Early Years
"Beckey," as he is known to his climbing companions, was born near Cologne, Germany, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was three, ending up in Seattle, Washington. He started climbing in the North Cascades as a teenager, learning the basic concepts from The Mountaineers but quickly going on to harder climbs.
He attended the University of Washington and received a degree in business administration. He worked as a delivery truck driver, which left him time for climbing.
Unlike Jim Whittaker, a fellow Seattleite and the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1963, Beckey shied away from the large team efforts, preferring smaller alpine-style undertakings. Beckey seemed a likely choice as a member for the large, 1963 American Everest Expedition, but he was not chosen, even though he had been to Lhotse in 1955 with the International Himalayan Expedition.
Read more about this topic: Fred Beckey
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