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15 unusual facts about Fred Beckey


Cashmere, Washington

Some of America's first technical climbing routes were established here by Fred Beckey and others.

Dave Page

Page has made many historic mountain climbing ascents among contemporaries Fred Beckey and other notable cascade climbers of the 20th century; these included ascents in the Himalayas.

Devils Thumb

Fred Beckey, along with Clifford Schmidtke, and Bob Craig, climbed the East Ridge, a route that combined technical difficulty equal to anything ever climbed on the continent to that time with great remoteness and terrible weather conditions.

Goode Mountain

More popular now is the Northeast Buttress, pioneered by well-known climber Fred Beckey and Tom Stewart on August 6, 1966.

Hozomeen Mountain

It was first climbed on May 30, 1947 by Fred Beckey, Melvin Marcus, Jerry O'Neil, Ken Prestrud, Herb Staley, and Charles Welsh, via the Southwest Route.

Kahiltna Glacier

Fred Beckey, Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America, Mountaineers Books, 1999, ISBN 0-89886-646-4

Little Cottonwood Canyon

Many of the major routes in Little Cottonwood were established in the early 1960s by the Alpenbock Club, some in conjunction with well-known visitors including Fred Beckey, Layton Kor, and Royal Robbins.

Mount Logan

Fred Beckey remarked: "When they got back we just couldn't believe that they had climbed that thing. We didn't think they had a chance".

Mount Neacola

Mount Neacola was first climbed in 1991 by James Garrett, Loren Glick, and Kennan Harvey, on an expedition inspired by the intrepid Fred Beckey.

Napeequa River

Fred Beckey calls the Napeequa River valley the "most interesting valley" of the region.

Neacola Mountains

Noted climber Fred Beckey visited the range in the early 1970s; in 1991, when he was "spiritual leader" of the expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Neacola; and again in 2004.

Okanagan Range

According to Fred Beckey there are differences of opinion about the names and locations of the subranges of the northern Cascades, especially between Canadian and American geographers.

Slesse Mountain

However Slesse is most famous for the Northeast Buttress, first climbed on August 28, 1963 by Fred Beckey, Steve Marts, and Eric Bjornstad.

Sloan Creek

According to Fred Beckey, Cadet Creek is larger than Sloan Creek and could be equally considered the head of the Sauk River as the North Fork itself.

Whinnimic Falls

The name "Whinnimic Falls" was mentioned in the red Cascade Alpine Guide by Fred Beckey.


Lhotse

It also included two Austrians (cartographer Erwin Schneider and Ernst Senn) and two Swiss (Bruno Spirig and Arthur Spöhel), and was the first expedition in the Everest area to include Americans (Fred Beckey, George Bell, and Richard McGowan).

The Bugaboos

Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard (founder of the Patagonia clothing company) established new routes on several spires.