Zion Ridge Reconnaissance Report-- Circa 1979

Zion Ridge 1979

Read the account by Jerry Erickson of the recon of the Zion Ridge June 22, 23, 24 1979

Zion Summit

The Radio Room at Night

Night Sky Above Malibu

Jerry Erickson

September 7, 2013

Back during the summers when I was a mountaineering guide at Beyond, and had a week in Base Camp, I loved being assigned to radio duty at Malibu.  The Beyond Base Camp is located half-way down Princess Louisa Inlet which is narrow and enclosed with mountains on all sides.  The main summer camp at Malibu however, is located at the mouth of Princess Louisa Inlet right where it branches off the much larger Jervis Inlet.  Since most of the climbing routes used by Beyond are located on the peaks along Jervis Inlet, Malibu has much better radio reception than Base Camp for communicating with the trips.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the Beyond Radio Room was located just off a common lounge on the upper floor of Lillooet, with a separate bathroom opening off the main room.  The radio set was placed on a desk just under windows looking out to the south, in the same room as a bed, writing desk and couch.  On the interior side of the bathroom door, someone had posted a poem by Dave Taylor (guide 1978-1979) called ‘The Gift’, and Psalm 150, both handwritten:

The Gift

by Dave Taylor (1978)

Reflections broken by a soft wind,

as I try and understand;

Mountains and the lake before me,

offered as a gift to Man.

Heather meadows flecked with color,

ice blue sky and sky blue ice.

Silver water on a boulder,

peaks which mirror the evening light.

No shame I’d feel if I deserved them,

bought them, owned them, paid the price.

But Creation is not mine to purchase,

no more than the grace of Christ.

Psalm 150 (RSV)

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty firmament!

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his exceeding greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;

praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with sounding cymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

Being on radio duty promised some personal time and solitude away from the intense and constant community life and work at Base Camp.  I loved being part of the community at Base Camp, but as an introvert, I occasionally needed some respite from it all.  Radio duty also meant a boat trip down the inlet, hot meals from the Malibu kitchen, and time to read my bible and books, write in my journal, and pray for the trips.

One guide on each of the trips going into the mountains is assigned a hand-held radio.  The primary and most routine task of the person on radio duty is to talk at least once by radio to each of the three to six trips out in the mountains that week.  This involves finding out how the guides and campers on each trip are doing, writing down their prayer requests, and then radioing them all down to Base Camp for prayer by the whole community. 

But the secondary and perhaps more important task of the person manning the radio room is to maintain a kind of vigil or watch for 24 hours over the collective safety and well-being of the guides and campers out in the mountains.  That is why the person on radio duty is charged with staying inside the radio room at all times (with rare exceptions), as the timing of incoming calls is unpredictable.   And this is why the radio is placed in the same room as the bed - so that the person on radio duty can be woken up if an emergency call were to come in from one of the trips during the night - or even in the very dead of night, at perhaps 2:00 or 3:00 am.  If such an emergency call were to come in, the radio person can summon the camp doctor at Malibu, and/or contact Base Camp for advice - or in the worst cases, to start organizing a rescue party.

I always saw being on radio duty as a kind of night watch or vigil as might be maintained at a monastery or guard post.  As the guides called in each evening after dinner, I could envision them all at each specific location on the routes, having been there myself.  I could imagine the two or three guides on each trip, in their jackets and wool hats standing huddled around the radio in the cool evening air on some high lonely ridge; above them the alpenglow lingering on the snow-covered peaks all around with the first stars coming out in the deep indigo-blue sky above. 

This sense of alert, watchful, and prayerful solitude is one of the reasons I have always loved Psalm 134:

Psalm 134 (NIV)

Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord

who minister by night in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary

and praise the Lord.

May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth,

bless you from Zion.

My NIV Study Bible has these notes re: Psalm 134:

“Psalm 134 A liturgy of praise – a brief exchange between the worshippers, as they are about to leave the temple after the evening service, and the Levites, who kept the temple watch through the night.  In the Psalter it concludes the ‘songs of ascent’ …

134:1-2 The departing worshippers call on the Levites to continue the praise of the Lord through the night (see 1Ch 9:33*).

