Fred Beckey

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Fred Beckey (born Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey, 14 January 1923) is an American mountaineer, who has made hundreds of first ascents, more than any other North American climber[citation needed].

Contents

[edit] Biography

He 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, but worked as a delivery truck driver, which left him more time for climbing.

Unlike Jim Whittaker, a fellow Seattleite and the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1963, Beckey has always 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. Four Americans on that expedition climbed the mountain. Jim Whittaker became a national hero, his picture on the covers of Life magazine and National Geographic. Later, according to the New York Times, some members said his blunt personality was ill-suited to a three-month expedition where teamwork and an even temperament were paramount concerns.

[edit] Guidebook Author

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, now in its third revision.

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 2006, he continues to climb all over the world[citation needed].

Mt. Beckey, named for Fred Beckey, is located in the Alaskan Range at North 62 degrees, 52 minutes, West 152 degrees, 15 minutes.

[edit] First Ascents

Some of his first ascents:

Other notable feats:

[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." --The Mountaineers Press

[edit] Books

  • Guide to Leavenworth rock-climbing areas (The Mountaineers, 1965)
  • Climber's Guide to the Cascade and Olympic Mountains of Washington (American Alpine Club, originally published 1949, revised edition 1953)
  • Challenge of the North Cascades (1969, 2nd ed. 1996 ISBN 0-89886-479-8)
  • Cascade Alpine Guide (3 vols.) (Mountaineers Press, 1973-1981)
  • Darrington and Index Rock Climbing Guide (Mountaineers Press, 1976)
  • Mountains of North America (Sierra Club, 1982)
  • Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America (Mountaineers Press, 1993, paper 1999 ISBN 0-89886-646-4)
  • Range of Glaciers: The Exploration and Survey of the Northern Cascade Range (Oregon Historical Society, 2003 ISBN 0-87595-243-7)
  • Mountains of North America (published 1986)
  • The Bugaboos: An Alpine History (published 1987)
  • Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America (published 1999)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Child, Greg (October 2000). Rock Legends. Outside Magazine. Retrieved on 10/04/2006.
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