History of the Los Alamos Mountaineers Club

ThirdSecond Version, MayJune 20098

Prepared for the Los Alamos Mountaineers' Website

http://lamountaineers.org

Acknowledgements

This history of the Los Alamos Mountaineers was first suggested by Sharon Dogruel, Kathleen Gruetzmacher, and Leslie Champ in 2006. At that time, Bill Priedhorsky also provided valuable suggestions on content and goals. The history is a work in progress and will perhaps always remain so. We have already received a great deal of valuable input from a number of past and present club members who have provided notes, digitized photos, and valuable documents, or participated in interviews. We would like to particularly acknowledge help from Ginny Bell, George (Skip) Bell, Jr., Carolyn Bell, David and Faye Brown, Larry Campbell, Leslie Champ, Larry Dauelsberg, Ken Ewing, Eiichi Fukushima, Jason Halladay, Lou Horak, Don and Alice Liska, Len Margolin, Tom Newton, Kim Selvage, John Ramsey, Mario Schillaci, Mike Sullivan, and Mark Zander. Also special thanks to Bob Cowan, and Jim Straight, and Charles Mader, who provided large libraries of digitized photos for us to select from, and Bobbye Straight, who edited this first version and provided valuable guidance on grammatical usage. In addition, we would like to thank Jan Studebaker for his major effort in loading all of the history sections and their associated photos onto the club's website.

The current list of topics is by no means complete, and other topics are welcome. There are still other senior club members who have not yet been interviewed. Additional stories and (a few) pictures can also be added to the current topics. Please send new contributions to Norbert Ensslin ([email protected]) or to our webmaster, Jan Studebaker ([email protected]).

Norbert Ensslin, MayJune 20097 Introduction

The Los Alamos Mountaineers have played an important part in the lives of many people in Los Alamos and other surrounding communities for over 55 years now. Through club outings, monthly meetings and programs, the annual climbing school, and other personal contacts, members have had the opportunity to meet other people with a love of the outdoors and to make new friends. The Mountaineers have come to know and love many beautiful local areas, as well as many mountains, canyons, and climbing areas, mostly within a day's drive of Los Alamos, but some in other western states as well.

The importance of mountains in our lives is aptly described by Don Liska: "I believe that the mountains symbolize the conjunction of humanity and nature in some very special ways. Always a barrier to expansion, always a challenge to conquest, always a sanctuary for beauty and grandeur, always a test of endurance and acceptance of hardship on nature's terms, always a reminder of beauty and wonder, the mountains play a crucial role in our collective humanity. Without the mountainous regions of this beleaguered planet, our senses for pulchritude and awe would be diminished, our love of the delicate and eternally enduring would be less developed. Above all, our mountainous environment raises us as individuals to more exalted heights. I can only bow to the wisdom of the great Lionel Terray who said that the acceptance of risks taken in the mountains, even 'demanded' by the mountains, is the price one must pay in order to earn the right to exist above the level of crawling grubs. We are all evolved in this unique world with the mountains as our symbolic edifices of love of nature and nobility of spirit."

The Mountaineers have served as a focal point for many people who share outdoor interests via participation in club trips or small private trips organized by club members. One measure of this is the number of couples who have met in the Mountaineer's climbing school, or on club trips, or at club meetings. These include, among others, George and Ginny Bell, Dave and Gail Barlow, Gregg and Anne Brickner, Bill and Rosemary Enenbach, Norbert and Lynn Ensslin, Chris Foster and France Cordova, Lou Horak and Kathy Ramsay, Don Gettemy and Gracia Coffin, Bill and Emily Johnson, Elizabeth Kelly and Rob Ryne, Cliff Meiers and Carol Sutcliffe, and Mark Zander and Leslie Champ. Most recently, Francesco Grilli and Tianshu Li met on a Bluff canyon trip in February 2007, and were married almost exactly two years later. Fig. 1. John Sarracino, Mark Felthauser, and other club members on a Blanca-Little Bear traverse trip led by Don Liska (Bob Cowan photo, July 1978).

We hope that this history of the Los Alamos Mountaineers will serve to commemorate and remind us of many fun and exciting adventures from the club's past. As Don Liska once said, "When we think back on our lives, it's the exciting trips and outdoor adventures that stand out, not the many days in the office." Perhaps it will also help us enjoy the future more, as members continue some old traditions and also develop entirely new ways of enjoying the outdoors. The next section of this history describes the founding and organization of the club. Because the soul of the Mountaineers' club has always been its members and their adventures, the sections that follow will focus on the personal stories and anecdotes that truly define us. Founding and Organization of the Los Alamos Mountaineers Club

According to Tom Newton, the first President, and Ken Ewing, the first Treasurer, the Los Alamos Mountaineers were founded in late 1952. Tom recalls that he and his wife met in the rock climbing section of the Sierra Club in California, and that they moved to Los Alamos in 1949. They were interested in doing more mountaineering and rock climbing, and began meeting with like-minded friends to organize trips. The Newtons had a 3-bedroom Western area house, so they were the only ones with a place big enough for meetings. They started club meetings in their house in the fall of 1952 or early 1953, with meetings scheduled about once a month. George Bell and Virginia Lotz met each other at the Newtons' house and later married. Tom remembers that they all had a lot of fun enjoying the outdoors.

Fig. 1. Tom Newton on the highest point of the Organ Mts. near Las Cruces on a climbing trip with John Ramsay and Stan Landeen (John Ramsay photo, April 1955.)

Tom Newton served as the first President and remembers that Ken Ewing kept the treasury in a paper bag. The club was originally the Rock Climbing Section of the Outdoor Association, but quickly became a separate group. The founding members were Tom Newton, Ken Ewing, Bob Mulford, Liz Gittings, Tom Stevenson, Stan Landeen, and Gene Tate. John Ramsay came to Los Alamos as a summer student in 1953, a year after the club was founded. In 1954 he returned to work at the Laboratory in explosives research. John had done his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he had known Don Liska and Alice Liska before they were married. John took Don on his first rock climb at Devil's Lake, over a decade before the Liskas moved to Los Alamos. Fig. 2. Stan Landeen, Liz Gittings (later Marshall), Wally Green, Bob Mulford, Emily West (later Wilbanks), and Ken Ewing (?) on Lake Peak (John Ramsay photo, winter 1957.)

Other early active members included Stretch Fretwell, Pat Fretwell, Frank Pretzel, George Bell and Ginny Bell, Marvin Tinkle, Don and Margaret Hagerman, Dick Stokes, and Emily Willbanks. Ken Ewing served as President twice. He may also have served as Vice-President, but does not recall ever teaching the climbing school. He also served as Treasurer for quite a few years. Ken Ewing is still an active club member in 2008, and we are very happy to have a founding member of the club still attending our meetings.

The club has had a formal written Constitution since at least 1962. There is also a set of club bylaws, which were amended in 1968, 1972, and 1984. The club is incorporated as the Los Alamos Mountaineers, Inc., and is registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization with the State of New Mexico. The club officers are President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Other Board members at this point in time are the Program Chairman, the Membership Chairman, the Equipment Manager, the Audio/Visual Potentate, and the Webmaster. In some past years the club also had a Search and Rescue Director, and during the late 1970's, a Conservation Director. A list of past club officers and other board members is given as an appendix at the end of this history. Regrettably, this is an incomplete list of all the people who have given time to serve as club officers or board members. For many of the club's early years, the records are no longer available. Some club records were also lost during the 2000 Cerro Grande fire.

In December 1967, the club membership voted to accept affiliation as a Group of the Colorado Mountain Club. The club bylaws were amended to reflect this change and to call for the appointment of one of the club's board of directors to serve as the representative to the CMC. In the 1973 to 1975 time frame, the Mountaineers voted to break this connection because of concerns about new CMC safety rules that limited how far CMC members were allowed to drive on weekend trips. This may have been only a misunderstanding, but at that point in time the majority of the Mountaineers were concerned that such rules would not be feasible for them because of the long driving distances from Los Alamos to Colorado. After the club separated from the CMC, several members still maintained individual CMC memberships and sometimes joined CMC trips. (Ken Ewing recalls going to Scotland, Norway, and England on CMC trips.) In the past few years, under the initiative of Bill Priedhorsky, the Mountaineers and the CMC have begun doing an annual joint trip in Colorado again, providing members with the opportunity to visit new areas and make new acquaintances. During the 1980's the Mountaineers were also affiliated with Club 1663 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This affiliation provided support to the club for meeting places, administrative activities, and communications.

Bob Cowan, Don Liska, and Larry Campbell remember that around 1967 the club used to meet at Ernie Anderson's house. Membership was small, with only 8 to 10 members attending the meetings. Bob distinctly remembers George Bell attending these early meetings. Bob also remembers 1967-era meetings at the old fire station on Arkansas Street. Beginning around 1978-1979, the monthly club meetings moved to the LANL HRL building auditorium. In later years meetings rotated between the Los Alamos High School Little Theater, the Los Alamos High School Speech Room, and the HRL building.

The Mountaineers' monthly meetings are now held at Fuller Lodge on the third Wednesday of every month, at 7:30 PM. The meetings provide information on recent club trips and on new trips coming up on the schedule. They also feature a slide show program on an outdoor activity by club members or invited speakers. Members of the public are welcome to attend these meetings. Early Club Activities

In the 1950's, club activities were extremely informal. Tom Newton and Ken Ewing recall that the members did some short rock climbs at the Back Rocks above the Northern Area in Los Alamos and made a lot of trips to Colorado. (One popular route in the Back Rocks was Monk's Needle, named for Don Monk. Don and George Bell first climbed this pinnacle in 1953. Don was also on the first ascent of Easy Ridge and the Great Couloir in the Brazos with George and Ginny Bell.) Eiichi Fukushima recalls that he and Larry Campbell climbed Battleship Rock (near Jemez Springs) right on the prow and found it to be an easy rock climb.

Fig. 1. Mountaineers on top of Middle Truchas Peak: Marvin Tinkle, Mrs. Mulford, Tom Stevenson, Bob Mulford (red sweater), Herbert Ungnade (blue cap), two unidentified persons, and Frank Pretzel (Charles Mader photo, September 1955).

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the club used to have summer outings to major climbing areas. These were two-week trips, but some people would come for just the first or second week. Ken Ewing recalled some anecdotes from these early trips. On a trip to the Wilson Peak and Mt. Wilson area in May 1957, John Ramsay, Ken Ewing, Liz Gittings Marshall, and (maybe) Gene Tate climbed Wilson Peak. Don Hagerman and Harry Hoyt climbed Mt. Wilson. Ken got pulmonary edema for a few hours on Wilson Peak. The others in the party went ahead and came close to getting hit by lightning. Ken could feel the hair rising under his hard hat until a local stroke discharged the field. On a saddle near the Wilsons, there was an old mining hut where they found sticks of frozen dynamite. John Ramsay noticed that the dynamite sticks were exuding liquid, a sign of instability, so he knew that they were dangerous! Fig. 21. Ken Ewing on Wilson Peak, with the Mt. Wilson - El Diente ridge in the background (John Ramsay photo, May 1957).

