Fred Beckey Presentation

Post by **captain static** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:52 pm

For those of you in the Cincinnati area, renowned mountaineer Fred Beckey will be making a presentation at the UC Mountaineering Club meeting this coming Wednesday 11/16 @ 7pm
http://www.ucmc.org/pages/calendarset.html
Jeff Kennedy told me Fred will be at True North Thanksgiving weekend. Fred has a connection with two former RRG climbers. Alex Cudcowicz climbed with Fred in Washington before he came to Cincinnati and joined the UCMC. The late Steve Must also climbed with Fred and went to China with him on two separate trips.

Post by **Legion** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 9:31 pm

That is awesome. I sure wish I could go!

Post by **John E** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:10 pm

Do you have to be a member of the UCMC to attend?

I've climbed a few of his routes in Washington. Of course it's kind of hard not to if you've ever done much climbing in the Cascades. His name is on just about every page of every Cascades guidebook.

Post by **captain static** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:34 pm

John E wrote:Do you have to be a member of the UCMC to attend?

I've climbed a few of his routes in Washington. Of course it's kind of hard not to if you've ever done much climbing in the Cascades. His name is on just about every page of every Cascades guidebook.

All UCMC meetings are open to the public and there is no admission charge. Fred's name is on more than a few routes in the Wind Rivers. In the more recent past an unclimbed peak in Alaska was named Mt. Beckey by some of his partners who waited just below the top so Fred could summit first.

Post by **weber** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:30 pm

I asked Fred to come to the Red a few weeks ago while assisting him in setting up speaking dates at various university mountaineering/climbing clubs around the Midwest (including the U. of Cincinnati club). Jeff Kennedy and I arranged for Fred to give a presentation at his hostel on Saturday, November 26. It will be a meal with his slide show afterwards. I am assuming that Jeff will announce something here soon.

Fred will be climbing with us, weather permitting on November 20 in Muir Valley. Jeff is hosting him at the hostel during Thanksgiving week through Sunday the 27th. Liz and I are having Thanksgiving with him on Thursday, November 24 and climbing again at Muir the next day or two. If the weather is really nice, we may take a quick trip to the New.

If any of you would like to meet this grand old master of the mountains, please PM me for specific times and places.

Rick Weber

Post by **Lateralus** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:46 pm

Hopefully you guys have an FA waiting for Fred at Muir. No area is complete without a Beckey FA

Post by **weber** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:37 pm

Lateralus wrote:Hopefully you guys have an FA waiting for Fred at Muir. No area is complete without a Beckey FA

Saturday afternoon, Liz and I were working in Coal Bank Hollow on three possible FA routes for Fred. Jared and Karla were working across the hollow on a couple more.

Liz and I had set up an anchor with webbing and a cordelette above our possible lines. We both rapped off and checked out the rock along a crack in a dihedral and a slab-to-overhung sport route to the right. Looked like a couple nice moderate lines -- one trad (or mixed), and one sport. We bailed off Saturday afternoon and left all our gear at the cliff base and the rope up to return the next day to clean and bolt these routes.

Then the fire came.

After temporarily knocking down the first fire near the north end of the valley, it flared again later that night. After fighting it for a while with others, at 1 AM Sunday, Mike Travel and I scrambled to the top above Coal Bank Hollow which was giving off an eerie glow. We found the fire had jumped to the top and was furiously burning a lot of downed logs and brush from previous logging. The fire was at that moment was turning my rope and anchor system, that Liz and I set earlier in the day, into crispy critters. In minutes, we realized we had climbed up into some serious shit and it was past time to cut and run, so we threw our McCloeds over the cliff and slid down a steep coulier. We got to the base of my rope to find that embers dropping from the top had started a nasty fire there... where the climbing and bolting gear including a new Bosche Annihilator Drill were sitting! The fire was literally 4 feet away and advancing. We grabbed the stuff and got the hell out of there. Too quickly, as I left my climbing shoes in a tree. Jenny Johnson saw that I had missed them and retrieved them before they were roasted.

These routes can be topped out. Early Saturday afternoon, you could top out onto a large rock shelf above a sea of beautiful mountain laurel in partridge berry ground cover. Today, you top out into a moonscape of burnt rubble.

Nevertheless, weather permitting, this is one of the places we'll be climbing with Fred.

Rick

Post by **Lateralus** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:12 pm

Props!
Wow sorry to hear about the fire, yet it probably won't take too long to recover from the fire down there in the jungle that is KY.
the hard part will be figuring out a good name for the route which embodies both Fred Beckey's legend and pyrotechnics

Post by **captain static** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:57 am

It was great to see Fred again tonight. His slide show is amazing as well as his encyclopedic knowledge of North American rock climbing. He is looking forward to coming down to the Gorge.

Post by **weber** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:06 am

For those of you interested in meeting Fred, he will be in the Red most of this week. See the "Fred in the Red" thread below.

Rick