Xtreme Profiles: Fred Beckey “The Lone Rebel”

Fred Beckey is one of climbing’s greatest warriors.  Some people won’t recognize his name.  Most of his greatness came before many of us were born.  Some of his greatness came before many of our parents were born.  Oddly enough, Fred Beckey is still climbing.  Even more odd–he is 85 years old and has recently been profiled by The New York Times.  So who is this guy?

Wikipedia doesn’t carry much information on Fred.  Maybe that’s because many people probably know some of his accomplishments, or even read many of his books, but his name is just ‘normal’.  That factor couldn’t be further from the truth.  The one interesting thing that Wikipedia does have up, is the following quote:

Fred Beckey has achieved enduring recognition as the most imaginative, persistent, and thorough explorer and mountain investigator of the Cascade Range Wilderness. He was noted as “one of America’s most colorful and eccentric mountaineers,” and is unofficially recognized as the all-time world-record holder for the number of first ascents credited to one man. In addition to being the author of the Cascade Alpine Guide series, Beckey is also the author of Mountains of North America, The Range of Glaciers: Exploration and Survey of the North Cascades, and a personal narrative, Challenge of the North Cascades.

This quote is being attributed to Mountaineers Books. To look at Fred’s history and accomplishments might shock you:

Fred Beckey has made more first-ascents, the first person to top out on any given summit, than anyone else in the world.  His very first attributed climb happened to be a first-ascent of Mt. Despair in 1939.  His last?  Who knows, it could be years from now.  Fred Beckey is still rounding up climbing partners to tackle unknown peaks in Spain.  That was his plan for 2008. After more than 70 years of climbing some of the world’s toughest and unknown peaks, Fred Beckey is still going strong.  He has never had a major injury, never taken a major fall, but has been around when many of his friends and climbing partners have succumbed to tragedy.

Fred Beckey has also written the book on climbing.  Literally.  He has actually written a few books that now stand as all-time classics of mountaineering literature.  These include the following taken from Wikipedia.

• Range of Glaciers: The Exploration and Survey of the Northern Cascade Range (Oregon Historical Society, 2003 ISBN 0-87595-243-7)
• Cascade Alpine Guide (3 vols.) (Mountaineers Books, 1973-2003)
  • Columbia River to Stevens Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2000, ISBN 0-89886-577-8)
  • Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass (1973, 3rd ed. 2003, ISBN 0-89886-152-7)
  • Rainy Pass to Fraser River (1981, 2nd ed. 1995, ISBN 0-89886-423-2)
• Challenge of the North Cascades (1969, 2nd ed. 1996, ISBN 0-89886-479-8)
• Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America (Mountaineers Books 1993, paper 1999, ISBN 0-89886-646-4)
• The Bugaboos: An Alpine History (1987)
• Mountains of North America (1986)
• Mountains of North America (Sierra Club, 1982)
• Darrington and Index Rock Climbing Guide (Mountaineers Books, 1976)
• Guide to Leavenworth rock-climbing areas (Mountaineers Books, 1965)
• Climber’s Guide to the Cascade and Olympic Mountains of Washington (American Alpine Club, 1949, revised edition 1953)

His three-volumn Cascade Mountain Guide still ranks as the best overall view of this majestic range.  Only someone who has experienced the majority of peaks in the Cascades, could provide as much detail as Mr. Beckey.  Each of his books define classic mountaineering, explain things in the utmost detail, and provides one with the needed information and guides to tick off a few of these peaks from our own lists.  Some of these books have become ‘the’ list.

Early in his climbing life, Fred Beckey took a different road to mountaineering.  When he started climbing, big peak alpine expeditions were all the rage.  Mr. Beckey preferred to climb with as small a group as possible, while also rebelling against the height factor that so many had come to know as the greatest challenge.  While others were putting in plans to summit Everest, Beckey would be ticking off first-ascents in the Cascades, Alaska, Colorado, and more.  His numbers soon started to add up and people started to notice that Fred Beckey was his own man and was going to do things his own way.  In a sense, he had become a rebel of mountaineering and would follow this path for the next 70 years.  He never really cared much about what people thought, he would just continue on and tick off one first-ascent after another.

The following comes from the recent New York Times profile and goes into a bit about Mr. Beckey’s climbing history.  Now you can hold your breathe in awe:

Many of the climbers of Beckey’s era, their lives staked on trust and cooperation, grew wary of his gruff manner, his outlier reputation, his intransigence. He was labeled a showboat, a womanizer and worse. When his partners were hurt or killed on expeditions, including Charles Shiverick in the Coast Range of British Columbia in 1947 and Bruno Spirig in the Himalayas in 1955, Beckey was criticized. In the early 1960s, as the first American team was assembled to summit Mount Everest, no one invited Beckey.

Setting out with his brother, Helmy, Beckey put up new routes across Wyoming, Colorado, California, British Columbia and Alaska. Though he preferred Alpine scenery, he climbed desert rock formations, icy crags and boulders, the Gunks, the Bitterroots and the Bugaboos.

As other mountaineers began to focus on repeating ascents for speed, Beckey roamed Europe, China and the North American backcountry in search of unconquered peaks. By his own account, he climbed Mount Rainier, a two-hour drive from Seattle, only five times. In the summer of 1954 alone, he scaled Mounts McKinley, Hunter and Deborah in the Alaska Range, an accomplishment that became known as his Triple Crown of First Ascents. By 1963, when he logged 26 first ascents in a single year, his legend was secure.

I like how it mentions that he climbed Mt. Rainier only five times.  To many climbers, Mt. Rainier is still an epitome peak and something to strive and take pride in achieving.  Most never even get to that ability level.  Need more proof of his prowess?  It is said that Fred Beckey still climbs more than most professional climbers, many of those he could still put to shame.

The New York Times does an excellent job of looking back on over 70 years of climbing, while also evaluating what his accomplishments have meant for the world.  Their article starts out at an internet rumor that Mr. Beckey was looking for a climbing partner for some uncharted first-ascents in Spain, digging deeper into the rumor, an amazing story on the history of American mountaineering begins to unfold.  It is a great feature on one of America and the world’s greatest mountaineers.  Be sure to stop by and watch the accompanying video that shows Fred Becky in action. If you are at all interested in mountaineering, or some of America’s greatest climbing pioneers, I highly recommend that you read this article and find out what many of us never knew about Fred Beckey.