Second In Time, Vera DeVries Finishes Them All Off, 1941

[gore galore]

SECOND IN TIME, VERA DEVRIES FINISHES THEM ALL OFF, 1941
by gore galore

Mary Cronin was the fourth person and first woman to complete climbing the Colorado 14,000 foot peaks in 1934. Vera E. DeVries was the twelfth person and second woman to finish them all in 1941. As the second woman in time she was destined to the fate of those who were also second in time say in swimming the English Channel, flying the Atlantic nonstop New York to Paris or running a sub four minute mile, all long forgotten and unknown today.

Vera DeVries finished climbing the 14,000 foot peaks in six years from 1936-1941. Of the twenty-seven persons who completed the Colorado 14,000 foot peaks in the first part of the twentieth century hers was the third fastest in time being eclipsed only by Carl and Bob Melzer’s one season completion in 1937 and Dr. John Ambler in 1940-1943.

Available records of the Colorado Mountain Club’s “Men and Women Who Climbed Them All” show that with the exception of one other person all of the completers in the first part of the twentieth century took a decade or several decades to finish. Of those records available it would not be until 1962 when another woman completed the 14,000 foot peaks faster in four years than Vera DeVries did in six years.

It is also interesting to note that of those twenty-seven completers about one quarter, or seven, were women. In addition to Mary Cronin and Vera DeVries they were Ruth Gorham, Evelyn Runnette, Marian Rymer, Nancy Perkins and Elizabeth Cowles.

Vera DeVries climbed Longs Peak in 1936 and finished on Kit Carson Peak in 1941. On the weekend of August 17, 1941 a party of CMC’ers “worked over the Crestones.” “That was the red letter day Vera finished ‘em all off.” One brief note mentions her co-leading a Mt. Sherman trip in 1939 that included a climb of Mt. Sheridan “followed by a fine 200' glissade.”

In 1937 Vera DeVries was in a party of six led by Carl Blaurock that made the first ascent of the east face of Navajo Peak. It was a roped climb using pitons that would finish in the dark. Her outing report displays a keen eye as she describes the most difficult part of the climb with “knee-in-stirrup depressions,” “meagre hand-holds” and “a body twist and roll.” She would further write that if “I may seem to verge on the dramatic, it is perhaps forgivable in that these are the impressions of a novice and one little skilled in the art of technical climbing.”

Reminiscing five years later about this climb Vera would write, “we came to realize to the fullest extent how confidently a mountain climber entrusts his safety under difficult and trying circumstances to the rope, when one of our members dangled in mid-air above the sheet of ice and snow less than a thousand feet below us - those who had already gotten past this nasty pitch wondering???? and those yet to take their turn also wondering?????”

Another memorable climb for Vera was an attempt on Jagged Peak by twelve club members in 1941. Her descriptive report mentions the difficulties of the ridge they followed. “In one place we had to shinny up thru a very small hole.” “In another place which was quite exposed” the leader “let down his belt to each in turn, and at this point we had to avoid a large, insecure rock which we thought to be loose enough to be dangerous.” At other times “here and there a boot or a helping hand was gratefully accepted by the ladies” in crossing exposed snow chutes. Their attempt was unsuccessful though as their route was separated from the true summit by a “jumping off” place.

In 1940 the Colorado Mountain Club awarded special classifications to members for mountaineering achievement based mainly upon their experience in climbing 14,000-foot peaks. The classifications were Qualified Members, Advanced Members, Expert Members and Graduate Expert Members.

Graduate Expert Members, were those who have climbed all of the 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado, led two trips up 14,000-foot mountains, made five rock climbs and made one winter climb of a 14,000-foot mountain or one snow and ice climb. The initial lists of Graduate Expert Climbers in 1941 numbered eight persons. Two of these were women, Mary Cronin and Vera DeVries.

Vera E. DeVries remarried in 1942 and left the Colorado mountain climbing scene sometime thereafter in the 1940's. Mrs. Vera E. Simmons (DeVries) died in Texas in 1998 at the age of 93. “She was an avid mountain climber and a homemaker.”

Like those others who were second in time she is long forgotten and unknown today. But Vera DeVries was one of those pioneering twenty-seven men and women who climbed the Colorado 14,000 foot peaks in the first part of the twentieth century. And because of this something of her story deserves to be told.

[d_baker]

Thanks for the post

[globreal]

That is a really great story. I can't imagine climbing these peaks without all of the beta we get off of the internet. Those folks back then were the true pioneers and adventurers!
Thanks for sharing.