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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 21, 2009 - 01:00am PT
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Perhaps Chris is lurking, or can be persuaded to lurk, and occasionally contribute. He would be an ornament to any campfire.
Yes, it's interesting, and sad, the ways in which climbers go. Although a generally active outdoor lifestyle does introduce many hazards in addition to the obvious ones, particularly relating to transportation and remote places. Like Peter, I've sort of kept a list of climbing friends who've died prematurely. People I've climbed or backcountry skied with, not just acquaintances. It's now about 35 altogether, the first when I was 17. Mostly due to mountain causes - falls, rappelling, especially avalanches. But four from car crashes, one in a helicopter accident, one from liver cancer, one from brain cancer, and of course Daryl, who died trying to rescue a cat from a tree.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jun 21, 2009 - 05:04am PT
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Sorry to hear about Tony's passing, even though I wasn't a supertopoian at the time.
RIP Tony
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Timmc
climber
BC
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Jun 21, 2009 - 09:15am PT
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Apparently Sutton and Burton only climbed one route on the West face of North Howser and that was Warrior. 'Mescalito' never happened even though it was recorded in the two guidebooks. There is a route that roughly follows the supposed line climbed a few years back and it goes free at 11+ and was climbed in a long day by a fellow named Crosby (can't remember the other guys name).
I believe that The Seventh Rifle was free climbed a few years back.
Thanks for the posts and articles about this important climb and interesting characters.
It certainly would have been a remote undertaking BITD.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 21, 2009 - 12:15pm PT
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Anders- I usually try to correct my posts and all that wanders is not lost. Far be it for me to deny you a thrill!
If I dig for more than about a half hour in vain then I might start calling for aid! The stacks, the stacks....LOL
The cover shot of the Banff warden himself makes me smile every time I see it.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 21, 2009 - 04:16pm PT
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The honeymooning Steve is forgiven - though like him, I do like that photo of Tim on the cover of the 1972 Ascent.
I wonder what the story behind the supposed "Mescalito" is? It did always seem a bit odd that only the year before, Steve and Hugh had been on the FA of a route of the same name in Yosemite. Hugh's account of the FA of Warrior in the Canadian Alpine Journal (1974) suggests that they were able to get there due to Hugh's working for a mining company that was doing exploration on the west side of the range.
Hugh wrote regularly for the CAJ from 1970 - 74, both on what he and Steve were doing as well as on Canadian climbers in Yosemite. He then seems to have ceased, although they continued to do significant climbs in Yosemite if not elsewhere. So it's hard to infer anything from the absence of a report on "Mescalito" in the 1975 CAJ.
Does anyone know the origins of the name "Qamar"? It seems an unusual name.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 21, 2009 - 06:25pm PT
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Kennan Harvey and another fine gent bagged that fabulous free ascent on the Howsers. What fun and mighty impressive! I recall a writeup in Alpinist but am not completely certain of the route or details. The Jones, Qamar and Rowell route would seem to be the most likely and elegant prospect.
Correction- Topher Donahue and Kennan Harvey freed All Along The Watchtower not the Seventh Rifle. Both are on the North Howser Tower.
This Chris Jones piece appeared in Alpinist 14.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 21, 2009 - 06:38pm PT
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I found an Anthony Ibrahim Quamar born 1943 in Shasta County, California, and died in Washington State on 10 October 2005. He was married at one point to a Jean Kettler and studied volcanos. Is this him?
A web search shows the name is Arabic, found in Egypt and Lebanon among others and was carried by Arabs to South Asia where it is found among Muslims in India and Pakistan.
A name like Anthony Ibrahim looks like a Lebanese type compromise between a Christian mother and a Muslim father or could be an Anglicized name for a child of South Asian immigrants? Both Christians and Muslims from Lebanon and South Asians have migrated to central California.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 21, 2009 - 08:19pm PT
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Jan- Those dates and details match Tony's biography. Definitely the same person. I can't explain the difference in the spelling of his last name.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jun 22, 2009 - 04:17am PT
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/obituaries/2002542720_qamarobit06.html
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Anthony Qamar, 62, state's expert on earthquakes
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter
Dr. Anthony Qamar was the state's seismologist.
Dr. Anthony Qamar was in his element last month in the crater of Mount St. Helens.
As the volcano oozed lava, Dr. Qamar and his colleagues from the University of Washington hastily set up a network of 40 special seismometers within spitting distance of the dome. A helicopter waited nearby to pluck them to safety, if necessary.
The instruments would help pinpoint the source of small earthquakes rattling the volcano.
On his back, Dr. Qamar carried a key to the expedition's success: a high-accuracy Global Positioning System he devised to precisely map the location of each seismometer.
"He rented a special antenna and rigged it up so it would fit in his pack," said UW seismologist Steve Malone. "Tony loved that type of field work, and he was good at it — good at problem-solving."
Dr. Qamar, Washington's state seismologist, died Tuesday when the car he was riding in was struck by logs that fell off a trailer truck on Highway 101 north of Hoquiam. He was 62. Also killed was 46-year-old Daniel J. Johnson, a fellow scientist who had worked at Central Washington University and the University of Puget Sound.
The two men were on their way to collect instruments used to monitor geologic-plate motion along the Washington coast.
With Malone, Dr. Qamar ran the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, which monitors earthquakes throughout the region. As state seismologist and a research associate professor, he also taught classes and gave public presentations on Washington's earthquake risks.
