Iowa Mountaineers

Publication Year: 1958.

Iowa Mountaineers. The Club completed its eighteenth year of operation with an unusually large number of activities. Approximately 720 different members participated in the indoor and outdoor events sponsored by the Club. Fifteen major week-end outings were scheduled to the Devils Lake climbing areas in Wisconsin and the Mississippi Palisades area in Illinois. Thirteen minor outings were sponsored, consisting of conditioning hikes and training “camp-outs.” Eighteen professional adventure-film lectures were sponsored which included programs by the Swiss climber Jürg Marmet and the French guide Gaston Rébuffat.

A journal was published in the Spring covering the recent expeditions of the Club to Mexico, Canada, Alaska and Europe. A “School of Mountaineering Lecture Course” was held and was well attended. Over $1000 worth of basecamp equipment was purchased, which, with existing equipment, now permits the Club to completely outfit its large summer camp. A community campfire tent was designed and constructed, large enough to house 100 persons.

The 19th annual summer outing was held at Maligne Lake, Canada, and attracted 76 persons from six major mountain clubs and 11 states. Thirteen major peaks were ascended and a number of new routes established. An unusually capable array of climbing leaders was present in camp, including AAC members John Ebert and Harold Walton; ACC members Hans Gmoser, William Primak, Ken Jones, Bruno Matteotti, Tony Messner; Colorado Club members Allen Auten and Whitney Borland; Chicago Club members Rod Harris and Felix Hagerman; and Iowa Mountaineer members Dan Doody, John Paup, Warren Pagel.

Many Club members participated in private climbing trips or joined other summer climbing camps. Five members attended the ACC camp in Tonquin Valley, Canada, and seven members joined the Chicago Club camp at Lake O’Hara, Canada. A party consisting of Hans Gmoser, Charles Wilson, Warren Pagel, and Ron Wiessner climbed the South Tower of Mount Eisenhower in Canada; and Wallace Adams, Clair Brown, and Hans Gmoser climbed Mount Robson via the glaciers to the right of Little Robson. Nine members climbed Devils Tower in Wyoming, and 15 members spent a week or longer in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, climbing the peaks by some of the more difficult routes, such as the East Ridge of the Grand Teton.

John Ebert