1961 Honorary Member Profile : Earl and Dorothy Ferrier

"For outstanding devotion and service to the Club," read the certificate presented to Earl and Dorothy Ferrier in May 1961. A May 7th Spokesman Review photo and article documented this first (and only) bestowal of honorary membership on a couple by the Spokane Mountaineers.

"The Spokane Mountaineers were our whole life," Dorothy recalled in her Everett kitchen in 1994, the year before her death at 85 (December 23, 1995) in Seattle. Earl had preceded her in 1989 after 53 years of membership. Dorothy had been a member for 64 years.

Dorothy Stevens, a 5-year veteran, met Earl on an outing shortly after he joined in February 1936. She had already been Club secretary and Music Committee chair and had served on the Trails, Summer Outing, Commissary, Song Book, Entertainment, and Membership committees. The May-June Kinnikinnick noted that she had been on 10 of 13 scheduled outings between January 1 and April 10, tying for "attendance champion."

She led her first hike, Walk 632, to Rockhaven 4 months after joining in November 1931. "Come prepared for skiing," said her leader's writeup for Walk 661 to Moran Mountain in January 1933. She was a regular on the then-annual overnight ski climbs to celebrate the New Year atop Mt. Spokane. In 1934, she was Athletic Director for the annual Field Day, having "won high honors in the ladies' events last year," according to the Kinnikinnick.

Mt. Stuart on Memorial Day 1936 was Earl's first major summit. The Cabinets' A Peak followed in July. A long career of climbs-many as leader-had begun. "He liked the climbing and I liked the climbing," was Dorothy's explanation of their romance. They married in March 1937. "We couldn't afford two ice axes," she remembered. On trips, "If one would go, they took the axe...if both went, one had the 'alpie' [alpenstock]."

Their mutual love of mountaineering coincided with the Club's growing interest. Though a rope was often carried for a bit of incidental rock scrambling, the focus was hiking. "It was kind of a straightlaced bunch, too," Dorothy remembered, "with no smoking or drinking." Then more people "my age" joined and "we started the climbing group."

Earl was appointed the Mountaineers' first Climbing Committee chair. The initial "official" activity, designated "C-l," was for climbing group candidates at Rocks of Sharon in May 1938. A busy summer followed: Tum Tum rock practice, Snowshoe Peak (Montana), Dartford Potholes rock practice, Mt. Rainier (with the Everett Mountaineers), Scotchman Peak, and Roman Nose. Idaho's Chimney Rock (C-22) was an early goal. Earl was on the third ascent in 1939 and led it in August 1941, adding four more signatures to the nine already in the summit register. Later Dorothy climbed it twice.

Earl served as climbing chair at least four times; Dorothy was chair in 1942. Both were climbing instructors and served on the committee many times; the last time was 1965 for Earl. The Club's first formal climbing course-six classes-began in February 1939 at the Ferriers' home and ended with a final exam in May. Earl had compiled an Elementary Rock Climbing Instruction manual in 1938.

Most Kinnikinnicks for 30 years contained a Ferrier name. They are full of work parties, outings, and ski classes run by Earl and Dorothy at Mt. Spokane. In the wintertime, skiing and Mt Spokane were the Ferrier priority. Earl was part of the group that was instrumental in purchasing the Club's 40 acres on Mt. Spokane's White Pine Ridge in 1939. By October, the "ski shack" was finished, trails had been built, and clearing had been done on the slalom slope. "It was a little cabin-1 room and 12 beds and a boxcar-style roof that could be skied over," Dorothy remembered. "The beds [two tiers of canvas nailed over 2 by 4's] were half of it." It took energy to get there. "We parked at Linder's Ridge and skied in with our packs."

At first, downhill skiing required uphill climbing. Then, in 1940, a 600-foot cable tow powered by a Model A Ford engine and chassis was ready. Dorothy described the cable-gripping device: "It had a belt and piece of aluminum with a diagonal-shaped cut. You hooked it on and leaned back..."

Earl gave "beginners instruction every Sunday possible from 11 to 12." He shared his mastery of the christie and stem christie and was a winner in Club races. In 1946, he placed second in both the downhill and slalom in two interclub races.

"On my first ski trip, I rode up with him," remembers past Club president and Mt. Spokane Ski Patroller Helen Stowell. "Earl was real good about instructing all of us beginners...and giving us rides to the mountain."

The work party pace quickened in 1949 during one of Earl's stints as Lodge/Winter Sports Committee chair. Members wrecked the old ski shack in October 1950 and moved into their spanking new lodge-today's Chalet- complete with an electric plant and lighted ski run (for a very short run).

