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3. Early Club Activities
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Go to Next Topic In the 1950's, club
activities were extremely informal. Tom Newton and Ken Ewing recall that
the members did some short rock climbs at the Back Rocks above the
Northern Area in Los Alamos and made a lot of trips to Colorado. (One
popular route in the Back Rocks was Monk's Needle, named for Don Monk.
Don and George Bell first climbed this pinnacle in 1953. Don was also on the first ascent of Easy Ridge and the Great Couloir in the
Brazos with George and Ginny Bell.) Eiichi Fukushima recalls that he and
Larry Campbell climbed Battleship Rock (near Jemez Springs) right on the
prow and found it to be an easy rock climb.
Fig.
1. Mountaineers on top of Middle Truchas Peak: Marvin Tinkle, Mrs.
Mulford, Tom Stevenson, Bob Mulford (red sweater), Herbert Ungnade (blue
cap), two unidentified persons, and Frank Pretzel (Charles Mader photo,
September 1955).
In the 1950's and 1960's, the club used to have summer outings to major
climbing areas. These were two-week trips, but some people would come
for just the first or second week. Ken Ewing recalled some anecdotes
from these early trips. On a trip to the Wilson Peak and Mt. Wilson area
in May 1957, John Ramsay, Ken Ewing, Liz Gittings Marshall, and (maybe)
Gene Tate climbed Wilson Peak. Don Hagerman and Harry Hoyt climbed Mt.
Wilson. Ken got pulmonary edema for a few hours on Wilson Peak. The
others in the party went ahead and came close to getting hit by
lightning. Ken could feel the hair rising under his hard hat until a
local stroke discharged the field. On a saddle near the Wilsons, there
was an old mining hut where they found sticks of frozen dynamite. John
Ramsay noticed that the dynamite sticks were exuding liquid, a sign of
instability, so he knew that they were dangerous!
Fig.
2. Ken Ewing on Wilson Peak, with the
Mt. Wilson - El Diente ridge in
the background
(John Ramsay photo, May 1957).
On a trip to the San
Juan Needles area, the Mountaineers climbed Sunlight, Windom, and Eolus.
On this trip, a porcupine showed up and ran into one of the tents. They
chased it out, and Ken hit it with his ice axe. The porcupine died,
although Ken hadn't meant to kill it, and he felt very badly about that.
But since it was dead, they had to eat it. One member of the party was a
biology student. He dissected the porcupine, looking for worms in the
stomach, but didn't find any. So Liz Gittings Marshall cooked it, which
took hours. It turns out that porcupine meat tastes like pine trees,
which is what they eat!
Ken also recalls trips to the Southern Wind Rivers (Cirque of the
Towers) and to the Northern Wind Rivers (where they camped at Island
Lake and climbed Gannett Peak via the glacier). On the 1958 trip to the
Cirque of the Towers, the group climbed Warbonnet, Pingora (by the
standard route), and an Unnamed Peak. John Ramsay remembers that they
had to do a very scary rappel at an angle of 45 degrees to get down from
Pingora. John had also been to the Cirque of the Towers in 1951 before
he moved to Los Alamos. That trip was probably the second climbing trip
ever to the Cirque, after the original visit by the Bonneys.
There were two early club trips to the Tetons, one in 1953 and one in
1955. Ken climbed the Grand Teton on each trip and did the free rappel
using a (padded) dulfersitz technique. They also climbed Mt. Moran via
the Skillet Glacier. This was too steep for ice axe self-arrest (60
degrees), so they did ice axe belays all the way up and down. They also
climbed the South and Middle Tetons. John Ramsay recalls that he, Don
Liska, Wally Green, and others came out from the University of Wisconsin
in 1954 to climb several peaks, including the Direct Exum Ridge and the friction pitch route
above that.
One early club trip was to the High Sierras, where they climbed some of
the Minarets, Mt. Ritter, and Banner Peak. In the night, Ken Ewing and
Tom Newton saw a bright flash of light and heard what sounded like a big
rock fall. Later they learned that this was a 70 kiloton test at the
Nevada Test Site.
George Bell, Dave Brown, Mike Williams, and
Don Liska (all LAMC members) climbed the Kain Face on Mt. Robson in
1968. They were the first climbers to reach Robson's summit that summer.
Don Liska and Dave Brown got hit by an avalanche descending the face and
had to be rescued by the Canadian Air Force. On the descent, the party
had tried to make the slope slide before stepping onto it, but couldn't.