On a trip to the San Juan Needles area, the Mountaineers climbed Sunlight, Windom, and Eolus. On this trip, a porcupine showed up and ran into one of the tents. They chased it out, and Ken hit it with his ice axe. The porcupine died, although Ken hadn’t meant to kill it, and he felt very badly about that. But since it was dead, they had to eat it. One member of the party was a biology student. He dissected the porcupine, looking for worms in the stomach, but didn’t find any. So Liz Gittings Marshall cooked it, which took hours. It turns out that porcupine meat tastes like pine trees, which is what they eat!

Ken also recalls trips to the Southern Wind Rivers (Cirque of the Towers) and to the Northern Wind Rivers (where they camped at Island Lake and climbed Gannett Peak via the glacier). On the 1958 trip to the Cirque of the Towers, the group climbed Warbonnet, Pingora (by the standard route), and an Unnamed Peak. John Ramsay remembers that they had to do a very scary rappel at an angle of 45 degrees to get down from Pingora. John had also been to the Cirque of the Towers in 1951 before he moved to Los Alamos. That trip was probably the second climbing trip ever to the Cirque, after the original visit by the Bonneys.

There were two early club trips to the Tetons, one in 1953 and one in 1955. Ken climbed the Grand Teton on each trip and did the free rappel using a (padded) dulfersitz technique. They also climbed Mt. Moran via the Skillet Glacier. This was too steep for ice axe self-arrest (60 degrees), so they did ice axe belays all the way up and down. They also climbed the South and Middle Tetons. John Ramsay recalls that he, Don Liska, Wally Green, and others came out from the University of Wisconsin in 1954 to climb several peaks, including the Direct Exum Ridge and the friction pitch route above that. One early club trip was to the High Sierras, where they climbed some of the Minarets, Mt. Ritter, and Banner Peak. In the night, Ken Ewing and Tom Newton saw a bright flash of light and heard what sounded like a big rock fall. Later they learned that this was a 70 kiloton test at the Nevada Test Site.

George Bell, Dave Brown, Mike Williams, and Don Liska (all LAMC members) climbed the Kain Face on Mt. Robson in 1968. They were the first climbers to reach Robson’s summit that summer. Don Liska and Dave Brown got hit by an avalanche descending the face and had to be rescued by the Canadian Air Force. On the descent, the party had tried to make the slope slide before stepping onto it, but couldn't. Then, part way down, a snow slide came in diagonally from a side gully and caught Don and Dave. Both climbers were injured, Dave quite seriously. Dave remembers that "while cart wheeling down the Kain face, I asked myself, 'Now how do I do a self-arrest in this situation?'" Don says, "On the 600-foot fall, I smashed my Kelty frame into a dozen pieces which must have absorbed a lot of energy as I wasn’t more seriously injured. The Kain route is one of the most dangerous I’ve ever been on. Approach such a climb with extreme caution!!" The party had camped at a good site several miles away from the face for about a week before attempting the face. But from that location they could not observe some of the activity on the face, so they may not have been aware of how frequently snow slides occurred. Don Liska recalls that George Bell pulled off a very gutsy solo walk over the Robson Glacier to turn in the alarm. After the rescue, a Canadian onlooker at the base of the mountain pressed a bottle of whiskey into Don's hand with the comment, “You need this more than I do.”

In the summer of 1969, club members Eiichi Fukushima and Larry Campbell did a first ascent of the steep south face of Little Annapurna Peak in the Eastern Cascades. This peak is located in the Enchantment Lakes region, near Mt. Stuart. The climb is now described in Fred Beckey's guidebook for that region. Both the rainy west side and the drier east side of the North Cascades have been the destination of several club trips and other private trips by club members over the years.

By the late 1960's and early 1970's the club had grown to about 50 or 60 members and offered trip schedules featuring a wide range of summer and winter activities. Summer trips included many climbs of Colorado Fourteeners and rock climbing trips to places such as the Brazos Cliffs, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, or the Organ Mountains. There were typically one or two annual week-long trips to farther destinations. George Bell, Don Liska, and others led two club trips to the Tetons, in 1967 and 1968. Winter trips in the 1972-1973 season included ascents of Lincoln, Bross, and Democrat led by Ken Ewing; an ascent of Kit Carson led by Mario Schillaci; a climb of Santa Fe Baldy led by Larry Dauelsberg; and trips to the Pecos Wilderness and San Pedro Parks. For a few years the club issued a newsletter that listed upcoming trips and included short articles on conservation or mountaineering issues.

The March 1972 issue of "Trail and Timberline," the Colorado Mountain Club's publication, was devoted to the "Los Alamos Group," as it was called by the CMC. Larry Campbell, the club's President that year, coordinated the writing and collection of photos for the issue. The Brazos Cliffs were shown in the cover picture and George Bell's article on the Brazos (as described in the Brazos section of this history) was the lead article. Bill Hendry provided an article on the 1971 Los Alamos expedition to Mt. Waddington and Larry Campbell wrote one on the 1971 Greenland expedition.

The 1970's and 1980's were the years of greatest activity for the Mountaineers, with typically 8 to 12 winter trips and 15 to 25 summer trips every year. In the summer there was usually a scheduled trip every weekend or at least every second weekend. Some weekends featured both a technical climb and a family hiking trip. The club also conducted search and rescue practice sessions, participated in some conservation work, and occasionally hosted a rock climbing film festival.

There were no major expeditions undertaken by the Mountaineers as official club trips. The closest might be the Mt. Waddington trip in 1971. However, many club members went on repeated expeditions as individuals to wild places and racked up an impressive record of first ascents and new routes, and also made several courageous attempts which failed. Don Liska recalls that he was into expedition climbing and winter mountaineering in those days. Some expeditions that Don Liska participated in, sometimes with other members of the Mountaineers, are listed below:

Peru 1961 (two first ascents); McKinley 1963 (before guided ascents); Mt. Waddington 1965 (one first ascent, one new route); Peru 1967 (two attempted first ascents); Mt. Robson 1968 (successful summit, accident, rescue, see earlier description); Afghanistan 1969 (1 new route, world record, first ascent, see Memorable Programs); Greenland 1971 (first onto Bartolins Glacier drainage, see Memorable Programs); Alaska 1974 (Mt. Fairweather region, see LAMC Trip Reports); Alaska 1975 (attempted new route on Mt. St. Elias, logistical disaster, see LAMC Trip Reports); Alaska 1979 (attempted new route on Mt. St. Elias, near death experience); Peru 1981 (successful high climbs, one second ascent, personnel problems); Pamirs 1987 (successful high climb, sickness, and HAPE).

Some of the above expeditions are described elsewhere in this history, as noted. Also Don Liska is providing detailed trip reports for some of these expeditions (link to Trip Reports). Some of the club's senior members were also members of the American Alpine Club, including George Bell, Don Liska, Eiichi Fukushima, Larry Dauelsberg, Larry Campbell, and Len Margolin.

Don Liska also initiated several trips to the Mexican volcanos, which were all virgin territory for the Mountaineers. At Christmas time in 1967, Don and Alice Liska and Dave and Faye Brown went to Mexico to enjoy the holiday season and climb Popocatepl and Ixtaccihuatl. Don wrote an unpublished article in 1971 on "Climbing the Three Mexican Volcanos." And, in 1978, Herb Kincey wrote an article on "Climbing Mexico's Big Three Volcanos" for the February-March issue of Summit magazine. These articles provided travel information, contact names, approach maps, and descriptions of the major routes on the three volcanoes, which encouraged other club members to climb the volcanoes. In the early 1970's, Larry Campbell, Carroll Mills, and other mountaineers joined Don on several trips to climb Popocatepl, Ixtaccihuatl, and Orizaba. Larry and Carroll also returned to Ixtaccihuautl by themselves, as they didn't climb all the way to the summit on Don's trip. Ross Harder led a Mexico volcanoes trip at Christmastime 1972, and Merle Wheeler led one in February 1979. Bob Cowan, Ken Ewing, and other club members climbed some of the volcanos in 1980, 1981, and 1982. A 1982 Mountaineers trip to the Mexican volcanos provided the photo shown below. Ken Ewing also recalls a second successful climb of Popocatepetl in 1984 with Roland Pettitt and a United Church group. More recently, in November 1998, Mike Sullivan climbed Orizaba and Ixtaccihuatl. That was the year Popocatepl was closed because of eruptions. Fig. 32. Bob Cowan, John Sarracino, Bill Johnson, and Scott Rogers on Ixtaccihuatl (Bob Cowan photo, January 1982).

Don Liska and Larry Campbell led a Mountaineers' trip to Baja California to climb Picacho del Diablo in 1973. Don says that "This was a fine trip. It had Gerry Roach on it. Roach later became a well known name in hard-core climbing and authored a guide to the Colorado Mountains. On our way in we encountered a 'bolt ladder'--namely a carpenter's ladder slung from a bolt on the granite wall above the big waterfall. On this trip Carroll Mills decided he would survive the 5-day climb on 10 pounds of roasted soy beans and water. Fortunately, there were a couple of excellent gourmet climbers on the trip so Carroll was not overly tested. The climb was successful."

During the 1980's, the Club organized some caving trips to southern New Mexico. There are many small caves in the Guadalupe Mountains near Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Access to these caves was obtained by permit from the Lincoln National Forest, and for some caves it was necessary to unlock gates inside the caverns to get access to the best areas. On these trips club members had the opportunity to practice some important mountaineering skills in the dark: such as jumaring or rappelling past a knot in the rope, or jumaring up through a hole only large enough to squeeze through if you exhaled!

During those years Club members also organized a series of "gourmet backpacks." These were short-distance backpacks that concentrated on carrying in a large quantity of food and drink! The first gourmet backpack was held at the Rio Grande below White Rock, and organized by Jan Iversen in 1978. Jan also organized gourmet backpacks in 1979, 1980, and 1981. A 1982 gourmet backpack in the Jemez River Canyon in 1982, led by Len Margolin and Chris Foster, had several problems with minor accidents caused by drunkenness. The next year Lynn Sherman (now Ensslin) and Jenni Sprinkle led a return trip to this area, but it was a very calm family affair, a strong contrast to the previous year!

Many club members have always enjoyed bicycle riding for exercise and for the opportunity to do extended outings in Northern New Mexico. In 1973 the club issued a list of 20 recommended bike trips, including the newly-discovered White Rock loop (27 miles), and the Los Alamos to Aspen ride (300 miles one way!). Don Gettemy and Gracia Coffin led several club mountain biking trips to the Wheeler Geologic Area and to Penitente Canyon in southern Colorado. In the 1980's two club members, Keith Gainer and Gabriela Lopez-Escobedo, spun off a new club, the "Tuff Riders" Mountain Biking Club. Many members of the Mountaineers also belong to that club and continue to share a common interest in mountain biking.

