BY JOHN ROBINSON
CHESTER VERSTEEG, FOUNDER OF THE DPS
Chester Versteeg was a man of vibrant personality and boundless enthusiasm, well known to Southern California Sierra Clubbers for some four decades. Except in summer when he was off tramping in the High Sierra, he seldom missed the Club's Friday night dinners at Boos Brothers Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. Here, among friends in a genial atmosphere, Chester's enthusiasm was infectious. Many a time, by force of personality alone, he was the driving force behind Club projects and outings. And here, in the friendly surroundings of Boos Brothers,. was the genesis of the Desert Peaks Section.
The idea of climbing desert peaks came to Chester while he was climbing in the Sierra Nevada in 1940. Gazing eastward from the Sierra crest, he noticed range after range of tawny mountains fading to the distant horizon. His curiosity was activated. What were these desert ranges like? Were they as devoid of life as they appeared? When snow closed the Sierra passes in the fall of 1940, Chester decided to find out.
His first desert ascent was New York Butte, a rounded, pinyon-clad summit across Owens Valley from Mount Whitney. Chester was delighted with what he found. The mountain was not barren at all. Its upper slopes were clad with pinyon pine and juniper. There was a spring of icy-cold water just below the crest. The view across Owens Valley at the snowy Sierra crest was breathtaking.
The Friday after his New York Butte climb, Chester was at Boos Brothers, talking up the idea of a climbing group specializing in ascending desert peaks. But his idea took a while to reach fruition. 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 deal of fanning and blowing before it caught a few individuals who went along, at first, mainly because Chester 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 be attained by climbing seven peaks in the ranges east of Owens Valley: White Mountain, Waucoba Mountain, New York Butte, Cerro Gordo, Coso Peak, Maturango Peak and Telescope Peak.
On the weekend of November 15-16, 1941, the first scheduled activity of Chester's new group was held: a climb of New York Butte led by Chester and Niles Werner. The Chapter schedule proclaimed in typical Versteegian prose: "Here is your opportunity to knock down one of the seven peaks required to make you eligible for the new Desert Peaks Section. New York Butte presents one of the grandest alpine views on the entire continent, the Sierra Crest from Olancha Peak clear to Mt. Tom."
As fate would have it, momentous outside events intervened to place a temporary damper of the fledgling group. With World War II gas rationing, desert climbing activities were reduced to