Chris Gentry on Givler's Crack, Icicle Creek Canyon, 1980.

Back in the day, there was no guidebook to climbing routes in Icicle Creek Canyon. Route information was passed by word of mouth, at the climbers' hangout Das Berghaus, around the campfire at Eightmile Campground, or just in chatting with some climber you ran into at a crag or boulder. The guide of the day, the white Carlstad-Brooks guide, which gave the route names, ratings, and gear recommendations and showed them with only a line overlaying a photo of the crag, wasn't much more helpful, and rightly so. Anyway, Chris Gentry and I were cragging one Saturday in the Icicle and ran into some Canadian climbers who raved about the route up Givler's Dome. We interrogated them sufficiently, and the next day set up the trail to the route. I led the tenuous little face to get to the crack, then captured this shot of Chris leading off up the crack proper. Givler's Dome is named for Al Givler, a prolific local climber killed in a climbing accident in Alaska in 1977. In an obituary in the American Alpine Journal, it was written that "Al's greatest attribute was his approach to life, his unexcelled and unrestrained exuberance and joy." This describes Chris perfectly; he loved life, and wanted to do everything possible, always. Sadly, Chris was killed in a climbing accident at Snoquera Falls in 1983.