Climbing Colorado’s Fourteeners

Colorado's fifty-four 14,000 foot peaks and its even more numerous high 13,000 foot peaks have always been a magnet for the Mountaineers. They provide great weekend hiking, climbing, snowshoeing, skiing, or (nowadays) running destinations for those seeking exercise, adventure, and fabulous mountain views. Most of the southern and central peaks in Colorado are, fortunately, accessible to the Mountaineers via weekend trips.

Trips to the Colorado Fourteeners began in the 1950's, at the same time that the Mountaineers' club was being formed. Outdoor enthusiasts from Los Alamos began to drive up to Colorado to club the high peaks, either as private groups or as small club trips. Charles Mader was a Los Alamos scientist who enjoyed climbed Fourteeners, starting with Blanca Peak in 1954 when he was a summer student at the Lab. Chuck climbed with many Club members, including names mentioned earlier in this history: Emily Wilbanks, George Bell, Gene Tate, Liz Gittings Marshall, Tom Stephenson, Ken Ewing, and Marvin Tinkle. Chuck recalls that "Most people who came to town were single. It was considered risqué for a single woman to join a group of men for a climbing trip. A youth group was formed at the Methodist Church and by 1960, 50 couples were married, none ever divorced!"

What was it like to climb Fourteeners in the 1950's? Chuck Mader says that "The main hazard was the long drives, no speed limits in those days. We would pile into a big sedan for the drive up to Colorado. Then we could rent old WWII jeeps at most service stations. Everything was open -- there were no wilderness areas, and lots of mines were still running. Usually one could drive to timberline. We usually climbed using a motel as a base. In those days the packs were painful, no waist straps, so it was better to do most of the peaks as day hikes even if it meant long days."

Maps were terrible in those days, and it could take several trips to find a way up a mountain. Many peaks were still being surveyed. The peaks often had lights with batteries on top, to help surveyors take readings at night. Many peaks still had the original registers. The list of Fourteeners was still in flux, and the "hundred highest" wasn't even a concept. Chuck climbed Mt. Stewart and Grizzly peak before they were demoted from the Fourteener list. He finished by climbing Snowmass in 1959, but later did Holy Cross and Ellingwood when they were added to the list. His climbing slides are available at http:www.mccohi.com/climb/climb.htm and also in the Colorado Mountain Club library archives.

Chuck recalls that the club's most experienced mountaineers had some disdain for doing Fourteeners. They called most of them "anthills," or "Maderhorns." Chuck did the Mt. Wilson - El Diente traverse on a trip with George Bell, who had lost two toes on K-2. George kept asking, " do you STILL want to be roped up"? Fig. 1. Charles Mader on top of the Crestone Needle after doing the Peak to Needle traverse (August 1959).

Chuck Mader's friend Ed Williamson wrote a novel called "Durango Light," which featured a character Buck based on Chuck Mader. The novel is set in Durango and describes life, love, and other adventures in Durango, including climbs of Jupiter, Windom, Sunlight, and Mt. Eolus. Figure 1 is the photograph of Chuck Mader used on the cover of the book, which was taken in 1959 on top of the Crestone Needle. The group had just finished the rescue of a couple of climbers who had spent the night on a ledge on the Ellingwood Arete after having lost their rope. The photograph of Chuck was taken by one of the rescued climbers.

Chuck Mader climbed Little Bear in August 1955 with Ken Ewing on a trip led by Tom Newton. Later Ken Ewing, Dave Brown, and Don Liska led beginner rock climbing parties on the Little Bear – Blanca traverse. Ken also recalls climbing in Colorado with George Bell and Bob Thorne. These early trips led to the formulation of the Club’s “Articles of War” (the trip rules), which were read annually at one of the meetings. These trip rules included, “the local leader is in charge of all the people on the trip,” and “other members of the party can’t leave the trip until everyone is done.”

Lou Horak recalls that his first club trip, led by Ken Ewing, was Capitol Peak in July 1971. Indeed, Mountaineers trips to the Fourteeners have been one of the most popular introductions to club activities for many new members. Although some of the well-known Fourteeners have technical routes, most are easy walks or scrambles and provide a good introduction to mountaineering as well as a great way to get to know Colorado. Many of the more moderate peaks are suitable for family outings and provide an opportunity to introduce kids to the mountains.

Ken Ewing, Dave Brown, and Don Liska used to lead beginner rock climbing parties on the Little Bear – Blanca traverse. Ken recalls climbing in Colorado with George Bell and Bob Thorne. These early trips led to the formulation of the club’s “Articles of War” (the trip rules), which were read annually at one of the meetings. These trip rules included, “the local leader is in charge of all the people on the trip,” and “other members of the party can’t leave the trip until everyone is done.”

Fig. 21. Don Liska leading the club's July 1978 Blanca-Little Bear traverse trip (Bob Cowan photo).

Don Liska recalls that some club climbers used to go into New York basin with Ernie Anderson and George Bell. "These were small scheduled LAMC outings. In the 1960's this was very wild terrain and most climbers only went to Chicago Basin. There was no trail and a lot of heavy side-hilling and bushwhacking to get in there. Inside the basin were Pigeon Peak and Turret. Pigeon is 13972', the finest peak in the Ruby Range, fortunately 28' short of being a 14'er which saves it from the crowds. Of course you could also climb Eolus from New York basin but few people bothered since Chicago Basin was so popular. During one of our climbs on Pigeon the rappel rope jammed and I had to do a hand-over-hand to retrieve it. It was a dangerous and foolish thing to do since had it come loose I would have been killed. Pigeon was a fine technical climb and to protect the approach to New York Basin we always swept our tracks clean with a branch when we returned to the much used Chicago Basin trail. This seemed to work for years as we always had the place to ourselves." Ginny Bell and George Bell, Jr. described a memorable club trip in 1970, when George Bell, Sr. led a group into Chicago Basin in the San Juans. "A 100 year storm hit, and it rained straight for 4 days. We were camped safely above the stream, but as the water got higher and higher we could see tree trunks coming down the streambed. We could hear loud cracks, as sections of the mountains' slopes let go, and sent mud avalanches roaring down the hillsides." One loud crack seemed to come from above their camp, so they ran out of their tent, with George Bell grabbing the kids. Fortunately the mud avalanche came down the next gully over from the one they were camped at . . . . So we never even got above timberline, but we had to use a rope to get the party back across the mudslide on the way out. When we hiked out to Needleton, the train tracks had all washed out. Fortunately the bridge was still in, so we were able to cross to the west side of the river. We had to walk out all the way to Silverton, occasionally contouring along the slope to get past places where the tracks just disappeared into the river for a few hundred feet. They had to rebuild the tracks." The next year, Ernie Anderson led a club trip back to the same area, but via the Lime Mesa road, because the railroad was not yet back in operation.

Mario Schillaci learned how to backpack food on a trip that Don Liska led to the Wind Rivers in the 1970's, when some of the climbers did East Temple Peak. This was one of Mario's first trips with Don and Alice, and when they finally got to camp, he was very tired from the long exhausting approach. As the rest of the party sat down to heat their freeze-dried dinners, Don emptied his pack onto the ground. Out came a bunch of whole potatoes and onions! Don also had some cans of oyster stew, and so the Liskas had a fine stew for dinner -- no freeze- dried food for them. Later, on a 1980 club trip to Arrow and Vestal peaks, it was Mario who found a fresh supply of food -- some big mushrooms growing near camp. He told Don about them, so Don ran off and filled a big bag with them. Then they got out the stove, found some butter, and began to fry up a huge tasty snack. But Norbert stayed away, and wouldn't have any. With a serious look on his face, he said "You're all going to die!" Sure enough, a few hours later, while the group was lounging around the camp, there came a scream of pain from the meadow. Don fell to the ground, writhing around, yelling "Norbert, you were right! Those mushrooms were poisonous!" It was a great performance, and everyone laughed hard.

Don Liska also started winter climbing (or at least climbs under winter conditions) on some of the most rugged of the Fourteeners. "As club trips we always did the Red Gully on Crestone Peak under winter conditions. Some trips were successful, and at other times the party had to turn back because of avalanche conditions in the gully. As non-club trips we did early season ascents of Kit Carson, Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak. The Crestone Peak trip was especially rugged, on snowshoes all the way." Mario Schillaci recalls that he was the first to propose the approach to Kit Carson from the west via Spanish Creek. This approach is a slog down low, but is the easiest way to the summit after leaving camp. Mario, Don Liska, Larry Dauelsberg, Larry Campbell, and Carl Keller climbed Kit Carson via the snow couloir, after fortifying themselves the night before in the tent by smoking cigars and drinking whiskey.

In the late 1970's or early 1980's), Mario did a winter climb of the Crestone Needle in February with Don Liska and Tom King. While they were on the climb, Don's McKinley tent blew away, but Tom managed to find it. This was the first club winter ascent of the Needle. They contoured around to the notch, avoiding the direct steeper approach from below. This may have made the climb somewhat easier or safer if there was heavy snow, versus the approach from directly below. In the 1990's, Gregg Brickner continued this tradition with a series of annual winter attempts on Crestone Needle, but most years bad weather or poor snow conditions prevented the party from reaching the summit. One memorable consolation prize was a midnight moonlight ascent of nearby Humboldt Peak. This long-running melodrama finally ended with the fifth installment: "V. Crestone Needle - The Climb." Other technical or semi-technical club trips to the Fourteeners included ascents of Capitol Peak via the Knife edge, ascents of Crestone Needle via the Ellingwood Arete, and early climbs on Longs Peak via Stettner's Ledges. A popular camping destination over the years was the Playground of the Bears above the town of Crestone, which provided good access for climbs of Kit Carson Peak via The Prow or Crestone Peak via the Red Gully. More recently, two of the club's top rock climbers, Sam Gardiner and Roger Rumsey have separately done climbs of Longs Peak via 5.10 routes on the Diamond. Regrettably, the most rugged of the Colorado Fourteeners -- the Maroon Bells, Blanca Peak, Capitol Peak, and the Crestones -- have also been the scene of a number of club accidents over the years, as described elsewhere in this history.

Fig. 32. The knife-edge on Capitol Peak. The climbing party included Bob Cowan, Jim Breedlove, Mark Felthauser, Henry Lacquer, Don Durack, and Sam Freund (Bob Cowan photo, July 1978).

Dave and Faye Brown came to Los Alamos in 1967 and may be the oldest club members still climbing Fourteeners. Some of their recent climbs have been 2-day trips, so that the approach times and elevation gains can be more spread out. The Browns also enjoy climbing the high Thirteeners, which are less crowded and often provide more interesting route-finding situations. They recall that the Mountaineers brought them some wonderful trips. When they got to where they couldn't backpack anymore, they really appreciated going on some of the llama or horse trips that Bill Priedhorsky led in canyon country. Fig. 43. Faye and Dave Brown with their son Nicholas on Humboldt Peak (Bob Cowan photo, June 1973).

