Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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From learning about the 1940s and 1950s at Squamish, the Chief seems to have been the elephant in the woodpile. It hardly even got mentioned in the weekly paper, except for a very occasional scenery shot. Mountaineers and backcountry skiers passed by it en route to Garibaldi Park, and local people were active in the outdoors. But there doesn't seem to have been much thought of let alone action relating to climbing on it, although people did hike up it. There are some interesting loose ends and circumstantial evidence, which may always remain that.
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MH2
climber
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I spent considerable time in the Touch & Go Towers
!!!
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Maybe no one climbed it cuz there weren't many chimneys n offalwidths up it
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2013 - 09:03pm PT
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That shot is so ominous mh2!!
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Bruce Kay
Gym climber
BC
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Glen - Is this the same Phyl Munday photo that you have? I think it made the rounds of the local alpine inteligentsia so I now have it via my mom and dad.
Thats so interesting that you guys were all over the touch and goes before even thinking about the chief. you guys were so summit oriented eh? There really seemed to be a distinct cultural separation between the mountaineers and the "rock gymnasts" as G W Young and all the brits and earo's were going on about back then. How did Beckey fit in?
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MH2
climber
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Check with Perry sometime. Once I pulled from my collection of cliche, "Back when dinosaurs walked the Earth..." and Perry said, "Dinosaurs do walk the Earth." He may have been referring to those Lost Worlds across the river.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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I spent more than a few evenings at the Eatons Wall in the 1990s with other West Van/North Shore climbers who were too poor or otherwise unable to go to the Edge. I recall it being pretty crimpy. Tendinitis special.
There is an awesome offwidth between two of the concrete pillars that I once managed to get about 5 feet off the ground on before slowly oozing down and gobying up my thigh something fierce. Guy I believe went up and down it in his ginch.
The mall security was some 90 yr old guy with an electriccart and it was always a battle when climbing there to see which would stop us first - cold and overcrimped fingers or mall grandpa yelling "You damn kids get off my wall!"
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Glen - Is this the same Phyl Munday photo that you have? I think it made the rounds of the local alpine inteligentsia so I now have it via my mom and dad.
Bruce, your photo is the famous one the Mundays took from the NW summit looking at the main peak. I think at that point they must have known they were never going to get up it.
My photo is taken from Mt Munday, with the first really good view they had of Wadd and the Tiedeman peaks. It's in Culbert's guide, one of the fold-out glossy photos; that photo was reproduced from mine.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Tricouni do you know anything about this film footage?
Harry, fascinating that you guys looked at the house when it came on the market. It was indeed at 373 Tempe Crescent, as Tami noted. I believe but am not certain that the film footage is either in the Provincial Archives (Victoria) or with the Mundays' great-niece who lives in Washington.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Thats so interesting that you guys were all over the touch and goes before even thinking about the chief. you guys were so summit oriented eh? There really seemed to be a distinct cultural separation between the mountaineers and the "rock gymnasts" as G W Young and all the brits and earo's were going on about back then. How did Beckey fit in?
Bruce, yes we (me, Culbert, my brother Bob, our circle of friends) were summit-oriented: we liked things with tops. Hence the T>, the Acrophobes, Trestle Tower in Cheakamus Canyon, miscellaneous rotting (and not) towers in the interior of the province, the Moles, and so forth. The T> have tops to them, some of them not easy to reach.
MH2: lovely, moody photo of the Castle that you posted!
Bruce, in Vancouver in the early 1960s there wasn't really a gap between the "rock gymnasts" and the mountaineers, partly because rock climbers were few and far between (Les Macdonald, Joe Turley, possibly Dick Willmott, and (to some extent) Hank Mather). Everyone else hiked (not necessarily summit-oriented) or climbed summits, hard or easy according to their abilities and tastes. Ex-Brits like Ashlyn Armour-Brown and Hamish Mutch were both highly competent mountaineers and rock climbers, better on the rocks than most of the home-grown crowd.
Jim Baldwin went on a few BCMC trips and did a few things with Dick Culbert, but was mainly a rock climber. Ed Cooper was competent at both (and was to some extent part of the Beckey group). Fred, of course, did both. He was the mainstay of the early climbs at Leavenworth, starting in the late 1940s, in the Peshastins and Castle Rock. But even Fred and Pete Schoening were succeptible to "summit fever." How else to explain why hard-to-reach Tumwater Tower and Chumstick Snag were among the earliest acents in the Leavenworth area? Fred liked obscure, backwater pinnacles as much as anyone.
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Tami
Social climber
Canada
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Guy I believe went up and down it in his ginch.
Omigawd that is sooooooooooooooo Guy E.
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Jim Brennan
Trad climber
Vancouver Canada
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Tricouni,
Coincidentally, Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival's mailing address is 373 Tempe Crescent. Maybe they know about the film footage.
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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BK sighting.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 5, 2013 - 09:40pm PT
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12d? Heath hazard at penny lane?
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brownie
Trad climber
squamish
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12D!?!?
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Health Hazard 10a/14d R/X/yur gonna die
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harryhotdog
Social climber
north vancouver, B.C.
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Fred, of course, did both. He was the mainstay of the early climbs at Leavenworth, starting in the late 1940s, in the Peshastins and Castle Rock. But even Fred and Pete Schoening were succeptible to "summit fever." How else to explain why hard-to-reach Tumwater Tower and Chumstick Snag were among the earliest acents in the Leavenworth area? Fred liked obscure, backwater pinnacles as much as anyone.
I could not find a date associated with either pic. Any car experts out there?
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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The car looks like very late forties into very early fifties. I'm not sure of the make and I am too buzzed to go look it up. The car looks new. It could be as early as '48.
Hey Anders did you ever talk to Claunch? If you need more help getting the old guy to talk to you, let me know. The best way might be to see him personally.
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Brownie sighting.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Cleft Bib is V17. Brownie is doing it wrong.
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