December 2025 –
From John Weiland
I first met Teale in a sporting goods store in Valdez, which I had built, named “Beaver Sports”. I was in there with Dr Andy Embick to look over the store, because Andy wanted some things modified at his house. A strong, young guy walked into the store. I asked Embick. “Who is that guy? “He said, oh, that’s Brian Teale, he’s a Colorado climber. I asked Andy if this guy was an ice climber and, “was he any good?”. He said, “Yeah, he’s real good.” That was the first time I met Brian, he didn’t say much, but he seemed pleasant. We introduced ourselves and shortly afterward, we started doing day climbs around Valdez. Brian was easy to climb with, and I never had a cross word with him. He did have a desire to lead, but who didn’t in those days. So, we got along quite well, climbing everything of any significance near Valdez, for years on end. About this time, Andy was writing his guidebook “Blue Ice”. Brian was very interested in getting his two cents in about the climbs in the Valdez area. I had been climbing my whole life. I was about 34, married, and had a new daughter and son and was thinking about slowing down on the climbing. But climbing with Brian was so easy and fun that I started climbing again. Around that time, a Canadian named Guy La Salle came to town and convinced Brian and me that we should come down and try some Canadian ice. That’s all we needed. Brian drove his motorhome from Colorado Springs to Canmore, and I flew to Canmore. Once we started climbing, we decided not to do too much drinking, and definitely no smoking on the trip. We made a pact and we stuck to it. Maybe a llttle bit of beer in the evening… maybe a hot tub… but we were good boys.
We climbed the classic Polar Circus in a day, and the Central Pillar on the Weeping Wall, where the top part was wet and very iffy. On the second lead from the top, Brian climbed very sketchy, rotten ice, and planted six points of contact for a belay. We were carrying three axes in those days, so we had a spare in case the tip broke, which often happened. When I got up to him, all six anchor points looked marginal…at best. I started off to the right and climbed up to finish the climb. We both claimed that it was one of our better climbs. From there, we did Pilsner Pillar, then Nemesis. Back in Valdez, Brian climbed Wowie Zowie at least six times, and rope soloed it once. He just had a way about him, that I’ll never forget. I miss Brian a lot.