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“Addictions can be very, very bad but addiction itself is not bad.
It’s a case of what you’re addicted to.
You better live each day like it’s your last, ‘cos one day you’re going to be right”.
Ray Charles.
Link tip a friend
- Cragging in the Cascade Range, early 1940's
In 2009 Fred Beckey was 86 years old and put simply, over seven decades he has claimed more first ascents than any other climber alive, quite possibly over 1000 in North America alone.
Wolfgang Paul Heinrich Beckey immigrated from pre-war Düsseldorf in Germany to the Pacific Northwest of the US and his name resounds in mountaineering journals, guidebooks and the maps of the remote ranges. His namesake peak Mount Beckey is 8,500 feet high and is in a range near the Cathedral Spires of south eastern Alaska.
- Devils Thumb, FA Beckey in 1940. This shot is of the beginning of the technical climb to the Spiral and just above the Notch.
- Devils Thumb, Alaska, FB first ascent in 1940
Born in 1923 to a doctor father and opera singer mother, he started climbing as a kid in the Pacific North West and did his first ascent on Mount Despair in 1939. Early on he obtained a master’s degree in business administration but voluntarily began driving a delivery truck instead as it gave him more time in the hills.
- Cascade Range ring piton from the 50's and still used today.
- FB scanning granite, mid - 1950's
The scene at the time was dominated by the local crew called The Mountaineers but Beckey was too aloof and different to fit into a defined group structure and as he ascended peaks considered unclimbable by them, they began rejecting his guidebook entries and more.
Many of the climbers from that era valued trust and cooperation very highly and they grew annoyed with his manner and stubbornness and he became someone very much on the outer of the scene.
- Early 1960's
Several of his climbing partners were killed on expeditions, including Charles Shiverick in ’47 in the Coast Range in BC in Canada and Bruno Spirig in ’55 in the Himalayas and because of the these events and his attitude, Beckey was never even considered for the 1960 US Everest attempt.
So instead and with his brother, he set out to put up new routes across Wyoming, Colorado, California, British Columbia and Alaska and while first and foremost an alpinist, he’d climb anything - from desert rock to crags and everything in between.
- Summit shot Mt. Forresta, Alaska, 1979.
In just the summer of ‘54 alone, he climbed Mounts McKinley, Hunter and Deborah in the Alaska Range, a staggering achievement that is unquestionably his Triple Crown of First Ascents and in ’63 alone he made 26 first ascents during that single year.
- Out west and in his 80's
The range of his travels is unique too, certainly for the day and still the case for most climbers now:
The North Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Yosemite, Tetons, Wind River Range, Canadian Bugaboos, Canadian Rockies, big walls, Mexican rock and other ranges in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Southern California ….. the list of where he’s climbed is extraordinary.
- Leading in his 80's
He has had so much influence on Alaskan climbing that he’s had a mountain named after him in the Alaskan Range, wrote numerous books, the most significant ones being the “Cascade Alpine Guide” and his 2003, 500+ page book on the history of the Oregon region titled “Range of Glaciers”.
- The north face of Haizi Shan, 5820m, Sichuan Province, China.
So there you have the guy; just a huge legacy and what’s more, he’s still into it. In 2006 at age 83 he went to Tibet to climb Mt Haizi, a 19,155-foot peak in the Western Sichuan province and while his party didn’t summit, here’s a shot below, it’s totally a real hill and he’s 83!!!
- On Lake Louise Falls in 2006
Anyway, have a look at the list below and these are just the super-notable ones and just for laughs, Google some recent accounts of climbing say …… Mt Deborah and think about doing it in 1954, with shit gear, no comms and with the absolute certainty that no-one had ever gone before you.
The essence is in Beckey’s own words: There’s not much adventure left. Unless you look for it.”
Forbidden Peak, Cascade Range,1940 with brother Helmy and Lloyd Anderson
Devils Thumb, Alaska, 1946
North Peak, Liberty Bell, Washington, 1947
North Buttress, Mount Shuksan, Washington, 1947
Mount Hunter, Alaska, 1954, with Heinrich Harrer and Henry Meybohm
Mount Deborah, Alaska, 1954, with Heinrich Harrer and Henry Meybohm
North Face of Mount Edith Cavell, Canada, 1961, with Yvon Chouinard
Beckey-Chouinard Route of South Howser Tower, Bugaboos, Canada 1961, with Yvon Chouinard
Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse, British Columbia, Canada, 1963
“Beckey’s Spire” aka Christianity Spire, Sedona, Arizona, 1970
Mount Beckey, Cathedral Mountains, Alaska, 1996, with John Middendorf and Calvin Hebert
Second ascent Mount Waddington, British Columbia, 1942
Triple ascent of Mount McKinley, Mount Deborah and Mount Hunter, 1954
- Normally a staged shot, true in this case.