Then, part way down, a snow slide came in diagonally from a side gully
and caught Don and Dave. Both climbers were injured, Dave quite
seriously. Dave remembers that "while cartwheeling down the Kain face, I
asked myself, 'Now how do I do a self-arrest in this situation?'" Don
says, "On the 600-foot fall, I smashed my Kelty frame into a dozen
pieces which must have absorbed a lot of energy as I wasn't more
seriously injured. The Kain route is one of the most dangerous I've ever
been on. Approach such a climb with extreme caution!!" The party had
camped at a good site several miles away from the face for about a week
before attempting the face. But from that location they could not
observe some of the activity on the face, so they may not have been
aware of how frequently snow slides occurred. Don Liska recalls that
George Bell pulled off a very gutsy solo walk over the Robson Glacier to
turn in the alarm. After the rescue, a Canadian onlooker at the base of
the mountain pressed a bottle of whiskey into Don's hand with the
comment, "You need this more than I do."
In the summer of 1969, club members Eiichi Fukushima and Larry Campbell
did a first ascent of the steep south face of Little Annapurna Peak in
the Eastern Cascades. This peak is located in the Enchantment Lakes
region, near Mt. Stuart. The climb is now described in Fred Beckey's
guidebook for that region. Both the rainy west side and the drier east
side of the North Cascades have been the destination of several club
trips and other private trips by club members over the years.
By the late 1960's and early 1970's the club had grown to about 50 or 60
members and offered trip schedules featuring a wide range of summer and
winter activities. Summer trips included many climbs of Colorado
Fourteeners and rock climbing trips to places such as the Brazos Cliffs,
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, or the Organ Mountains. There were
typically one or two annual week-long trips to farther destinations.
George Bell, Don Liska, and others led two club trips to the Tetons, in
1967 and 1968. Winter trips in the 1972-1973 season included ascents of
Lincoln, Bross, and Democrat led by Ken Ewing; an ascent of Kit Carson
led by Mario Schillaci; a climb of Santa Fe Baldy led by Larry
Dauelsberg; and trips to the Pecos Wilderness and San Pedro Parks. For a
few years the club issued a newsletter that listed upcoming trips and
included short articles on conservation or mountaineering issues.
The March 1972 issue of "Trail and Timberline," the Colorado Mountain
Club's publication, was devoted to the "Los Alamos Group," as it was
called by the CMC. Larry Campbell, the club's President that year,
coordinated the writing and collection of photos for the issue. The
Brazos Cliffs were shown in the cover picture and George Bell's article
on the Brazos (as described in the Brazos section of this history) was
the lead article. Bill Hendry provided an article on the 1971 Los Alamos
expedition to Mt. Waddington and Larry Campbell wrote one on the 1971
Greenland expedition.
The 1970's and 1980's were the years of greatest activity for the
Mountaineers, with typically 8 to 12 winter trips and 15 to 25 summer
trips every year. In the summer there was usually a scheduled trip every
weekend or at least every second weekend. Some weekends featured both a
technical climb and a family hiking trip. The club also conducted search
and rescue practice sessions, participated in some conservation work,
and occasionally hosted a rock climbing film festival.
There were no major expeditions undertaken by the Mountaineers as
official club trips. The closest might be the Mt. Waddington trip in 1971. However, many club members went on repeated expeditions as
individuals to wild places and racked up an impressive record of first
ascents and new routes, and also made several courageous attempts which
failed. Don Liska recalls that he was into expedition climbing and
winter mountaineering in those days. Some expeditions that Don Liska
participated in, sometimes with other members of the Mountaineers, are
listed below:
-
Peru 1961 (two
first ascents);
-
McKinley 1963 (before guided ascents);
-
Mt. Waddington 1965 (one first ascent, one new route);
-
Peru 1967 (two attempted first ascents);
-
Mt. Robson 1968 (successful summit, accident, rescue, see earlier
description);
-
Afghanistan 1969 (1 new route, world record, first ascent, see
Memorable Programs);
-
Greenland 1971 (first onto Bartolins Glacier drainage, see Memorable
Programs);
-
Alaska 1974 (Mt. Fairweather region);
-
Alaska 1975 (attempted new route on Mt. St.
Elias, logistical disaster);
-
Alaska 1979 (attempted new route on Mt. St. Elias, near death
experience);
-
Peru 1981 (successful high climbs, one second ascent, personnel
problems);
-
Pamirs 1987 (successful high climb, sickness, and HAPE).