His patience and kindness made him a student favorite, recalled Seth Moran, seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash.
"Tony was somebody you could go to with any question — no matter how stupid," said Moran, a UW alumnus. "You left his office more educated and with your ego intact."
Dr. Qamar was born in Redding, Calif. He completed his high-school studies by correspondence as he traveled the United States and Europe with his mother and stepfather, professional dancers who opened for acts including Paul Anka and Tony Bennett.
In Europe, he developed a love of mountain climbing. He was the first person to ascend several routes, including the west face of rugged North Howser Tower in Canada's Bugaboo Mountains.
But Dr. Qamar rarely mentioned his mountaineering accomplishments, Malone said.
"You'd see his picture in books, and you'd find out: My god, this guy has really done amazing things, yet he was so low-key about it."
In 1980, while working at the University of Montana, Dr. Qamar set up portable seismic and heat-monitoring instruments around Mount St. Helens as the volcano was building toward its massive, May 18 eruption. His work helped fill gaps in the regular seismic network, Malone said.
After joining the UW in 1983, Dr. Qamar quickly became indispensable for his ability to keep the seismology lab running while also improving it, Malone said.
During the excitement that accompanied Mount St. Helens' reawakening last year, Dr. Qamar developed a method to quickly plot the amount of energy the volcano was releasing over time.
"He would dash back to his office, put his head down and basically do the computer programming to develop this," Malone said.
Dr. Qamar is survived by his wife, Kathleen Ellsbury; daughter Muña Qamar of Brooklyn, N.Y.; half sister Leanna Briggs of Wendover, Nev.; and half brothers Robert Qamar of Redding, Conn., and Laurence Qamar of Portland.
Information on services will be posted at www.pnsn.org/welcome.html.
Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
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storer
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 27, 2009 - 09:55am PT
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Tony following the Hand, Pinnacles, c1963. Pitch led by Paul Gerhard who died in 1969 on Dhauligiri. Tony was an extremely good natured friend. Fun to climb with. Gotta dig aroung in my box of B&W's to get one of his face.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 30, 2009 - 01:00am PT
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Nice shot Storer! More please!
Another shot from The Bugaboos.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 22, 2009 - 10:44am PT
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Qamar Bump!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 17, 2010 - 02:17pm PT
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Bump in the hope of luring out Charlie Raymond!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jan 18, 2010 - 10:24am PT
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Last I heard (a mere 40 years ago), Charlie Raymond was living and studying glaciers in Canada. Had a professorship there.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 18, 2010 - 10:45am PT
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Jan- Charlie recently attended a Tahquitz and Suicide climbers gathering in SoCal so I presume that he lives nearby. The folks that organized the gathering would certainly know.
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Jan 18, 2010 - 11:08am PT
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Charlie Raymond is a retired professor of geophysics, glaciology at the university of Washington, and is still living in Seattle. I don't think he follows this forum on a regular basis, but from time to time I call him to point out a thread that would interest him. He reads those, but as far as I know he has not posted anything here. He was a good friend of Tony Qamar, and it was from Charlie that I first heard about that sad accident.
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kathleen ellsbury
climber
seattle
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Jan 18, 2010 - 03:28pm PT
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Hi,
I’m Kathleen Ellsbury, Tony Qamar’s widow (sadly) and wanted to say I read this site with interest. It’s wonderful to see posts from people who knew Tony. Tony’s parents were both Christian (not that it should really matter). His mother loved climbing and came to the US with her parents from Switzerland as a child, settling in California. His father was Palestinian, born in Jerusalem, and came to the US at 19 to study engineering, and stayed here the rest of his life. Both his parents & stepfather loved dancing. Tony was married to Jean Kettler until the early 70’s, then to the late Marian McKay (by whom he had a daughter, Muna, now my daughter, age 27).
Tony & I were married 18 years until his untimely and death in 2005, due to unsafe practices in the trucking industry (a speeding, overloaded, and poorly maintained logging truck lost its load coming around a curve on Hwy 101 in SW Washington). The truck was driven by a methamphetamine user. The load crushed the car with Tony & Dan Johnson, also a seismologist, inside. I’ve been as vocal as I can be on a state and national level about trucking safety, in an effort to salvage something constructive from this tragedy.
Tony and I had many wonderful years together. He continued to climb until his death, and did river kayaking until a few years before that. We shared a love of skiing, sea kayaking, hiking, art, film, and travel.
He loved talking about his climbing days in Yosemite, the Bugaboos, the Wind Rivers, the Sierra and other places. He talked about several of you who have posted messages, and prob. a lot more readers who have not. One of his plans was to climb in the Wadi Rum in Jordan, as he had never traveled to the Middle East.
Does anyone know if that is Tony carrying the cross structure in the photos posted?
I’m friends with Charlie Raymond and his wife Sarah and hope I look as good as they do when I reach that age!
Kathleen
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jan 18, 2010 - 03:58pm PT
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Kathleen,
Thank you for sharing the info on Tony with us.
I'm sorry about that accident - sad to lose 2 good people in their prime suddenly like that.
> Does anyone know if that is Tony carrying the cross structure in the photos posted?
Bruce has posted those photos in several other thread which are memorials to climbers who have died, so I don't think that is Tony.
I didn't know Tony, but remember seeing his name several times in the American Alpine Journal in the early 70s.
Clint
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