Jules Eichorn
Encyclopedia
Jules Eichorn was a California mountaineer
, environmentalist
and music teacher.
in Marin County, California
with his parents and siblings. He showed musical talent and began studying violin from Ansel Adams
at a young age. In 1927, he began piano lessons, and his first instructor was Ansel Adams
. Eichorn was also Adams's first piano student. That summer, Eichorn joined Adams on the Sierra Club
annual High Trip
, which included a climb of Alta Peak
in Sequoia National Park
. That climb sparked the 15-year-old Eichorn's love of mountaineering.
Eichorn worked for Ansel Adams washing photographic prints and hauling photographic equipment in exchange for piano lessons, and their friendship lasted until Adams's death in 1984. After graduating from Lick-Wilmerding High School
in San Francisco in 1929, Eichorn traveled to the Teton Range
of Wyoming
in 1930 for a summer climbing trip.
, he first teamed up with Glen Dawson
to make the third ascent of Red-and-White Mountain in the Sierra. They continued at a fast pace to climb Mount Abbot, Bear Creek Spire, Mount Dade, Turret Peak, Mount Darwin
, The Hermit, Mount McGee, a first ascent
of the (later named) Mount Mendel, Mount Goddard
, Devils Crags, Mount Woodworth, Middle Palisade
, Mount Sill
, North Palisade
, Polemonium Peak, Mount Winchell
and Mount Agassiz
. All of these climbs were completed in 24 days. Sierra Club Secretary Will Colby
wrote, "Some youthful enthusiasts, including Glen Dawson, Jules Eichorn and John Olmstead, swarmed over everything that looked formidable in the way of a mountain peak."
In 1931, Sierra Club leader Francis P. Farquhar
invited Harvard philosophy professor and Appalachian Mountain Club
member Robert L. M. Underhill
to come to the Sierra Nevada to teach the latest techniques of roped climbing. Underhill had learned these techniques in the Alps
, and had used them earlier that summer in the Tetons and the Canadian Rockies
. Jules Eichorn was among the first group of Californians who practiced these techniques on Mount Ritter
and Banner Peak
in the Ritter Range
. After the basic course was completed, the more advanced students, including Eichorn, his climbing partner Glen Dawson, Norman Clyde
, Lewis Clark, and Bestor Robinson
traveled south to the Palisades
, the most rugged and alpine part of the Sierra Nevada. There, on August 13, 1931, the party completed the first ascent
of the last unclimbed 14,000+ foot peak in California, which remained unnamed due to its remote location above the Palisade Glaciers
. After a challenging ascent to the summit, the climbers were caught in an intense lightning storm, and Eichorn barely escaped electrocution when "a thunderbolt whizzed right by my ear". The mountain was named Thunderbolt Peak to commemorate that close call. Underhill called Dawson and Eichorn "young natural-born rock climbers of the first water."
Three days later on August 16, Eichorn, Clyde, Underhill and Dawson completed the first ascent of the East Face
of Mount Whitney
, the highest peak in the contiguous United States. The route was extremely exposed, especially the famous Fresh Air Traverse. Eichorn was just 19 years old. Steve Roper
called this route "one of the classic routes of the Sierra, partly because of its spectacular location and partly because it was the first really big wall to be climbed in the range." Porcella & Burns wrote that "the climb heralded a new standard of technical competence in Californian rock climbing
. . ." Eichorn's 1931 experiences led to a lifelong friendship with Norman Clyde, who was, by most accounts, California's greatest mountaineer of the first half of the 20th century.
These two classic climbs were among at least 26 first ascents that Eichorn completed in the High Sierra between 1930 and 1952. His other first ascents included the Dragtooth, Finger Peaks, Matthes Crest, Eichorn Minaret, Waller Minaret, Clyde Spires, Mt. McGee, Frustration Turret, Pyramidal Pinnacle, and Red Spur. His first ascents of new routes on previously climbed peaks include Matterhorn Peak
, Mount Hoffmann
, Cathedral Peak
, Banner Peak
, Michael Minaret, Mount Winchell
, Temple Crag
, Middle Palisade
, the ridge traverse from North Palisade
to Starlight Peak, Deerhorn Mountain, Mt. Ericsson, Mount Russell
and three routes on the Devil's Crags.