For many members of the Mountaineers, climbing Fourteeners or high Thirteeners is an ongoing activity that provides a great opportunity for visiting Colorado, getting in shape, enjoying the mountain scenery, and meeting other climbers. Many club members have climbed all 54 Fourteeners, beginning withincluding Charles Mader, who was the 65th person to do them all. Others include Bob Cowan (the 234th), Dave Brown, Gene Tate (the 249th), David Brown (the 250th), Harry Hoyt (the 283rd), Len Margolin, Gary and Lynn Clark, Norbert Ensslin (almost), Bill Geist, and Jason Halladay, and probably many others as well. Faye Brown has done over 45 of the Fourteeners, including a "women's section" climb of Mt. Elbert with Elizabeth Kelley, Leslie Champ, and others in June 1981. Barry Smith and David Rogers are among those whothat have climbed the 100 highest peaks in Colorado.

Adventure and Exploration at the Brazos Cliffs

The early history of the Mountaineers is closely linked to the era of discovery, exploration, adventure, and misadventure in the Brazos Cliffs near Tierra Amarilla in northern New Mexico. The cliff escarpment is about 3000 feet high and extends for roughly 2 miles on the west side of the Brazos Box canyon and about 1 mile on the east side. The climbing routes on the main walls are roughly 2000 feet high and range in length from 10 to 17 pitches. So there are literally several square miles of rock to explore, providing nearly endless climbing possibilities. Fig. 1. The Main Brazos Cliffs as seen from the South. The most popular route, Easy Ridge, ascends the ridge just right of the highest point on the cliffs and just right of the large dihedral called the Bowling Alley. The Great Couloir Direct climb is just left of the high point.

George and Ginny Bell were the first to explore the Brazos Cliffs. Ginny Bell moved to Los Alamos in 1950 and George arrived in 1952, where he was a driving force in the Theoretical Physics Division at LANL for almost 50 years. George was also an avid mountaineer and outdoorsman. He participated in 4 expeditions to the Peruvian Andes in the 1950's, including first ascents of two of Peru's highest and most difficult peaks. He was a member of the 1953 American expedition to K-2 (described in a later section on "Memorable Programs." George and Ginny Bell met at a Mountaineers' meeting just before he left to join the K-2 expedition. Ginny Bell had done ballet and acrobatics when she was at the University of Wisconsin. She recalls that she had no fear of heights on rock and that she found climbing easy!

By the fall of 1954, George Bell and other club members had worked out routes up the first half of the Great Couloir and Easy Ridge. That same fall, George Bell and Don Monk then completed the first full ascent of the Great Couloir, alternating the leading. In June 19552, George Bell, Virginia Lotz, Don Monk, and Keith. Brueckner made the first ascent of "Easy Ridge." (Note added by Skip Bell -- Virginia Lotz is the maiden name of Ginny Bell.) Don Monk described the last few pitches of Easy Ridge, from what is now called the Pedestal Pitch to the last roped pitch: "Bell led first near the crest of the ridge, overlooking the green face. Then a traverse to the right and a climb up a crack led to a small ledge around the corner of the immediate face of the ridge. Three pitons were used on this pitch to reach the airy ledge, which overlooked the neighboring couloir hundreds of feet below. A large step was required to get up and around the next corner to a more comfortable belay spot. The next task confronting the party was to climb a triangular-shaped face, its left hand formed by the "Easy Ridge," its right side by a subsidiary ridge, and its base by a precipitous change of gradient in a plunge to the floor of the couloir. The group decided on a route well to the right of the "Easy Ridge," a system of chimneys and cracks leading up just to the right of the apex of the triangle. The climbing, although hard, seemed easier, since chimney climbing usually decreases the appearance of exposure. Four pitons were used on several leads to debouch the foursome out of the triangle and into a virtual meadow -- grass, trees, low angle, still 600 vertical feet from the summit. . . . Time 8 hours; pitons 14, one for a handhold (used in the triangular face); class 5." Some of the pitons used in the more difficult sections were left in place as residents, and were used for many years by later climbing parties. Later that year George Bell and Don Monk did the first ascent of the Great Couloir.

Fig. 2. George Bell on the first ascent of Masherbrum in 1960 (Nicholas Clinch photo).

George Bell prepared an article on the area for the Colorado Mountain Club's Trail and Timberline publication. The article, dated March 1972, is still the only published guide to the Brazos. George provided an excellent description of the cliffs and marked the routes known at that time, including the names and dates of the first ascent parties. The article includes pictures of the Main Cliffs, the Brazos Box area, and the Wedge. George Bell began his article with the following well-phrased description of the Brazos:

"Nowadays, when a climber stumbles onto a particularly fine but unknown area, he is tempted to talk little about it except to a few chosen friends. Better to at least get in some of the choicest routes before mentioning it in climbing journals and before encouraging the hordes of other climbers to our cliffs. So, for the last twenty years, we in Los Alamos have been enjoying our favorite Brazos Cliffs in Northern New Mexico, not exactly secretly, since who can keep two- thousand foot cliffs secret when they are plainly visible from a U.S. highway eight miles away, but at least quietly . . . ."

"For those who wish to read no farther the lesson is this: though the cliffs look nice enough from a distance they have many bad characteristics and consequently should be avoided by the inexperienced. For one thing, the rock is a particularly hard quartzite which will defeat all attempts to drill bolt holes; while cracks abound, they will frequently scratch or refuse to relinquish pitons; though good holds are common, a few areas are water polished and the rock is exceedingly slick when wet. In addition, the cliffs are all on private land and some of the landowners are ill disposed toward any trespassers at all, worst of all those that are dirty, bearded, and jangling, and considered thereby to offend the nose, the eye, and the ear. Finally, while some of the routes are relatively easy to reach, others can be gained, if at all, only at low water, by wading up the treacherous rapids and icy pools of the Brazos River." Don Liska came to Los Alamos in 1966 and climbed in the Brazos as late as 2003, a 38-year period. He recalls that "My first climb with the mountaineers occurred only 2 weeks after we arrived in Los Alamos in June, 1966. We climbed Easy Ridge. Emily Willbanks and Ken Ewing were there. We did overnights in those early days and slept out near the Brazos Lodge. It was a pretty big deal, going to the Brazos in the 60's. One could not buy gas in Los Alamos as the only station closed on weekends. You could get a little gas from the police but you had to have enough to reach Espanola. Sometimes people would run out on the way." Don Liska, Dick Ingram, George Goedecke, and Paul Wholt did the first ascent of the Great Couloir by the Direct Finish (17 pitches) later in 1966.

Len Margolin came to Los Alamos in 1969 and quickly became one of the club's strongest climbers. He said that climbers like himself and Don Liska "had the low-hanging fruit." They could do everything for the first time and didn't have to worry about style, etc. Don said that "We got so familiar with the Brazos we did all sorts of obscure 'firsts' and tied all routes together with hair-raising traverses. We would bring back the licorice-smelling plant on those cliffs and keep it in a jar at home for weeks, always reminding us of 'unfinished work' at the Brazos. On one juvenile stunt, Larry Dauelsberg, Ernie Anderson, and I dashed out to the Brazos in June 1968 to do the 'Direct Start to Easy Ridge' which added 5 pitches to the standard 10-pitch route and made Easy Ridge one of the longer climbs on the face. The juvenile part was a rumor we heard that some other local climber had his mind on that route. It shows how determined LAMC climbers were in those days to do new things at the Brazos. Several of us also did winter explorations of the Brazos cliffs and tried dead-winter ascents. On one attempt on Easy Ridge we were three pitches into the route when a ton of ice came down and chopped the belay tree off at the five foot level. This made us stop and immediately descend."

Don Liska recalls that "On the 1968 first ascent of Gothic Arches Buttress we took four weeks to work out the route, returning to Los Alamos between weekends. On the last weekend, near the top and climbing by moonlight, I zippered out a string of direct aid pitons and was caught on a 30' fall by my buddies. Gothic Arches was a high caliber route in those days, rated 5.7 and 22 pitches. Why did we climb by moonlight? Well, to have a comfortable bivouac at the top of course. Instead we had an uncomfortable bivouac on the face. I should at least have used hero loops and a swami belt. Seat harnesses were rare in those days and individually wrapped out of 1" tubular webbing."

To elaborate on George Bell's description, Brazos rock is a sharp, heavily fractured quartzite, which breaks the cliffs into a series of fractured ridges and water-worn couloirs. The faces to the west of each ridge tend to be smooth, steep, and heavily lichen-covered and are therefore usually unclimbable. The ridges themselves, and the faces to the east of them, tend to have good crack, corner, and face climbing options. Most ridge and face pitches range in difficulty from 5.4 to 5.8. Indeed, it is hard to find climbable pitches at a higher level because both the holds and the protection tend to disappear at the same time. Fig. 3. Mike Williams and Bill Frye on Easy Ridge during the 1969 climbing school graduation climb, showing a typical rubble-covered belay ledge (Bob Cowan photo, May 1969).

To reinforce George Bell's cautions, despite the easy ratings climbing in the Brazos is a serious mountaineering experience! Where the holds and the protection are plentiful, the quartzite is often brittle and dangerously loose. Many holds must be carefully tested before applying weight and many belay ledges are loaded with piles of sharp loose rocks. Should a summer thunderstorm come up, the danger from lightning is high. Even worse, once the lichen-covered rock becomes wet, it becomes so slimy that it is impossible to keep climbing upwards. Climbers must either wait until the rock dries out or start a long series of dangerous rappels, exhausting their lead racks to place anchors. Mario Schillaci remembers that about half of all his Brazos trips involved rapping off in the rain. Lastly, route finding is a never- ending challenge that requires constant attention to the lay of the rock and the best climbing direction. Almost all of the Mountaineers can look back and remember at least one time that they actually started up the wrong route, not realizing it until it was too late to start over! And once the top is reached, the descent gully provides more route-finding, scree, and rock-rolling challenges for the tired climber. Thus fear, loathing, and stomach-turning stress can become part of any adventure climb in the Brazos!

For almost two decades, roughly half of all the Mountaineers' summer or fall climbing trips had the Brazos as their destination. The climbing season would begin with the climbing school, which gave everyone a chance to get warmed up. After the graduation climb, the Mountaineers would start going to the Brazos. During the summer, climbers went to the Brazos almost every weekend, except at the peak of the rainy season when the risk of getting caught in a thunderstorm was just too high. The season usually ended with a trip to the Wedge in early October, when the first snowflakes started to come down.

