| 5 Roble Court Berkeley, CA 94705 December 7, 1990 |
John Robinson
1345 Cameo Lane
Fullerton, CA 92631
Dear John,
I was most interested to read your profile of Chester Versteeg, DPS founder and dedicated Sierra mountaineer, in the Oct/Nov 1990 Desert Sage. I had the great pleasure and good fortune to meet Chester shortly after I joined the Sierra Club in Los Angeles in 1942. We met at one of the weekly Thursday night meetings on the second level of Boos Bros. Cafeteria. An eager but untested neophyte, I was delighted to be able to join Chester on a trip he led to Waucoba Mountain in June 1942. There were 11 of us Sierra Clubbers plus my school friend Morris Vehon from Chicago. This was a significant trip, as I recall, because in climbing Waucoba, Niles Werner was the first to qualify as a member of the fledgling DPS. Apparently Chester had not yet done the necessary seven summits. This was the only trip I ever did with Chester, although we kept in touch over the next several years until I left Los Angeles in 1946. Enclosed are a couple of Chester's letters to me plus my writeup of the trip.
I also maintained contact with Parker, Niles and Freda, who was one of my sponsor's for the American Alpine Club in 1950. In October 1942 I did White Mountain with Freda, Harry Paley (he could get gasoline, which was rationed), and Georgie White, who, as Georgie Clark, pioneered commercial river rafting on the Colorado River and became a well known river runner.
Once again with Harry and Freda, we did Charleston Peak in 1943, like White Mountain an "outlaw" (unscheduled or private) trip.
In 1946 the DPS was well established and trips were regularly scheduled. I did three that year: Coso and Maturango (Parker Severson, leader); New York Butte (Niles Werner and Parker were there); and finally Telescope Peak with a large group including Harry Paley, Parker Severson, Henry Greenhood, Louise and Niles Werner, and Freda Walbrecht. The last time I was with Niles and Freda was on a climb of Mt. Bernard in the Sierra in August 1947.
hester would be pleased with as well as amazed at the growth and scope of today's DPS, founded and fueled with his unbounded enthusiasm. What a marvelous mountain man and human being he was.
I am taking the liberty of sending you my unedited notes of these trips only because I understand that history buffs like yourself tend to accumulate this sort of stuff.
Sincerely yours,