Some of the above
expeditions are described elsewhere in this history, as noted. Also Don
Liska is providing detailed trip reports for some of these expeditions
(see links above). Some of the club's senior members were also members of the
American Alpine Club, including George Bell, Don Liska, Eiichi
Fukushima, Larry Dauelsberg, Larry Campbell, and Len Margolin.
Don Liska
also initiated several trips to the Mexican volcanos, which were all virgin territory for the Mountaineers. At
Christmas time in 1967, Don and Alice Liska and Dave and Faye Brown went
to Mexico to enjoy the holiday season and climb Popocatepl and
Ixtaccihuatl. Don wrote an unpublished article in 1971 on "Climbing the
Three Mexican Volcanos." And, in 1978, Herb Kincey wrote an
article on "Climbing Mexico's Big Three Volcanos" for the February-March
issue of Summit magazine. These articles provided travel information,
contact names, approach maps, and descriptions of the major routes on
the three volcanoes, which encouraged other club members to climb the
volcanoes. In the early 1970's, Larry Campbell, Carroll Mills, and other
mountaineers joined Don on several trips to climb Popocatepl,
Ixtaccihuatl, and Orizaba. Larry and Carroll also returned to
Ixtaccihuatl by themselves, as they didn't climb all the way to the
summit on Don's trip. Ross Harder led a Mexico volcanoes trip at
Christmastime 1972, and Merle Wheeler led one in February 1979. Bob
Cowan, Ken Ewing, and other club members climbed some of the volcanos in
1980, 1981, and 1982. A 1982 Mountaineers trip to the Mexican volcanos
provided the photo shown below. Ken Ewing also recalls a second
successful climb of Popocatepetl in 1984 with Roland Pettitt and a United Church group.
More recently, in November 1998, Mike Sullivan climbed Orizaba and
Ixtaccihuatl. That was the year Popocatepl was closed because of
eruptions.
Fig.
3. Bob Cowan, John Sarracino, Bill Johnson, and Scott Rogers on
Ixtaccihuatl
(Bob Cowan photo, January 1982).
Don Liska and Larry
Campbell led a Mountaineers' trip to Baja California to climb Picacho
del Diablo in 1973. Don says that "This was a fine trip. It had Gerry
Roach on it. Roach later became a well known name in hard-core climbing
and authored a guide to the Colorado Mountains. On our way in we
encountered a 'bolt ladder'--namely a carpenter's ladder slung from a
bolt on the granite wall above the big waterfall. On this trip Carroll
Mills decided he would survive the 5-day climb on 10 pounds of roasted
soy beans and water. Fortunately, there were a couple of excellent
gourmet climbers on the trip so Carroll was not overly tested. The climb
was successful."
During the 1980's, the Club organized some
caving trips to southern New Mexico. There are many small caves in the
Guadalupe Mountains near Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Access to these
caves was obtained by permit from the Lincoln National Forest, and for
some caves it was necessary to unlock gates inside the caverns to get
access to the best areas. On these trips club members had the
opportunity to practice some important mountaineering skills in the
dark: such as jumaring or rappelling past a knot in the rope, or
jumaring up through a hole only large enough to squeeze through if you
exhaled!
During those years Club members also organized a series of "gourmet
backpacks." These were short-distance backpacks that concentrated on
carrying in a large quantity of food and drink! The first gourmet
backpack was held at the Rio Grande below White Rock, and organized by
Jan Iversen in 1978. Jan also organized gourmet backpacks in 1979, 1980,
and 1981. A 1982 gourmet backpack in the Jemez River Canyon in 1982, led
by Len Margolin and Chris Foster, had several problems with minor
accidents caused by drunkenness. The next year Lynn Sherman (now Ensslin)
and Jenni Sprinkle led a return trip to this area, but it was a very
calm family affair, a strong contrast to the previous year!
Many club members have always enjoyed bicycle riding for exercise and
for the opportunity to do extended outings in Northern New Mexico. In
1973 the club issued a list of 20 recommended bike trips, including the
newly-discovered White Rock loop (27 miles), and the Los Alamos to Aspen
ride (300 miles one way!). Don Gettemy and Gracia Coffin led several
club mountain biking trips to the Wheeler Geologic Area and to Penitente
Canyon in southern Colorado. In the 1980's two club members, Keith
Gainer and Gabriela Lopez-Escobedo, spun off a new club, the "Tuff
Riders" Mountain Biking Club. Many members of the Mountaineers also
belong to that club and continue to share a common interest in mountain
biking.
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