please help spread the word, look forward to seeing you all there...
*john
> Subject: Climbing Legend Fred Beckey @ UVM 11/6, Billings Theater, 8pm
>
> hello all-
> we are pleased to announce that climbing legend Fred Beckey will
> be making a rare east Coast appearance here at UVM next Tuesday
> November 6th, at the Campus Center Theater at 8pm. Tickets will be
> available at the door $5 for public and $3 for students...sponsored
> by the UVM Climbing Club and UVM Outing Club...
> for those in the climbing community, Fred's accomplishments need
> no introduction...he is quite simply the most prolific climber and
> 1st ascensionist in North American climbing history. to go into
> detail about fred's contributions to modern climbing would be akin
> to trying to capture the elvis' influence on modern music. fred is
> a gem of climbing history and one of the golden lions of his era.
> see more biographical info below.
> if you haven't seen fred before, you have to see him to believe a
> spirit like this walks (climbs) the planet!:) look forward to
> seeing you there!
> *john
>
>

>
> "Beckey," as he is known to his climbing companions, was born in
> Düsseldorf, Germany, and his family emigrated to the United States
> when he was three, ending up in Seattle, Washington. He started
> climbing in the Cascades as a teenager, learning the basic concepts
> from The Mountaineers but quickly going on to harder climbs.
>
> He attended the University of Washington and received a degree in
> business administration. He worked as a delivery truck driver,
> which left him time for climbing.
>
> Unlike Jim Whittaker, a fellow Seattleite and the first American to
> reach the top of Mount Everest in 1963, Beckey shied away from the
> large team efforts, preferring smaller alpine-style undertakings.
> Beckey seemed a likely choice as a member for the 1963 Everest
> trip, but he was not chosen. (He had been to Everest in 1955 with
> the International Himalayan Expedition).
>
> In the late 1940s, he asked the Mountaineers of Seattle to publish
> his first climbing guidebook for the local peaks. They turned him
> down, and the American Alpine Club agreed to print a few thousand
> copies for a flat fee.
>
> In-between climbs, he wrote several books, most significantly the
> Cascade Alpine Guide, the 3-volume definitive description of the
> mountains from the Columbia River to the Canadian border (and the
> North Cascades, which extend into Canada), now in its third
> revision, published by The Mountaineers.
>
> In 2003, his 563-page book on the history of the region "Range of
> Glaciers," was published by the Oregon Historical Society Press.
> According to a reviewer, he did much of the research for the volume
> in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress and the National
> Archives, scouring files of the Defense Department, State
> Department, U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies. Beckey also
> perused the Canadian archives in Ottawa; Hudson's Bay Co. archives
> in Winnipeg; British Columbia archives in Victoria; records of the
> Northwest Boundary Survey at Yale University; and records of the
> Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads in Minneapolis.
>
> As of 2007, he continues to climb all over the world at age 80...
>
> Mt. Beckey, named for Fred Beckey, is located in the Alaskan Range
> at North 62 degrees, 52 minutes, West 152 degrees, 15 minutes.
>
> First ascents
>
> Some of his first ascents:
>
> * Forbidden Peak, Cascade Range - 1940, with brother Helmy and
> Lloyd Anderson
> * Devils Thumb, Alaska - 1946[3]
> * Mount Hood's Yocum Ridge
> * North Peak, Liberty Bell - 1947
> * North Buttress, Mount Shuksan - 1947
> * Mount Hunter (Alaska) - 1954, with Heinrich Harrer and Henry
> Meybohm
> * Mount Deborah - 1954, with Heinrich Harrer and Henry Meybohm
> * North Face of Mount Edith Cavell, Canada - 1961, with Yvon
> Chouinard[3]
> * Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse, British Columbia, Canada
> 1963
> * Mount Beckey, Cathedral Mountains, Alaska, USA - 1996, with
> John Middendorf and Calvin Hebert
>
> Other notable feats:
>
> * Second ascent Mount Waddington, British Columbia - 1942
> * Triple ascent of Mount McKinley, Mount Deborah, and Mount
> Hunter - 1954
>
> [edit] Quotation
>
> "Fred Beckey has achieved enduring recognition as the most
> imaginative, persistent, and thorough explorer and mountain
> investigator of the Cascade Range Wilderness. He was noted as "one
> of America's most colorful and eccentric mountaineers," and is
> unofficially recognized as the all-time world-record holder for the
> number of first ascents credited to one man. In addition to being
> the author of the Cascade Alpine Guide series, Beckey is also the
> author of Mountains of North America, The Range of Glaciers:
> Exploration and Survey of the North Cascades, and a personal
> narrative, Challenge of the North Cascades." --Mountaineers Books
>
> [edit] Books
>
> * Range of Glaciers: The Exploration and Survey of the Northern
> Cascade Range (Oregon Historical Society, 2003 ISBN 0-87595-243-7)
> * Cascade Alpine Guide (3 vols.) (Mountaineers Books, 1973-2003)
> o Columbia River to Stevens Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2000,
> ISBN 0-89886-577-8)
> o Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2003, ISBN
> 0-89886-152-7)
> o Rainy Pass to Fraser River (1981, 2nd ed. 1995, ISBN
> 0-89886-423-2)
> * Challenge of the North Cascades (1969, 2nd ed. 1996, ISBN
> 0-89886-479-8)
> * Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America (Mountaineers
> Books 1993, paper 1999, ISBN 0-89886-646-4)
> * The Bugaboos: An Alpine History (1987)
> * Mountains of North America (1986)
> * Mountains of North America (Sierra Club, 1982)
> * Darrington and Index Rock Climbing Guide (Mountaineers Books,
> 1976)
> * Guide to Leavenworth rock-climbing areas (Mountaineers Books,
> 1965)
> * Climber's Guide to the Cascade and Olympic Mountains of
> Washington (American Alpine Club, 1949, revised edition 1953)
>
>
>
>
> "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but
> seeing with new eyes."
> - Marcel Proust
>
>
>
John Abbott phone 656.2060
Asst. Director of Student Life e-mail [log in to unmask]
Outdoor Programs fax 656.7731
Dept. of Student Life
University of Vermont
520 Main St.
310 Dudley Davis Student Center
Burlington, VT 05405
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but
seeing with new eyes."
- Marcel Proust
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