Ruth Dyar Mendenhall; Mountaineer, Writer

Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, 76, a mountaineer and outdoor writer who with her late husband, John, made several first ascents of peaks in the Sierra and elsewhere including Mt. Whitney by its southeast face and the standard route on Lower Cathedral Spire in Yosemite. They also staged pioneering climbs in many other parts of the Western United States, including the Tetons of Wyoming, the deserts of California, the Cascades of Oregon and Washington, and in Canada and the Alps. They were credited with the first ascents of two remote mountains in British Columbia--Mt. Confederation in 1947 and Aiguille Peak in 1952. On her own, at the age of 44 in 1957, Ruth Mendenhall ascended the difficult face of Mt. Williamson, the second-highest mountain in California. Her books included “The Challenge of Rock and Mountain Climbing,” a standard in the field. In Seattle on March 22.