During these years the Mountaineers continued to put up new routes or new variations on existing routes. Don Liska and Larry Campbell put up Cat Burglar in 1971. Merle Wheeler, Carl Keller, Len Margolin, and George Rinker did Resignation Ridge in August 1974, naming the climb in "honor" of President Nixon, who had resigned earlier that week. Chris Foster, Dave Barlow, Ralph Menikoff, and Norbert Ensslin put up the 15-pitch Relentless Ridge in September 1983, choosing this name because it took 3 attempts with a bivouac on each attempt to finally reach the top. The bivouac ledge was not so bad, however. It was called the "Brazos Hilton" because it was 200 feet long, 50 feet wide, and covered with thick lush grass. There is also a small overhang at the back to keep out the rain.

Up through the 1980's, the period of most climbing activity in the Brazos, roughly 45 routes or major route variations were named and documented. In 1986 the club voted against assembling these into a guidebook to help preserve the sense of wildness that is so unique to these cliffs and to give future generations of climbers a chance to re-discover the cliffs for themselves. However, climbers who want to go to the Brazos can contact some of the senior members of the club to obtain individual route descriptions or topos.

Given the serious rock fall, endurance, accident and liability issues associated with climbing on these cliffs, it may be understandable that the Brazos are now reverting back to wilderness. Over the past two decades the cliffs have seen less and less use. While climbing Easy Ridge in the late 1990's, Norbert Ensslin broke the last resident ring piton that George Bell had placed in the 1950's. It was so rusty that it broke off with a touch of the fingers. With the advent of sport climbing and the availability of many fine new climbing areas with better quality rock within several hours' drive of Los Alamos, few people are still interested in the level of commitment and risk required to climb in the Brazos. Jim Straight remembers that he may have led the last big club trip to the Brazos in the mid-1980's. The trip had about 40 participants and was just too crowded for anyone to want to lead it. With some of the climbers inevitably getting lost or climbing too slowly and then getting stuck on top in the dark, club trips to the Brazos were always a strain on some of the participants as well as on the trip leader.

For many years the landowners' agents, Bob and Irene Hobson, asked all climbers to register in a logbook at their cabin before starting up the cliffs. This was a way of formally requesting permission to climb, which in some years was granted only to members of the Mountaineers. It also helped the Hobsons handle phone calls from anxious relatives if the climbers did not return by dark (which happened fairly often). This era has now come to an end: Bob Hobson passed away in 1988, and Irene Hobson in 2005. At their requests, made before their deaths, Don Liska, Len Margolin, and Norbert Ensslin took their ashes to the top of the cliffs and distributed them just above the prominent white spot that is visible near what appears to be the top of the cliffs, as seen from the Hobson's former cabin in the valley below. The Hobson's registration system is no longer in use, and there are now only a few climbers per year that come to the Brazos. At this point in time (2006), climbers who want to seek permission to climb the cliffs should contact Corkin's Lodge. However, it is not clear if permission would be granted. Fig. 4. Roland Pettit, club member and author of a Jemez hiking guidebook, wading in the Brazos Box (Bob Cowan photo, September 1976).

Climbs on the Brazos Wedge or in the Brazos Box can also be approached from the highway between Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras, or from a rough jeep road on the south side of the Brazos River. Because of the longer approaches, Brazos Wedge climbs were commonly done near the end of September or in early October to enjoy the fall colors and avoid afternoon thunderstorms. Interestingly, Lou Horak reports that the Brazos Box is now considered an expert kayak run, when the water is up. (A note from Jan Iversen: her daughter Megan is the youngest person to climb the Brazos cliffs -- she did the West Ridge of the Wedge while still in her mother's womb when Jan Iversen and Paul Horak climbed the route around 1982.)

For those who wish to approach the Brazos Wedge via the jeep road, it is advisable to check first with the Mundy family of Chama, who own most of the land in this area. (The Mundys sold some land to George Bell many years ago, and the Bell family maintained a small cabin for summer visits.) An anecdote that provides an example of access issues in this area was provided by Don Liska: "In the 1980's Mark Zander and I decided to go into the Brazos Box and climb Razor Ridge together. We were audacious and fit in those days, so we drove Mark’s old pickup through the Tierra Amarilla community fields and parked at the usual spot, on Emmet Mundy’s property, in the boondocks above the entrance to the Box. We climbed down to the river and waded upstream to the start of the climb. Despite its middle 5th class rating we scrambled up the route unroped gripping the edge of the razor and yelling in joy. We finally sobered and condescended to rope up for the final pitch mainly because we felt foolish carrying the rope and not using it all that way."

"We topped out and then descended the gully back into the Box and returned to the car. We found a note on the windshield that read 'You are trespassing. Your time will come.' We had no idea who left the note but its threatening vein truly scared us. We gently lifted the hood and checked all around for a bomb. Finding nothing we headed back out along the old stagecoach road. Crossing back across the community field we spotted a horseman galloping towards us at full speed. He cut us off and he looked really intimidating with his six-gun and on a huge grey heaving horse. It was a truly wild west stickup scene. It was Emmet Mundy himself and he was mad as hell. He accused us of poaching. We tried to argue as he had gotten us a bit mad too. Finally we revealed we were climbers and had just done a route in the Box. When he heard that, he right away turned to smiles and friendly handshakes. Do you know Dr. Bell?' he asked. Of course we knew George well and then the conversation became very mellow and friendly. 'Come back anytime,' said Emmet as we drove off for home."

"It turned out that Emmet had seen an old NRA sticker on the rear window of the camper top on Mark’s old pickup – a sticker that came with the used vehicle. Emmet thereby assumed we were out there either plinking or poaching. However, since we were merely climbers (whom he admired as somewhat crazy 'great guys' like his friend George Bell) he forgave all and apologized for the mistaken identity. So Mark and I not only proved him to be right with our crazy ropeless climb of Razor Ridge, but we also won a real cowboy friend. We never saw Emmet again."

Discovery of the White Rock Climbing Areas

For many years now, club members have organized evening top roping sessions at a number of basalt cliffs in White Rock. These are held every Tuesday and Thursday during that part of the year when Daylight Savings Time is used. This is the most popular and enduring activity enjoyed by many club members. But the top roping sessions also represent a special aspect of the Mountaineers and our location here in Los Alamos. Where else can one leave the office at 5 PM and within an hour be in an entirely different world? All thoughts of Laboratory meetings, memos, equations, or experiments are pushed from the mind, as one focuses everything on the attempt to get up a climb without falling off! These outdoor sessions provide great mental refreshment and a good physical workout. However, they were not always part of the Mountaineers' lifestyle.

Len Margolin, who came to Los Alamos in July 1969, was for many years the club's strongest and most imaginative rock climber. He discovered several of the White Rock climbing areas, pioneered many top roping first ascents, and had an aptitude for selecting colorful and appropriate names for his new routes. Recently he wrote some notes on "Top Roping in White Rock Canyon -- The Early Years" from which much of the following information is taken.

Len remembers that "I became friendly with Jim Porter, who was also new in town, and George Fogelsong, who had been a member of the Mountaineers for several years. George talked Jim and me into taking the climbing school in April of 1970. I think it was love at first sight for both Jim and me. For a dozen years, top roping was an integral part of my life; I kept my climbing gear in the trunk of my car in the hope that someone would call and say, 'Let's go climbing tonight.' I believe that top roping, in its present incarnation in Los Alamos, was a product of just a few people. Not that we had a vision of anything so grand, we were just some young people enjoying ourselves. I am glad that new people continue to discover top roping on our cliffs. I hope that the Los Alamos Mountaineers will continue to play an active role in preserving the cliffs and promoting safety among the climbers."

"In those early days, the only White Rock climbing area was Potrillo Cliffs. (This area had been discovered by Harry Hoyt and Bob Taylor in 1954.) A few years previously, Layton Kor, a high-end rock climber from Boulder, and his girl friend Joy Heron, had come to Los Alamos, put up several climbs at Potrillo and rated them for us. The particular climbs I remember were Heron's Fissure (5.7), Upper Kor's Crack (5.8), and Lower Kor's Crack (5.9). These ratings formed the basis of our local rating system for many years. In 1970, the best Los Alamos climbers could master Upper Kor's, but no one in town could get up Lower Kor's. That is, 5.8 was the standard. Other popular climbs at Potrillo included the Pillars of Hercules and the Lieback. I remember that it was necessary to climb the Pillars before one was allowed on a club trip to the Brazos."

Fig. 1. An unknown climber wrestles with the crux squeeze move on the Pillars of Hercules at Potrillo Cliffs (Bob Cowan photo, April 1967)

Len recalls that "We were hooked, and of course eager to get good enough to climb with the big boys on the harder routes. So we bought ourselves a rope (Plymouth Goldline) and went out to Potrillo to practice. Now, one should understand that so far as the more experienced climbers were concerned, Potrillo was only for the spring time until the snow melted in the Brazos . . . . Our 'practice climbing' was not at all an accepted activity by the Mountaineers. So the better climbers -- Don Liska, George Bell, Bill Hendry, Carl Keller, Larry Campbell, and Larry Dauelsberg -- weren't interested in coming out to help us. . . . . So while climbing by ourselves was fun for a while, there were only a limited number of climbs there and we were getting bored. We were able to attract a few of the other new climbers, but this led to a new problem as there were never enough ropes to go around; we started borrowing the club ropes so we could set up more climbs."

"As soon as I had arrived at Los Alamos, I started going out on weekends exploring the mesas and canyons east of town. During these explorations in my first fall (1969), I found a rock canyon south of the main hill road near the White Rock Y. The original attraction was the pictographs on the rock walls and a large water fall that ran in the spring and in the summer when it rained. The rock walls were much too steep to scramble on. But in the summer of 1970, it occurred to me that maybe Jim and I could find something to climb there . . . . The first climb we did was the Ramp and that was very easy. The next climb was bat shit cave. That was a little harder. Then Jim decided he wanted to try leading and he chose the Triple Overhang. Eventually, he got up and I managed to clean the pitch, but both of us were at our limits. Over the next few weeks, we returned and did many more of the familiar climbs." "In the fall of 1970, another young climber moved from Albuquerque to Los Alamos. Steve Schum was working as a carpenter, starting work early in the morning and able to meet me for top roping after work 3 or 4 times a week. Also, Steve had his own rope. Over September and October, we put up many of the standard climbs, including the Open Book, the Middle and Left Mothers, the Beastie, etc. I found that I was particular well suited to jam cracks and started tackling any crack I could get a finger into. Then in the last days before daylight saving ended, Steve and I went back to Potrillo and I was able to climb Kor's Lower Crack. The 5.9 barrier was broken."

