Marion Hessey dies at 91

Yea, those old-timer stories are great. I'm currently reading the "Early Hiking in the Olympics" by Paul Crews and find it one of the more interesting reads I've had in quite awhile. The 1st hand stories are the best IMO.

Having done that white pass traverse, I'd have to say that'd been pretty hard, especially since, when i talked to you last Lowell, I think that you said they took 2 weeks. That's an incredible amount of gear!!!

According to Tom Lyon , they spent five nights out, over and back. The Hesseys were minimalists on gear. They used army surplus pup tents on the trip and slept on bough beds, rather than carry air mattresses. They cooked over an open fire instead of using a stove. Their movie "Skiing Cascade Wilderness" has a nice scene showing these techniques. Chuck Hessey was a classic woodsman.

At the memorial I learned that Dorothy Egg , the fourth member of the White Pass to Goat Rocks party, is still living at age 97. She's another amazing pioneer. I also learned that Lex Maxwell passed away recently. He was a pillar of the eastern Washington mountaineering community the way Ome Daiber (deceased) and Wolf Bauer (still living) were for the west side. Maxwell did the first ascents of Ulrich's Couloir and the West Ridge of Mt Stuart back in the early 1930s.

We're seeing the end of an era.

Thanks for the correction Lowell. I love the goat rocks, as I am sure they must've.

Lowell, do you know if there is any chance that movie ("Skiing Cascade Wilderness") would be put on DVD to be made available for the public?

Lowell, do you know if there is any chance that movie ("Skiing Cascade Wilderness") would be put on DVD to be made available for the public?

Funny you should ask.

This is a current project of the Mountaineers History Committee, of which I am chairman. Over the past few years the Mountaineers have transferred about 10 hours of old movies to digital videotape. An inventory of our collection can be found here . Our vision is to eventually make a selection of these films available for sale on DVD. Proceeds would fund more historical projects. Danny Miller, who I believe you know, has recently joined the History Committee, and he has been working with me on this.

This is a complex project. Technology, copyright, production, marketing, and many other issues need to be addressed. The Mountaineers don't have permission to sell the Hessey films. That's something we would need to work out.

If anybody out there has experience with a project like this, or has time and energy to learn, I would welcome more help. We're nudging the project forward, but it's going very slowly.