"Five Ferriers on the ski slope are quite a sight," reported the January-March 1952 Kinnikinnick. The Ferrier family had been growing, and Mt. Spokane was their work and play ground. Daughter Jane, born in July 1952, joined brothers Jeff (13), Chris (11), and Gordon (6). As they grew, the boys, too, became active Club hikers and climbers, as well as committee members. Jeff led his first hike in spring 1955, the same year Chris was old enough to join. "The kids were always so well behaved," Helen recalls. "Everyone liked them."

Ferrier expertise and work went into one more big ski project-the construction of yet another ski tow in 1961. This was a "modified" (very!) J-bar with an overhead revolving cable and ropes (discarded by climbers) hanging down from metal hangers. The Model A gave way to an electric motor.

Dorothy, always a Chalet work party regular, gained a reputation for initiative. She had been unable to convince others that the usable, but very "eaten," overstuffed furniture should be replaced. So, more than once, other workers would arrive to view smoldering piles of ashes with a few springs peeking up here and there!

Long before, in the 30's, she teamed up with Matie Johnson (later Daiber) to introduce shorts as appropriate women's garb. "We just showed up in them one Sunday," she laughed. "A few eyed us dubiously, but pretty soon all were wearing them!" Motherhood didn't appear to hamper Dorothy's Club activity. After Jeff's birth in 1939, she served as trustee, librarian, historian, and on the Summer Outing, Educational, Outings, Social, Winter Sports, Projects, Music, Kinnikinnick, and Contact committees, some of them many times. Her record was 11 years on the Contact Committee, two as chair. During World War II, she co-edited the typewritten The Mountain Review, published bimonthly and mailed to 25+ Mountaineer servicemen and women. Besides climbs, hikes, and ski jaunts, she led bicycle trips (sometimes to climbing rocks), ice skating parties, swimming outings, "hobby nights," tennis competitions, picnics, and more. Her final jobs were Ski Committee treasurer in 1963 and 50th anniversary planning in 1965.

Earl served as president in 1943, and vice-president, treasurer, and trustee. Besides chairing and serving many times on the Climbing and Winter Sports committees, he worked on the Commissary, Educational, Contact, and Outing groups. Of note was the time in 1940 when Earl rehearsed and dressed in pink tights as part of the "Boots Ballet" male chorus line for the Club's public carnival. And Helen recalls well the Yoho summer outing where Earl "waded into a raging torrent" to rescue Frank Hefferlin during a precarious river crossing.

At the Ferriers, there were Board meetings and general business meetings, classes, lawn parties, progressive dinner courses, New Year's parties, potlucks, and more. And there were "Spirit Lake Days" at the cabin the Ferriers shared with Ken and Betty Henderson, another pair of Mountaineer climbing and skiing stalwarts. "You had to do these things because the Club needed it," Dorothy said emphatically.

How did these two happen to be in the same place at the same time?

Dorothy was born in 1910 in Mother Lode, BC, where her tool-and-die man father worked in the Nickelplate Mine shop and her mother taught piano. She was in the first grade when her mother died in Vancouver, leaving eight children. "I went to a great-aunt in Okanogan County," she recalled. "What you did in a small town room and board when in high school in Penticton. I was living and working in Vancouver when my oldest sister asked me to live with her in Libby, Montana. She was lonesome." There, Dorothy worked for a zonelite company. "When I was 19, times got kind of tough so I went to Spokane." Dorothy did office work and lived with a friend of her mother's. "Mrs. Flatz thought I should join the Spokane Mountaineers."

Earl was born in Cle Elum in 1915 where his father was a railroad engineer. He graduated from North Central High School in Spokane. "Earl couldn't get on with the railroad because he wore glasses," Dorothy explained. But he heard about a job in the Washington Water Power garage while on a climb.

Earl was foreman of a WWP construction and maintenance crew for many years. When he retired after 39 years, they moved to Coeur d'Alene and lived on the river. "We had a canoe, rowboat, and motorboat," Dorothy remembered.

They lived in East Wenatchee for a time before Earl died and then Dorothy moved to Everett in 1990. The year before her death, she was still hiking. "I walk all the time," she claimed. "I need the exercise."

The family outdoor tradition continues. Jeff, Chris, Gordon, Jane, and their families are still outdoor lovers, and include annual family ski reunions in the Cascades and the Sierras in their activities. Jeff is an IBM senior engineer in San Jose. Chris, who lived next door to Dorothy's house in Everett, teaches high school special education classes. Gordon is a cabinetmaker in Duvall, and Jane is a computer network administrator at Stanford University.

"I enjoyed the Club and got a lot out of it. They helped us," Dorothy emphasized that day when she recalled the past.

Her ashes will join Earl's, sprinkled on the Chalet's old ski slope.

Lorna Ream