Don Liska Appreciation Thread

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Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 29, 2014 - 04:00pm PT
Hi All,

I just learned this afternoon (12/29) that Don Liska passed away Dec. 26. He was well-known and loved in the Pacific northwest, and in pretty much every other place he lived and climbed. I hope with this thread we can share stories and memories of Don, and what a remarkable and wonderful man he was.

I first met Don while taking climbing classes with the Los Alamos Mountaineers in the early 1980s. Don had done a huge amount of climbing. His lovely wife, Alice ("Bugsy" to those who knew her), told me once (in about 1987) "Don was equal to all those famous Yosemite climbers of the day; he just decided to settle down with me." Ha! Best thing Don ever did.

But she wasn't kidding. Don climbed oodles of routes all over the planet (and if memory serves, Bugsy made a US women's altitude record in the late 1960s climbing with Don on Tirich Mir (I need to check that)).

I spent a lot of time with Eric and Fred and they had nothing but respect for Don. He joined them on many climbs, including the FA of Mt. Seattle in Alaska, and a whole lot more (Monument Valley, for example). Whenever we went to Beckey events I always sought Don out. He and my mother worked together at Los Alamos for many years.

Strangely, I'd been planning to interview Don within the next few days. Sadly, I missed that opportunity, although I still have some recordings from about 1989 of Don.

Here's a pic of us together at Fred's 86th in Seattle. (I edited myself out on the left there!)

God bless, Don. You are already greatly missed.
Cam
pix4u

climber
Sonoma, CA
Dec 29, 2014 - 04:36pm PT
So sorry to hear about Don. He was one of my contemporaries, and did his first climbs in 1952, one year before my first climbs. He was a pioneer in not only the Northwest, but also in many other areas. Strange that he and Eric Bjornstad passed within days of each other. My condolences to his family.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Dec 29, 2014 - 06:27pm PT
I had heard that Don was struggling with health issues a little less than a year ago and I too, regrettably missed the chance to talk with him in depth.

My sincere condolences to Don's family and friends.
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Dec 29, 2014 - 07:22pm PT
I'm very sorry that I never met him. My condolences to family and friends.

Check out: http://lamountaineers.org/Bios/Don_Liska.html
Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 1, 2015 - 07:56pm PT
Just found this in my spam filter from Fred:


CAM HELLO AND HAPPY SEASON END IS LISKA STILL ON BOARD, OR IS IT TOO LATE" ? I REALLLY LIKED DON - GOOD CLIMBS TOGETHER AND HE WAS MODEST FAR BELOW HIS CLIMB TALENTS KEEP ME IN TOUCH YOUR FRIEND, FRED B
Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2015 - 05:13pm PT
http://www.ladailypost.com/content/obituary-don-liska-nov-3-1929-%E2%80%93-dec-26-2014
crunch

Social climber
CO
Jan 7, 2015 - 05:46pm PT
Sad news. Never met Don but his name came up many, many times as trusty partner for Harvey Carter and Eric Bjornstad.

He was on the FA of the Throne, in Monument Valley, among many others. He seemed a person that was much respected and liked.

Some more details here:

http://lamountaineers.org/Bios/Don_Liska.html
and here:

http://lamountaineers.org/Programs/Program_11-15-06.html
Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 7, 2015 - 09:04pm PT
I had it wrong-----it was Noshaq where Bugsy set an altitude record.

From: http://lamountaineers.org/History/Topic_18.html

"Don and Alice visited Afghanistan in the summer of 1969 as part of an expedition led by a well-known German climber, Richard Hechtel. The party climbed Noshaq (7492 meters or roughly 24,600 feet), the highest peak in Afghanistan's Hindukush range. The peak is located about 200 miles from K-2 in the long narrow Wakhan Corridor of northeast Afghanistan, on the border with Pakistan. They were the first Americans to enter the Wakhan Corridor, making it perhaps the most unusual location ever visited by members of the Los Alamos Mountaineers. It is a very beautiful area, but is nowadays completely inaccessible to anyone from the West....

In his book "The Merry-Go-Round of My Life," trip leader Richard Hechtel recalled that "We all met again a short distance below the summit. Alice had a little smile on her face. She was now the highest woman on earth." Indeed, Don says that "Alice's climb added glory to the trip. The fact that she carried her own gear, climbed without porter support, and used no oxygen made this a high standard achievement for a woman in 1969." For about 8 years, Alice held the world altitude record for a woman from the Western World. She was invited to be on the radio program "Today's First Lady," and she also appeared on the television show "To Tell the Truth" as one of three contestants claiming to be the woman with the altitude record. Alice was required to answer all questions truthfully, but the two imposters could lie. In the end, two of the panelists were fooled, but Kitty Carlisle correctly picked her out as the real Alice Liska."

***

Funnily enough, the big names around Los Alamos when I was in high school in the early 1980s were George Bell (K2 1953), Eiichi Fukushima (FA of Vinson, using urine to get ice screws into bullet-hard ice on the summit plateau-----funny the stories you hear in high school at your classmates homes), and Don.

And Don and George had this ongoing argument about a small volcanic-rock tower behind town that Don put up a bolt ladder on. It went on for years and years and years. And years.

Meanwhile, Eiichi's wife (was it Pam?) would use his Footfangs to aerate the lawn every spring. She's clomp around outside the Fukushima home, smashing the points into the grass. Eiichi apparently didn't mind.

Fun times.



BLUEBLOCR

Social climber
joshua tree
Jan 7, 2015 - 09:40pm PT
Condolences, especially to Alice.

Thanks Cam! Those stories are Gold

To Tell The Truth, Ha! i bet that gave Bugsy a tickle

George Perkins

climber
New Mexico
Apr 25, 2015 - 02:29pm PT
Info on memorial services in northern NM for Don Liska:
http://www.ladailypost.com/content/memorial-services-donald-liska-may-8-9
sibylle

Trad climber
On the road!
Sep 17, 2017 - 08:35pm PT
I just found this today and wanted to add that i met the Liska's only as a child, when they were climbing with my father, Richard Hechtel. My parents were always fond of the Liskas, and kept in touch with them at least until my father died in 2003.
If anyone knows of the whereabouts of Alice Liska, I'd like to say hi.
bobinc

Trad climber
Portland, Or
Sep 18, 2017 - 06:35am PT
very much worth a read:
http://www.ladailypost.com/content/yesterday-remembering-don-liska


It appears that Alice Liska might be in Santa Fe.
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