134:3 One of the Levites responds with a benediction on the worshippers …”

[*1 Chronicles 9:33 (RSV):  “Now these are the singers, the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites, dwelling in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night.”]

In addition, one of the evening prayers in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (BOCP) evokes this same sense of maintaining the night watch:

A Collect for Aid against Perils (BOCP 1928)

“Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Amen.”

Not long after being a guide, I wrote the following about being on radio duty:

Thoughts at Beyond; the Radio Room at Night

by Jerry Erickson (1982)

At night, a summer’s evening.

Distances grow farther with the black.

Mountains rise beyond sight all around.

The water still pale with sunset.

Friends in distant high places prepare for the night.

The radio crackles with static from the uneasy atmosphere,

as the earth turns from the sun

and faces the vast blackness, the open awful universe

and bright colored, confusing dreams

containing meaning, just out of touch.

False assurances with hot tea, the glowing red numbers

of a digital clock.

Words of a journal and just delivered mail

under a circle of light in the darkened room.

And unbidden, the true assurance – of Him,

deeper than and transcending the lonely,

wistful mystery of the summer night.

Psalm 115:1

I was at Beyond from July 27-Aug 3. I was with the Carmel Baptist group...we were a group of old men!  Anyway, it was the biggest physical challenge of my life but worth the personal and spiritual growth.  Our guides were Chris and Tyler...they did a great job leading us spiritually and on the trail.  Since returning I find myself going back to my pictures and my journal to reflect and process our trip.  My journal included some random thoughts and phrases...I thought I would share some impactful thoughts/events/random things that have remained with me and that God is continuing to use to grow me in my walk. 

First, as I watch my own teenagers attend YL events I am amazed how the leaders strip away all the baggage of the day and their lives through song and laughter which leads to the opportunity to share God's word with them.  While I was on the hike to Albert I was stripped of all my control and the pressures of daily life.  While in this state God was able to speak to me.  God challenged me with lessons about control, joy, thankfulness, and trusting His provision.  Another meaningful experience was our return to base camp after our hike.  As we approached the dock the staff was cheering for us and then carried our stinky packs to the barn.  My eyes filled up with tears as I witnessed this level of service...only God could inspire someone to serve like that AND I believe it was a glimpse of the welcoming we will receive in Heaven when we show up with our stinky, earthly lives.  My experience at Beyond has changed my life and challenged me in my walk.  Here are some random things I wrote in my journal...a few highs from the list: Swim in the Glacier Pool, The Psalms alarm clock, Orange Rikki...a few lows from my list: bugs, Microwave bowl, Alder trees, and bugs!

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 115:1...My time on the hike was full of the glory of God and examples of His greatness...the beauty of His creation screamed, "not to us but to you be the glory".  Thank you so much for the experience and challenging me to continue to grow in my walk with the Lord. 

Thanks, Chad 

God's Grandeur

Late August, High Mountain Meadows and God’s Grandeur

By Jerry Erickson

May 20, 2013

In August of 1980, my third summer as a guide for Beyond, I was assigned to lead a ‘random adult’ trip of campers along with Jenny Dunn (now Bell), and Steve Sanchez.  It was late August, and we were sent to climb 7,000 foot Mt. Pearkes.  We had a group of adults from a wide range of ages, places and backgrounds, including a married couple from Ontario, Jim and Ann.  Jim was a graduate student in English at the University of Toronto (I believe), and he and his wife were well-read, well-travelled (they had taken the Trans-Siberian railroad across Russia!), and interesting people; and I had enjoyed talking to them.

It must have been about the third day of the trip, and I was leading the group through the high mountain meadows up one of the ridges leading to the summit of Mt. Pearkes.  It was bright sunny weather, and the alpine flowers in the meadows surrounding us were in full bloom, as we headed towards the snowfields and glaciers above.  Jim was hiking just behind me, and as we were hiking through the meadows and spectacular mountain scenery, he unexpectedly began reciting a poem out loud – one I had never heard before:

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

    And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

I was awe-struck - both by the words of the poem and how they seemed to exactly describe our glorious surroundings.  After he finished speaking, I turned around and asked him, “What was that?  And who wrote it?  He informed me that the poem was called ‘God’s Grandeur’ and it had been written by a poet named Gerard Manley Hopkins, who I had never heard of before.

