Chicago Mountaineering Club

Publication Year: 1959.

Chicago Mountaineering Club. The Club’s official outings were limited to local practice climbs at nearby areas. Two week-end winter trips were held at Starved Rock State Park, near Ottawa, Illinois, where conditions were ideal for the formation of solid, frozen waterfalls. One of the best ice climbs there is in French Canyon, where an ice wall about 50 feet high is formed in a series of steps. The Club also held practice rock-climbs at Mississippi Palisades State Park near Savanna, Illinois, and at Devils Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Bill Primack is compiling a guide to the practice climbs in these two areas.

A group of our members joined the Iowa Mountaineers’ outing in the southern Wind Rivers near Lander, Wyoming, with a base camp at Lonesome Lake. Felix Hagerman led Warren Pagel, John Davidge, and Olle Swarding on a second ascent of Block Tower from the west side. Other noteworthy climbs were made on Shark’s Nose, Pingora, Warbonnet, Wolf’s Head, and Lizard Head. Other members climbed in the Tetons; three attended the Sierra Club’s trip to the Cordillera Blanca of Peru; and several were with the Iowa Mountaineers in Europe.

Grover Hartsuch, Outing Chairman