Sid Davis (Mr San Jacinto) has died

[Cy Kaicener]

It is with regret that I have to inform you of the death of Sid Davis at age 90 who passed away recently. He climbed Mt San Jacinto 643 times and was the stand in for John Wayne. There is a drainage area on the mountain that is named after him. He was the leader of my first Cactus to Clouds trip with the Sierra Club in the mid 60's. In those days we had to climb over and under Manzanita bushes at the 5500 ft level and above. A large fire a few years later cleared the so called trail which was very faint and non existant in some places.
His obituary was in last Friday's Desert Sun. My deepest condolences to his wife and family and friends. His daughter Jill can be reached at jillatcomcast.net
To view and sign his guestbook please visit thedesertsun.com/obituaries
Here is the biography of a legend from The Desert Sun
http://www.legacy.com/TheDesertSun/Obit ... d=19730614

[Perry]

I'm sorry to hear. I was hoping to meet him eventually.

[guest]

Hi Cy,
Thanks for that info, I wished I could have meet him too, Andy told me the other day.
He did the peak every day for a year I've heard.
I would have liked to see the Skyline back then, since I enjoy some bushwackin.
Good to see ya on the trail yesterday.

ss

[Cy Kaicener]

It was great hiking with you Ron and congratulations on your first Skyline.
Also thanks again for the ride back to the car. Sid was awesome.

[Cy Kaicener]

Here is more about Sid who had an office on Robertson Blvd in Beverly Hiils not far from where I used to work at Standard Brands Paint. He had spectacular pictures of all his technical climbs plastered all over the walls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Davis

[Perry]

I didn't know he was ultra-conservative. I seem to remember seeing a photo of him cracking open a bottle of champagne. Maybe it was sparkling cider.

Somebody will have to write a Wikipedia article about you Cy. Somebody will I'm sure....

[Cy Kaicener]

Perry - You will get to Wiki-pedia in the future. You have accomplished much more than I ever did at your age. Check out a Sierra Clubber called Doug Mantle. He has climbed every peak on the Sierra Peaks list seven times each. There are over 250 of them. Every peak on the Hundred Peaks list seven times each - also about 250 of these. Every peak on the Desert Peaks list (100 peaks) seven times each, the highest peak on every continent (the Seven Summits), as well as a couple of other 8000 meter peaks. Now throw in the 53 - 14000 ft peaks in Colorado and the highest peak in every state of the USA. i dont know what he did for a living, but its amazing.
Here is a link from 1992 I think, and he has been adding to it ever since.
http://www.everestnews.com/history/clim ... mantle.htm

[SanJack]

Sid was a giant on San Jac. Bigger than life, he was the mountain's greatest cheerleader. We shared maybe 100 lunches at the Peak. I like being there, he liked walking up and back. On some occasions twice in one day.

[Bakersfieldian]

Hi Group,
Regarding Sid Davis, I met him while on a backpacking trip on Mt. San Jacinto in 1978. That was 29 years ago, and I was 20 years old. He introduced himself to me as he was hiking back to the tramway as he was finishing a hike. I do recall that it was somewhere around his 460th time hiking the peak, and he said he only had a few more hikes to go before setting a record (at that time).
It stood out in my mind over the years that, if I recall correctly, he got into hiking in his 40's? He was inspired to get into the outdoors, and of course he got into it with a lot of gusto for sure.
Another thing I remember is he had a brochure with a photo of himself on the front, and it told about his life and his enjoyment of the outdoors. If I recall, it even had a poem in it that he wrote about Mt. San Jacinto. I'd imagine I still have that brochure somewhere, although I haven't seen it in years.
Quite a remarkable guy. Sorry to hear of his passing, but glad he got to live a long life pursuing his passion.
Signed,
Ron Worgul in Bakersfield