Today is my Grandpa Gene’s birthday. He died back in 1993, but would have been 91 today. I think a lot of who I am today comes from him - his love for books, history, language, and Scandinavian furniture are all part of my daily life, and I will always be grateful for the time I got to spend with him. He left behind a lot of mystery and sadness in my family, but he also left a well-documented life of adventure, passion, and love. Visiting my grandparents when we were kids, my sisters and I loved all the collected treasures of a life on the ocean that were displayed on the walls and in nooks and crannies of his Seattle home. There’s a lot of posts I could make and things I could write about him, but today I think I just want to share one of my favorite bits of his life - a map he carried with him on his travels around the world as a sailor. I own a lot of maps, but none of them mean as much to me as this one, simply because it was his. This one was part of his personal papers that he left with my mother, along with journals and poems and photos - he was blogging way before computers - and I’ve often wished he was around to share in some of the adventures I’ve enjoyed in the last few years, especially with Amy and the kids. Mostly I’m just grateful for his influence and memories and inspiration. There’s still a lot of his writings and things that need to be scanned and saved, and I’m looking forward to it.

One of the benefits of having lived in the Portland area was my brief association with the Mazamas. The Mazamas were founded in 1894 on the summit of Mount Hood as a mountaineering education organization. I didn’t really participate much, (I’m sure I would have if we’d stayed in the area), but the biggest reason I joined up with to be able to get access to their library. The headquarters of the group is located in the historic Mt. Hood Masonic Lodge out on 43rd and Stark. It’s a pretty cool old building, very much worth just dropping by and checking out. The building has a handful of offices and a large meeting room, and lots of other little rooms tucked around here and there. The library and archives are downstairs, which is where I’d head during my lunch hour just to browse the collection and see what kind of treasures I could find.

Guide books, biographies, historic narratives, trip reports, magazines, movies, maps - it’s all downstairs. Summit registers are archived downstairs as well, with records going back to the first ascents of northwest peaks in the 1800’s. The cool part is that they still have so much stuff that isn’t even shown, but stashed away because there’s just no room. They also archive and display gear of historic or other interest, which is displayed upstairs in a rotating exhibit. There’s still a bit of sadness when I think of all the good stuff in there, and me down here. I did manage to find a lot of bits and pieces that will appear in future posts here though, so I am grateful for the short time I did have to root around downstairs. I also introduced myself to one of the Library Committee archivists, Jeff Thomas, and had offered my help in preserving some of the older format videos and films. I didn’t get a chance to really jump into things with the whole Wyoming move happening, but I did manage to digitize some of their old VHS tapes. I also have a few of the Spring brothers films they didn’t yet have in the collection, so there’s still some communication that will have to happen.

In the meantime, I’ll share some cool maps scanned from a small book that was not in super-good shape, but worth hanging on to, for both its content and visual interest. The Olympic peninsula is a pretty unique place, and one that I wish I’d been able to spend more time in. Living on the east side of the Sound for so many years and seeing the summits of Mt. Constance and The Brothers made them a permanent part of my mountain memory. Spending actual time up there has only happened in the form of a Mt. Olympus trip last year, a Boy Scout 50-miler up the north fork of the Quinault River and out the Elwha, and a handful of trips out to the Ozette area up on the western-most tip of the peninsula, but I hope to get back up there from time to time and kick around some more. These maps are not super detailed, but I really liked the minimalist approach and the colors, as well as just being able to connect the maps with locations and photos and memories from past trips. Enjoy.

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Over these seemingly changeless mountains, in endless succession, move the ephemeral colors of dawn and sunset and of noon and night, the shadows and sunlight, the garlands of clouds with which storms adorn the peaks, the misty rain-curtains of afternoon showers.

– Fritiof Fryxell, The Tetons: Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape

My first year of college back at Ricks I started out as a Geology major. I think it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to do and that I enjoyed spending time in the mountains, so it seemed at the time to be a logical choice. I only recall taking one or two courses actually related to geology, but also recall taking an Art History class. One of those classes was obviously more interesting and inspiring than the others, which is evidenced by the fact that I work as a designer and not for an oil company.

This book I picked up a few months ago is a perfect summation of my year at Ricks. A little geology, a little information design and cartography - a good mix. Fritiof Fryxell was a geologist and the first naturalist of the Grand Teton National Park and put this little beauty together. Not too over the head of the non-geologist, and an insightful look into the make-up and geologic history of a beautiful place.

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