A man who lived to climb will be remembered this week on a rock his name will be forever attached to.
Daryl Hatten was a climbing legend who posted many first ascents of the Stawamus Chief. He lost his life Aug. 21 after falling 20 metres out of a tree in Langford on Vancouver Island.
Hatten's good friend and Squamish resident Perry Beckham said Hatten was one of the best climbers around.
"He lived in Squamish off and on through the mid-80s," Beckham said. "Daryl was a logger in the old days, he was a faller. When he got out of falling he did tree service work. He felled dangerous trees."
Hatten was trying to rescue a cat stuck in a tree when he slipped and fell from the tree.
Beckham described Hatten as one of the best direct aid climbers ever.
"I met Daryl in 1976," Beckham said. "I met him at the base of the Chief."
After that first meeting, they shared many adventures on Squamish's world-famous granite wall. They also climbed together in other locations, like the Yosemite National Park in California.
"One of our many great adventures, one I remember the best, was our one-day complete climb of the black dike," Beckham recalled. "I remember riding by moonlight from No Name Road to the base of the Chief. We had our backpacks full of equipment. One of my most treasured memories is of Daryl ahead of me on that bicycle."
Beckham said that one of Hatten's climbing partners was Eric Weinstein and the pair made numerous first ascents on the Stawamus Chief.
"They were one of the more capable climbing teams around for the time," Beckham said. One ascent of note was their climb of the Split Pillar on the Grand Wall with the use of artificial aids.
A group of Hatten's good friends will rendezvous on top of the Stawamus Chief at 6 p.m. on Sept. 8 to pay tribute to the legendary climber.
