Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project

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Ray Clough - Personal Communication

Interview, 19 February 2001
by Lowell Skoog

Here are some notes from memory. I haven't transcribed the interview tape yet.

Referring to his ski ascent of Ruth Mountain with Calder Bressler, Ray could not recall the date, but he said the trip was during spring break when he was a student at U.W. Since he graduated from high school in 1938, this must have been in 1939 or later. This means that Dwight Watson's June 1938 ski ascent of Ruth with Sigurd Hall preceded the Bressler-Clough ascent.

Conversation, 19 May 2001
by Lowell Skoog

I visited Ray for a couple hours during a trip with family and friends to the Pole-Pedal-Paddle race in Bend, OR. I brought several picture books that I mentioned during our previous meeting (by Bob and Ira Spring, Tom Miller and others) and we looked through them and visited.

I asked Ray whether the name Ptarmigan Traverse was applied by the Ptarmigan's themselves, or whether later parties applied that name. He said the Ptarmigans never publicized or promoted the traverse and he didn't think they started using that name until other groups started calling it that.

Ray mentioned that he was a part of the July 4 Ptarmigan project to simultaneously light flares from the summits of Hood, Adams, St Helens and Rainier, but he couldn't remember which peak he was on. He never climbed Mt Adams, he said.

Ray said he only went on one Mountaineers climb, at the invitation of a friend. He said the Ptarmigans wanted to be different from the Mountaineers. They wanted smaller groups, and more freedom to do the trips they were interested in. I mentioned that Ray's sister had contacted me and he said there were a number of female members of the Ptarmigans, mostly sisters of male members.

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