"In the spring of 1971, I convinced LAMC president Larry Campbell to have one session of the climbing school at the Y. As part of that session, Larry wanted to demonstrate aid climbing. Because we were still in the piton era, we were loath to have Larry nail any of our standard routes for fear of damaging the rock. So Larry chose the most difficult section of rock he could find. I remember it had lots of loose rock, including a very large flake 2/3 of the way up. Of course, Larry's assertion that the route was too hard to free climb was a direct challenge to Steve and me. Larry made the possibility of free climbing even more difficult by inadvertently knocking off several potential footholds. About that same time, a friend of Steve's moved to Santa Fe. Mike Roybal was burning up the rock in Albuquerque, where he was a student at UNM. Looking for new challenges, Mike rode his motorcycle to the Y and joined us throughout that spring and summer. In particular, Steve, Mike and I laid siege to Larry's aid route and after a month, we had conquered it and named it Wisconsin for the shape of its prominent flake. Steve and I worked out a very strenuous route, including the one arm layback that became part of the standard route. Mike, on the other hand, did some seemingly impossible face moves, standing on nothing, and somehow got to the top in a completely elegant style."

"At the end of the 1971 season, I worked out the Ring Jam at the Y. Although this is not the hardest climb I have done, it is certainly one of the most satisfying and somehow it came to be the climb most identified with me. The summer of 1972 was also the period that I worked on the Spiral Staircase. This is the closed crack in the section of the Y that I named The Gallery for the pictographs there; it is just upstream of the Ring Jam. It is really a bouldering problem; the hardest moves are right off the ground and can be safely made unroped . . . . I must have attempted this pitch a hundred times, making progress literally inches at a time . . . . The final move involved edging on a very thin line, releasing one of my hands and then standing up. I had tried various combinations of relative hand positions and of which hand to release, but inevitably I would barn door out as I straightened. Oddly, the solution to this final problem came to me as I was sitting in my office at work; the trick was to change feet and hang my free leg behind me for counterbalance. The position felt unnatural, but worked well. Afterward, it occurred to me that the story of the Spiral Staircase was totally an intellectual exercise; I would never have attempted such a pitch in the Brazos and likely would never have even recognized it as a potential line."

"In June of 1971, I discovered the lower cliffs at the Overlook. The cracks there were awesome compared to the Y, much longer and more continuous. Later that month, I arranged for Mike Roybal to come up for the weekend, and we were joined by Steve and Polly Hessing. At first, we just walked along the base of the cliffs, each of us laying claim to some particular crack. It became an amazing orgy of first ascents. We had planned to retreat to my apartment and party that evening, but instead we took our sleeping bags back to the Overlook, so as to get an earlier start on Sunday. My first climb at the Overlook was the left side of the open book that is downstream of the Cholla Wall. Mike chose the right side of the big roof. In that first weekend, no climb was repeated and still we didn't get to the cliffs on the other (west) side.

Fig. 2. The Overlook. Len's Roof is the large overhang near the right side of the cliff. Ron Selvage (green shirt) is on the route to the right of the roof. (Ron and Kim Selvage photo).

Len says, "That first weekend at the Overlook started what became for me a year long fascination with the central crack of the big roof. It would take a year to scratch that itch . . . . Len's roof is the only climb that is named after me, so it is ironic that I've only been up it twice. The crack that splits the horizontal roof is a perfect width and has a bend that allows a foolproof and relatively effortless full hand jam; it was clear to me from the outset that I could support my entire weight by jamming, letting my feet swing free. Also, the vertical section of the crack is finger width and, from below, looked like a relatively straightforward lieback. So the crux of the climb is transitioning from the horizontal to the vertical crack while negotiating the overhang. My first time up was an exploration. I found that the hardest part of the climb was going to be getting my legs up into the lieback position. That first attempt, I couldn't do it, my stomach muscles were too weak. But I spent the winter doing situps, and on my second attempt next spring I aced the climb. One aspect of that climb made a lasting impression on me. On my first attempt, I spent a fair amount of time handing my entire weight on those good hand jams. The net result was a deep bruise on the back of my right hand. It took most of the winter to heal. My second attempt, I opened that wound, which then took most of the summer to heal and left a scar."

"At first, we kept the Overlook a secret among the four of us. But we weren't the only ones with a secret. About the same time, the Horak brothers, Lou and Karl, had discovered another set of cliffs off Kimberly Lane. I remember sometime in the late summer, Lou told me he had something to show me. I remember my first sight of the Playground; I walked up and down the cliffs and then asked Lou which lines they had done. It was not a surprise to hear that the Horaks had only put up one pitch. I managed to find a second line that went, but failed on several other attempts. My second trip to the Playground, I worked out a pitch that I called the Telephone Booth, because of the tight chimney right at the ground level. Still, the successes at the Playground came slowly. After our ego boosting experience at the Overlook, we were cut down to size again."

Lou Horak recalls that at that time it was possible to drive cars down to the flats at the base of the Playground. One story (perhaps apocryphal) is that the Playground received its name in an ironic way. After they discovered the area, the Horaks wanted to keep it to themselves so they could do a bunch of first top-rope ascents, but after a lot of effort were only able to get up one or two climbs. So the name was intended to make fun of the fact that everything else at the Playground was too hard to climb!

Fig. 32. Instructor Kei Davis belays climbing school student Ericka Becker on the steep and strenuous start of the Beginner's Hand Jam at the Playground (Jason Halladay photo, April 2007).

Len says that, "By the end of 1971, we had four climbing areas. Also, our ranks had swelled, not with the more senior members of the club who still disdained top roping, but with newer climbers. I remember observing that there was not much difference in the abilities of most of our regulars. When we started working on a new pitch, at first no one could do it. Then someone would figure it out, and in no time nearly everyone could do it. This led me to conclude that knowing that a climb was possible was the critical issue -- that is, when you are climbing at your limits, the important issues are in your head."

"In the spring of 1972, Steve Schum, Mike Roybal, and I decided to systematically walk the edge of White Rock Canyon. Our first discovery became the Old New Place. As it happened, we had not even gotten around to giving this area a real name and were still calling it the New Place when Mike and Steve found another area that became the New New Place. Both of these areas offered wonderful new challenges, but there were so many in a short time; I can still see some of these pitches clearly in my mind, but now I don't remember whether or what we named them." Most climbing activity in White Rock focused on top-roping because of the high level of difficulty of most of the routes. Also, because the climbers were going out after work, they concentrated on top roping so as to squeeze in more climbs before dark. Lou Horak recalls that, for a while, Len Margolin and Paul Horak climbed 4 days a week in the evenings, after Paul got out of school. Nowadays many of their climbs would be rated 5.11 or even 5.12, but in those days there was no external measure of comparison, so everyone thought they were doing 5.9 or at most 5.10 climbs!

Len recalls that in 1973 "Don Liska reminded me of the pitch in Guaje Canyon. The Guaje Jam Crack is a long, overhanging, off width jam crack located at the narrows of Guaje Canyon (see Fig. 43). The crack was already a fading legend when I started climbing in 1970. As I recall, the climb had been done once, by Don in 1967. The overhanging nature of the crack meant that when you fell off of the climb, you swung out and could not regain the crack . . . . In the summer of 1973, a climbing friend of mine, Ray Phillips, came to visit. Ray was a hill brat, but had gone off and become a climbing ranger at Yosemite. One Saturday afternoon, on the spur of the moment, we decided to give the Guaje Jam Crack a try . . . The crack itself was an awkward width, too large and deep for hand jamming, but not wide enough to get anything more than a single arm into. Furthermore, it was overhanging for all of its first 70 feet. I guessed that the technique was essentially squirming, putting one arm and one foot into the crack, the other arm in a kind of reverse lieback above the head, and then inching up. I also realized that once I choose which arm went into the crack, it would not be possible to find a place to reverse . . . Finally, I decided to face up canyon with my right arm in the crack . . . . I don't remember any details of the crack itself, but the memory of the skin scraped off my right shoulder and knee, and of the ache in my left forearm remain vivid. Finally, I reached a spot where I could rest my arms, somewhat precariously, and I spent at least ten minutes resting before finishing the climb. When I got to the top, I couldn't unclench my fingers and Ray had to untie my knot for me . . . I remember Don Liska telling me that his ascent had tired him so completely that he couldn't raise his arms above his shoulders for days. Likewise, I had never been so totally exhausted . . . . That climb was, for me, the peak of my top roping career."

Fig. 43. The Guaje Jam Crack (Len Margolin photo, April 2008). "I would like to close these notes by mentioning the names of some of the many other climbers who were part of the early top roping days, but have not yet been called out in this narrative . . . . Some of the homegrown climbers include Dennis Brandt, Bob Mitchell, George Rinker, Jan and Steve Iversen, Chris Foster, Mark Hessing, and Karen Budding. Paul Horak, youngest brother of Lou and Karl, grew up to become one of the finest climbers we have produced. Hank Blackwell was a professional ballet dancer and experienced gymnast, and for a while became one of the most graceful climbers of our troupe. Some experienced climbers joined the ranks in the early days. Principal among these were Norbert Ensslin, who had grown up in the Gunks, and Merle Wheeler, who was a canyon rat from the Tucson area. Also, Mark Zander had begun his climbing in Socorro, Rod Schultz had climbed in Boulder, and Barry Smith had climbed at Devil's Lake."

In the early 1970's, the Mountaineers established a local top roping schedule, with climbing at a different area every Wednesday evening. After some years, this schedule changed to every Tuesday and Thursday during the Daylight Savings Time part of the year. (See the "Top roping" link on this website for the most up to date schedule information.) The current list of the most popular top roping areas is the Overlook, the Playground, the "Y", the Old New Place, the New New Place, Potrillo Cliffs, the Big Enchilada, and Pajarito Gorge. The Playground is also known for the traverse along its central section, first done by Norbert Ensslin when he arrived in 1973 and was looking for a way to get in more climbing practice between the weekly top rope sessions. There are also some less well-known and less-visited climbing areas for those who want more solitude and adventure, including Tortilla Flats (see LAMC website for directions), the west side of the Overlook, Below the Old New Place, the Cactus Garden (near the end of the four wheel drive road in lower Water Canyon), Escondido Cliff, and north White Rock cliff.

In 1978, Los Alamos climbers Randy Peters and Bill Spencer gave a club program on their climb of Half Dome. They had trained for this climb by leading many of the cracks in White Rock canyon. This came as a surprise to many of the club's climbers, who had not thought of doing lead climbs in White Rock because of the steepness and difficulty of most of the routes. But, inspired by the Half Dome program, some of the Mountaineers began to practice leading the easier cracks, like the Open Book at the "Y," the Beginners' Hand Jam at the Playground, and Upper Kor's Crack at Potrillo. At about this time 'Friends' appeared on the scene. With these camming devices leading the cracks was no longer quite so risky or strenuous. After they acquired this new-found confidence and experience, some club climbers began to venture out to Yosemite, Lumpy Ridge, or other major climbing areas. Here they found out that they now had the skills to do many fine climbs, including some of North America's classic routes.

