PRESS-KIT - Topograph Media

MOUNTAINS DON’T CARE,
BUT WE DO!
An Early History of the US Mountain Rescue Association
topographmedia.com

Synopsis
This DVD contains a new documentary video as well as two historic films (described below).
This film charts the founding and early history of mountain rescue in the United States, focusing on the remarkable
people who risked their lives to save people in trouble in the mountains in the years between 1948 and 1960.
Mountains Don’t Care, But We Do! features Dee Molenaar, Jim
Whittaker, Wolf Bauer, Dick Pooley and other key individuals involved
in the early history of mountain rescue in the Pacific Northwest. It traces
the development of mountain rescue teams in Washington and Oregon
including the first major operation on Mount McKinley in 1960. The
Pacific Northwest provided a unique setting and challenging terrain for
the development of organized mountain rescue in the US. The video
shows that the roots of mountain rescue were in the Alps, with immigrants
Wolf Bauer and Otto Trott bringing their experience and skills
from Europe to the US. The video closes with a look at mountain rescue
today, as well as some answers to the question: What motivates mountain
rescuers and why do they face danger to help others in trouble in
the mountains? Visit the web site of the MRA at www.mra.org
Mountains Don’t Care. Produced by the Seattle Mountain Rescue
Council in 1953, featuring Ome Daiber (founder of Seattle Mountain
Rescue), with Jim and Lou Whittaker. After World War II, returning
soldiers and their families flocked to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest
in search of recreation. This classic Ira Spring film was probably
the first mountain safety film ever produced, it responded to a need to
inform local citizens of possible dangers in the mountains. It also features
some of the most notable mountaineers of the century, including
Ome Daiber, and both Jim and Lou Whittaker. Today this film can still
be used to further one of the objectives of the Mountain Rescue Association:
public mountain safety education. The video is included on this
DVD courtesy of the Spring Family Trust for Trails. For more info, see
www.springtrailtrust.org
Mountain Rescue Training at Wilder Kaiser, Austria, 1948.
Historic footage of early mountain rescue techniques developed by
Wastl Mariner and others in Austria and Germany in the late 1940’s.
This unique video was made as a black and white silent film in Austria
and shows the evolution of early mountain rescue technique and
equipment in Europe. In about 1950 the German-American immigrant
Wolf Bauer brought a copy of the film back to Seattle and this became
the inspiration for development of mountain rescue in the US during
the 1950’s. In 1998 the film was digitized and narrated by the International
Commission of Alpine Rescue (IKAR) for their 50th anniversary
celebration. The English subtitles for this version were painstakingly
provided by F. Mathias Lorenz and Bavarian native speaker, Victoria
Mayer. This film is included on this DVD courtesy of IKAR, and you
can visit the web site at www.ikar-cisa.org
Running Time: 29 Minutes, Language: English
Genre: Historic Documentary
Format: NTSC, Aspect: 4x3
Running Time: 20 Minutes, Language: English
Genre: Mountain Saftey Film, Format: NTSC
Running Time: 25 Minutes, Language: German
with English Subtitles, Genre: Documentary,
Format: NTSC, Aspect: 4x3

