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.^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 2 Guidebook Author 3 First Ascents 4 Quotation 5 Books 6 References

[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. 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 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. (He had been to Everest in 1955 with the International Himalayan Expedition.^[2])

[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:

• 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]
• 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)
  • Columbia River to Stevens Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2000, ISBN 0-89886-577-8)
  • Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2003, ISBN 0-89886-152-7)
  • 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)

[edit] References

1. ^ Modie, Neil. "Icon to some, legendary climber Beckey still obscure to many", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle PI, March 8, 2003. Retrieved on January 7, 2006. (in English)
2. ^ "Solu Khumbu Climbs: First Ascents After Lhotse". American Alpine Journal, 1956 10 (2): 7. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Child, Greg (October 2000). Rock Legends. Outside Magazine. Retrieved on October 4, 2006.