new hut being built on the chief
new hut being built on the chief
I heard that there might be a new shelter ledge or hut built on the chief somewhere on the face of the grand wall, has anyone got any info on this or any details? Is this true?
Greg
Greg
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bradley3297
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Anders Ourom
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The Eryl Pardoe Memorial Hut was built on the Dance Platform in 1971. Pardoe was active in the Vancouver area in the late 1960s - I believe he had emigrated here from Wales. He died in an accident on American Border Peak in July 1970 - see Canadian Alpine Journal 1971, page 53.
There is a report on construction of the Pardoe Hut, including photos, in the Canadian Alpine Journal 1972, page 75. At that time the Dance Platform was often used for bivouacs by climbers on Grand and University Walls, before they continued to the top. (Pardoe had done Grand, University and Tantalus Walls.) The hut was designed by Byron Olson, an architect/climber and by chance one of my distant cousins, and has an intriguing design. They prefabricated all the pieces, and lowered them in to a team waiting on the Dance Platform, who had excavated the site and then built the hut. It could hold 6 - 8 people.
The hut was badly damaged by falling ice, and removed by Perry Beckham in the late 1980s.
I've always assumed that it was named the Dance Platform because one of the first to visit it (Baldwin, Cooper, Auger, Tate) during the early ascents of the Grand Wall felt it was large enough to dance on. I believe Auger and Tate discovered and first used the Bellygood escape. It's a nice double entendre, in that you may be both literally and metaphorically crawling on your belly. Literally in that it's possible to wriggle along it, rather than undercling. Metaphorically in that you may be avoiding some of the climb - you can't really say you've done the Grand, or U Wall, if you haven't done the Roman Chimneys. There is a legend, possibly true, that Dick Culbert crossed Bellygood facing outward.
There is a report on construction of the Pardoe Hut, including photos, in the Canadian Alpine Journal 1972, page 75. At that time the Dance Platform was often used for bivouacs by climbers on Grand and University Walls, before they continued to the top. (Pardoe had done Grand, University and Tantalus Walls.) The hut was designed by Byron Olson, an architect/climber and by chance one of my distant cousins, and has an intriguing design. They prefabricated all the pieces, and lowered them in to a team waiting on the Dance Platform, who had excavated the site and then built the hut. It could hold 6 - 8 people.
The hut was badly damaged by falling ice, and removed by Perry Beckham in the late 1980s.
I've always assumed that it was named the Dance Platform because one of the first to visit it (Baldwin, Cooper, Auger, Tate) during the early ascents of the Grand Wall felt it was large enough to dance on. I believe Auger and Tate discovered and first used the Bellygood escape. It's a nice double entendre, in that you may be both literally and metaphorically crawling on your belly. Literally in that it's possible to wriggle along it, rather than undercling. Metaphorically in that you may be avoiding some of the climb - you can't really say you've done the Grand, or U Wall, if you haven't done the Roman Chimneys. There is a legend, possibly true, that Dick Culbert crossed Bellygood facing outward.
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