In early August 1933, young solo climber and guidebook author Walter A. Starr, Jr.
, nicknamed "Pete", disappeared in the Minarets. Beginning on August 15, a dozen skilled climbers including Eichorn, Clyde and Dawson spent four days searching unsuccessfully for Pete Starr. Norman Clyde continued to search alone, and discovered Starr's body on Michael Minaret on August 25, where he had fallen to his death. Eichorn and Clyde later climbed back to the location of the body, and interred the remains in a mountain tomb that they built on the ledge. Eichorn handled the body as Clyde had an aversion to touching corpses. Starr's grateful (and wealthy) parents rewarded Eichorn with a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley
, where he majored in music and earned a teaching credential.
In 1934, Eichorn, Robinson and Dick Leonard
of the Cragmont Climbing Club assembled the most advanced set of climbing gear then in use in North America, much of which they had obtained from Germany, and successfully climbed Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite Valley
. This was the first major technical ascent in the valley that later became a mecca of rock climbing. This was the first climb in California to utilize pitons
. Writing about this climb, Bestor Robinson described Eichorn's "remarkable sense of balance and ability to stick to next to nothing."
In the late 1930s, Eichorn contracted Coccidioidomycosis
, also called Valley Fever, a potentially fatal fungal disease that affects the lungs. This infection kept him out of the military during World War II
. Instead, he spent the war years teaching mountaineering skills to rangers in Yosemite National Park
.
public schools for 35 years. In the 1950s, he led month-long "cache and carry" youth hikes in the Sierra Nevada and also served as a volunteer on Sierra Club mountaineering base camp trips through the 1970s. He collaborated with Sierra mule
packer Charley Robinson on several of these trips, moving supplies to hikers and climbers using a mule train
.
He became a political activist, opposing development and wetland
filling along the San Mateo County, California
coast of San Francisco Bay
. He was an active member of the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club for many years. In 1961, he was elected to the national Board of Directors of the Sierra Club, and served from 1961 to 1967. Among his colleagues on the board in those years was Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
and Pulitzer Prize
-winning novelist Wallace Stegner
.
Eichorn died in his sleep at his home in Redwood City, California
on February 15, 2000, eight days after his 88th birthday.
near Tuolumne Meadows
in Yosemite National Park. Jules Eichorn climbed this pinnacle in 1931.
Eichorn Minaret (12,255 feet) is one of the Minarets in the Ritter Range, located in the Ansel Adams Wilderness
.
The Jules Eichorn Memorial Grove is located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park
in Santa Cruz County, California
.
Eichorn was the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award for 1972.
His personal slogan was "Music and the mountains; they're the greatest."
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
and music teacher.
Early years
Jules Marquard Eichorn was born in San Francisco on February 7, 1912 to Hilmar and Frieda Eichorn, who were immigrants from Germany. As a youngster, he often hiked on the slopes of Mount TamalpaisMount Tamalpais
Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...
in Marin County, California
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
with his parents and siblings. He showed musical talent and began studying violin from Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
at a young age. In 1927, he began piano lessons, and his first instructor was Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
. Eichorn was also Adams's first piano student. That summer, Eichorn joined Adams on the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
annual High Trip
High Trips
The High Trips were large wilderness excursions organized and led by the Sierra Club beginning in 1901. Club secretary William Colby initiated the High Trips, which usually traveled to the High Sierra, and led them from 1901 to 1929. Colby wrote, "It was from John Muir, President of the Club,...
