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1. Acknowledgements &
Introduction
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Acknowledgements
This history of the Los Alamos Mountaineers was first suggested by
Sharon Dogruel, Kathleen Gruetzmacher, and Leslie Champ in 2006. At that
time, Bill Priedhorsky also provided valuable suggestions on content and
goals. The history is a work in progress and will perhaps always remain
so. We have already received a great deal of valuable input from a
number of past and present club members who have provided notes,
digitized photos, and valuable documents, or participated in interviews.
We would like to particularly acknowledge help from Ginny Bell, George
(Skip) Bell, Jr., Carolyn Bell, David and Faye Brown, Larry Campbell,
Leslie Champ, Larry Dauelsberg, Ken Ewing, Eiichi Fukushima, Jason Halladay, Lou Horak,
Don and Alice Liska, Len Margolin, Tom Newton, Kim Selvage, John Ramsey,
Mario Schillaci, Mike Sullivan, and Mark Zander. Also special thanks to Bob Cowan, Jim
Straight, and Charles Mader, who provided large libraries of digitized photos for us to
select from, and Bobbye Straight, who edited this first version and
provided valuable guidance on grammatical usage. In addition, we would
like to thank Jan Studebaker for his major effort in loading all of the
history sections and their associated photos onto the club's website.
The current list of topics is by no means complete, and other topics are
welcome. There are still other senior club members who have not yet been
interviewed. Additional stories and (a few) pictures can also be added
to the current topics. Please send new contributions
to
Norbert Ensslin
or to our webmaster, Jan
Studebaker.
Norbert Ensslin, May 2009
Introduction
The Los Alamos Mountaineers have played an important part in the lives
of many people in Los Alamos and other surrounding communities for over
55 years now. Through club outings, monthly meetings and programs, the
annual climbing school, and other personal contacts, members have had
the opportunity to meet other people with a love of the outdoors and to
make new friends. The Mountaineers have come to know and love many
beautiful local areas, as well as many mountains, canyons, and climbing
areas, mostly within a day's drive of Los Alamos, but some in other
western states as well.
The importance of mountains in our lives is aptly described by Don Liska:
"I believe that the mountains symbolize the conjunction of humanity and
nature in some very special ways. Always a barrier to expansion, always
a challenge to conquest, always a sanctuary for beauty and grandeur,
always a test of endurance and acceptance of hardship on nature's terms,
always a reminder of beauty and wonder, the mountains play a crucial
role in our collective humanity. Without the mountainous regions of this
beleaguered planet, our senses for pulchritude and awe would be
diminished, our love of the delicate and eternally enduring would be
less developed. Above all, our mountainous environment raises us as
individuals to more exalted heights. I can only bow to the wisdom of the
great Lionel Terray who said that the acceptance of risks taken in the
mountains, even 'demanded' by the mountains, is the price one must pay
in order to earn the right to exist above the level of crawling grubs.
We are all evolved in this unique world with the mountains as our
symbolic edifices of love of nature and nobility of spirit."
The Mountaineers have served as a focal point for many people who share
outdoor interests via participation in club trips or small private trips
organized by club members. One measure of this is the number of couples
who have met in the Mountaineer's climbing school, on club trips, or at
club meetings. These include, among others, George and Ginny Bell, Dave
and Gail Barlow, Gregg and Anne Brickner, Bill and Rosemary Enenbach,
Norbert and Lynn Ensslin, Chris Foster and France Cordova, Lou Horak and
Kathy Ramsay, Don Gettemy and Gracia Coffin, Bill and Emily Johnson,
Elizabeth Kelly and Rob Ryne, Cliff Meiers and Carol Sutcliffe, and Mark
Zander and Leslie Champ. Most recently, Francesco Grilli and Tianshu Li
met on a Bluff canyon trip in February 2007, and were married almost
exactly two years later.
Fig.
1. John Sarracino, Mark Felthauser, and other club members on a Blanca-Little Bear traverse trip led by Don Liska (Bob Cowan photo,
July 1978).
We hope that this
history of the Los Alamos Mountaineers will serve to commemorate and
remind us of many fun and exciting adventures from the club's past. As
Don Liska once said, "When we think back on our lives, it's the exciting
trips and outdoor adventures that stand out, not the many days in the
office." Perhaps it will also help us enjoy the future more, as members
continue some old traditions and also develop entirely new ways of
enjoying the outdoors. The next section of this history describes the
founding and organization of the club. Because the soul of the
Mountaineers' club has always been its members and their adventures, the
sections that follow will focus on the personal stories and anecdotes
that truly define us.
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