2 Local Women Die Pursuing Their Passion For Outdoors

Seattle this week lost two nationally known outdoorswomen, the sort of people who stood out without stepping on toes, who pushed themselves beyond the tolerance of normal people, and who were able to share their experience with grace and humility.

Kathy Phibbs and Hope Barnes, both 33, died in an apparent fall from the north face of Dragontail Peak in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area of the Cascades, a popular rock-climbing area.

Phibbs was among the best women climbers in the country. Barnes, a seasoned climber, rowed on two U.S. Olympic teams.

``There are some people who just stand out, and each of them was that in her own way,'' said Loren Smith, a friend of both. ``Kathy provided tremendous leadership for women in the outdoors and the Northwest region. People all over the country know her for that.

``They both had an incredible passion for the physical and for the outdoors,'' Smith said. ``Each of them in their own way inspired people, and not just women.''

Six members of Chelan County Mountain Rescue found the women's bodies yesterday at the base of the peak, about 15 miles southwest of Leavenworth and just east of Mount Stuart.

``It appears that they died from a fall,'' said a spokeswoman for the Chelan County Sheriff's Office. Twenty more climbers were to go to the scene today to assist in bringing the bodies to a trailhead.

The two set out last weekend, leaving their truck at the Bridge

Creek Campground. They expected to come home Monday, and told friends not to worry until Tuesday night. They were reported missing Wednesday morning.

Phibbs, the daughter of President Philip Phibbs of the University of Puget Sound, was a founder and director of the Northwest chapter of Woodswomen, a Minnesota-based adventure-travel firm. She quit that job in November.

Last summer, Phibbs gained attention by leading 27 women - including an amputee - to the summit of 14,411-foot Mount Rainier, 100 years to the day after Tacoma school teacher Fay Fuller became the first woman to do it.

``People think of it as a new phenomenon and it's not at all,'' Phibbs said at the time. ``The big Mountaineer climbs in the Olympics in the 1920s were as much as 50 percent women.''

Phibbs wore a skirt for a while on that climb. It wasn't the first time she got dressed up to make a point or get a laugh.

In 1987, when the U.S. Forest Service opened the new 8,300-foot summit of Mount St. Helens for climbers, Phibbs was there, on skis, in a red chiffon dress and a pillbox hat. She had been there as a high-school student in 1975, five years before the volcano blew.

``She had kind of an alter ego, Miss Dish,'' recalled Elaine Powers, who took instruction from Phibbs. ``Miss Dish used to write a column for the Women Climbers Northwest newsletter, on mountain etiquette and manners, on how to remain a lady in the mountains - completely tongue-in-cheek, of course.''

She was a serious climber, too. In 1988, Phibbs led a successful women's climb of 20,320-foot Mount McKinley in Alaska. The next year, she climbed 23,448-foot Mount Pumori in the Himalayas.

Said Powers: ``She was one of the nation's best climbers, and yet she had a lot to offer beginners and had a lot of patience with them in sharing her skills.''

Barnes, whose family lives in the Boston area, ``was a very independent thinker and was very self-reliant,'' said Bob Ernst, the University of Washington coach.

She was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she rowed, and was on the U.S. Olympic team in 1980. In Seattle, she joined the Lake Washington Rowing Club and made the Olympic team again in 1984.

``She was able to do it and do it intensely, but she remained open to people,'' said Smith, who rowed with her in Seattle.

``Hope and Kathy both were outstanding climbers and had very good judgment,'' Smith said. ``One of the first things people do when there are climbing deaths is make judgments about how dangerous climbing is.

``There's no place they would rather have died. I'm sad that they died, but they were people who really loved the mountains.''