Scaling Down Mahre’s Climbing Feats Overshadowed By Ski-Champ Sons

There’s a saying among mountain climbers: There are old mountain climbers and there are bold mountain climbers, but there are no old, bold mountain climbers.

Well, Dave Mahre has reached 69. And the father of twins who became Olympic champion downhill skiers says he no longer regrets giving up on conquering Mount Everest after two attempts to become the oldest man to reach the summit.

A mountain is not worth a life, he said recently, sitting in his chalet-style home that overlooks Cowiche Canyon.

“I knew people who thought a summit was worth more than lying back,” he said. “If they hadn’t forced the issue, they’d be here right now. I’m not ashamed to say that I turned around.”

But he hasn’t stopped taking challenges from the peaks that tempt him. Last year, his first attempt to top Mount McKinley failed. This July, he walked on the summit, making him the oldest guide to reach the 20,320-foot summit in south-central Alaska - the highest peak in North America.

McKinley is just as tough a mountain as Everest, even though it’s 8,700 feet smaller, he said.

“Because of that latitude, it’s equal to a peak 3,000 feet taller,” he said. “And the weather and temperatures are incredible. You’re talking about a mountain that is near the Arctic Circle compared to Everest, which is near the equator.”

Mahre began climbing mountains when he was a child, growing up in his father’s west Yakima Valley orchard. On clear days, he could see the tops of Mount Adams and Mount Rainier.

“He wanted to climb them from day one,” said son Steve.

He has. Dave Mahre has climbed both volcanoes so many times he’s lost track. He’s made more than a dozen first ascents on numerous climbing routes throughout the Cascade Mountains, including some of the most difficult climbs up Rainier. He is one of perhaps a dozen state climbers who dominated the sport in the 1950s and ‘60s.

He would sprint across Rainier’s summit to prove to himself that he was in shape for the Everest climb.

“He really is a hell of a guy,” said Joe Horiskey, part owner of Rainier Mountaineering Inc., a business that takes people climbing up Rainier and McKinley. “He has no ego at all. He is really tough. He could burn a guy into the ground who is half his age. I don’t know what his genetic makeup is.”

“He has never gotten the kind of credit he deserves,” said Horiskey, who was with Mahre on the 1982 Everest climb, when Mahre came within 2,000 feet of the summit, and during last year’s attempt on McKinley. “His sons got all the notoriety, but he didn’t.”

Mahre’s sons are Phil and Steve, the downhill ski champions.

“I always used to joke, dad likes to go up mountains, and we like to go down,” said Steve, who won a silver medal in the 1984 Winter Olympics. “He’s always been a perfectionist, and that probably rubbed off on me as well. You know, ‘If you thought that last run was good, why don’t you make another one that is better?”’

Dave Mahre said the challenge for him in mountain climbing isn’t overcoming the mountain but overcoming himself, his anxieties and weaknesses. He has seen fellow climbers die, and follows news reports whenever a climber is killed.

“I’m getting to the point where I shouldn’t do these things anymore,” he said. “I don’t see myself doing things that I did at 30 or 40, but as long as I can put up with the pain, I’m still going to climb.”