Fred was the master of side-splitting one-liners and kept me grinning from ear-to-ear, the sort of smile that went on for so long that my face hurt. A month after this forgettable blurb appeared, tens of millions of Americans saw a Seattle neighbor of Beckeys, Jim Whittaker, featured on the cover of National Geographic as the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The length, exposure, and no-escape factors of this route will surely give it increasing fame as a great classic. Slesse was in fact one of the finest climbs ever done in the United States, but only a handful of cognoscenti appreciated its significance or even knew of the peak. He looked road-weary from outrunning time; it seemed he needed a jump-start and a push, and this I could provide. Thanks to Timothy Egan's book "The Good Rain," the legend hasbecome known of how fifty years ago, Fred Beckey fell in lovewith a young woman with a Greek sounding name. Your email address will not be published. He never married or had children, he never pursued a professional career, he never sought money or financial security as a goalhis goal was to climb mountains. But Fred Beckey was undoubtedly Americas (and arguably the worlds) greatest first ascensionist, scoring firsts on some of the continents tallest peaks. Lighter-toned lichen might blur with cleaned off footholds or quartz bumps. Bjornstad concurs, adding that Fred never mentioned his feelings about being excluded from the Everest trip, simply wouldnt talk about it, but it As a full-time nomadic climber for roughly eight decades, Fred Beckey, who died in late 2017, almost certainly roped up with more individual climbing partners than any other human being. This confidence would allow Fred and Helmy (who were still teenagers at the time) to take on their most daunting challenge in 1942. Fittingly, he is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Leavenworth, Seattle. Maybe I forgot it, I dont know. Others insist it was 1954, when he polished off Mount Deborah, Mount Hunter, and the Northwest Buttress of McKinley; or 1961, when Beckey teamed up with Chouinard to climb the West Face of South Howser Tower in the Canadian Bugaboos, a flying buttress of flawless white granite that is now widely regarded as the most beautiful alpine rock climb in North America; or 1963, when Beckey did 48 major routes, 26 of them first ascents. They could endure long marches under heavy packs, bad weather, spartan rations, and rough sleeping. The term dirtbag is a kind of badge of honor used to describe a climber who eschews recognition, material wealth, and even a regular career in favor of climbing. He would sometimes lose patience if these young cragsmen fell too far behind as he gunned up mountains, and they were left humiliated and frazzled in his dust. Guidebooks Beckey continued to write throughout his career. With his short list of bare essentials and a vast mental repository of what could be procured elsewhere, he could leave at a moment's notice. FAs with Eric Bjornstad [23] 1970 South Face of Charlotte Dome, III 5.7, FA with Galen Rowell, Chris Jones [3] 1972 Moses, Canyonlands with Eric Bjornstad [24] [18] 1989 South Buttress, Caliban Peak, Arrigetch Peaks, Alaska [18] No. In this feature from Mountaineer magazine, Megan Bond remembers the love for adventure that she shared with legendary climber Fred Beckey, and how hard it was to say goodbye. We both took a great interest in other cultures; there was so much to learn. When the American team for the first ascent of Everest was selected in 1963, Fred Beckey made an obvious choice. When Beckey was on a roll, he would come down from the mountains only long enough to replace exhausted partners, which he went through like carpenters go through nails, and get the next weather forecast. He shared his findings and routes generously with other climbers, authoring intensively researched guidebooks and contributing to journals and magazines to do so. WebFred Beckey was born on January 14, 1923 in Dsseldorf, Germany as Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey. He was there when it all started. Jagged granite ridges and avalanche-swept ice fields, some of the wildest country in the conterminous United States, extend into the distance in all directions, a concentration of mountains, in the words of the late WilliamO. Douglas, too numerous to count.. The most serious blot on Beckeys good name occurred in the autumn of 1955, when he traveled to Nepal to attempt Lhotseat the time the highest unclimbed mountain on earth. . It had only been summited once in 1936 by William House and Fritz Weissner. [15][2], Fred Beckey died of congestive heart failure, in Seattle, on October 30, 2017 at the age of 94. By this definition, Fred Beckey was a true dirtbag and maybe even the original dirtbag. When he recruited Bebie and me for this three-day expedition, it was to make the first winter ascent of a mountain that Beckey had long had his sights on, a project considerably more ambitious than Sahale, the 8,680-foot peak that we are presently climbing. Fred Beckey ascends Sail Away, a route on Hidden Tower, a rock pinnacle in Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park, on