Director’s Statement
The Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) is a national group of
volunteers dedicated to saving lives through rescue and mountain
safety education. During the planning stages for the MRA 50th
Anniversary Celebration at Mount Hood, Oregon, it became clear
that this would be the time to record, publish and distribute a basic
history of mountain rescue in the US. Beginning in 1948, mountain
rescue formally began in Seattle with the establishment of the
Seattle Mountain Rescue Council. The initial meeting of the MRA
was at Mount Hood, and the Washington and Oregon teams took
the lead in developing a national association, and the charter was
finally signed in 1959 at Timberline Lodge. In the summer of 2008
MRA commissioned a book by noted Northwest Author and Artist
Dee Molenaar, and a documentary video was a natural outgrowth
of that project. The book is now available through Mountaineers
Books, (see the web page at http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/
productdetails.cfm?PC=1500). We were fortunate to have a private
foundation and long-time supporter of the MRA who contributed
the funding to make the video. The premiere of the video was on
June 28, 2009 at Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood, Oregon before
300 rescuers and guests. It also played at the Tacoma Film Festival
in October 2009 and won a special jury award at the Mountain
Film Festival in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. in February, 2010. As a
volunteer mountain rescuer with more than 20 years of service, this
was a rewarding project for me, and I am thankful for the opportunity
to help record this important history.
Ome Daiber, Otto Trott, Wolf Bauer, Photo by Ira Spring
Production Notes
Ome Daiber, Photo by Dee Molenaar, 1940
Filming began at the annual meeting of the MRA in Stowe, Vermont
in June 2008. The MRA provided the initial funding to ensure
that the project could be completed within one year. It was determined
at the outset that the focus of the film would be the early
years between 1948 and 1960. But it was also necessary to look
at the modern MRA, and how it has evolved since the founding
in 1959. Many of the founders of mountain rescue have passed
away, but we were fortunate to have key people like Wolf Bauer to
interview, (he was ninety-six at the time). In the summer of 2008 a
“reunion” of many of the early mountaineers was hosted at Mount
Hood by Portland Mountain Rescue, and the filming continued at
several locations in Oregon and Washington. Jim Whittaker, the
first American on Mount Everest, was eighty years old at the time
of interview, and he added some of the most important insights as
well as the closing comments of the film. Filming concluded with
some of the current leaders of the MRA who were able to explain
why rescuers are willing to risk their lives to save others in trouble
in the mountains.
View the Trailer:
You can watch a preview of the video by going to http://vimeo.com/5578229
The DVD is distributed by the Mountain Rescue Association, a non-profit organization, the public can get information
on how to obtain a copy at www.mra.org/about/dvd.php

Key Profiles
Jim Whittaker
A Seattle native, Jim achieved the distinction in 1963 of being the first American to summit Mount
Everest. For many years, Jim served as manager of REI in Seattle, helping to build it into a multimillion
dollar operation, with many branch stores throughout the United States. In 1978, he organized
and led the first successful American ascent of K2, the world’s second highest, and many say
most dangerous, peak. Also, against formidable political and logistical odds, he organized and led
the spectacularly successful 1990 Mount Everest Peace Climb, which put twenty men and women
from three superpowers—the United States, China, and the Soviet Union—on the summit.
Ome Daiber
Ome Daiber was born George C. Daiber in 1907, and later changed his name legally to Ome.
The name Ome is from his boyhood, when he asked a friend at school to “owe me a nickel” so he
could buy some lunch. Beginning in 1936, the authorities began to call Ome for help because of
his Mount Rainier experience; he made a first ascent of Liberty Ridge the previous September. He
was one of the three founders of Seattle Mountain Rescue Council in 1948. Calls would come to
the Daiber house, his wife Matie and Ome would call a list of their mountaineering friends to help.
He was liked by all and truly a legendary man of the mountains.
Wolf Bauer
Born in Bavaria, Germany in 1912, Wolf Bauer came to Seattle in the 1930s and immediately
noted that the Cascade Range is similar to that of his native Alps. With his boundless energy and
vision, in 1934 he established The Mountaineers climbing course. In 1948, he established the
Washington Kayak Club and then co-founded the Seattle Mountain Rescue Council. In the late
1960s, Wolf directed a successful campaign to preserve the Green River Gorge, near Seattle. He
was a founding member of the Washington Environmental Council in 1969. The lodge at Flaming
Geyser State Park was named after Wolf, and he is still active in conservation efforts at age 97.
Otto Trott
A skier and climber since his youth in Germany, the forthright Dr. Otto Trott put patients first. During
World War II, not here long enough to have become a U.S. citizen, Trott was placed in a Tennessee
internment camp. After the war he was a co-founder of Seattle Mountain Rescue Council.
When the going got tough, as in a gritty mountain rescue, he treated colleagues to stress-melting
jokes. Everyone in mountain search-and-rescue operations will remember Dr. Otto Trott for his
honesty, integrity, sense of humor. His son-in-law recently published a book on Otto’s life called
“The Making of Rescuer”, published by Trafford Publishing Company in 2009.
Dick Pooley
Dick Pooley’s first climb of Mount Hood was the annual American Legion climb up the peak’s
south side in 1938. In 1946, Dick moved to Hood River, became a member of the Crag Rats and
climbed all of the local volcanoes. He then went back to Portland, where he joined the Mazamas in
1953Pooley joined the Wy’east Climbers in 1956, The American Alpine Club in 1961, and served
on the Mount Hood Ski Patrol starting in 1963. He was a charter member and first president of the
Mountain Rescue Association. At the age of eighty-eight, Dick Pooley is still active in the MRA in
Oregon and has carefully preserved MRA history.
Dee Molenaar
Dee Molenaar was born in Los Angeles in 1918 to Dutch immigrant parents, and he recalls riding
on his uncle’s horse drawn milk delivery cart. Dee has climbed peaks throughout the western U.S.
and Canada, Alaska, the Alps, and the Himalayas. He participated in major expeditions to Mount
St. Elias in Alaska in 1946 and in the ill-fated 1953 American expedition to K2 in the Karakoram
Himalaya in 1953. His artwork and maps have appeared in books and art shows all over the world.
His book “The Challenge of Mount Rainier” is in its ninth printing. At age 91 he continues to
work on art and map projects, and writing and lecturing about mountaineering and geology.

