SNOWBIRD, UTAH – July 27, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — The first person to climb the highest point on each of the seven continents, Richard Daniel “Dick” Bass, passed away Sunday, July 26, 2015 at the age of 85 surrounded by family in Dallas, Texas.
Bass was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in December 1929 then he moved to Dallas, Texas with his family in 1932. At age 20 Dick received a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Yale University in 1950 then did graduate work at the University of Texas in geology and petroleum engineering. In 1951 he was called into active duty for two years during the Korean War.
In 1962 he invested as one of the original partners in the Vail Ski Resort development in Colorado and joined the Board of Directors of Vail Associates Inc. in 1965. Then, around the mid 1970’s, Bass’ family acquired 58 percent of Vail Associates and then led to Vail’s then developing the Beaver Creek Ski Resort under his brother, Harry Jr., during the 1980’s.
According to a press release from Snowbird, Dick Bass was, in his own words, “not super strong, not super smart and not super courageous, but I am super curious and super enthusiastic.” The press release further describes him; “to know Dick Bass is to know a human dynamo, an individual full of energy and dreams. He was a multi-dimensional, human perpetual-motion machine, always striving toward lofty goals – goals not just for himself, but for the betterment of everyone. Snowbird is living testimony to Dick Bass’s unflagging optimism, energy and determination.”
Bass took on a new lifelong quest in 1969, after visiting the site of Ted Johnson’s vision for a year-long round mountain resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. “If man had sent God a request for the perfect potential place for skiing, Snowbird is what He would have sent back,” said Bass. “No other ski area in the whole world gets the quantity and quality of snow and has the variety and scale of skiable terrain in one package!”
In December 1971, after a year-and-a-half of extreme weather obstacles and cost overruns, Snowbird was born. Bass oversaw the continued growth of Snowbird into a workd-class destination ski and summer resort. While pursuing his dreams, Bass discovered climbing. “Mountain climbing,” said Bass, “recharged me with a greater sense of self-confidence and self-respect, and enabled me to put my troubles and pressures into better perspective by more fully realizing, ‘If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me!’”
Bass was enabled to summit the highest mountain on each continent and chronicled the events in the book Seven Summits which was authored together with his climbing partner, Frank Wells, also the former President of Warner Brothers and then Disney. On April 30, 1985, Bass became the oldest person by five years (at that time) to reach the top of Mt. Everest and the first to climb the seven continental highs.
Frank Wells perhaps best summed up his friend by saying, “Dick is a Renaissance Man in the ultimate sense of the word, with an inherent, insatiable curiosity about everything and everyone around him. That fascination with ideas, and especially people, becomes infectious.”
In 2006 Dick was awarded the National Ski Area Association (NSAA) Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2009 he was inducted in the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame. Then in June of 2014, as a tribute to Bass, the state of Utah proclaimed June 18 as “Dick Bass Day”.
Dick and his wife Alice between them were blessed to have five daughters and four sons from former marriages, who in turn have doubly blessed them with 14 granddaughters and 10 grandsons.
Despite all his achievements, Bass never rested on his laurels. His life continued at a frantic pace, seeking new horizons, more mountains to climb, literally and figuratively. He was an undaunted optimist who believed: “To participate is to live; spectators only exist. Nothing in the world can take the place of determination and persistence… they are omnipotent. If we never stop we can’t get stuck. You’re not a champion ’til you come up off the mat.” As he often said, “I have this abiding faith that someday I’ll finish everything I’ve started.”
Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort have a photo tribute on their Facebook page and you can check it out here.
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