That fall, back home in Seattle, I found and bought a paperback edition of Hopkins’ poems (which I still have).  He soon became (and remains) one of my favorite poets. In fact, Linda and I had ‘God’s Grandeur’ read aloud at our wedding in 1984.  As a Christian, an outdoorsman, and a scientist, I deeply appreciate how he both observes nature as it truly is, but also apprehends God’s mysterious and glorious presence there as well.

Embracing the Wild: The Testimony of Ashley Denton

The following is the story of Ashley Denton's first journey in faith. Ashley is the director of the Wilderness Ministry Institute and is the Vice President of Nexus International. He also is a professor of Outdoor Leadership at Denver Theological Seminary.
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Ashley's first true immersion into Christ came into being through his trip to Beyond Malibu. Before his wilderness ministry experience, Ashley was a kid who seemed like he had his life together. From the outside. But on the inside, he was a lost child. Caught up in insecurities he regularly turned to partying, vandalism to get attention from his friends, disrespecting authority, etc... Ashley was seeking for significance in all of the wrong places. Ashley had come to realize that there was a gaping hole in his life, swallowing up everything that he loved as it expanded, and that he needed to find something to fill it. But so far, nothing had worked.

 His first introduction to a relationship with Jesus was playing some pickup basketball with two adults that spent some time at his high school. He would later find out that these two individuals were YoungLife leaders. They would remain in his life throughout his high school years, even going as far as to attend his baseball games in hopes of fostering a Christ-centric relationship. Eventually this led to Ashley and his group of friends being invited to take a plunge of faith and enroll in a Beyond Malibu trip. Ashley came in to the experience not sure what to expect, and came out a forever changed man. He was dropped off in the wild, and would have no contact with society for the next week, save the few other wilderness explorers in his group. They hiked all day, pausing only for light meals and brief respites. At the end of the second day, Mark, one of Ashley’s YoungLife leaders, got extremely sick and exhausted. Mark had been the backbone of the group, the energy and life of the posse, motivating and encouraging everyone.

As Ashley saw his friend that he had grown to love dearly suffer for his sake, a passage of scripture that Ashley had heard once before rose fully into his mind. Ashley heard God speak those words to him, saying “There is no greater love than this, than he who lays down his life for a friend.” Suddenly a switch flipped in Ashley, and the need for salvation became a reality to him. As is traditional at the end of YoungLife trips, each camper tosses a stick into the campfire and states something that is no longer a part of their life as the smoke and ash rise from the fire. Ashley renounced his old lifestyle and committed his life to Jesus Christ, a new creation.

Ever since that day, the wilderness has become a special place for Ashley. The transformation he experienced in the context of the wilderness, that week at Beyond was the beginning of a journey that Ashley has been on in ministry ever since. Ashley eventually went on staff with Young Life and served for 15 years in Arizona, Colorado, and New Zealand. He has helped start various wilderness ministries around the world, and published a book on the theology and practice of wilderness ministry in 2011 entitled: Christian Outdoor Leadership: Theology, Theory and Practice. LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Ashley-Denton/e/B004IG6U0Q/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Ashley asserts that, "The wilderness has been a special place for transformation that God has used throughout history, and there is no reason to believe that he will stop using it as an anvil for bending people's souls in humility and repentance today. The quiet and grandeur of God's creation is often the place God uses to capture the attention of those he is calling to himself... out in Creation young people become acquainted with the character of their Creator, and they stand in awe of Jesus; by whom whom and for whom the Creation was made (Colossians 1:15-20)." Beyond Malibu has a long history of facilitating wilderness experiences for young people to have a meaningful encounter with Jesus Christ. Ashley's story is just one of hundreds of other kids who have been radically impacted by this intentional outdoor ministry we call "Beyond Malibu".