Tony Qamar

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John Morton

Trad climber

Berkeley, CA

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 12, 2005 - 07:16pm PT

Some here may remember Tony Qamar, who was killed last week when a log truck lost its load and smashed Tony and a colleague in western Washington.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/obituaries/2002542720_qamarobit06.html

Tony was active in Yosemite in the sixties, but he may be best remembered in the annals of climbing as a member of the party (Chris Jones, Galen Rowell) that climbed the beautiful W Face of N. Howser Tower in 1971. Rowell's photo of him on that route is on the cover of Jones' book Climbing in North America. The photo:

http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.arctic/images.html

This was a very great loss to those that knew Tony Qamar. He was an active climber and paddler his entire adult life, and had an easygoing personality that made him the perfect mountain companion. He was also a distinguised geophysicist who in recent years had the title Washington State Seismologist. His memorial last night was attended by several hundred people, signifying his extraordinary circle of influence.

John Morton

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Mar 19, 2009 - 02:21am PT

By chance, I ran across a memorial notice and website for Tony, on a geophysics website. I thought some might be interested, even though it's 3+ years ago.
http://www.pnsn.org/NEWS/PRESS_RELEASES/TQ/remembrances.html

Misha

Trad climber

Woodside, CA

Mar 19, 2009 - 02:28am PT

RIP, Tony

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

the greasewood ghetto

Mar 19, 2009 - 03:17am PT

Epic bump Mighty ... I remember that photo from when I used to haunt the climbing section of the old library location in Mammoth .

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Mar 19, 2009 - 08:17am PT

This is just horrible. I do realize this thread is 3.5 years old however; I missed it first time around and even after all this time the news is still awful.

Tony’s death is absurd, just as Leigh Ortenburger’s was when he perished in the Oakland hills fires. Dying accidentally and gruesomely in some mundane situation like in traffic or a fire after a long life of climbing...imagine. Absolutely random and senseless. Life’s tough; nobody gets out of it alive! The Monster is eating us one by one.

Tony was probably one of the kindest people any of us have had the fortune to have known. Just a regular saint. Thanks John and Blotchy for bringing this up. I hadn’t seen Tony since around 1970 but often wondered about him. He was a consistent regular at Indian Rock in Berkeley in the sixties and early seventies by the way. Truly friendly and genuine, a really warm gentlemanly person in awesome balance.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 19, 2009 - 11:22am PT

I hadn't heard much of Tony Qamar in climbing... I did know he was active in the early 60s, his photo of Sacherer on the FFA of Ahab and on Moby Dick, Left are among the only images of Sacherer climbing in the Valley.

I had noticed his name in the Bugaboos guide (or some related documentation on those climbs).

His recorded FA history in the Valley is the one climb: Bear Rock - Southeast Face over on the Lower Brother. Of it, Roper writes on page 109 in his 1971 guide: "I, 5.4, A4. First ascent in July 1962 by Jim Harper and Tony Qamar. The first ascent party placed several bolts which have since been removed. The route follows a very incipient crack 20 feet to the right of the bolt route."

Crimpergirl

Social climber

Boulder, Colorado!

Mar 19, 2009 - 12:45pm PT

Missed this the first time it was posted. Thanks for bringing it back.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Mar 19, 2009 - 07:33pm PT

The link I posted upthread has a number of stories about Tony's climbs and life, by various friends. It appears that he moved to Montana in the early 1970s, and to Washington some time later. His climbing in the Valley was mostly in the 1960s, while he was at university. His main focus thereafter was alpine climbing, including the well-known route that he climbed with Chris Jones and Galen Rowell on the west face of North Howser Tower in 1971, sometimes known as "The Seventh Rifle". It may then have been the longest and hardest alpine rock climb in North America.

He was Washington state seismologist.

Bumped, as it's climbing related, and may help with the recent outbreak of spring/cabin/climbing fever.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Jun 19, 2009 - 05:52pm PT

The Seventh Rifle appeared in the 1972 Ascent. I can't locate mine but somebody should scan and post that fine account from back in the days before easy access to the Howsers became available. A true adventure on the fairytale granite of the Bugs!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 19, 2009 - 05:58pm PT

I'll see if I can find time to scan and post Galen's article in the next few days, if I'm not too busy exchanging whimsical banter with Peter and John. It's supposed to be a damp weekend here, the first in a month.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Jun 19, 2009 - 06:23pm PT

I'm busy too, Anders, teaching John Stannard how to waterski at his advanced age, me being a 3-year old.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Jun 19, 2009 - 06:25pm PT

A little enticement from The Bugaboos- An Alpine History by J.F.Garden, 1987. A luscious coffee table-sized photo and history book for this amazing area.

A scanner cropped Scott Flavelle photo of the Howser Towers from the northwest. The Jones, Qamar and Rowell route described in The Seventh Rifle climbs the long, classic west buttress to the summit of the North Tower. Big time route for 1971 as Anders pointed out!

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Jun 19, 2009 - 06:27pm PT

At some point, Steve, you are going to have to tell the group about your library..... I mean, is all this material you have been putting up here in your possession? It seems inexhaustible. Fabulous.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 19, 2009 - 06:33pm PT

The west buttress of South Howser (Beckey-Chouinard) is the stepped buttress leading up to the right hand peak. The steeper heavily-rimed buttress to its right is the Minaret, which leads to a distinct step.

The photo is winter season, of course.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Jun 19, 2009 - 07:30pm PT

With Mimi's financial backing and my working knowledge of history we have a put together a first rate collection. I love nothing better than sharing it with the fine folks here on the ST. I know that you certainly appreciate it, Maestro Haan. What climber doesn't love a beautiful face!

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 20, 2009 - 10:30pm PT

Here you go, Steve! Though it's from Ascent 1972, not 1973.

The Seventh Rifle, by Galen Rowell.
Not high quality scans, but should be readable. Hard to believe I have a climbing/mountain publication that Steve doesn't, apart from obscure Canadian ones.

Mighty Hiker

Social climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Jun 20, 2009 - 10:43pm PT

Chris Jones' account of the ascent from the Canadian Alpine Journal 1972 is somewhat shorter and less lyrical. It is simply titled "The West Face of North Howser Tower", and doesn't say anything about rifles. (Perhaps that was a poeticism of Rowell's which stuck.) It says that "...it was probably the first Grade VI in the Interior Ranges on what is most likely the greatest granite face in the Interior." (34 pitches)

In 1972, Dave Jones, John Markel and Bob Wallace made the first ascent of Ohno Wall on Moby Dick, in the Battle Range, between the Bugaboos and Rogers' Pass. The 27 pitches (12 aid) took them over four days. And in 1973, Steve Sutton and Hugh Burton did a route on the west face of North Howser, which they called Warrior. About 30 pitches, with a fair amount of aid. They were back for more in 1974, and climbed a comparable route called Mescalito.

Walls in the Interior Ranges were an idea whose time had apparently arrived.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Jun 21, 2009 - 12:38am PT

You got that right, Hankster buddy! The guy was really incredibly relaxed, sharp, well-informed and very humane. You would have liked him tons!

You know I always am pondering on ST this thing about climbers dying everywhere BUT while climbing. Crushed by logs falling off a truck as he was driving up near the Olympic Peninsula in his early sixties. It is almost as if we should be climbing ALL the time just to be safe from the much more likely hazards of plain ole' living. Tarbuster and I will probably meet our maker in a fabric store, falling bolts of fabric and such. Flannel with cedar log patterns on it.