Having lived now in Wyoming for nearly 2 years, I’ve come to really appreciate and love the climbing history that surrounds me. I recently finished a wonderful book called “Teton Tales and Other Petzoldt Anecdotes“, which is a brief memoir of sorts from Paul Petzoldt. It was a quick read, but only because the stories were so close to home, and so comfortably shared by the man who lived them. Petzoldt started climbing pretty early and had a good common sense approach to safety and order which manifested itself in the climbing commands still in use by climbers today around the world. He pretty much set the standards known today as minimum-impact camping, and taught those principles to thousands over the years through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and the Wilderness Education Association (WEA). In the introduction to Petzoldt’s book, his friend Kevin Cassidy summed up the simple lessons Paul shared: know where you are going, watch your step, look around the bend, and pay attention to what you have left behind. I think we need more people like Mr. Petzoldt, now so more than ever. Anyway – having just finished the book and done a little reading up on the guy, it made my day when I came across this footage of Paul along with a wonderful overview of his work with NOLS. The video below was recently found at the NOLS headquarters and cleaned up and posted on YouTube. It’s a bit rough, but the message comes through clear enough.

See also: An article on Paul Petzoldt from Life Magazine in 1969.

I was just barely 4 years old and living in Mountain View, Wyoming when Mount St. Helens erupted, but it’s one of those events I’ve always “remembered”, even without being actually present. My grandparents were living in Seattle and sent down a newspaper which I still have around here somewhere… Having lived in the PNW for most of my life now, it’s a part of the history and culture of the area, and even more so with my interest in climbing history. From my father’s memorable sunburn on a summer ascent and our shared summit in 1994 with my scout troop, to seeing the mountain on a daily basis when we lived in Vancouver, it’s just always been there – along with the knowledge of how unimaginably powerful she was that day 30 years ago.

Some links to browse:

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
Boston Globe’s Big Picture: Mount St. Helens, 30 Years Ago
Spokesman Review Retrospective

A beautiful ad from the Winter 1973 issue of Backpacker Magazine.

Class 5 was one of a handful of Bay-area gear manufacturers in the 70′s making packs, sleeping bags, and outerwear. More details can be found at the amazing Oregon Photos gear history site…

Reinhold Messner has always scared me a little bit. The big Bavarian castle, the wild hair, missing toes – it just all adds up to a Force Not to be Messed With.

Good thing Ben Folds is such a good musician.

Always a place that held both good memories and no small amount of mystery to me, Washington’s North Cascade region is a pretty unique. Many of my first climbing mis-adventures took place in this part of the state, and I have a lot of respect for those hills. This video gives a tidy little overview of the area and features a quick couple of minutes on the indomitable Fred Beckey… Someone I’ve had the pleasure to meet a couple of times and hope to see out there someday!

Rare footage by Yvon Chouinard, initially created for National Geographic featuring John Cunningham climbing an unspecified climb on Ben Nevis in 1976.

John Cunningham and Creagh Dhu climbing The Cobbler in 1978.

Gotta love those old Mazama annuals. Full of great content, including some fun ads in the back for different companies, some of which are still around in one form or another…

Since it’s Friday, I thought a few distractions in the form of some Monty Python sketches were entirely appropriate:

“Mountains,” said United States Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, “have a decent influence on men.”

I would have to agree. Mr. Justice Douglas spent more time on the US Supreme Court than any other Justice, and and in his autobiography “Of Men and Mountains”, he shares a lifetime of stories and anecdotes that probably put him in the lead for the Justice with the most amount of time outside as well. His ties to the Cascades are what initially piqued my interest, but he’s actually quite a character worth spending some time reading about. Consistently liberal, he became known on the court for his fervent support of civil rights and liberties, particularly the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

I am particularly impressed however, with his commitment to the environment and outdoor conservation, in an era when it wasn’t yet at the forefront of the public consciousness. His prescience in making the environment an important part of the issues of the day helped preserve access to wilderness areas that otherwise might have been lost. Regardless of his politics, his eloquence in writing about the relationship between men and mountains is enough for me to keep him on my bookshelf.

See also: Time Magazine’s 1950 review of the book…

Totally loving this mash-up of camping equipment and information design. This is from a book from National Geographic (Camping Adventure) I grew up with and these images have been part of my outdoor memories for a long time. The subject matter of now vintage gear makes this an instant favorite, as it’s both useful as a checklist and entertaining (loving that fishnet action) at the same time. It’s also a testament to the timelessness of camping and spending time outdoors.

Today’s gear may be lighter, faster, and stronger, but most outdoor-experienced baby boomers and their kids grew up with the same kind of gear pictured, which in its day was better than the equipment used by generations past. This shot is from just after the peak of the backpacking boom in 1975, where there were enough enthusiasts to foster the development of lighter weight gear and to support an industry of outdoor gear innovation and manufacturing. As more and more people have picked up on the benefits and enjoyment of being outside, the gear has kept up a pretty good pace as well.

My gear lust issues are no less fervent today than they were 15 years ago, and the bigger problem now is how to hide the receipts…

Tom Bourdillon on reasons for climbing mountains:

One reason is never given openly, rather is disguised and hidden and never even allowed in suggestion, and I venture to think it is because it is really the inmost moving impulse in all true mountain-lovers, a feeling so deep and so pure and so personal as to be almost sacred – too intimate for ordinary mention. That is, the ideal joy that only mountains give – the unreasoned, uncovetous, unworldly love of them, we know not why, we care not why, only because they are what they are; because they move us in some way which nothing else does; so that some moment in a smoke-grimed railway carriage, when in the pure morning air the far-off cloud of Mont Blanc suddenly hung above the mists as we rounded the curves beyond Vallorbe, or, still fairer, from the slopes near Neuchâtel, the whole Bernese range slept dreamlike in the lake at our feet, lives in our memories above a hundred more selfish, more poignant joys; and we feel that a world that can give such rapture must be a good world, a life capable of such feeling must be worth the living.

I can’t remember where I came across these scans, but I’m just glad I did. After last year’s Mount Olympus trip I’ve been very interested in the history of that beautiful area and just thought these were a fun find. The artist’s name is August Lenox, and was primarily known for his oil paintings of the old west. He worked for Disney for some time however, and was responsible for the comic versions of many True-Live Adventures, including Beaver Valley and Bear Country, as well as the Olympic Elk. We didn’t see any elk on our trip last year, which is as good an excuse as any for going back…

I picked up a couple of these old Mazamas Annuals at Powells a few months ago to stash in the bathroom, but only recently have been able to go through them and scan some of the ads in the back. After doing a little searching on some of the companies featured in the ads, I came across a few links worth passing along as background info.

Enjoy.

In 1911, C.A. Lund of St. Paul, Minnesota founded a ski factory, later called the Northland Ski Company. Its hickory skis dominated the market for another 30 years.


The Beebe Company apparently was originally a marine and contractors hardware retailer, but apparently they got into the sporting goods business at some point. Not a lot of info out there.


Hirsch-Weis (White Stag)was a Portland-based outfit that was one of the first companies in the United States to manufacture and mass-produce clothing specifically designed for recreational skiing.


The Mountain Shop is still around and doing the same thing it has for years. They’ve fixed up a pair of boots for me that I’m really happy with and have a lot of regular sales. Knowledgeable staff, too.


Now known as Honeyman Hardware Lofts in the Pearl District.


J.K. Gill was a prominent Portland businessman, who owned a very successful stationary/bookstore and publishing house. In digging around on Google I also came by this treasure of a link which will warrant its own post at some time in the near future…

A few real gems inside this issue from the mid-seventies… The hot pink cover is a real keeper.