, which included a climb of Alta Peak
Alta Peak
Alta Peak is in Sequoia National Park not far from Giant Forest. Before 1896, the mountain was known as Tharps Peak. By 1903 it was generally known by its current name and Alta Peak appears on the Tehipite quadrangle, USGS 30 minute topographic map of 1905,...
in Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890. The park spans . Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains among its natural resources the highest point in the...
. That climb sparked the 15-year-old Eichorn's love of mountaineering.
Eichorn worked for Ansel Adams washing photographic prints and hauling photographic equipment in exchange for piano lessons, and their friendship lasted until Adams's death in 1984. After graduating from Lick-Wilmerding High School
Lick-Wilmerding High School
Lick-Wilmerding High School is a college-preparatory high school located in San Francisco, California, United States.-History:Lick-Wilmerding was founded on September 21, 1874 as the California School of Mechanical Arts by a trust by James Lick. George Merrill was hired to manage the school as the...
in San Francisco in 1929, Eichorn traveled to the Teton Range
Teton Range
The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. A north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state's border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park. Most of the range is in Grand Teton National Park....
of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
in 1930 for a summer climbing trip.
Mountaineering achievements
On July 6, 1930, during the Sierra Club's annual High TripHigh Trips
The High Trips were large wilderness excursions organized and led by the Sierra Club beginning in 1901. Club secretary William Colby initiated the High Trips, which usually traveled to the High Sierra, and led them from 1901 to 1929. Colby wrote, "It was from John Muir, President of the Club,...
, he first teamed up with Glen Dawson
Glen Dawson
Glen Dawson is a California rock climber, mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and environmentalist.- Early life :...
to make the third ascent of Red-and-White Mountain in the Sierra. They continued at a fast pace to climb Mount Abbot, Bear Creek Spire, Mount Dade, Turret Peak, Mount Darwin
Mount Darwin (California)
Mount Darwin is a flat-topped mountain in the Sierra Nevada, on the border of between Fresno and Inyo counties in the Kings Canyon National Park and the Inyo National Forest of California. Two Australian geologists, Ernest Clayton Andrews and Willard D. Johnson, made the first recorded ascent on...
, The Hermit, Mount McGee, a first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
of the (later named) Mount Mendel, Mount Goddard
Mount Goddard
Mount Goddard is a mountain of California's Sierra Nevada, in the north section of Kings Canyon National Park. Goddard forms the southwest boundary of the Evolution Basin....
, Devils Crags, Mount Woodworth, Middle Palisade
Middle Palisade
Middle Palisade is a peak in the Palisades group, part of the central Sierra Nevada mountain range in the US state of California. It is the twelfth highest peak in the state....
, Mount Sill
Mount Sill
Mount Sill is one of the fourteeners of the Sierra Nevada in California. It is located in the Palisades, a group of striking rock peaks with a few small glaciers on their flanks. Mount Sill is located 0.6 miles east of North Palisade, the high point of the group. The two peaks are connected by a...
, North Palisade
North Palisade
North Palisade is the third highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada range of California. It is the highest peak of the Palisades group of peaks in the central part of the range. It sports a small glacier and several highly prized rock climbing routes on its northeast side.- History :North Palisade...
, Polemonium Peak, Mount Winchell
Mount Winchell
Mount Winchell, a thirteener, is among the thirty highest peaks of California. It is in the Palisades region of the Sierra Nevada, on the Sierra Crest between Mount Agassiz and Thunderbolt Peak.- Geography :...
and Mount Agassiz
Mount Agassiz (California)
Mount Agassiz, at , is one of the twenty highest peaks of California. It is the northernmost, and easiest to climb, major summit of the Palisades.-Geography:Agassiz is at the north end of the Palisades in the eastern Sierra Nevada, near Bishop Pass...
. All of these climbs were completed in 24 days. Sierra Club Secretary Will Colby
William Edward Colby
right|225pxWilliam Edward Colby was an American lawyer, conservationist, and first Secretary of the Sierra Club.-Early life and education:...
wrote, "Some youthful enthusiasts, including Glen Dawson, Jules Eichorn and John Olmstead, swarmed over everything that looked formidable in the way of a mountain peak."
