Dave Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Erik Solberg, 18 June 2007

Transcript (59 pages) of interview by Erik Solberg with Dave Smith on June 18, 2007

David Smith (b.1951) developed an interest in the outdoors by hunting with his father and backpacking with the Boy Scouts. He worked at East Fork of the Bear River Boy Scout Camp, and was head of the winter program at Camp Steiner for a couple of years. After reading about climbing, and hearing about climbing in a junior-high school assembly, he hooked up with the Wasatch Mountain Club and attended their Thursday night climbing courses, although he was only fifteen at the time. He describes his first session at Storm Mountain, climbing in the Tetons and Wind Rivers, and tells a story about being the subject of a rescue effort by Deputy Sheriff Pete Kotolus and a rescue party of Ted Wilson, Court Richards, Dave Allen, George Lowe, and Dave George. Other topics include climbing equipment and clothing, the Ute Alpine Club, various climbs in the Tetons, the Wind Rivers, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, guidebooks, environmental issues, aid climbing, rating systems, and working in outdoor recreation businesses. Climbing partners have included Kim Miller, Mark Ward, Dave Lowe, John Glidden, Dick Grow, Kent Christiansen, Bruce Roghaar, Don Black, Tom Stevenson, George Lowe, John Reed, and Bob Irvine. Outdoor Recreation Project. Interviewer: Erik Solberg