Re-creating Grandparent's Climbs

I am beginning a journey to climb in the footsteps of my grandparents. Their names are Wilbur and Cornelia Davis and they climbed with the Iowa Mountaineers from the 1950's to the 1990's. They accomplished many great climbs in that time, particularly for being farmers from very rural Iowa (Cedar Falls, and later Ottumwa). I am looking from help from the MTN Project community. I have the only list of their climbs, which has a good description of the year and area of their climbs but few of their specific routes. I will attach it here along with some of their photos. I am hoping this post finds its way to some people who may have climbed with them or know more about these climbs, and can help me figure out which routes they refer to. I have looked up the AAJ and there is only one climb in the sawtooth range that mentions them specifically. One other helpful MP comment or has pointed out that there may be a hard copy of the Iowa Mountaneers still in a library in Iowa, but I have yet to be able to visit there in person. If you either know of other people or resources that could help, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks,Kristina 

Seems like a worthy pursuit and you are in for an adventure....best of luck

Try posting in the forum for this site:
http://idahosummits.com/index.php
Might help you, for the Idaho stuff, and perhaps some of the others as well. I'm sure there are still folks around, and it was a pretty small group back then.

Other thoughts, again, for Idaho: try contacting the Elephants Perch (shop in Ketchum), Sawtooth mountain guides, and the Ketchum public library. All may know of individuals you can talk to, or other resources. 

The book "Exploring Idaho's Mountains" by Tom Lopez, lists notable first ascents. Quite a few are attributed simply to the Iowa Mountaineers. But, Tom is a great guy, and would likely steer you toward more sources if you can catch up to him. It's his website I copied the link to. Beware, though! Trip reports galore! Once you get started, you may be gone for awhile. Tom's book has quite a lot of route info, might be worth looking through it. At least you should be able to pinpoint some of the older routes.

Super neat project! Have a grand time.

Best, Helen

Hey! This is a super cool idea. I looked through some of the documents. It looks like some of the routes are pretty clearly identified and some are not. Maybe it would be helpful if you put together a list of routes you want info on, or a list of descriptions in the documents that you want more info on? Since some of the routes listed are super popular (like the Owen-Spaulding) and it probably isn’t one that any extra info needs to be provided for.