In 1931, Sierra Club leader Francis P. Farquhar
Francis P. Farquhar
Francis Peloubet Farquhar graduated from Harvard and came to San Francisco to set up in practice as a Certified Public Accountant...
invited Harvard philosophy professor and Appalachian Mountain Club
Appalachian Mountain Club
The Appalachian Mountain Club is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C...
member Robert L. M. Underhill
Robert L. M. Underhill
Robert Lindley Murray Underhill was an American mountaineer best known for introducing modern Alpine style rope and belaying techniques to the U.S. climbing community in the late 1920s and early 1930s....
to come to the Sierra Nevada to teach the latest techniques of roped climbing. Underhill had learned these techniques in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, and had used them earlier that summer in the Tetons and the Canadian Rockies
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains range. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, extending from the Interior Plains of Alberta to the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA...
. Jules Eichorn was among the first group of Californians who practiced these techniques on Mount Ritter
Mount Ritter
Mount Ritter is located in the Sierra Nevada, in Madera County of California, in the Western United States. It is in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Mount Ritter is the 16th highest mountain peak of California.-Geography:...
and Banner Peak
Banner Peak
Banner Peak is the second tallest peak in the Ritter Range of California's Sierra Nevada. The mountain is 12,936 feet tall and there are a few glaciers on its slopes. It lies within the boundaries of the Ansel Adams Wilderness; at the foot of the peak lie Garnet Lake, Lake Ediza, and the famous...
in the Ritter Range
Ritter Range
The Ritter Range is a small mountain range within California's Sierra Nevada. Most of the mountain range lies within the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The Range is easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. The Ritter Range is most easily accessible from Mammoth Lakes, where hiking...
. After the basic course was completed, the more advanced students, including Eichorn, his climbing partner Glen Dawson, Norman Clyde
Norman Clyde
Norman Clyde was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self trained naturalist. He is well-known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada and Montana's Glacier National Park...
, Lewis Clark, and Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson was a California mountaineer, environmentalist, attorney and inventor. He was a law partner of Earl Warren, later governor of California and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Robinson was a long time leader of the Sierra Club...
traveled south to the Palisades
Palisades (California Sierra)
The Palisades are a group of peaks in the central part of the Sierra Nevada in the US state of California. They are located about southwest of the town of Big Pine, California...
, the most rugged and alpine part of the Sierra Nevada. There, on August 13, 1931, the party completed the first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
of the last unclimbed 14,000+ foot peak in California, which remained unnamed due to its remote location above the Palisade Glaciers
Palisade Glaciers
The Palisade Glacier is a glacier located on the northeast side of the Palisades within the John Muir Wilderness in the central Sierra Nevada of California. The Palisade Glacier is the largest glacier in North America....
. After a challenging ascent to the summit, the climbers were caught in an intense lightning storm, and Eichorn barely escaped electrocution when "a thunderbolt whizzed right by my ear". The mountain was named Thunderbolt Peak to commemorate that close call. Underhill called Dawson and Eichorn "young natural-born rock climbers of the first water."
Three days later on August 16, Eichorn, Clyde, Underhill and Dawson completed the first ascent of the East Face
East Face (Mount Whitney)
The East Face of Mount Whitney is a technical alpine rock climbing route and is featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous United States....
of Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...
, the highest peak in the contiguous United States. The route was extremely exposed, especially the famous Fresh Air Traverse. Eichorn was just 19 years old. Steve Roper
Steve Roper
Steve Roper is a noted climber and historian of the Sierra Nevada in the United States. He along with Allen Steck are the founding editors of the Sierra Club journal Ascent.Roper is the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P...
called this route "one of the classic routes of the Sierra, partly because of its spectacular location and partly because it was the first really big wall to be climbed in the range." Porcella & Burns wrote that "the climb heralded a new standard of technical competence in Californian rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
. . ." Eichorn's 1931 experiences led to a lifelong friendship with Norman Clyde, who was, by most accounts, California's greatest mountaineer of the first half of the 20th century.
