A SHORT HISTORY OF THE DESERT PEAKS SECTION
by John Robinson
It was largely through the inspiration, initiative, and persuasive talents of one man that the Desert Peaks Section was born. The man was Chester Versteeg; the year 1941. For some thirty years Chester, a well-known Sierra Clubber second only to Norman Clyde in number of sierra first ascents, had enjoyed his summer vacations in the Range of Light. Often he had gazed eastward from the crest, noticing range after range of desert mountains, some towering almost as high as the sierra itself. His curiosity was activated - What were those desert ranges like? How did the Sierra look from the summit of the Inyos? When snow closed the passes of the Sierra that fall, Chester decided to find out.
His first desert ascent was New York Butte. It was on this tawny, rounded summit in the southern Inyos that the idea came to Chester of a climbing group specializing in ascending desert peaks.
Louise Werner describes the birth pangs of the section: "If there was any one quality that especially characterized Chester, it was enthusiasm. Out of his infectious enthusiasm was born the Desert Peaks Section. It did not, however, spring full-fledged, like Minerva from the head of Zeus. Chester's flame all but died under the soggy indifference he encountered every time he brought up the subject. It took a good dual of fanning and blowing before it caught a few individuals who went along, at first, mainly because C}ester was such a persistent salesman. We can see him yet, before a crowd of Friday-nighters at Boos brothers Cafeteria, trying to warm us up to the idea."
Chester proposed that membership in the newly-formed group (it was not yet an official section) be attained by climbing seven peaks in the ranges east of Owens Valley: White Mtn., Waucoba Mtn., New York Butte, Cerro Gordo, Coso Peak, Maturango Peak, and Telescope Peak.