New Year's Day. The North Cascades was their playground. Hed never agree to stop and sleep; he always insisted on going directly from one project to another as quickly as possible. In 1955, he was invited to take part in an international effort to summit Lhotse, the fourth-highest peak in the Himalayas. Beckey had been to the foot of the route twice before, a prow of smooth black diorite that soared more than a vertical half-mile from the forested valley. After two days of inconceivable cold and hurricane-force winds that tore the tents to ribbons, Dyhrenfurth got on the radio and ordered the team to descend. Thank you. Id lowered Fred down from the wall into a dusty and smiling heap below the slab, listening to him talk about wanting to get back up there and give it another go, when a dark haired solo climber cautiously walked over. Afterwards Beckey shied away from the large team efforts abroad, preferring smaller alpine-style undertakings alone or with a few companions seeking out America's last unclimbed peaks or striking routes considered too difficult to climb. And if you have, there is undoubtedly some story or tidbit you have to share for Megan and Alex's effort. You cant always act rationally on these trips, he explained to an Oregon newspaper reporter. I gained a lot of confidence on that trip.. In 2003, his 563-page book on the history of the region, Range of Glaciers, was published by the Oregon Historical Society Press. Check your inbox. He quietly introduced himself as Pedro, and asked in a Spanish accent if that was THE Fred Beckey. During the expedition his tentmate developed cerebral edema at 23,000 feet on the night before they were to attempt the summit. You can tell what really bothers Fred because thats the stuff he never mentions, says Sybil Goman, who has gotten as close to Beckey as perhaps a person can. And then you have the likes of Fred Beckey, a man who lived, breathed, and dreamed of climbing for more than seven decades. Hes earned unofficial recognition as the all-time world-record holder for the number of first ascents credited to one person. He would drink cold coffee as he plotted lines and routes from point A to point B to point C, and I would use my primitive Tibetan language skills to find meaning in various place-names he occasionally asked me about. Megan is working on a biography of Fred, to be published by Mountaineers Books. The more I climbhaving now been at this sport for 13 yearsthe more I find its lasting value to be not in the climbing, but in the friendships and human connections sparked when the chips are down. Nevertheless, we anticipate a 2018 spring departure. Guidebooks Beckey continued to write throughout his career. You can tell what really bothers Fred because thats the stuff he never mentions, says Sybil Goman, who has gotten as close to Beckey as perhaps a person can. His unusually diverse skillset for the era meant he could take on technical rock challenges and fully-fledged alpine, mountain adventures. I first ran into Fred Beckey at the Banff Book and Film Festival in 1994, where he tried stealing my girlfriend (something he was known for). My dad and Fred flew back together, but when they landed Fred immediately took off with one of his many girlfriends. There really is a Black Book. Mountaineers Books is a registered trademark of The Mountaineers, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He was eager to explore, and vibrated with restless energy and a brilliant mind. [12][13], Mount Beckey, a previously unnamed, 8,500-foot peak in remote West-Central Alaska Range (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}625120N 152815W / 62.85556N 152.13750W / 62.85556; -152.13750),[14] was named after Beckey, after he, Calvin Hebert and John Middendorf climbed it in 1996. What makes me, in a recent particular case, want to blindly pad up runout mossy slabs in the dark, with more and more damp, grainy granite between me and the safety of that last bolt? I stayed with Pedro on a trip to Spain and climbed with him, and again in Yosemite Valley. He was 94. Many of the peaks on their hitlist were so remote and undocumented that figuring out their approach was often an issue. [2] In 1942, the teenage Beckey brothers snatched a second ascent of Mount Waddington, which was then considered the most difficult climb in North America. I wonder whats going through Freds mind as he gazes off, silent now, at the glut of dizzying topography that surrounds us. Thought I brought a bottle of Nuprin. None of us can understand this, a dismayed Dyhrenfurth wrote in his journal. Fred was coming to terms with the aging process, but still adamantly wanted to keep conquering peaks, says Jason. About us Between its well-thumbed covers is a top secret, continually updated catalogue of the planets finest unclimbed mountaineering routes: the highest, steepest, most extravagantly sculpted chunks of vertical ground that have yet to be groped by chalk-smeared human hands. He flaunted his independence by dating a multitude of women, committing himself to none. His partners would then often connect when Fred didnt (or eventually couldnt) keep