Beckey - Challenge of the North Cascades

Fred Beckey has achieved enduring recognition as the most imaginative, persistent, and thorough explorer and mountain investigator of the Cascade Range wilderness. His intimate knowledge of the topography has been gained through many years of personal encounter, including the ascent of hundreds of peaksmany of them first ascentsin all parts of the range, and the study of an untold number of maps and aerial photographs.

This knowledge is reflected in his other books, Mountains of North America, The Range of Glaciers: Exploration and Survey of the Northern Cascades, and his Cascade Alpine Guide Series.

In addition to becoming a legendary personality, Beckey has earned a reputation as a student of human history. He has also carefully perused the body of natural history, ecology, glaciology, and geology, and added his own contributions. Beckey has served as an advisor to the Washington State Board on Geographic Names, and has indirectly contributed many feature names in the Cascades.

Through keeping abreast of published literature, seeking out and interviewing other climbers and explorers, and investigating documents in various libraries throughout North America, Beckey has become widely acknowledged as the authority on Cascade Range history. Many of his findings have been published in the literature of the region.

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The Mountaineers sponsors both classes and year-round outdoor activities in the Pacific Northwest, which include hiking, mountain climbing, ski-touring, snowshoeing, bicycling, camping, kayaking and canoeing, nature study, sailing, and adventure travel. The clubs conservation division supports environmental causes through educational activities, sponsoring legislation, and presenting informational programs. All club activities are led by skilled, experienced volunteers, who are dedicated to promoting safe and responsible enjoyment and preservation of the outdoors.

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CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH CASCADES

BY FRED BECKEY

Maps by Dee Molenaar

1969, 1996 by Fred Beckey

All rights reserved. First edition 1969.

0 9 8 7 6
5 4 3 2 1

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published simultaneously in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd., 1615
Venables Street, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 2H1

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Cordee, 3a DeMontfort
Street, Leicester, England, LE1 7HD

Manufactured in the United States of America

Maps by Dee Molenaar
Cover design by Watson Graphics
Book design by Allen L. Auvil
Cover photograph: Climbers approaching Nooksack Tower. Photo by Dee Molenaar.
Insert: Fred Beckey stemming an open chimney on Rocket Peak. Photo by Bob and Ira Spring.
Frontispiece: Mt. Baker at sunset, from the Nooksack River. Author led first ascent of the ice ridge on the north wall, a safe route that since has become a North Cascades classic. (See .) Photo by Ed Cooper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beckey, Fred., 1921

Challenge of the North Cascades / by Fred Beckey ; maps by Dee Molenaar.[2nd ed.]

p. cm.

ISBN 0-89886-479-8

1. HikingWashington (State)Guidebooks. 2. HikingCascade RangeGuidebooks. 3. Washington (State)Guidebooks. 4. Cascade RangeGuidebooks. I. Title.

GV199.42.W2B43 1996
796.5'22'09797dc20

96-7616
CIP

Text printed on recycled paper

Boston Peak and Boston Glacier, above Skagit Queen Creek. The contrasts of the North Cascades are here shown in the intricate relationships of rugged crests, adorning ice, and the mantle of fringing meadows and forests. (See .) Aerial photo by Austin Post, U.S. Geological Survey.

Author on the Index Town Wall, the Town Crier route. (See .) Photo by David Beckstead.

Climbers are notorious gossips. When theyre not talking about climbs past and planned, theyre talking about other climbers. Even before my wife and I joined The Mountaineers in 1948, a close friend had filled us with anecdotes from the careers of the living legends who had created the Climbing Course in 1934 and years following, and in the decade before World War II had raised Northwest mountaineering to a new level of technical respectability.

Nobody was more talked about in those days than Fred Beckey. His electric quality stimulated some, jolted others. In an age of many strange and wonderful heroes, his exploits made a special kind of tumult.

From several of my Climbing Course teachers who earlier had been his teachers, I heard how they had instantly spotted his exceptional ability and drive. (I recall a certain move on Monitor Rock of which it was said, The only one whos ever done it is Beckey.) In Freds novice year of 1939, one of the leading Mountaineer climbers of the era, Lloyd Anderson, encouraged his talent by inviting him on a difficult, pioneering ascent. But that same summer he independently organized and led other first ascents, and the next season became in his own right one of the most energetic explorers of the North Cascades. It was in the British Columbia Coast Range, though, that Fred startled his teachers and contemporaries. Mt. Waddington, which dominates a rough white wilderness, had been attempted 17 times and climbed only onceuntil the teenage Beckey brothers arrived in 1942 and made the second ascent.