The Career of Mountaineer Fred Beckey

I saw him once in the early 2010s in Vertical World's Redmond location, but I didn't realize it at the time. Just some old guy in a harness feeling the holds in the bouldering area. We kept to ourselves.

Later, one of the employees told a story about how he met Beckey at the counter one time. Beckey had asked if he could climb, and the employee told him the rate for a day pass, not realizing who it was.

"I'm Fred," Beckey volunteered in frustrated amazement.

"Fred who?"

"Fred Beckey."

He waved him in to climb for free, of course.

Fred Beckey really was an absolute legend in the world of mountaineering - he was known worldwide as the original climbing bum, and one of the world's finest alpinists - right up there with the likes of Walter Bonatti.

This is a reprint of an old article. Fred Beckey died in 2017 at the age of 94!

Met him once at a backcountry lodge. I'm not a climber, but was on a long hiking trip and he was staying the night about to approach a climb. We were just like "who's the old guy" (he was mid 80's at the time) and wound up having dinner with him and a bunch of others. I only know a bit about him but it was inspiring seeing someone living like that even into old age.