pace with his own ambitions and frenetic goals. And these qualities were things Fred Beckey could have tried to cash in on. Celebs Wiki Fred Beckey fans also viewed: Jonathan B. Lewis Vladimr Kokolia Mike Hawks Frantisek Daniel Michelle Shelton Huff Cohl Kenneth Love Cody Rowlett Alvin Ailey Ruth St. Denis Michael Weiss Jonathan B. Lewis Vladimr Kokolia Mike Hawks They went away empty-handed. In 1962, when invitations were going out for the Everest team and it became clear Fred wasnt going to be included, he became very agitated and depressed. But earlier pitches had followed cracks and corners, features to stick your hands and feet into, or to chimney against. I had just chosen this route on the suggestion of friend Id met three years prior, while out toproping in Leavenworth with Fred. He read a lot. Vasiliki Dwyer, described by Beckey friends as his one who got away, got to know a different side of the climber. The closest thing he has to a home is a secondhand Volkswagen with 400,000 miles on it. But Norman Dyhrenfurth, the highly respected leader of the American expedition, was adamant that Beckey be keptoff the team. On his second journey to Alaska, Fred climbed Devils Thumb and Kates Needle both first ascents. He would have been fine with just a knife and a blanket. But time had begun to catch up with Fred. This allowed them to explore further than any of their contemporaries, seeing (and climbing) some of the countrys best routes before anyone else. For several minutes he takes in the view; then he blinks a few times, his mental engine shifts visibly into a different gear, and a sly smile pierces the gray stubble sprouting from his face. Fred Beckey passed away in October 2017, but the crew hopes that his legacy will live on with Dirtbag. Fred made, lost and maintained partners through all of it, without ever tweeting or hashtagging the outdoor industrys trending topics, and despite having zero Facebook friends. The topo showed two bolts on the last pitch, one of which was just a few meters off the belay. What isn't known is how his monomaniacal drive to climb and document sometime got Fred into hairy situations. At age twelve, Fred Beckey climbed Boulder Peak[5] in the Cascades by himself, after wandering off on a family camping trip. Jesus Christ.. Fred Beckey would dedicate just about all of his energy to climbing from that day until his final one. Of this expedition, Fred would later tell Chris Jones of Mountain magazine: That trip Helmy and I made into the Pickets in 1940 was one of roughest. And then I channeled some Fred Beckey try-hard, figuring that hed probably managed more than one such feature in climbing boots. While still a teenager, Beckey and his peers went on a tear throughout the Olympic Mountains and the Cascades. Those partners include essentially every prominent alpine and rock climber in the USA and Canada from the 1930s to the 1990s. Beckey descended in a storm to find help but was later blamed by some for abandoning his partner (who was later rescued). His teammates came from around the world and stretched from the era of jingoistically competitive FAs in the Alps to the expansion of plastic walls into shopping malls and rec centers. We were planning another trip to the Himalayas for next spring. The ascent generated two sentences of minuscule type in Sports Illustrated that September, buried on a back page, where a postage-stamp-size picture of Beckey ran in the Faces in the Crowd column beneath a picture of a nurse from Brooklyn whod landed a 94-pound tuna. It hurts to see him move. His face is a gaunt, astonishing matrix of furrows etched deep into leathery flesh, framed by wisps of shoulder-length hair whipping crazily in the wind. And if you have, there is undoubtedly some story or tidbit you have to share for Megan and Alex's effort. As late as 2000, deep into his seventies, Fred Beckey was still going on expeditions with his close friend, Cameron Burns. They turned him down, and the American Alpine Club agreed to print a few thousand copies for a flat fee. As companions and the best of friends, we had traipsed through literal hell-and-high-water, enduring lowland floods, mountain storms, and had trucks and buses break down on eroding roads at high-altitudes in Tibet and Nepal. Through a lifetime of dedication and commitment to his passion, Fred had studied and climbed mountains the world over, creating new routes, and ascending rock walls and monoliths that challenge his followers to this day. I feared something as simple as a quick high-step would actually topple me over backward for the ride of my life. In 1942 he joined 10th Mountain Division, based in Colorado, and served as an instructor. WebBeckey, like so many people of great accomplishment, is a controversial figure, having alienated fellow climbers by stealing their routes (and even their girlfriends). There was the airline stewardess, the topless showgirl, the real estate agent, the geologist, the trapeze artist from Tarzana . By the time the sun has risen above the serrated eastern skyline, Beckey, Mark Bebiea frequent ropemate of Fredsand I are out of the tent, bundled against the cold, and starting to climb. And