At the base of the Chief in the cool forest beneath the giant evergreens, there is a piece of little known public art. Climbers know about it because it lies just off the trail that leads to one of the most famous rock climbs in North America, the Grand Wall.
If you know which one of the many boulders that sit scattered like jigsaw pieces on the forest floor you will find a sculptor of a rock climber carved in the stone. As a climber and publisher of Squamishclimbing.com I have always been intrigued by this carving. I imagined the artist was also a climber because the sculpture captures perfectly the power and balance required to move smoothly up the rock. When I asked around I was told the carving commemorates a climb up the Grand Wall in 1969 but no one really knew anymore. With a little sleuthing around online I found the full story.
According to his son, the artist’s name is Jack Peterson, whose works are in museums and private collections around the world. Peterson carved it in 1969 as a tribute to the many climbers that scaled the Chief.
Victor Peterson wrote about his Dad, “ I think he always dreamed of scaling the face himself while he was carving the stone and we spent many days watching the various climbers work their way to the top. He did take the entire family up the back trail one day so we could stand at the top and look down on the Sound. What an incredible view” source: Keith Rajala, The Red Lobster Journals.
— Dave Jones
