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MH2
climber
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I can tell a fairly typical Sig Isaac story.
When we moved from Toronto to Vancouver in '91, Dave Smart told me to look up Sig, who had left a big hole in Dave's climbing partnerships when Sig moved west.
If I remember rightly, our first climbs were Daily Planet (all pitches) and then Astrologger. The technical difficulties weren't too bad but it was a bit of an adjustment from Ontario limestone.
A couple years later, apparently still somewhere on Sig's list, I got a call and agreed to be up at 5 a.m. This was during the time he was training for Northern Lights/U Wall/Freeway. When gf had mentioned that combination I took it for a joke at first.
Sig and I finished Freeway before noon. It took about 4 and a half hours, which he said was his fastest time so far. That was the last time that day I felt strong. We met John Rosholt down at the parking lot and the 3 of us did Agonal on the Malemute. Then we went to Pet Wall and I watched Sig and John do some hard stuff.
Sig told some of his own stories: a near-miss on a motorcycle and an unroped fall in the mountains which showed either a fatalistic personality or very cool nerves. On one of his training runs on Freeway he got a little careless and took an 80 foot fall (so the story went) on the pitch just above the big roof, ending in the big air below it. That could freak someone out, but Sig just got himself up and finished the climb, a little embarrassed. A smart strong climber and a great partner.
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MH2
climber
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^^^^
Could be. His words were, "I got careless." He could've meant with avoiding drag. When he did it with me he linked the roof and the next pitch. One of his runners was about 10' long, if I recall correctly.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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I had an interesting chat with Les McDonald recently. A lively character.
It would be easy to free, or almost free, Papoose One without noticing. The cruxes are generally fairly short, and there's nothing over 5.9 or easy 5.10.
The history that MH is working on, though, will be error-free, I'm sure.
Very funny. There's no such thing as an error-free history of anything.
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hamish f
Social climber
squamish
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Ram (Mark Gandy) and I did that freeway time-saver once. Never again; huge rope drag. Sounded like a good idea at the time...
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Most unappreciated Squamish climber ever = Hank Mather?
I get the feeling there was a language barrier that kept some guys from being noticed. Like, Mather was of Germanic ancestry. I never met him but Lyle Knight got to interview him when putting Central BC Rock together. Sounds like Mather had kind of a strong Germanic accent. So his English speaking partners (Beckey, MacDonald, etc.) mostly werre the ones who wrote up the climbs and thus get name checked today.
When you look at the climbs he did though, F*#KING INCREDIBLE.
Marble Canyon headwall all free in the 60s?
First wall route in the Bugs, with Beckey!
First real route at Squamish, South Gully (5.8 A1) - Campbell guide has this as FA 1957 and north Gully as FA 1958 - also south gully chockstone crux is way,way more butch than north gully. McLane guide has them both as 1958 but McLane is prone to errors of this sort.
North buttress of Stewart in the Cheam Range - unrepeated for 50 something years - steep climbing on bad rock
And yet this is a guy who Chic Scott, our definitive Canadian climbing history writer, only managed to find one line to describe, apparently thinking he was an American? I mean, sh#t. Talk about under the radar.
Hamie? Glenn? You guys ever meet Hank? What was he like?
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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MH. There is a big difference between being English and being British! Tsssk. I think that Peter Rowat was from the USA not the UK, arriving about the time of the Vietnam War, but maybe not. He is of course best known for the FA of the fabulous South Ridge of Gimli, one of BC's super ultra classics.
Les McDonald, whom you met recently, was an ex-member [if you were allowed to leave] of the notorious/feared Creagh Dhu Club from Glasgow. Definitely not English. He was the first Brit to climb at Squamish, and he was BRILLIANT, way way better than anyone else, likely the best rockclimber in Canada at that time. Unfortunately for us, he was a dedicated family man, and rarely went climbing. He was our answer to Frank Sacherer, whom he resembled in ability, attitude and build. I also recall a story that Les ran as a Communist candidate for North Van in the 1958 federal election, but that could have been a case of Les and Big Jim winding me up. [Bastards!]
Ann MacKenzie, who was involved in the FA of Panic was a one-day climber. She was many months pregnant at the time.
Mave was a serious climber. She and her friend Sheila M were the first Canadian women to visit Yosemite, in 1965, where they did several short routes with Layton Kor.
FFA Slab Alley--1962--Bob Woodsworth and _--1.5 hours.
All for now!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Les told me he was born in Felling, in north England. He may consider himself a Scot - I'll ask.
According to Beckey's 100 Climbs book, Hank Mather's proper name is Henryk, and IIRC I read somewhere that he's of Polish, not German, origin. I'll ask him, too. (Is Henryk a German or Polish name? Or both?)
Both amazing climbers.
Jim H got hurt in 1984. I was working with his brother that summer, and visited Jim at UBC hospital. He was his usual self.
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thekidcormier
Gym climber
squamish, b.c.
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This Hank Mather character sounds pretty under-rated indeed, I've never heard (or read) the name ever. I do not recall him being mentioned in Anders' history presentation either.
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thekidcormier
Gym climber
squamish, b.c.
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First real route at Squamish, South Gully (5.8 A1)
-Seems noteworthy to me
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seth kovar
climber
Reno, NV
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Climbed a day In Josh a few weeks ago with a guy named Peter from Squamish. Not Croft. Son named Jayko, maybe 6 or 7?