These two classic climbs were among at least 26 first ascents that Eichorn completed in the High Sierra between 1930 and 1952. His other first ascents included the Dragtooth, Finger Peaks, Matthes Crest, Eichorn Minaret, Waller Minaret, Clyde Spires, Mt. McGee, Frustration Turret, Pyramidal Pinnacle, and Red Spur. His first ascents of new routes on previously climbed peaks include Matterhorn Peak
Matterhorn Peak
Matterhorn Peak is located in the Sierra Nevada, in the western U.S. state of California, at the northern boundary of Yosemite National Park. At elevation, it is the tallest peak in the craggy Alps-like Sawtooth Ridge and the northernmost peak in the Sierra Nevada. The peak also supports the...
, Mount Hoffmann
Mount Hoffmann
Mount Hoffmann is a prominent peak in northeastern Mariposa County in the center of Yosemite National Park, California, United States. It rises above May Lake and is a day hike of from Tioga Pass Road. The mountain is named after the cartographer Charles F. Hoffmann, who was part of the...
, Cathedral Peak
Cathedral Peak (California)
Cathedral Peak is part of the Cathedral Range, a mountain range in the south-central portion of Yosemite National Park in eastern Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties. The range is an offshoot of the Sierra Nevada...
, Banner Peak
Banner Peak
Banner Peak is the second tallest peak in the Ritter Range of California's Sierra Nevada. The mountain is 12,936 feet tall and there are a few glaciers on its slopes. It lies within the boundaries of the Ansel Adams Wilderness; at the foot of the peak lie Garnet Lake, Lake Ediza, and the famous...
, Michael Minaret, Mount Winchell
Mount Winchell
Mount Winchell, a thirteener, is among the thirty highest peaks of California. It is in the Palisades region of the Sierra Nevada, on the Sierra Crest between Mount Agassiz and Thunderbolt Peak.- Geography :...
, Temple Crag
Temple Crag
Temple Crag is a popular rock climbing destination in the Palisades region of the Sierra Nevada. It straddles the drainages of the North and South Forks of Big Pine Creek....
, Middle Palisade
Middle Palisade
Middle Palisade is a peak in the Palisades group, part of the central Sierra Nevada mountain range in the US state of California. It is the twelfth highest peak in the state....
, the ridge traverse from North Palisade
North Palisade
North Palisade is the third highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada range of California. It is the highest peak of the Palisades group of peaks in the central part of the range. It sports a small glacier and several highly prized rock climbing routes on its northeast side.- History :North Palisade...
to Starlight Peak, Deerhorn Mountain, Mt. Ericsson, Mount Russell
Mount Russell (California)
Mount Russell is a peak in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the U.S. state of California, about north of Mount Whitney. It rises to an elevation of and is the seventh highest peak in the state.- Geography :...
and three routes on the Devil's Crags.
In early August 1933, young solo climber and guidebook author Walter A. Starr, Jr.
Walter A. Starr, Jr.
Walter A. "Pete" Starr, Jr. was an American lawyer and mountain climber.A graduate of Stanford University, Starr was a respected lawyer in San Francisco, but he is better known for his abilities as a mountain climber and an explorer of the Sierra Nevada.In August 1933, he failed to return from a...
, nicknamed "Pete", disappeared in the Minarets. Beginning on August 15, a dozen skilled climbers including Eichorn, Clyde and Dawson spent four days searching unsuccessfully for Pete Starr. Norman Clyde continued to search alone, and discovered Starr's body on Michael Minaret on August 25, where he had fallen to his death. Eichorn and Clyde later climbed back to the location of the body, and interred the remains in a mountain tomb that they built on the ledge. Eichorn handled the body as Clyde had an aversion to touching corpses. Starr's grateful (and wealthy) parents rewarded Eichorn with a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he majored in music and earned a teaching credential.