his enthusiasm for this one activity was enough to carry him through life. Beckey began exploring the North Cascades next, making first ascents up Mount Despair in 1939 and Forbidden Peak in 1940rugged mountains deemed unclimbable by the local mountaineering club. The three-volume set is still in print and is currently in its third edition. Required fields are marked *. [7] Beckey follow that by many more first ascents of summits in the Olympic and North Cascade ranges. FAs with Eric Bjornstad [23] 1970 South Face of Charlotte Dome, III 5.7, FA with Galen Rowell, Chris Jones [3] 1972 Moses, Canyonlands with Eric Bjornstad [24] [18] 1989 South Buttress, Caliban Peak, Arrigetch Peaks, Alaska [18] For the remainder of his days, he preferred to keep things simple a small, dedicated crew, a shared goal, and hard climbing. Photo by Dave OLeske. As our years together increased, age permeated his skin and slowed his heart, but he battled on. Fred spent close to twenty percent of his adult life with me, and by then thirty percent of my own grown-up years were with him; our time together had outlasted most marriages. Over the next few seasons, he climbed another 50 peaks, with over half of them being first ascents. In this feature from Mountaineer magazine, Megan Bond remembers the love for adventure that she shared with legendary climber Fred Beckey, and how hard it was to say goodbye. The film won over 26 international awards, including: the Best Feature Mountain Film at the 2017 Banff Mountain Film Festival; the Best Mountaineering Film at the 2017 Kendal Mountain Film Festival; and, the People's Choice Award at the 2017 Banff Mountain Book Festival. Many climbers of the time (and to this day!) Through a herculean effort, Dyhrenfurth and the rest of the team managed to climb up and rescue Spirig the following day, but Dyhrenfurth was livid at Beckey for abandoning his helpless partner and gave him a thorough chewing-out. Regardless, he insisted we were heading to the Garhwal in the Northern India State of Uttarakhand, and the Bhyundar Valley, known as the Valley of Flowers. As one of his ex-girlfriends warned me, Fred in the morning is a bundle of aches and wrinkles with legs. That same year, he and friends climbed 35 peaks. The pair traveled to Zion national park, where they attempted to climb Touchstone Wall and Prodigal Son. Fred Beckey died of congestive heart failure on October 30th, 2017, in the Seattle home of his close friend and biographer, Megan Bond. The first winter ascent of Sahale, Jesus Christ, I dont know.. I first ran into Fred Beckey at the Banff Book and Film Festival in 1994, where he tried stealing my girlfriend (something he was known for). We were taking chances on really bad rock, with broken streetcars of ice hanging above us, and the glaciers were heavily crevassed. His most notable effort was a three-volume guide to the Cascades from the Columbia River to the Fraser River called Cascade Alpine Guide. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Later he joined The Mountaineers club. That Time Fred Beckey Shocked Even The Lumberjacks - Climbing People That Time Fred Beckey Shocked Even The Lumberjacks He was known for this first ascents, which remain unequalled for volume and quality, and for detailed guidebooks. Id done very little pitch-black climbing with just a headlamp. Sadly, there are precious few documents of these trips. Beckey insisted that at the time, muddled from hypoxia and extreme stress, he thought he was doing the right thing by leaving Spirig and going down to summon help. My dad and Fred flew back together, but when they landed Fred immediately took off with one of his many girlfriends. Beckey hogs the lead, and beetles his way up a razor-edged arte plastered with rime. I loved exploring the high, natural world too, but my needs were simpler and not so bold. I kept in touch with Pedro even while Freds health declined and he never made it out climbing with me again. Why did he embrace such a life. He was there when it all started. By 1939, he had joined the Seattle Mountaineers. A journey to this lush, high altitude basin near the Zanskar had been a dream of mine since I was a teen, after I read a book of the same title by the Himalayan explorer Frank Smythe, and Fred was intent on making this dream come true for me. Fred Beckey ascends Sail Away, a route on Hidden Tower, a rock pinnacle in Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park, on New Year's Day. Together we explored nine countries, scrambled and climbed in eleven U.S. states, crossed countless snowfields, and bushwhacked through jungled vines and branches. It was later picked up by the American Alpine Club, who printed a few thousand copies. On the long drive back to Seattle, where they all lived, Beckey asked Bjornstad if he felt like doing another climb. There was the airline stewardess, the topless showgirl, the real estate agent, the geologist, the trapeze artist from Tarzana . WebBeckey, like so many people of great accomplishment, is a controversial figure, having alienated fellow climbers by stealing their routes (and even their girlfriends). Those partners include essentially every