Wake of the Flood - Page 5

Floods that Fill the Land: Stan Boucher

As I have given you a glimpse of Bradbury's stories, Maurice's writing life, this tribute to Stan must mention the mountains. Stan maintained a lifelong interest in mountains, especially those in Colorado. He was a life member of both the Colorado Mountain Club and the American Alpine Club. He frequently led hiking, climbing and cross-country ski trips for the Boulder Group of the Colorado Mountain Club. He wrote an unpublished mountaineering book in his twenties, when not many had taken to the mountains or knew what they were doing. He composed poems (The World at Our Feet) throughout his life. A compilation of his poems will soon be printed.

Some memories of Stan's mountaineering legacy are given here:

"The original motivation for starting the Mountain Club [now known as the Climbing Association of Colorado College] was to get access to women. All these GIs were coming back from World War II, and those guys had plenty of money and nice places to live. We couldn't compete with that, but we figured out that some of the girls wanted to learn how to rock climb. That's how I met my wife, Virginia. I was her rock-climbing instructor." – Stanley Boucher

Climbing History in Garden of the Gods

The Garden is one of the oldest established climbing areas in the United States. Albert Ellingwood, a Rhodes Scholar and Colorado College Professor, was the first person to climb technical routes in the park. Many of his classic routes from the 1920s are still climbed today, using vastly different gear! Later, in the 1940s, Vernon Twombly and Stanley Boucher put up several more classics, including the Practice Slab on South Gateway.