, 2011
I had no idea Tom was involved in such prominent projects at Boeing.
Boeing jetfoil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929
Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-86_ALCM
Peacekeeper (MX):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118_Peacekeeper
Airborne Optical Adjunct (AOA):
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/aoa.htm
Short-Range Attack Missile (SRAM):
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-69.html
According to the obituary, Tom was executive editor for the first 100 Hikes book published by the Mountaineers. So he played a key role in starting that series.
Of course, he never mentioned any of this.
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My experience with the Mountaineers is fairly minimal. The only thing I've really been involved with is the history committee. But in my experience you won't get the Mountaineers (or any volunteer organization) to do something by asking them to do it, or even by TELLING them to do it. You get it done by volunteering, becoming the champion for the cause you care about, and DOING IT YOURSELF. Once you get things moving, being associated with a larger organization helps tackle bigger projects.
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Mac Bates wrote a nice sketch of Tom Miller for his interview in Cascade Voices.
Cliff [Leight] and I are lost and a little bit late for our interview with Tom Miller. I am driving slowly peering at house numbers, but Cliff isn't looking. He is fidgeting with his camera and wondering aloud how he will ever find a copy of The North Cascades. This book was published in 1964 to publicize the fight to create the North Cascades Park. Miller's distinctive black-and-white photos of the North Cascades were the centerpiece of the book which has become a Northwest classic, and hard to find. Cliff is attempting to lure me into an elaborate book heist when I pull into Miller's driveway. Unlike color photos which tend to soften the North Cascades, Miller's black-and-white photos get to the essence of the rugged range: rock and snow, jagged ridgelines against billowing clouds, cold, wild and off the map.Black-and-white photography remained a passion but never became a profession for Miller as it did for Bob and Ira Spring. The same was true for his climbing. Miller jokingly refers to himself as a second-rate regional climber, but despite his protestations, he has some fine climbs to his credit: a first ascent of Mount Cook in Alaska, the second Ptarmigan Traverse and new routes on Formidable, Johannesburg and Torment. Miller was invited on the 1956 International Everest Expedition, but he reluctantly turned down the invitation. "At the time, I had real mixed feelings about going. I wasn't confident about what I wanted to be, an engineer or climber." A vice president in Boeing's aerospace and electronics division, Miller decided to confine his climbing to the Northwest.
Miller was a member of the committee which created Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills. His future wife, Nancy, was also on that committee. She had grown up in a mountaineering family. Her father was Burge Bickford, a past president of the Mountaineers. Nancy, a lawyer, was the first woman to climb the north peak of Index, Forbidden, and Formidable. The Millers still climb, although they refer to it more as scrambling.
Tom and Nancy live in North Seattle along the shores of Lake Washington. The interview takes place in their living room. Tom is friendly, a bit reserved, but possesses a self deprecating sense of humor. He speaks quickly in clipped sentences. Nancy is a bit more relaxed, her pleasant voice has an almost girlish quality to it. As afternoon shadows begin to darken the room, Cliff gets Tom to show us some of his black-and-white photos. I notice a copy of The North Cascades on the bookshelf across the room. So does Cliff. He gives me a conspiratorial smile, but when we leave the Millers, the book is still on the shelf and Cliff is still looking.
When I started climbing after I graduated from high school in the mid-1970s, my friend Gary Brill had a copy of The North Cascades that I coveted endlessly. When my wife and I married in the early 1980s, two friends gave us a copy of Tom Miller's book as a wedding present. To this day, it's the only wedding present that I can still remember (and find at a moment's notice). Together with Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, Tom's book (and his work with Harvey Manning on the Mountaineers Literary Committee) gave birth to The Mountaineers Books.
About a decade ago I had the privilege of getting to know Tom Miller when I joined the Mountaineers History Committee. Tom was secretary of committee at that time. Having the opportunity to chat with Tom every other month at the History Committee's meetings was a huge incentive for me to become involved with the committee. Eventually I got up the nerve to ask him to sign my book.
In 2003, I got the idea of commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tom's 1953 Ptarmigan Traverse. (Tom's trip and photos, reproduced in The North Cascades, were without a doubt what put the Ptarmigan Traverse on the world mountaineering map.) Tom introduced me to his son Brian and I invited Brian on the trip, documented in the following story:
http://alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html
Brian later had a serious accident on Forbidden Peak which he wrote about in the Seattle Weekly, where he was a staff writer. Brian's story pays wonderful tribute to his parents, Tom and Nancy:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-02-02/news/down-from-the-mountain/
In recent years, Tom stepped down from the History Committee due to health problems. We kept in touch occasionally, but I missed those regular chats. I knew he was dealing with serious health issues, so I guess I wasn't too surprised at the news of his death. But I'm very saddened. He was one of those people that personified Northwest mountaineering for me when I was younger. Competent, unassuming, with tremendous accomplishments in his outdoor life, family life, and work life, he's the kind of mountaineer I've always looked up to.
My condolences to his family and his many friends.
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Snow & Spire
in Climber's Board
Posted
Thanks for those. I'll give the red CAG another look when I get home from family visits. (I'm in Minneapolis now.) I'm disappointed to have missed those but I'll say that the chronology was initially just a research aid for the essay. The decision to publish it as an appendix came later in the project. But, had I caught those routes, it would not have changed what I wrote in the essay.
I'll go through the red CAG again and make sure I've got everything north of the border in the online chronology. Thanks.