Bob and Ira Spring - Mountains Don't Care Home
This 16mm film is in color, with sound, with a running time around 20 minutes. Photographed in the summer of 1956 and released by the Mountain Rescue Council in 1957, this film has two main parts. The first part describes mountaineering hazards that may be encounted by climbers, fishermen, hunters and hikers. A pair of weekend sightseers ventures onto the Nisqually Glacier. One of the sightseers falls into a crevasse and the other runs to Paradise for help. A mountain rescue team responds. One of the Whittaker twins (Jim or Lou) is lowered into the crevasse and the victim is loaded onto a litter and hauled out. The litter is converted into a Stokeski stretcher and the rescuers slide and wheel the victim back to safety.
The second part of the film shows how to avoid accidents in the mountains. Two young people, Jack Cavanaugh and Carol (Marston) Bogert, accompany a pair of experienced mountaineers, Ome and Matie Daiber, on a multi-day trip in the North Cascades. They hike to their first camp in damp weather and Ome shows how to make a fire in these conditions. On the second day they continue cross-country to a high camp. Ome demonstrates route finding and climbing on snow. This segment was filmed between Cascade Pass and Koolaid Lake. Ome talks the young climbers out of attempting Mount Formidable (called "Daiber" by the first ascent party) and suggests an easier peak. They spend the afternoon practicing self-arrest, use of crampons, and belaying on rock.
In the morning, Ome and Matie waddle around camp in their Penguin sleeping bags preparing breakfast. The party begins the climb, which requires roped climbing on rock, glacier travel, crevasse jumps, and a final scramble to the summit. This segment was filmed on Sahale Arm, the Middle Cascade Glacier, and points in between. After the climb, Ome leads the party back to camp by compass in the fog. On the final day, they hike out to civilization, having gained their first lessons in mountain judgment.
(Digital transfer of this film was made possible by a grant from The Mountaineers Foundation. Film notes and video clip by Lowell Skoog.)