Katie Ives - Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams

ADVENTURE/GEOGRAPHY/HISTORY

IN 1962 THE EDITORS OF SUMMIT MAGAZINE received a submission about first ascents in an unknown mountain range in British Columbia. Accompanied by a photo of granite walls that stretched like gothic spires into the sky, the article explained that the climbing party had failed to reach the main summit. The magazines editors, apparently unaware that they had fallen victim to a clever ruse, added the enticing question, Who will be the first to climb it?

Renowned Alpinist magazine editor Katie Ives investigates this adventure-literary mystery, known as the Riesenstein Hoax, within the larger context of mountaineering history and the allure of unmapped regions. Delving into the literature of exploration, Ives follows ancient routes across Asia, historical expeditions in the Alps, and disputed climbs on the slopes of the Alaska Range. She details how conservationist Harvey Manning, along with his co-conspirators, photographer Austin Post and glaciologist Ed LaChapelle, conceived the Riesenstein joke, and places their plot in a continuum that includes the legendary Diamond Mountain, James Hiltons Shangri-La, and a mythical mountain taller than Everest.

The idea of lost lands appeals to our basic human desire to venture beyond the attainable, a shared yearning to escape the humdrum reality of everyday life. Deeply immersive and vividly recounted, Imaginary Peaks explores our fascination with wild places, the attraction of blank spaces on the map, and the power of imagination.

IMAGINARY PEAKS

IMAGINARY PEAKS

THE RIESENSTEIN HOAX AND OTHER MOUNTAIN DREAMS

KATIE IVES

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Copyright 2021 by Katie Ives

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Copyeditor: Laura Lancaster

Design and layout: Jen Grable

Cover photograph: The No Name Peak map first appeared in Summit magazine, May 1960.

Frontispiece: Recreation of original Riesenstein route overlay by Jen Grable.

Underlying Austin Post photo Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file for this title at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018191 (print) and https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018192 (ebook).

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ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-68051-541-1

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-59485-980-9

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-59485-981-6

FOR MY GRANDFATHER

ROBERT JAMES CALDWELL (19132015)

WHO HOPED THAT I WOULD ONE DAY WRITE A BOOK

TO A LARGE EXTENT, AMERICAN geographer Roderick Peattie wrote in 1936, a mountain is a mountain because of the part it plays in the popular imagination. While the term imaginary is part of the title of my book, its common definition doesnt capture the nuances of all the ways that mountains intersect with human minds. In addition to referring to nonexistent places, Ive used the word more loosely, at times, to suggest layers of dreams that drape like second summits over actual formations of ice, stone, snow, and earth. In some cases, peaks considered to be fables by one group of people may be realities within other cultures, and I am not denying their existence.

Mountains reflect shifting cartographies of myth and meaning in regions and societies around the world. The more I researched, the more I realized how legends cling to the smallest knolls, and how invisible topographies of mirages, dreams, stories, and erasures underlie nearly every square of every maptheir prominences arising even in areas where only lowlands are clearly visible. To tell a complete history of quests for imaginary, sacred, or mythic peaksor of cartographic errors and exploration hoaxeswould be to retell the history of all geography and all humanity. Thus, to keep this book from swelling to dozens of volumes, while Ive included some discussions of other traditions for comparison or contrast, Ive focused on recounting a fraction of the stories that most likely influenced, consciously or unconsciously, the participants in the Riesenstein Hoax of 1962. In most instances, I selected examples of alpine legends because references to them appeared in my protagonists recollections or because these tales had a direct or an indirect relevance to places and ideas that played a significant role in the history of this hoax.

This book does not, therefore, claim to be a thorough examination of the countless myths surrounding all real or unreal mountains. For more comprehensive accounts of legendary summits worldwide, there are many great sources, some of which can be found in my bibliography. For a broader introduction to the history of speculative cartography, I suggest readers turn to Edward Brooke-Hitchings The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps. For a detailed discussion of the evolution of hoaxes in the United States, I also recommend Kevin Youngs brilliant account Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News. And Ed Douglass 2020 book, Himalaya: A Human History goes far more in depth into the origins and impacts of the story of Shangri-La than I have space to in this narrative.

Similarly, while Ive included a few scenes from the past adventures of the protagonists as background for their involvement in the historyparticularly Harvey ManningI concentrated on experiences that related most clearly to the Riesenstein and other imaginary mountains. The full complexity of Mannings career as a writer and environmentalist, and his impact on the Northwest conservation movement, would make a worthy subject for another book by another author. So, too, would the lives of other figures who have only cameo appearances here.

By 2011, when I began studying the Riesenstein Hoax, several of the main people involved in the incident had died. I pieced together their experiences as best I couldbased on interviews with their colleagues, family, and friends, as well as on their articles, books, letters, and other writings. There may be crucial scraps of paper tucked away in boxes that I missed or manuscripts lying in attics, file cabinets, or storage closets not yet found. Answers to lingering mysteries may await a future researcher.