Wisconsin Hoofer Mountaineers. The activities of the Hoofer Mountaineers for 1956 included three major trips to western areas in addition to regular Sunday practice climbs at Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin. These bluffs are an ideal place to quench one’s thirst for climbing in lieu of the real thing. To instruct novices, the club has offered various brief talks and exhibitions on mountain safety, rescue, and snow techniques. These talks, presented by different club members at each session, have been received very well and are enlightning as well as entertaining. They range from knot-tying sessions to mechanical and seemingly complicated techniques for hauling a person from a crevasse.

Concerning western trips: the first, during late March and early April, was a premature attempt by four over-anxious individuals to rush the season. We ended up in the Needles of the Black Hills, scrambling among the pinnacles; then moving on to Devils Tower, which we merely looked at in a blizzard and went home. The second of our trips was more successful. This more or less annual June trip to the Tetons brought several beginners who all fared well. The usual ascents were made, including Grand Teton, Cloudveil, Teewinot, Nez Percé, Storm, Ice Point, and Symmetry Spire. Our third and longest trip, at the end of August, took us north and west to Glacier Park, B.C., in the Northern Selkirks. Among notable features were the running of two major ridges by Oscar Strickholm and Arkel M. Erb; the Hermit Ridge, from Rodgers to Hermit, including the Truda peaks; and the Asulkan Ridge, consisting of seven peaks. In the Hermit group Tupper, Sifton, Grizzly, Cheops, and Cougar were climbed, all by the usual routes. In the Sir Donald group, Avalanche, Eagle, Sir Donald, South Terminal, and Green’s Peak were climbed. A group hiked to the Glacier Circle cabin, in the Dawson group, but because of bad weather there was merely a good attempt on Mount Selwyn. Bob and Peggy West, who made the first ascent of Fortitude this year, missed us there by only a few days.

While the group was away in Canada, other club members were not idle. One weekend in August, J. Calvin Giddings, Bob Snider, and Bob Powers climbed Devils Tower and distinguished themselves as the first Hoofers to do it. The weekly practice climbs went on throughout the summer and will continue, to a lesser degree, throughout the winter.

Susan F. Ward