CHARLES FREDERICK KROGER, 1946 – 2007
Chuck Kroger on El Capitan. Photo by Scott Davis from The Stanford Alpine Club.
Yosemite pioneer Chuck Kroger, an AAC member since 1970, died December 25 of pancreatic cancer. He was 61.
Kroger was president of the Stanford Alpine Club; he graduated from the university in 1969. He and Chuck Davis did the first ascent of the Heart Route on El Capitan in 1970, a time when there were still only a handful of routes on Yosemite Valley’s most famous cliff. He climbed in Alaska, the Alps, the Soviet Union, and South America.
Kroger moved to Telluride in 1979, and from that base he finished the notorious Hardrock 100 ultramarathon six times and explored the San Juan Mountains for nearly three decades. AAC member Clay Wadman, writing at Climbing.com, said of Kroger, “A welder extraordinaire, he invented his own rail bikes to access the remote Weminuche Wilderness south of Silverton. Suddenly any peak in the range became a day climb. The Wham Ridge was an easy outing so we decided climbing Jagged Peak in a day would be fun. Sure enough we made it all the way to the top, only to look over and see we had climbed the wrong summit! Chuck loved stuff like that.”
Read Clay Wadman’s full tribute to Chuck Kroger here. An informative obituary for Kroger was published in the Telluride newspapers, including this one in the Telluride Watch. A thread at the Supertopo.com forum is collecting memories and photos.
Kroger is survived by his wife, Kathy Green, of Telluride, as well as his parents, his sister, and a nephew. A celebration of his life is being planned for the summer of 2008 in Telluride.