From: lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org (Lowell Skoog) Newsgroups: rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: Remembering Walt Little, Northwest Skier and Mountaineer Date: 6 Mar 2002 07:34:14 -0800 Message-ID: [edited, minor corrections] Walter Burges Little: April 29, 1909 - February 28, 2002 Walt Little's passion for skiing spanned three-quarters of a century. He took up the sport in 1927, when Paradise on Mount Rainier was a six mile trek on skis from Longmire, rope tows hadn't yet been invented, and a "shaped" ski was one with a wicked warp. Walt kept skiing through the last year of his life. He died recently in Seattle, at age 92, following his annual ski vacation to Sun Valley with friends. Walt didn't just witness the changes in Northwest skiing. He helped bring them about. Walt joined the Mountaineers in the 1930s and began a lifelong involvement with the club's Meany ski hut, near Stampede Pass. With its steep rope tow and open slopes, Meany was considered one of the best ski hills in Washington state in those days. In 1941, Walt organized the last running of the classic Patrol Race from Snoqualmie Pass to Meany. Over the years, Walt concocted many of the names around Meany hill, such as "Psychopath" and "Lower Slobbovia." In 1939 Walt chaired the committee that planned the Mountaineers' Stevens Pass hut. When the hut was dedicated in 1949, the Mountaineer Annual described Walt as the guiding spirit in its construction. In 1941, Walt was the architect of the club's first ski mountaineering course. This may have been the first such course in North America. It was almost certainly the first to teach glacier skiing. Walt wrote much of the course handbook and published an authoritative article, "Mountaineering on Skis" in the 1941 Mountaineer Annual. Walt's article reviewed the history of Northwest ski mountaineering and explained the rationale for the new course. The course included overnight camping on snow, roped skiing practice, and extended tours that employed these techniques. Walt's training methods were innovative. During the glacier skiing field trip, a roped skier would launch off a cornice in Edith Creek basin and his or her rope team would have to arrest the fall and carry out a rescue. About 100 people registered for the course during the first year. In spite of World War II, which began midway through the course, 31 people took the final exam and eight graduated. Walt was one of them. Walt was an explorer as well as a teacher. During the war, on weekend leave from the Army, Walt and George Dennis made the earliest recorded ski trip into the Enchantment Lakes basin. His 1943 Mountaineer Annual article, "Snow and Skis in the Stuart Range," included the first published photo of Prusik Peak, which drew post-war rock climbers to the area. In 1947, with Charles Cehrs and other Mountaineers, Walt made the first recorded ski ascent of Whitehorse Mountain. Following the war, Walt applied his energies to the growing sport of downhill skiing. In the 1950s, he was one of a small group of skiers who studied the feasibility of a ski resort at Crystal Mountain. Walt made over a dozen snow survey trips on skis into Silver Creek basin during those years. Using his skills as a civil engineer, Walt led development of the chairlifts that opened at Crystal Mountain in autumn 1962. Walt's reputation spread and he was invited by Wenatchee skiers to consult on the proposed Mission Ridge ski area in the early 1960s. Walt said that after all those survey trips to Crystal Mountain, he'd had enough of heavy packs and climbing for ski runs. He stuck to lift skiing after that, and kept at it for the rest of his life. A lifelong bachelor, he described himself as "sort of a maniac skier." Bob Cram once said, "Walt was a pioneer in ski technique. Anything that was crazy Walt had already tried." Walt's passion for downhill skiing was rooted in his beginnings as a ski mountaineer. In his 1941 article in the Mountaineer Annual, his enthusiasm shines through to this day. After describing what a ski mountaineer needs to know for an ascent of one of the Cascade volcanos, Walt concludes: "A neophyte might well question, 'Why take all this trouble?' To one who has once felt the thrill of the long high ski trails in the bright spring weather, with perfect snow underfoot, there is no need of rationalizing an answer. You just like it." --Lowell Skoog Seattle