Challenge of the North Cascades

by Fred Beckey

Book Overview

Back by popular demand, this mountaineering classic chronicles more than 30 years of Fred Beckey's adventures among the peaks.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 091689021X
• ISBN13: 9780916890216
• Release Date: August 1977
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Nostalgia for a range of mountains yet unexplored

Living in the NW with roads and highways criss-crossing most stretches of the Cascades it's almost hard to imagine that not so long ago all of that was remote and climbing back up in there meant long multi-week treks from road to road, bagging peaks along the way. Beckey and company enjoyed these peaks in the best possible way, back in the day day when one climbed in boots or tennis shoes, protected rarely and then with pitons or more likely a slung horn or chockstone, and where the route was what you made it not what you find on-line or in a book. Most of these peaks aren't terribly technical, and modern ascents always have something of the anti-climatic feel to them. There are epic moments here and there when things go south, but by and large it's dull sort of adventure. Better to have done it back then with less hardware, more pluck, and the frequent use of one's younger brother for shoulder stands. This book along with Exum's collection of climbing stories are probably the two most important records of the pre-yosemite generation of climbers. It's invaluable record American alpine climbing in it's infancy, and it's funny.

Classic from the old man of the mountains

When my grandfather died and we were going through his books I came across this gem. Beckey has first ascents on more than half of all the peaks in the Cascades. He owns the mountains. This is his poem to his love. I had long valued Fred Beckey's extensive guide books to the Cascades, but had never read any of mountain narratives. What a treat this was! I also highly recommend his book on McKinley. I've read scores of mountaineering books, but this one I rank as one of the very best. Beckey tromps across the mountains of Washington state as a young man in the early days of mountaineering with joie de vivre. In one exuberant push he and a companion set out to hike and bag whatever peaks in between from what is now I-90 to Highway 2. A week later they emerged on the highway and hitched back to Seattle. I hope you find as much pleasure in this overlooked classic as I have.