FRED BECKEY (1923-2017)

A climber and a writer, a mountaineer and a chronicler, Fred Beckey had the bravery to ascend the world's highest peaks and the eloquence to capture their beauty in words. In his history with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, he was both author and subject. In 1956 he wrote about two climbers in the French and Swiss Alps. Seven years later he appeared in FACES IN THE CROWD for making the first ascent of the north wall of Mount Slesse in British Columbia. Beckey would write multiple books on mountaineering, and as a climber he had summited Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro and Monte Rosa, among others. Beckey died in Seattle of congestive heart failure. He was 94.