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Fred Beckey
From the 1973 Canadian Alpine Journal
I object strongly to the inference in the
article "The
Complete North Arete", by Les MacDonald (1972 CAJ), that Bjornstad and
I did not climb the lower half of the arete. MacDonald is putting the facts
of this climb in a way that is incoherent to the reader. On the original
ascent of the upper half of the arete (which we called Angel's Crest) by
MacDonald, Mather and I, we reached the approximate mid-point of the arete
by a relatively easy gully entrance from North Gully. Prior to this time I
had been with two other climbers on an attempt from the same locale, but
the ascent by the three of us was the first climb through to the summit.
Though there may be a ledge or gully which intersects this route at a point
higher than our entrance, I did not know of it at the time and still do
not. The entry by the Woodsworth party to climb the Acrophobes may have
used a higher gully, unknown to me. MacDonalds statement to the effect that
I secretly knew of an easy exit or entrance on the upper portion of the
route is entirely misleading.
On another climb, during a later year,
Bjornstad and I climbed the North Arete (Angel's Crest) from its lowest
point, where it emerges from the trees, to about the midway point of the
arete - which is the exact locale where MacDonald, Mather and I reached the
arete. The entire arete therefor had been climbed prior to his first
complete climb recently but in a curiously inverse stage. MacDonald is to
be congratulated for making the forst complete ascent, but not for his
misleading inferences.
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