Wanted to drop him a line. Anybody help?
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bmacd
Boulder climber
100% Canadian
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Stewart on the right. Looks like a couple distinct possible lines there. Presumably the Mather route takes the central line, the one casting the shadow. Adolf Bitterlich/Mather 1967.
Beckey guide says it goes up a couloir to start then "rightward" onto the ridge crest. Either by right they mean "true right" (facing downhill) and it goes up that super narrow couloir line to get onto the buttress crest, OR it is in the hidden gully behind the buttress (in the shadow) to start.
Adolf Bitterlich and his brother Ulf were hard climbers too. From Vancouver Island - I think Port Alberni? - but originally from Dresden. First Canadian ascent of the Wadd.
I've got a better pic somewhere of Stewart NF in winter. Will look for it.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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It seems likely that there was 'real' climbing at Squamish before 1957, although the details may be lost to the mists of history. One person did some things in 1956, anyway. There is circumstantial evidence, and stories by Big Jim, to suggest that there may have been climbing earlier in the 1950s, and possibly as early as the 1930s, perhaps by people from Britannia Beach/Mount Sheer, which was then much larger than Squamish. There is a photo from the 1930s of people from Britannia on top of a local mountain, roped together, and Glenn has mentioned a known mountaineer who lived there then. The people of Britannia used what became Murrin Park as something of a recreation site. Perhaps they tried out their equipment there? I'm trying to track these things down.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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MH. Check that Creagh Dhu story too!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Tami, please ask your parents if they know anything about when climbing started at Lighthouse Park, and the quarry.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Apr 2, 2012 - 07:25pm PT
Most unappreciated Squamish climber ever = Hank Mather?
I get the feeling there was a language barrier that kept some guys from being noticed. Like, Mather was of Germanic ancestry. I never met him but Lyle Knight got to interview him when putting Central BC Rock together. Sounds like Mather had kind of a strong Germanic accent. So his English speaking partners (Beckey, MacDonald, etc.) mostly werre the ones who wrote up the climbs and thus get name checked today.
When you look at the climbs he did though, F*#KING INCREDIBLE.
Marble Canyon headwall all free in the 60s?
First wall route in the Bugs, with Beckey!
First real route at Squamish, South Gully (5.8 A1) - Campbell guide has this as FA 1957 and north Gully as FA 1958 - also south gully chockstone crux is way,way more butch than north gully. McLane guide has them both as 1958 but McLane is prone to errors of this sort.
North buttress of Stewart in the Cheam Range - unrepeated for 50 something years - steep climbing on bad rock
And yet this is a guy who Chic Scott, our definitive Canadian climbing history writer, only managed to find one line to describe, apparently thinking he was an American? I mean, sh#t. Talk about under the radar.
Hamie? Glenn? You guys ever meet Hank? What was he like?
Don't forget that he and Les did the Widowmaker Arete on Crown, now considered one of the classic local climbs, not to mention another line or two on the Camel. "Stiff class 4-low class 5". Those guys were GREAT. Don't forget that Les also did some hard, multi-pitch rock climbs on the walls above Lake Ann (Shuksan area) in the early 1960s, and Les (and Hank?) also did some multi-pitch rock routes on Goat Mountain in behind Grouse.
Chic Scott really blew it by not including Les and Hank in his book. He also blundered badly by not including Leif-NOrman Patterson; Hamish Mutch could well have beeen included, too.
I did meet Hank Mather. First time was at some ACC thing, very early 1960s, and I found him quite intimidating. But that was probably the age and experience difference (he was more than twice as old as I, and only 1000 times more experience). I was quite used to thick German accents. I met him again, probably in connection with research for Culbert's guide and found him quite pleasant.
I have no Hank Mather stories, but I've got a couple of Les MacDonald stories. One I'll probably post here sometime. The other isn't a Squamish story.
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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Tom Fyles was really good. He probably climbed the Camel umpteen times. Table, solo, FA. Repeated it later because some people expressed some doubt ... Outer peak of the Black Tusk. FWA West Lion. FA west buttress on Ledge. Don't forget FA of Judge Howay (including solo FA of the lower peak). And choss like Meager, Pylon, Cayley.
Chic Scott is a Rockies guy. And some of us who he interviewed did steer him in the direction of lesser known Coast Mtns people, at least I did. Good book in spite of the errors. Could any of us carping about this stuff have done better? I doubt it.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 3, 2012 - 02:37am PT
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You guys are doing better right now! Thanks for sharing some awesome Squamish history and inspiring the next generation to raise our game to match your ethics!
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Tricouni
Mountain climber
Vancouver
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I was wrong about Ann Mackenzie being the first woman climber at Squamish. As hamie mentioned, she was a one-climb woman (8 months pregnant). The first had to be Elfrida Pigou, who was on the FA of the North Gully in 1958. Tami's and Bruce's parents no doubt knew her well. Amazing person, and with this fire, drive that Tami mentioned with respect to Alice. And Tami has it, and Maeve did, to some extent.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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On reflection I now realize that it was NOT Peter Rowat who came from the USA, but rather his climbing partner Peter Koedt. A terrific team. Please excuse! Apologies to MH.....
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