2004 Honorary Member Profile : Chic Burge

When something needs to be done in the Spokane Mountaineers, 20-year member Chic Burge just does it.

"No job is too great or too small for Chic to serve with enthusiasm, " said Jeff Lambert when nominating the Coeur d' Alene resident in 2004 as the club's 32nd honorary member. "He was president four times and loved it. He later was willing to serve as secretary when the position was open unexpectedly. He has contributed by

Teaching Mountain School, avalanche awareness, photography, blading, and many other topics too numerous to remember...

Leading grueling hikes, backpacks, paddles, climbs, photography forays, skiing adventures and always making the event fun. ..

Presenting more slide shows for General Membership meetings than any other, as well as many other presentations within the club and to the public.

Advocating for conservation and protection of the areas where we recreate by writing hundreds of letters and attending public meetings, often speaking alone on our behalf…

Encouraging and recruiting others to get involved, whether beginners or experts. He is the epitome of an ambassador for the club."

When vandals attacked 27 parked vehicles-including his own at a $3,200 loss-during Snow Practice at Stevens Peak in the mid-80's, Chic was "infuriated." He's been a self-appointed overnight "lookout" every year but two since. "The vandal 'regulars' just got used to seeing me there, I guess."

In 2001, Chic's memory told him the club had worked to gain 501(c)(3) nonprofit classification. No one on the Board agreed, but there was no easy way to check. The result: A first-ever 12-page topical index to 40 years of minutes. Chic spent 350 hours over 2 years sorting four boxes of jumbled minutes into chronological order and then writing down topics as he poured through the pages. It took four nights to put them on the computer. For 8-1/2 years, Chic missed nary a monthly or bi-monthly Spokane meeting while representing the Mountaineers as co-chair of the Mt. Spokane State Park Citizens Advisory Committee.

Even before joining the club in 1984, Chic began a barrage of letters protesting the proposed Rock Creek Mine. As proposed, the mine would tunnel under Montana's Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and ram a noisy ventilation shaft through to the surface. "I was out hiking and spotted a drill rig across the valley, " Chic recalls. "I headed over to see what they were doing. " He continues today to lead the Conservation Committee's opposition.

Chic and his camera are fixtures at the annual banquet and other events, providing valuable pictorial history. After the honorary members' plaque and past presidents ' photo panels stored at the Chalet were damaged, Chic brought them down for repair, updating, and safekeeping. The list of Chic's self generated "good works" goes on, and on and on.

"I like a simple life, don't like complexity or too much responsibility, " Chic declares, before opening the door to his past 59 years. Do his actions belie his words? You judge!

A dual passion for mountains and water began early. "I was in the water all the time, spring to fall, until I was 12, " Chic says, looking back at summers spent with his 6-years-older twin brothers at the family's Coeur d' Alene Lake cabin. Mountaineers Bill and Harriet Fix were next door neighbors. "I always heard Bill's stories, and they were really neat! " Chic started downhill skiing at 5. His uncle took him to Mt. Spokane and then to Lookout Pass for free lessons. At 9, his uncle took him cross country skiing and gave him his first 35mm camera.

Life changed when he was 16. Both parents died within 6 months, and his grandfather died between them. He lived with his brother on Grand Boulevard for a year before moving into to his grandfather's 25-room Cutter mansion on Summit boulevard, where he lived, semi-alone, for 9-1/2 years.

"I was a loner, " Chic says of his years at Lewis and Clark High School, although he did join the ski club. And he showed his independent streak. He changed his name to "Chic" from "Ian" (one of his middle names) when he moved to the South Side at age 12. "I went to court and became my own legal guardian at 17," Chic relates. "I signed my own report cards," he says, smiling at the memory of the teacher who protested futilely, 'You can't do that!' "

The loner does admit to a few parties in his roomy abode, including rock-and-roll station KNEW's "Teen Fairs." (A musical side note: Fascination with a Canadian band he heard at a Spokane club in 1969 led to friendship and recording the band on his uncle's reel-to-reel tape recorder. This all led to a recording session in Spokane a few months later. "They're still playing, " Chic says.)

Though college wasn't a chosen goal, Chic's inheritance required enrollment. He attended both EWU and WSU, studying architectural drafting. The "up" side was meeting two Eastern students who were into climbing. "The three of us climbed and skied everywhere! , " Chic recalls with relish. "Every time we saw a place climbable, we noted it and either climbed it on the way back or later." Chic's pals didn't like pitons, preferring instead to tote a bag of rocks and make their own rope-wrapped chalkstones for protection. "I carried the camera and made copies for them, while they carried part of my load in exchange. "

Chic prides himself on never signing a summit register. "I've climbed a lot of peaks, but just don't keep track because it isn't necessary." A good time is his priority. "If you're not having fun, you've got to change things"' Skis with three-pin bindings and hand-tied rope systems for climbing traction took the trio into areas like Jackass (now Silver Mountain) before the tows and lifts. "I got into telecrashing," Chic says, "No form and very painful. " He skied every open slope from Mt. Coeur d' Alene to Lookout Pass and beyond.

In 1965, Chic volunteered for the Army National Guard. His reluctance to salute and otherwise conform resulted in "basically, 6 years on KP ." Finding Spokane "too crowded, " Chic switched to an Idaho Guard unit. To satisfy the 50-mile distance required to make the transfer, Chic headed to an 18-month job in Seattle with Standard Oil before moving to Coeur d' Alene. "In August, 1971, the Idaho Guard asked me not to
're-up'."

Photography became more than a hobby in 1972. Singled out of an unemployment line solely because he had a camera slung over his shoulder, the agency sent him to the East Sprague K-Mart. Hired on the spot, he was manager of cameras within a month. Eight years later an opening as a camera jewelry manager at the Coeur d' Alene store beckoned. Terminated in 1989 for incompatibility, Chic headed out to play. "I hit every ski resort I could find," he recalls with glee, "and was going to head for Banff and Jasper when the Camera Corral hired me." He's still there.

His Idaho hiking/skiing pal, member Chris Herath, moved to Montana in 1984. "I had nobody to play with, " Chic remembers, explaining how the Spokane Mountaineers became his surrogate family. "I went to Meet the Mountaineers, and Bill Fix was there. " Chic proceeded through Mountain School where he topped Mt. Hood for the third time on a Graduation Climb-and was almost immediately leading mountaineering trips, photo seminars, and star-gazing parties. (He was president of the Spokane Astronomical Society at the time.) First elected to the Board in 1987, he's served 10 years in all.

Injuries caused some downtime: a badly broken ankle from a fall from Chimney Rock in 1988 and bad knees in the late 9O's (the latter alleviated by a continuing daily 30-minute exercise regime). While he was down with this injury , he read all the books Bill Fix would loan him and found a quote that is still used today by the Mountaineers. It is Montani Semper Liberi, which loosely translates to "Mountaineers Are Always Free. "He logged 427 hiking miles last year, "right up to the day before I started skiing. "

Chic loves to teach and encourage others. Instructing for avalanche class with Steve Reynolds "was the funnest thing I've done with the Mountaineers," he reveals. He revels in photography students whose "eyes open up and they excel" when they go to a "really cool place" to shoot. "If you can teach somebody to do something and they can do it better than you-Wow!"

So what's the next Chic Burge project? Eyes alight with excitement, Chic says, "I'd like to do a coffee table guidebook!" Using his own mostly color photographs, his ambitious "within a day's drive" concept includes 8-by-l2-inch glossies and hand-drawn maps with business-card-size photos pointing up map locations. However, "Ski season cancels out everything else. I'll start on it next summer." And it's a cinch he will!

--Lorna Ream