From: lowell@halcyon.com (Lowell Skoog)
Subject: A Wet and Scrappy Skier Responds to Lou Dawson's "Wild Snow"
Date: 1997/05/22
Message-ID: <5m246q$4nb$1@halcyon.com>
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.
Keywords: review, negative
Reply-To: lowell@halcyon.com (Lowell Skoog)
Newsgroups: rec.skiing.backcountry

I eagerly awaited my copy of Lou Dawson's new book, "Wild Snow: A
Historical Guide to North American Ski Mountaineering" (American
Alpine Club).  I corresponded with the author via e-mail as he
compiled his list of classic routes and regional contacts.  I share
his enthusiasm for ski mountaineering history.  Unfortunately, when
I received the book, I was greatly disappointed.

The book provides, for the first time, a chronicle of ski
mountaineering from the earliest days to the present in nine major
regions throughout North America.  It also offers a selection of
classic descents in each region.  In these respects, Dawson has done
the ski mountaineering community a great service.

However, the strength of a history book lies in its grasp of the
facts.  On reviewing the chapter covering my own region, the Cascade
Range, my confidence in Dawson's grasp of the facts, and his
objectivity as a historian, was badly shaken.

Dawson incorrectly credits Fred Beckey with many early Cascade ski
descents.  Ironically, the correct information can be found in
Beckey's own guidebooks and autobiography.  The 1938 ski ascent of
North Star Mountain was made by Ralph Eskenazi, Sigurd Hall and
Dwight Watson.  Ruth Mountain was first skied by Calder Bressler and
Ray Clough.  Eldorado Peak was first skied (at least partially) by
Watson.

Dawson suggests that Fred Beckey's ski of Mount Saint Helens in 1961
may have been the first.  This is not credible, since Saint Helens
is the easiest of the Cascade volcanoes and the others were skied
back in the 1930's.  The true first skiers may never be known.  He
credits brothers Don and Pete Pattison, along with Mike Hattrup,
with the first descent of Mount Rainier's Fuhrer Finger in 1993.
Yet Dan Davis and party skied the route at least ten years earlier.

These problems could have easily been corrected if the author had
sent me a draft of the Cascade chapter prior to publication.  He did
not, and on reading the finished chapter I think I understand why.

Disturbingly, Dawson turned some of my own statements into a
regional put-down.  In our e-mail correspondence, we discussed
whether an extreme skiing route such as Mount Rainier's Liberty
Ridge should be included in the list of classic descents.  This
route is risky, rarely in condition, and now that the publicity
factor has worn off, seldom done.  I commented that most ski
mountaineers (who are not extreme skiers) would view the route as a
stunt rather than a classic.

Dawson used my comment about "stunt skiing" and my lack of
enthusiasm for extreme skiing to cast Northwest ski mountaineers as
reactionary duffers.  He produced a turn of the century photograph
of a large Mountaineers party climbing Mount Baker and proclaimed:
"Northwest clubs were important in the development of
mountaineering, and also engendered a conservatism only recently
dissipated." He attributes to Northwest clubs more influence over
skiing than they ever had.  He ignores contrary evidence like the
Silver Skis race on Mount Rainier in the 1930's, which was every bit
as wild as the Inferno on New Hampshire's Tuckerman Ravine.

The author writes, "If the locals wouldn't crank the steeps, it was
up to outsiders." Yet his examples of outsiders cranking the steeps
are misleading in a carefully crafted way.  Dawson cites Bill
Briggs' descent of Mount Rainier, but fails to mention (until later)
that local mountaineers skied the peak over a decade earlier.  He
cites Sylvain Saudan's descent of Mount Hood, but fails to mention
(until later) that an 18 year-old local repeated the feat a couple
of years later in better style.  The 1980 descent of Liberty Ridge
by Coloradoan Chris Landry was clearly a milestone.  But Dawson
overlooks the fact that during the 1980's Cascades skiers quietly
ticked off Mount Stuart's Ulrichs Couloir, the Adams Glacier on
Mount Adams, Mount Fury in the Picket Range, and remote peaks in the
Pasayten Wilderness.  The complete facts do not support the author's
thesis.

These problems seem to reflect either ignorance or disdain for 
the region.  Chapters about other ranges have inspiring
subtitles--"Peaks of Light" (Sierra), "Powder Perfect" (Wasatch),
"Steep, Rocky and Wild" (Tetons).  The best the author can do for
the Cascades is "Wet and Scrappy."

Dawson's choice of Northwest classics perpetuates the myth that the
big volcanoes are the Cascade Range.  Anyone familiar with the
region knows that the rugged North Cascades are just as important
and to many skiers more aesthetic than the volcanoes.  North Cascade
classics such as Shuksan, Ruth, Sahale, Eldorado or Silverstar would
have made the selection more representative.

Maybe these problems are limited to the Cascade chapter of the book.
I hope so.  My hope is that this book will inspire other authors to
dig deeper into the history of North American ski mountaineering.
Perhaps in a few years the American Alpine Club can be persuaded to
publish a second edition.

                          --Lowell Skoog
                            Seattle, Washington
                            (Gateway to the "Wet and Scrappy" Range)