For almost 30 years now, there have fortunately been no serious top roping accidents or fatalities due to top-anchor failure in White Rock. However, there have been a series of near accidents, including the following: (1) a top rope anchor knot became untied at the Y while the climber was doing a very difficult route, but fortunately the climber was just lowered slowly to the ground as the anchor unraveled; (2) a climber at the Playground was clipped in with a self- locking carabiner, but the loop came off the carabiner as he was climbing, and was quickly pulled up to the anchor. Lou Horak ran to the top and fed it back down to the climber; and (3) most recently, a 5.13 climber's bowline knot became untied at the Old New Place as he approached the top of the route, giving him a terrible scare. There have also been several relatively minor accidents caused by the climber being dropped by the belayer. So all White Rock climbers should be very cautious about all knots and anchors, always back them up if possible, and ask each other to check their knots if they are unsure. There is also danger from rocks dislodged from the top. Over the years at least two Los Alamos climbers have died under circumstances not related to the club's top rope activities, one from solo climbing and one from accidentally losing his balance at the top of the cliff while checking out new routes.

Early Mountaineering Accidents

It is important to remember that mountaineering, despite its many attractions as a sport, is not without its dangers. Throughout the club's history, there have been a series of accidents with falls, broken bones, and other injuries. Several mountain climbing accidents have resulted in fatalities. In addition to the personal tragedies involved, these events received a lot of publicity and affected the club in many ways. Larry Campbell, Len Margolin, and Bob Cowan remember that these accidents helped shift the club into a more conservative direction, with new safety guidelines for club trips.

In the 1950's, Los Alamos resident Herb Martin was killed while climbing the step east side of in a fall on Mt. Wilson. Charles Mader believes that he was killed by a falling boulder knocked off by another climber. Ken Ewing also remembersed this event, but thinkshought that it was probably not a club trip. Early in the club’s history, around 1960, two club members (a Neil Campbell and his partner) were killed in a climbing accident near Blanca Peak. Then in 1965, the club lost three members in an accident in a snow couloir in the Maroon Bells. This party consisted of Frank Pretzel, Herbert Ungnade (author of the book, “Guide to the New Mexico Mountains”), Bob Day, and a young member of the club. The party was eager to do their trip in fewer days than usual. To save time, three members of the party were climbing simultaneously in the couloir, with one belaying. When one member of the party slipped, all four fell. The younger member was wearing a construction hardhat, but the other three were not wearing head protection and were killed. After this accident, the club strongly encouraged the wearing of helmets on trips. The accident itself was widely reported and cast a pall across the club and its reputation for many years. Club member Arvid Lundy said that he first learned of the Mountaineers from a newscast on the Maroon Bells accident while he was living in New York City! John Ramsay believes that "at one point in time, more people in Los Alamos had died in mountain climbing accidents than by industrial accidents or even auto accidents!" Fig. 1. Herbert Ungnade, Stan Landeen, and Bill Wood on a climb of Capitol Peak (John Ramsay photo, Spring 1960).

In May 1972 there was also an accident on the North Face of Blanca Peak. George Bell, Larry Campbell, Ross Harder, Bill Hendry, Karl Horak, and David Michael set off a wet-snow avalanche while descending a snow face on the north side of the east ridge of Blanca Peak. The slide caught Larry Campbell, who was a short way below the others, and carried him about 50 feet over rock ledges and then down another 100 feet of snow.

Larry wrote down his account of the fall: "I began traversing left below the others when several shouts of warning activated my adrenalin glands. Above, the snow had become alive and was crawling towards me. It was a surface slide of wet snow which I didn't take very seriously, supposing I could hold my ground and let it flow around me. No way. In 5 seconds it was carrying me with it and after a few futile jabs with the axe I turned my attention to staying on top. As we picked up speed, the hissing became very loud, and in my field of vision there was nothing but a uniform pale brown light. (It was old and dirty snow.) Then the whacks and smacks began, separated by the empty sensation of falling free. I resigned myself to await the fatal blow but it never came. Instead I was artfully deposited 50 feet from the rocky cliff I had been swept over . . . . drops of blood from a trivial scratch slowly grew on my nose and dropped off into the snow . . . . I could wiggle and feel everything and was nowhere numb. I was overwhelmed with joy and relief. The rocky rib 70 feet to my right looked more comfortable than my present cold, wet snow perch but I didn't dare move without a belay. The angle of the snow slope was sufficiently steep that if I blacked out trying to stand up I might rejoin the avalanche debris 1200 feet below."

Larry sustained a broken knee cap, a cracked pelvis bone, a fractured finger, two deep cuts, and a bruised kidney. His hard hat was cracked in the accident, but probably saved him from serious head injuries or death. George Bell and Bill Hendry hiked out to request a rescue, and the others stayed with Larry through a very cold night. In the morning the team used ropes and ice axes for belay to lower Larry to the base of the cliff, where a military rescue helicopter was waiting to take him to Fort Carson.

George Bell's analysis of this accident concluded that "The avalanche hazard wasn't recognized by a party with over 50 years of combined climbing experience, including much on snow. Others should be warned by our mistakes. In retrospect, it seems clear that the slope we were descending became increasingly dangerous as it became gentler, with increasing depths of wet snow unbonded to a hard snow slope beneath."

On the same day, also on Blanca Peak, Ken Ewing was leading another party up a snow route. When he stabbed his ice axe all the way into the snow, he noticed that there was a slab layer underneath the surface. He realized, based on the snow training they had received from Gene Tate, that this unstable layer could avalanche. So he took his party down another way, even though this required tying off their Goldline nylon rope, rappelling down, and then abandoning it. Just as they came back to the base of their snow slope, they saw it avalanche. George Bell and Larry Campbell's climbing party, who had gone up a more difficult route, had triggered the avalanche when they used that slope to descend.

Only one month later, a member of the Mountaineers, Bill Hendry, was killed by rock fall dislodged by a haul line on the East Buttress of El Capitan in Yosemite, while climbing that route with Len Margolin, Bev Johnson, and Ray Phillips. Bill Hendry was struck in the side of the head by a rock that had bounced in from the side, and he was killed even though he was wearing a helmet. The National Park Service concluded that Bill's helmet was too small for him, and that it therefore did not provide adequate protection. Bill was a strong, aggressive, but safe climber who was already becoming well-known for pioneering first ascents on the Brazos Wedge and other areas. Larry Campbell remembers an enjoyable climb of Shiprock with both of the club's strong young climbers, Bill Hendry and Len Margolin.

The two side-by-side accidents shocked the club and led to a lot of soul searching. Many of the senior mountaineers wrote down their thoughts to share with each other. Even though they admitted to having had many accidents or near-accidents themselves, they were searching for some useful lessons to draw from their experience. Don Liska observed that the club was becoming more proficient technically, but was doing fewer trips that provided members with the total mountaineering experience, so that the risk level was becoming higher. He was also concerned that this was being exacerbated by the club's climbing school and by the easy availability of technical climbing equipment. Eiichi Fukushima pointed out that -- in climbing versus mountaineering -- a person's technical ability can far outstrip his judgment for many years. He also noted that Northern New Mexico is not an ideal area to gain snow and ice climbing experience, and that summer snow in Colorado did not become hard and firm like the snow in the Pacific Northwest, so that it was actually inherently more dangerous. Larry Campbell pointed out that the people who had climbed the most had the most accidents. And he also observed that the Mountaineers themselves often served as the inspiration for more people to take up risky mountaineering activities. Dave Brown's maxim is that, "Whenever climbers go up a dubious snow slope, and get away with it, it reinforces a dangerous behavior. The next time, they are more confident and may go on an even more dangerous slope." So experience can also have a negative aspect.

To help reduce the risk of future accidents, these senior club members recommended that the club consider adopting a set of regulations for club outings. The club's bylaws already provided some of these, and it became traditional to read the “Articles of War” from the Mountaineer's Constitution annually at one of the meetings, and also the latest edition of “Accidents in North American Mountaineering.” This helped to increase the members' awareness of some of the dangers inherent in mountaineering. In 1972 the club also began requiring each trip participant to sign a waiver of liability.

Around 1985, Norbert and Lynn Ensslin also experienced a fall in a snow couloir on North Maroon Peak while climbing that peak with Bob Jones, Linda Fazio, and Mike Fazio. The party had ascended the couloir successfully in the morning, but through inexperience made the mistake of descending by the same route in the afternoon, when the snow was soft and rotten. Norbert said that he "tried several times to self-arrest after falling, but the snow was too soft for the ice axe to hold. As I accelerated, sliding head-first on my back, I had the sensation of withdrawing into myself and losing all sense of motion, as rocks seemed to come up from below and bump into me. I lost consciousness for a brief period and, when I came to, found that I had landed very comfortably -- on top of Lynn!" Fortunately Lynn was not hurt, and Norbert recovered from his injuries fairly soon. However, the situation might have been much worse if they had not been wearing helmets.

Over the years there have been several rock climbing falls resulting in broken bones, sprained ankles, or more. On an August 1984 club trip to the Sandias, Rich Davidson broke his arm on a climb on the Muralla Grande. Jim Straight recalls that "We had a large group climbing on the wall, I would guess 15 to 20. Rich and I were on one rope team and were leap-frogging. About half way up, Rich took a lead fall of about 16 vertical feet. He was spooked so I went up -- stood up and relaxed -- and fell. So I had to go back up and do it again. Towards the top, Rich began to get his sea legs back and wanted to lead the last pitch. He got to within about 5 feet of the top and his legs turned to jello. He threw the entire lead rack up into a large crack hoping something would catch -- it did -- but for a few seconds and then popped. He fell about 8 feet and landed on his left arm -- broke it. Most everyone else was either done with their climb or nearly so. I worked my way up to him and splinted the arm -- everyone else came around to the top. It took quite an effort to get him up those last few feet without hurting him -- then we had to hike to the cars on top."

In the early 1990's, John Meier experienced a rappelling accident near Ouray when he rappelled off a rope that was unevenly set, so that one end was well short of the ground. This fall required a major rescue effort, which was documented in a TV show. Also during the 1990’s on a club trip to South Colony Lakes, Jan Studebaker slipped on a snowfield while retreating from a serious thunderstorm encountered on a rainy attempt of Kit Carson. After a long slide on the snow he miraculously stopped just before a drop-off that could have easily caused serious injuries. As it was, he broke both arms. His ice axe was safely stored in the tent. In the mid-1990's, club member Meg Walsh broke her pelvis bone in a leader fall in White Rock. And Ron Palmer, a Santa Fe climber who was a good friend to some of the Mountaineers, fell to his death on Capitol Peak while traversing the knife edge without a rope.

