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Ome Daiber - Personal Communication
Taped interview, 1974
I listened to these tapes on 15 September 2004, taking notes by hand.
by Harry Majors and Karyl Winn
UWSpecColl, Accession 3592, Tapes 624A/B
Notes by Lowell SkoogTape 624A, Side 1:
The tape starts abruptly. Ome discusses the Delmar Fadden rescue on Mt Rainier in 1936, although the subject of the conversation is not identified on the tape. The conversation turns to the 1960 rescue of the Day-Schoening party and Helga Bade (Bading?) on Mt McKinley. Again, the topic is not well introduced. As Seattle climbers were preparing to fly to Alaska, Otto Trott wondered, "Who's going to pay to get us up there?" Ome asked, "Are you going?" to which Otto replied yes. "Then let's forget it!" said Ome. Ome explained to the interviewers: "You don't worry about those mechanics at the time of emergency. To hell with it! You're gonna win. You're gonna save a life if you possibly can."
Ome said that some people wouldn't go out on a rescue for a hunter or someone they didn't know. He quit calling those people for rescue work. After Bill Degenhardt was rescued from an avalanche on Mt Snoqualmie, one guy said, "Well why didn't you tell me it was Bill Degenhardt? I'd have gone." Ome explained, "He wasn't called again either. You can't have those kinds of people messing up your organization. Damn! I don't care if it's the guy I hate worst in the world. I'd still break my neck getting up there to help him. What difference!"
Tape 624A, Side 2:
Discussion of the 1960 Mt McKinley rescue continues. The conversation turns to the 1935 National Geographic Yukon expedition with Bradford Washburn. The conversation wanders to other trips in the Yukon and Alaska, including a climb near Mt Kennedy in 1965. Ome mentions that he kept a written log of these trips. Finally, the converstation turns to Boy Scouting and Clark Schurman. The tape ends abruptly.
Tape 624B:
This is a 26 January 1975 lecture about the Arctic environment, travel and survival. It's not clear where this lecture was given.
Other Conversations with Harry Majors
In a 10 September 2003 letter to me (based on an earlier interview with Ome), Harry Majors wrote that Ome Daiber and J. Wendell Trosper attempted to make a ski ascent of Mt Olympus in March 1934. They approached via Sol Duc, over the ridge to the upper Bogachiel River, and down into the valley of the upper Hoh, where they were driven out by storm. Harry suspects that this is the same trip described in mtneer-a-1933-p15 and that the date was thus late spring 1933, not March 1934. In a 14 June 2004 e-mail, Harry referred to this as the first ski ascent of Bogachiel Peak.
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