prominent alpine and rock climber in the USA and Canada from the 1930s to the 1990s. I dont know, Beckey declares, Ive never heard of anyone climbing Sahale in winter. In this feature from Mountaineer magazine, Megan Bond remembers the love for adventure that she shared with legendary climber Fred Beckey, and how hard it was to say goodbye. His affairs have orbited so tightly around the hot sun of cutting-edge climbing that virtually everything else was long ago scorched from his existence. [8][2], After the war, Beckey studied business administration at the University of Washington, while still spending a lot of time climbing mountain ranges in the Northwest and desert rock formations in the Southwest. In the clip below, Fred Beckey is in Basalt, Colorado, where hed been staying with the author, Cameron M. Burns, and his wife, Ann, for about 10 days before Burns and Beckey jetted off to Zion in April 2000. The author of this fabled work is a resident of the Pacific Northwest, name of Wolfgang Friedrich Beckeyalthough folks are careful to address him as Fred, or just plain Beckey, or practically anything except his given name, lest they feel the sting of his unholy wrath. . Whatever misunderstandings and misgivings this situation created, they would follow Beckey. With such accommodation, surely, we could keep going and reconnoiter this isolated mountain valley. Ive seen it. By David Harrap I met him again 13 years later. Over the ensuing summers, he pioneered routes up dozens more Cascadian peaks, sometimes with his brother Helmy in tow. Disclaimer. Neither of us was ever alone again. Fred was coming to terms with the aging process, but still adamantly wanted to keep conquering peaks, says Jason. Those partners include essentially every prominent alpine and rock climber in the USA and Canada from the 1930s to the 1990s. Some say that Beckeys Little Black Book is apocryphal, that its merely the product of too much wine and too much idle talk around too many campfires. We hadnt scoped a descent, but hadnt spent much time scoping the route either. But our dreams had been delusions and would not live beyond the fall. By David Harrap I met him again 13 years later. I cant think of anyone that epitomizes the modern or postmodern American climbing scene as he has.. Freds legacy as an American mountaineer is further cemented by his written work. says: Rebecca Chamberlain The risks were real, but I knew of no one else interested in exploring the nether regions of wilderness, nor the Himalayan front range from east to west, nor the ancient trade routes that connect Tibet to India through massive ranges, passes that cut deep, from north to south where borders often go unmarked and so I had gone alone. Another partner of Beckeys fell to his death in 1952 while they were attempting the North Face of Mount Baring in the North Cascades. Legendary alpinist Jim Donini puts it like this: In a climbing sense, he was definitely the American original. WebMegan Bond, Beckeys dear friend and biographer, explained to me that Beckey detested the word, equating it with bum. Your email address will not be published. Fred has many aspects in his character. He flaunted his independence by dating a multitude of women, committing himself to none. Beckeys only foray into the international expedition racket did not go so smoothly. In 2017, Patagonia produced a documentary about Fred called, Dirtbag: the Legend of Fred Beckey. When Mark and I join him on the tiny summit, hes manic, chattering, ebullient. In this way, Freds presence protected me on our far-flung travels and in return I kept him going. The climbing world attracts all kinds of characters. 2023 Climbing House. The unclimbed northeast buttress of Slesse jutted menacingly out of the Chilliwack Range 20 miles south of Hope, British Columbia. On October 30, 2017, he died in Megan's arms after a brief illness. the list goes on and on. Beckey began exploring the North Cascades next, making first ascents up Mount Despair in 1939 and Forbidden Peak in 1940rugged mountains deemed unclimbable by the local mountaineering club. On the Zion trip, they attempted to climb Touchstone Wall and Prodigal Son but were unsuccessful. He was 94 years old. He had made multiple trips to the Himalaya and was also anxious to return. Freds entanglement with climbing goes something like this: in 1936, the Beckey family was on a car camping vacation in the Cascade Mountains when Fred wandered off. [4] His brother, Helmut "Helmy" Beckey, was born in Seattle in 1926 and would later become Fred's frequent climbing partner. WebMegan Bond, Beckeys dear friend and biographer, explained to me that Beckey detested the word, equating it with bum. By the spring of 2017, we had spent a full year planning our next trip to the Himalaya, and had pushed our planned journey into 2018 to accommodate uninvited afflictions. His response was simply that slab!. Fred wrote in clear, sparse prose uniquely suited to writing about this worlds remote, jagged mountains. To view the original article in magazine form and read more stories from our publication, visit ourmagazine archive. 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