SUMMARY
This DVD provides an early history of the Mountain Rescue
Association (MRA) focused on events in the Pacific Northwest
in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It shows that the roots of mountain
rescue in the USA were in the Alps, and how the changing
conditions in the Northwest after World War II provided a need
for local mountain rescue teams. This effort culminated in June
of 1959 at Timberline Lodge, Oregon, with the signing of the
MRA Charter.
The Mountain Rescue Association today is composed of 90
teams and more than 2000 members, all dedicated to saving
lives through mountain rescue and mountain safety education.
To become an MRA member, all teams must be tested and
periodically re-certified in technical rock rescue, ice and snow,
and general search. Today MRA is the national face of Mountain
Rescue, with links to other groups including the US Sheriffs
Association, the National Association of Search and Rescue
(NASAR), and the Federal government. MRA also send
representatives each year to the international congress (IKAR)
in Europe to share in the latest technology and techniques.
This video shows the debt owed to the founders, their commitment
and skill made the MRA what it is today. We can still say
with confidence:
Mountains Don’t Care, But We Do!
Cover Photo: Seattle Mountain Rescue Council training,
1955, Standing: L to R, Chuck Welch, Dee Molenaar, Coast
Guard pilot, “K” Molenaar, Max Eckenburg, Ome Daiber,
Coast Guard crew member, John Thomson and Lou Whittaker.
Front kneeling L to R, Wolf Bauer, unknown rescuer, Jim
Whittaker and Coast Guard pilot. Photo Courtesy of University
of Washington Library, Special Collections Division

Credits
An Early History of the US Mountain Rescue Association: Mountains Don’t Care, But We Do!
Produced by Topograph Media
Funding Provided by a Private Foundation and Long Time Supporter of the Mountain Rescue Association
Archival Film Footage
Courtesy of The Mountaineers
Denver Public Library
10th Mountain Division
International Commission for Alpine Rescue (IKAR)
Altadena Mountain Rescue Team
Historic Photos and “Mountains Don’t Care” film clips (1953)
Courtesy of The Spring Trust for Trails www.springtrailtrust.org
Mount Hood Video Clips
Pat McAbery, Sight and Sound Services
Additional Photos
The University of Washington Library
The Seattle Museum of History and Industry
The Otto Trott and Paul Williams Family
Dick Pooley, Phil Umhoeltz, Tim Kovacs, and Dee Molenaar
Various Mountain Rescue Teams of the MRA
Denali Photo: Nic McPhee and Creative Commons
Camera, Sound and Video Editing
F. Mathias Lorenz
Design, Layout and Photo Editing
Victoria Mayer
Additional Camera
Paul Lovelady
Musical Score
Kenseth
Technical Support and DVD Replication
Tobin Productions, New York City
Topograph Advisory Team
Rick Karr, Bob Belarue, and Jana Larson
Directed by Rick Lorenz
Olympic Mountain Rescue, Washington
Distributed by the Mountain Rescue Association
www.mra.org/about/dvd.php
All Rights Reserved