Jules Eichorn
Jules Marquard Eichorn (February 7, 1912 – February 15, 2000) was an American
Early years
Jules Marquard Eichorn was born in San Francisco on February 7, 1912, to Hilmar and Frieda Eichorn, who were immigrants from Germany. As a youngster, he often hiked on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California with his parents and siblings. He showed musical talent and began studying violin from Ansel Adams at a young age. In 1927, he began piano lessons, and his first instructor was Ansel Adams. Eichorn was also Adams's first piano student. That summer, Eichorn joined Adams on the Sierra Club annual High Trip, which included a climb of Alta Peak in Sequoia National Park. That climb sparked the 15-year-old Eichorn's love of mountaineering.[1]
Eichorn worked for Ansel Adams washing photographic prints and hauling photographic equipment in exchange for piano lessons, and their friendship lasted until Adams's death in 1984.[2][failed verification] After graduating from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco in 1929, Eichorn traveled to the Teton Range of Wyoming in 1930 for a summer climbing trip.
Mountaineering achievements
On July 6, 1930, during the Sierra Club's annual
In 1931, Sierra Club leader
Three days later on August 16, Eichorn, Clyde, Underhill and Dawson completed the first ascent of the East Face of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States.[6] The route was extremely exposed, especially the famous Fresh Air Traverse. Eichorn was just 19 years old. Steve Roper called this route "one of the classic routes of the Sierra, partly because of its spectacular location and partly because it was the first really big wall to be climbed in the range."[7] Porcella & Burns wrote that "the climb heralded a new standard of technical competence in Californian rock climbing . . ."[8] Eichorn's 1931 experiences led to a lifelong friendship with Norman Clyde, who was, by most accounts, California's greatest mountaineer of the first half of the 20th century.
These two classic climbs were among at least 26 first ascents that Eichorn completed in the High Sierra between 1930 and 1952. His other first ascents included the Dragtooth,
In early August 1933, young solo climber and guidebook author
In 1934, Eichorn, Robinson and Dick Leonard of the Cragmont Climbing Club assembled the most advanced set of climbing gear then in use in North America, much of which they had obtained from Germany, and successfully climbed Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite Valley.[10] This was the first major technical ascent in the valley that later became a mecca of rock climbing.[5] This was the first climb in California to utilize pitons. Writing about this climb, Bestor Robinson described Eichorn's "remarkable sense of balance and ability to stick to next to nothing."[10]
In the late 1930s, Eichorn contracted Coccidioidomycosis, also called Valley Fever, a potentially fatal fungal disease that affects the lungs. This infection kept him out of the military during World War II. Instead, he spent the war years teaching mountaineering skills to rangers in Yosemite National Park.
Environmental leader
Eichorn taught instrumental, orchestral and choral music in the Woodside High School for several decades. In the 1950s, he led month-long "cache and carry" youth hikes in the Sierra Nevada and also served as a volunteer on Sierra Club mountaineering base camp trips through the 1970s. He collaborated with Sierra mule packer Charley Robinson on several of these trips, moving supplies to hikers and climbers using a mule train.
He became a political activist, opposing development and
Eichorn died in his sleep at his home in Redwood City, California on February 15, 2000, eight days after his 88th birthday.
Legacy
Two Sierra Nevada peaks are named after Jules Eichorn. Eichorn Pinnacle (~10,940 feet) is the spectacular west summit of Cathedral Peak near Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Jules Eichorn climbed this pinnacle in 1931.
Eichorn Minaret (12,255 feet) is one of the Minarets in the Ritter Range, located in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.
The Jules Eichorn Memorial Grove is located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County, California.
Eichorn was the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award for 1972.[12]
His personal slogan was "Music and the mountains; they're the greatest."
External links
References
- ^ "Jules M. Eichorn: 1912-2000" (PDF). Scree. 34 (4). Peak Climbing Section, Loma Prieta Chapter, Sierra Club: 1–2. April 2000.
- Tucson: Center for Creative Photography. p. 10.
- ^ Oliver, Bill (November–December 1989). "A Tribute to the Honorary Members of the Sierra Peaks Section – Past & Present: Norman Clyde, Glen Dawson and Jules Eichorn" (PDF). The Sierra Echo. 33 (6). Sierra Club: 3–15.
- ISBN 0-520-01551-7
- ^ ISBN 0-520-02976-3
- ISBN 0-87156-292-8.
- ^ ISBN 0-87156-147-6
- ISBN 0-89886-555-7,
- ISBN 978-1-59714-110-9
- ^ ISBN 0911824871.
- ^ "San Francisco Genealogy - The Sierra Club, Past Officers 1892-1969". www.sfgenealogy.org. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
- ^ "Sierra Club Volunteer Award Winners – List By Award" (PDF).