The most serious recent accident involving a long-time member of the Mountaineers occurred in 1996, when Rich Davidson died while climbing Annapurna-IV. Rich said that he loved climbing uphill on snow more than any other pastime, and he led several long ski tours and ski mountaineering trips for the Mountaineers. In 1996, he joined a group from the Colorado Mountain Club that was attempting to climb Annapurna-IV by the Standard Route. The party was caught by a series of severe snow storms at their 5,300 meter-high Camp I. The second storm dropped an estimated 3 meters of snow in about 48 hours, catching the climbers off guard while they slept. The tent in which Rich and his tent mate Debbie Marshall were sleeping collapsed during the night, causing them to suffocate to death. The Mountaineers were active in a 1979 effort to get a bill passed by the New Mexico State Legislature that would absolve landowners of responsibility for accidents that occurred on their property. As the issue became more thoroughly researched, it was discovered that a new bill was unnecessary. There is already an obscure clause in the State's Fish and Game regulations that absolves landowners from liability for hunters, fishermen, and others who use their lands for recreational purposes without paying a fee.

As a way to reduce the risk of accidents, the club's senior members in the 1970's had recommended that the club provide its members with a more balanced, less technical "total mountaineering experience." Instead, the advent of new sports like mountain biking, canyoneering, and sport climbing helped the club shift its interests away from more committing and more dangerous trips. Club activities began to move away from snow and ice mountaineering and to shift more towards rock climbing and mountain scrambling and hiking.

In the past few years, several club members or trip participants have also been severely injured in auto accidents in Utah. Regretfully, long driving trips to climbing areas or hiking destinations also present another objective hazard in enjoying the outdoors. The annual reading of the club's safety rules and the use of waivers was discontinued in the mid-1980's. But some of the later accidents reported above prompted the club in 1987 to again require all participants in club trips to sign waivers. In 2006, this evolved into a requirement for all club members to sign a one-time blanket waiver covering all club trips that they might participate in.

Cross-Country Skiing Adventures

The Los Alamos Mountaineers were introduced to the sport of cross-country skiing in 1970. Before then few members had heard of the sport, and they were unfamiliar with skinny skis and 3-pin bindings. Since that time, the club has always included many active cross-country skiers. In the years before global warming, the Mountaineers often visited the local Jemez mountains for ski adventures. The broad valles, the gentle rolling hills and peaks, the grassy south-facing slopes, and the bright blue skies provided a beautiful setting for ski touring. From a distance, many of the hills looked badly scarred by the logging activities of the 1950's and 1960's, but up close the logging roads provided inviting access to many areas that few other people ever saw. This created opportunities for exploring remote areas that were often crowded or off-limits in the summer.

Classic Jemez ski tours over the years include the San Antonio Hot Springs, Griegos Peak, Del Norte Canyon, Road Canyon, Cerro Medio, Chicoma Peak, and especially the Valle Grande. Bob Cowan led a snowshoe ascent of Redondo Peak in 1979, and George Rinker led ski mountaineering ascents of that peak in 1980 and 1981. Fig. 1. Kim Selvage on a winter snowshoe backpack on Pajarito Mountain, with the Valle Grande and Redondo Peak in the background (Ron Selvage photo) .

A very strenuous, popular and well-known club trip was the annual 24-mile crossing of the back valles, starting at the Pajarito Ski Area and passing through the Valle de los Posos, the Valle Toledo, and the Valle San Antonio, finally arriving at La Cueva. At the 20-mile mark there was always a stop at the San Antonio Hot Springs to soak for a while and revive aching leg muscles. The trip has a net elevation drop of about 2000 feet, but also gains more than 1000 feet along the way. This trip usually required a strong party of trail breakers, led by Mountaineers like Don Liska, George Bell, Dave Brown, Len Margolin, or Merle Wheeler. But the trip has also been done at night by just 2 or 3 people gliding and skating across a frozen surface. Although this was always a strenuous ski tour, there was sometimes a sociable aspect at the end. Once there was a barbeque party at the highway when the skiers came out. Another time, Mario Schillaci recalls that some of the spouses did the 4-mile ski in to the San Antonio Hot Springs from the highway and met the party from Los Alamos with beer and snacks. After a long relaxed soak in the hot springs, and drinking a lot of beer, Mario had trouble making it out the last 4 miles to the highway! Fig. 21. Two skiers enter the Valle Toledo at sundown on a trip from Pajarito Ski Area to La Cueva.

Up until 1979 it was often possible for the Mountaineers to get permission from the landowner, Pat Dunigan, by writing two weeks in advance. But eventually the trip was no longer possible in daylight because the area was closed. Don Liska remembers that "We had to start doing the trip at night, just before full moon, and we made up 'secret' code words for the trip. Those were good days–on one outstanding week I did the crossing three times, twice during the day and the first night time crossing to check its practicality. That one was solo – the best way to feel total solitude." Ironically, now that the Valles Caldera is public property, access by the public is still prohibited except for brief visits!

Fig. 32. Mark Zander on a night-time exploratory ski trip in the Jemez (Leslie Champ photo).

There were also two Jemez ski trips that set out with the goal of crossing the central part of the Jemez mountain range. In the 1970's, George and Ginny Bell and Dave Brown set out from the Seven Springs Fish Hatchery, skiing northeast. Franz Jahoda and Miles Brown started out from the Pedernal road, skiing southwest. The two parties intended to meet, exchange car keys, and continue on across. They got within about a mile of each other, but they didn't see each other and so they both turned back.

In February 1993, Merle Wheeler, Mark Zander, Leslie Champ, Sharon Dogruel, and Greg Swift set out with backpacks from the Pajarito ski area and headed north to Cerro Toledo. From there they dropped into the head of Santa Clara canyon and then turned west and began to follow jeep roads and ridges just north of the Valle Toledo and the Valle San Antonio. They were also aiming for the Fish Hatchery, which they planned to reach in 3 days. But it was a period of almost continuous snow storms, and they were slowed down by lack of visibility, route finding problems, and heavy trail breaking. Norbert Ensslin, Dennis Brandt, and Larry Dauelsberg skied in a few miles from the Fish Hatchery on both the third and fourth day to look for them. On the afternoon of the fourth day, the two parties had a happy reunion in Road Canyon. Merle's team was doing great, but appreciated getting some fresh lemonade and a broken trail back to the Fish Hatchery.

Cross-country skiing in the Jemez and other local sunny areas has always had to contend with relatively warm snow. The most useful waxes are usually red or purple (to get more traction) and a stick of paraffin wax (to stop clumping and get less traction!). A novel idea for waxing skis came on one of the club's annual ski tours through the back valles to La Cueva. In those days, before plastic fish scale skis, when everyone had wooden skis, it was customary to put on more wax at lunch time. Mario Schillaci recalls that Don Liska pulled out a bag of wax cans and klister tubes, and said "It was too bad that they had to carry all of this stuff. It would be better if it was all edible." At that time Don was eating big slices off his usual giant stick of salami sausage, so Mario said, "Why don't you try waxing your skis with that big salami?" Don was intrigued with the idea, but didn't actually try it.

Other cross-country ski trips involving colder snow have included many day trips in the Brazos and Cumbres Pass areas, and 3-day crossings from Penasco or Santa Barbara Canyon to Cowles in the Sangre de Cristos. Rich Davidson led a trip from the Santa Fe Ski Basin to Cowles in January 1983, and Don Liska led 1-day trips from Crested Butte to Aspen in April 1983 and April 1985.

For many years, starting in February 1983, Dave and Faye Brown led trips to Jicarita Peak (12,834ft), which is located about 7 or 8 miles northeast of the Truchas Peaks. This was a tough ski mountaineering trip, 19 miles round trip, with an elevation gain of nearly 4000 feet. Skiers often made it only as far as timberline, about 8 miles in, depending on snow conditions and the strength of the party. The ridge above timberline often had hard, windblown snow to contend with for those trying to go all the way to the summit. Dave remembers that, in terms of elevation gain and total effort, this trip was harder than a Valle crossing. He had initially tried to find a way up from Santa Barbara canyon, but never made it. George and Ginny Bell pioneered another route from near Tres Ritos and Angostura that was a bit shorter and had better snow.

Ski mountaineering, like other forms of mountaineering, also has some potential for accidents. In 1988 Elizabeth Kelly suffered a broken leg while telemarking down Santa Fe Baldy on a Mountaineers ski tour. Dennis Brandt provided an account of the accident, which occurred at about 2 PM at an elevation of 11,650 feet. Dennis said that David Barlow and Barry Smith, the two fastest skiers in the group, raced back to the parking lot at the Ski Basin to call for a rescue. They made it in the amazing time of just over 1 hour! The other members of the party stayed with Elizabeth and tried to keep her as comfortable as possible, although she was in light shock and experiencing a lot of pain. Chemical heat packs and a donated tent and heater helped to keep Elizabeth warm. "Just before darkness fell, a State Police helicopter arrived and dropped off a search and rescue volunteer. The volunteer received a radio message from the helicopter pilot, saying that the pilot was not allowed to operate in the darkness, and that he would return once more just before total darkness to evacuate Elizabeth from Puerto Nambe. He allowed 5 minutes for the party to get Elizabeth to Puerto Nambe from the accident site, a task that would normally take 30 minutes." Now the Mountaineers began a frantic struggle using a make-shift sled made of space blankets, cords, and anything else that could be found to carry Elizabeth towards the helicopter. Al Bouchier managed to get Elizabeth most of the way there by an amazing feat of high-speed skiing, with Elizabeth helping to steer and brake. When the make-shift sled broke apart, Dennis Brandt and Al Bouchier had to help Elizabeth hobble through the snow in great pain until she could be pushed into the hovering helicopter. The helicopter deposited Elizabeth at the hospital at 6 PM. The rest of the party gathered up the residue of skis and other gear and finally made it out by 9 PM, ending what was without a doubt one of the club's most memorable rescue recovery episodes!

In recent years the Mountaineers have done fewer long overnight ski tours, but more trips that utilize yurts in New Mexico or 10th Mountain huts in Colorado. These trips are very popular, and often have long waiting lists for available cabin space. Hut trips led by Dick and Judy Opsahl have filled up a year in advance. Other trips to less well-known hut destinations may be able to accommodate skiers with less advance notice, like Chris Horley's trip to the Section House on Boreas Pass in 2006. In addition to formal club trips, Mario Schillaci has organized a series of hut trips for many years now. Mario was always envious of the Europeans for having a fine hut system, so that hikers and skiers could do extended trips by traveling from hut to hut. Dave Brown told him about the Tenth Mountain Hut System in Colorado, so Mario organized a 5-day trip in 1991 to visit some of those huts. They spent one night each in Vance's Cabin, the Jackal Hut, the Fowler-Hilliard Hut, and the Shrine Mt. Inn. This was the first hut trip organized by members of the club or friends of members, and started a long tradition of trips by club members, some private and some as club trips. During this first trip, the party met a group of "old guys" going the other way, who said that they had been doing this kind of trip for 20 years. Mario thought that this was fantastic, and considered it an admirable goal. Now, after his 18th trip in 2008, Mario can feel proud and happy for having achieved almost the same record of fine hut trips.

In the last few years Bill Priedhorsky has also rented houses in Pagosa Springs, Salida, or Durango to allow the Mountaineers to get together for downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just socializing.