Spokane Mountaineers

Publication Year: 1969.

Spokane Mountaineers. Twenty-five graduates of the 1968 climbing school and 10 instructors camped in Whitewater Basin for a Selkirk graduation outing. On May 12 climbing chairman Frank Tavares led a party of 21 to the 9514-foot summit of Mount Brennan. Ten days later on a practice climb at Big Rock of Sharon, Frank fell to his death, the club’s only fatality in 53 years. We completed Frank’s scheduled new route on Mount Ibex in the Cabinets on June 2 and there installed a memorial plaque. Many of the year’s ascents and routes showed creative imagination. The Sawtooth summer outing near Redfish Lake featured the 9733-foot Grand Mogul and two attempts on Chockstone. New routes were forced up the direct west face of Chimney Rock and the South Cleaver. A 26-mile, high-level circuit of Rainier, clockwise from Paradise, traversed 18 glaciers in five fine July days. Other fresh climbs in the Northwest included Stuart via the west ridge, Cloudy Peak (Chelan), Spider, Liberty Bell, Snoqualmie, South Teton, Olympus, and Matterhorn (Wallowas). In Canadian ranges, Kokanee and Lake of the Hanging Glaciers were twice visited. Athabaska, Bident, and Edith beckoned. Cheops is always a superb Rogers Pass viewpoint. Nakimu Caves are yet undeveloped and are fascinating. After an absence of seven years, club members repeated the northwest ridge of Sir Donald. Two 1968 events have had an impact on our favorite alpine playground. Final passage of the bill to create the North Cascades National Park ended a long struggle. Can both access to the park and its protection improve? The second event occurred on September 29 when Governor Dan Evans hailed the first public crossing by 250 jeeps of the North Cross-state Highway. On that day two of us made adequate reconnaissance of three good 1969 routes on previously remote peaks: Black, Corteo, and Cutthroat.

William C. Fix