Glen Dawson (climber)
Glen Dawson (June 3, 1912 – March 22, 2016)[1][2] was an American rock climber, mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and environmentalist.
Sierra Club Secretary Will Colby wrote, "Some youthful enthusiasts, including Glen Dawson, Jules Eichorn and John Olmstead, swarmed over everything that looked formidable in the way of a mountain peak.
"[3] On July 12, 1931, Francis P. Farquhar led a Sierra Club climbing school on Unicorn Peak near Yosemite National Park's Tuolumne Meadows.
After the basic course was completed, the more advanced students, including Dawson, Eichorn, Norman Clyde, Lewis Clark, and Bestor Robinson, traveled south to the Palisades, the most rugged and alpine part of the Sierra Nevada.
There, on August 13, 1931, the party completed the first ascent of the last unclimbed 14,000+ foot peak in California, which remained unnamed due to its remote location above the Palisade Glaciers.
After a challenging ascent to the summit, the climbers were caught in an intense lightning storm, and Eichorn barely escaped electrocution when "a thunderbolt whizzed right by my ear".
"[5] Three days later on August 16, Dawson, Eichorn, Clyde, and Underhill completed the first ascent of the East Face of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States.
After four days of climbing, on June 15, 1932, Dawson, along with Clyde, Brem, Bestor Robinson and Dick Jones, reached the summit of El Picacho del Diablo, the highest peak in Baja California.
Dawson, Eichorn, Brem and Leschke then climbed a new route on Mount Russell, by way of the south face, west chute.
On February 22, 1933, Dawson made the first ski ascent of Telegraph Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On the Sierra Club's annual High Trip, Dawson, along with Neil Ruge and Alfred Weiler, made a first ascent of the highest peak in The Pinnacles, two miles (3 km) west of Hutchison Meadow.
In December, 1933, the group completed challenging climbs on Castle Dome 20 miles north of Yuma, Arizona on the California side of the Colorado River.
On the 4th of July weekend of 1934, Dawson along with Ted Waller completed the second ascent of the East Face of Mount Whitney, which he had first climbed in 1931.
On July 11, 1934, Dawson, Jack Riegelhuth and Neil Ruge completed the first ascent of the Sierra Nevada peak later named Mount Ansel Adams.
UCLA professor Walt Mosauer was the first president of the group, which later became the Ski Mountaineers Section of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club..."[12] In February, 1935 Dawson, Mosauer and several others attempted a number of winter ascents in the Bridgeport and Mammoth areas of the Sierra Nevada, but were turned back by storms.
Heading east by Greyhound bus, he visited Carlsbad Caverns and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
From Boston, he sailed on an Italian freighter to Trieste and then climbed in the Dolomites, including an ascent of the south wall of the Marmolata.
Upon his return to the United States in 1936 after 14 months of overseas travel, he wrote, "After having climbed in a dozen different countries I can agree with John Muir and Clarence King that our own High Sierra is the finest and most friendly of all.
Tahquitz was then a new location for top Southern California rock climbers, since it is far closer to the Los Angeles area than Yosemite Valley.
[17] During World War II, Dawson served as a rock climbing and skiing instructor in the Tenth Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado, and in Italy.
[21][22] He testified as an expert witness for the U. S. Government at Blumberg's trial, attesting for example that 271 items taken from the Connecticut State Library were worth $225,280.
On September 18, 2009, Dawson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Azusa Pacific University for his accomplishments as a rare book expert, publisher and mountaineer.
