[2] In 1925 economic hardships due to hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic forced his family to emigrate to the United States, settling in Seattle, Washington.

[2] In 1942, the teenage Beckey brothers snatched a second ascent of Mount Waddington, which was then considered the most difficult climb in North America.

[8][2] After the war, Beckey studied business administration at the University of Washington, while still spending a lot of time climbing mountain ranges in the Northwest and desert rock formations in the Southwest.

Afterwards Beckey shied away from the large team efforts abroad, preferring smaller alpine-style undertakings alone or with a few companions seeking out America's last unclimbed peaks or striking routes considered too difficult to climb.

According to a reviewer, he did much of the research for the volume in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress and the National Archives, scouring files of the State Department, U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies.

[10][11] His life was the subject of a 2017 documentary, directed by David O'Leske and produced by Patagonia, called Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey.

[16][2] Partial list of notable first ascents: Timothy Egan captures Fred Beckey's personality in a chapter of The Good Rain.

Beckey was a quintessential dirtbag climber, well captured by a classic portrait of him by Corey Rich[4] from 2004 Patagonia's Fall catalog, where he is trying to hitchhike while holding a sign "Will belay for food".