File talk:Lute Jerstad on Sahale Summit 8-66.jpg
I was climbing with friends in the North Cascades, August, 1966. After reaching the summit of Sahale Peak near Cascade Pass, we decided to spend a bit of time, eat lunch, and look around. Suddenly we heard talking, laughing, and when we looked around we saw a group of a dozen or so people coming up the back side of the peak. In the lead was Dick McGowan, Lute Jerstad and Ira Spring. We moved down our ropes a bit from the summit so everyone could come up and stand on the top. In the process I had a nice conversation with Ira, Lute and Dick, and came to know Lute well enough to invite him for a talk at our mountaineering club at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Lute was at U. of Oregon in Eugene finishing his PhD. in Eastern Theater, and I was finishing mine in Mathematics. I asked him if he'd show slides and he said he'd love to but would have to charge our club 100$, an amount agreed on by the Everest expedition members. When I asked if he had any personal slides he'd like to show, his eyes lit up and he asked if he could show slides of his research in Nepalese theater -- then mentioned they had plenty of mountains in the background.
I jumped at the chance, of course, and we had a great show, great conversation, and we treated Lute to dinner afterwards. I kept in touch with him for a bit after that before we went our separate ways.
Had I been smarter in 1966, I would have taken many more photos of all the people. In particular, there aren't many pictures of Lute on the Internet, so I'm delighted to supply this one.