In 1934, Eichorn, Robinson and Dick Leonard
Richard M. Leonard
Richard Manning Leonard was an American rock climber, environmentalist and attorney. He served as president of the Sierra Club and the Save the Redwoods League, and was active in the Wilderness Society and the American Alpine Club...
of the Cragmont Climbing Club assembled the most advanced set of climbing gear then in use in North America, much of which they had obtained from Germany, and successfully climbed Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
. This was the first major technical ascent in the valley that later became a mecca of rock climbing. This was the first climb in California to utilize pitons
Pitons
The Pitons are two volcanic plugs in a World Heritage Site in Saint Lucia. The Gros Piton is 771 m, and the Petit Piton is 743 m high; they are linked by the Piton Mitan ridge.- Geography :...
. Writing about this climb, Bestor Robinson described Eichorn's "remarkable sense of balance and ability to stick to next to nothing."
In the late 1930s, Eichorn contracted Coccidioidomycosis
Coccidioidomycosis
Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal disease caused by Coccidioides immitis or C. posadasii. It is endemic in certain parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and northwestern Mexico.C...
, also called Valley Fever, a potentially fatal fungal disease that affects the lungs. This infection kept him out of the military during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Instead, he spent the war years teaching mountaineering skills to rangers in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
.
Environmental leader
Eichorn taught instrumental, orchestral and choral music in the Hillsborough, CaliforniaHillsborough, California
Hillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest communities in America and has the highest income of places in the United States with populations of at least 10,000...
public schools for 35 years. In the 1950s, he led month-long "cache and carry" youth hikes in the Sierra Nevada and also served as a volunteer on Sierra Club mountaineering base camp trips through the 1970s. He collaborated with Sierra mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
packer Charley Robinson on several of these trips, moving supplies to hikers and climbers using a mule train
Mule train
Mule train can refer to:*A connected line of mules*Mule Train, 1949 popular song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Doc Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman...
.
He became a political activist, opposing development and wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
filling along the San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
coast of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. He was an active member of the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club for many years. In 1961, he was elected to the national Board of Directors of the Sierra Club, and served from 1961 to 1967. Among his colleagues on the board in those years was Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas
William Orville Douglas was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
and Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning novelist Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
.
Eichorn died in his sleep at his home in Redwood City, California
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...
on February 15, 2000, eight days after his 88th birthday.
Legacy
Two Sierra Nevada peaks are named after Jules Eichorn. Eichorn Pinnacle (~10,940 feet) is the spectacular west summit of Cathedral PeakCathedral Peak (California)
Cathedral Peak is part of the Cathedral Range, a mountain range in the south-central portion of Yosemite National Park in eastern Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties. The range is an offshoot of the Sierra Nevada...
near Tuolumne Meadows
Tuolumne Meadows
Tuolumne Meadows is a gentle, dome-studded sub-alpine meadowy section of the Tuolumne River, in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park. Its approximate location is . Its approximate elevation is 8619 feet .-Natural History:...
in Yosemite National Park. Jules Eichorn climbed this pinnacle in 1931.
Eichorn Minaret (12,255 feet) is one of the Minarets in the Ritter Range, located in the Ansel Adams Wilderness
Ansel Adams Wilderness
The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. The wilderness is part of the Sierra and Inyo National Forests. The wilderness spans...
.
The Jules Eichorn Memorial Grove is located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Big Basin Redwoods State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of California, located in Santa Cruz County, about northwest of Santa Cruz. The park contains almost all of the Waddell Creek watershed, which was formed by the seismic uplift of its rim, and the erosion of its center by the many...
in Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, on the California Central Coast. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay. . As of the 2010 U.S. Census, its population was 262,382. The county seat is Santa Cruz...
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Eichorn was the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award for 1972.
His personal slogan was "Music and the mountains; they're the greatest."