Early promoter of Nordic skiing was musician, gourmand
Valley residents who prize cross-country skiing, mountain biking, gourmet cheese and chamber music owe much gratitude to Dave Chantler, whose wide-ranging passions left an enduring legacy in the Methow — and beyond — when he died at the age of 84 last month.
Chantler had a lifelong love for the mountains, for adventures of all kinds, and for celebrating those adventures with good food and wine. He first started hiking, backpacking and mountaineering with a Seattle Scout troop when he was in middle school.
His explorations took him to the Methow for the first time in 1959 on a trip to Harts Pass, according to his long-time friend Ben Johns, who compiled a history of Chantler’s life and memories from conversations with him this past year.
To outfit his mountain excursions, Chantler had become a regular customer of the REI Co-op — still a small operation at the time — and got to know staff at the store. In 1962, he became one of REI’s first employees. He ended up spending almost four decades with REI, primarily as a buyer of imported outdoor equipment.
It was in his role at REI that Chantler was first introduced to Nordic skiing. On the suggestion of REI’s founders, he ordered a dozen skis from Finland. They all promptly sold that first season.
Chantler tried cross-country skiing himself and was immediately hooked, making him an even more zealous advocate. Over the next several years, he broadened REI’s inventory, importing skis from various Scandinavian manufacturers.
Although Nordic skiing has been part of the Winter Olympics since the 1920s, the sport was little known in the United States in the 1970s. To build enthusiasm for the sport, Chantler organized free ski lessons near Snoqualmie Pass. He also brought busloads of people from Seattle to the Methow Valley to try skiing at Sun Mountain Lodge, which was then still a small operation open only in the warmer months.
The weekend ski trips proved so successful that Sun Mountain soon began staying open year-round, according to Jay Lucas, Chantler’s friend and the first executive director of the valley’s ski trail organization known today as Methow Trails.
Even Don Portman, one of the central figures in cross-country skiing in the Methow Valley, got his first introduction to the sport when he took one of those lessons near Snoqualmie Pass in the early 1970s and had Chantler as his instructor. Within a few years, Portman had become a certified Nordic instructor. Sun Mountain needed a professional to teach skiing, and Chantler suggested the lodge hire Portman.
Portman started teaching at Sun Mountain in 1976. He went on to launch the Methow Valley Ski School, with shops at Sun Mountain and Mazama, where he was owner and director for more than 40 years.
Skiing opportunities expanded as Chantler, Portman and others developed new ski trails at Sun Mountain and Chantler organized the first ski races there.
Chantler served on the board of Methow Trails and, when the association launched its lifetime pass program, Chantler was honored with the first pass, said Portman, who was president of the board for more than three decades.
Chantler always had a keen sense for activities people would enjoy and easily infected others with his passions, Johns said. He contributed to the popularity of mountain biking in the valley, developing trails and bringing large groups of cyclists from REI to participate in cycling events. While cycling was already popular, manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand. So Chantler and a partner designed some bicycles and arranged to have them manufactured abroad, launching REI’s Novara bike line.
Food and wine
Many people remember Chantler enthusiastically presiding over tastings of gourmet cheeses and specialty meats, crackers and preserves at Hank’s Harvest Foods in Twisp.
It was Chantler who approached the store about providing special products, Hank’s Assistant Manager Carlan Nielsen said. Initially, Chantler made trips to wholesale markets in Seattle to select foods himself. He ultimately developed an ordering system and shared his knowledge with the staff at Hank’s to keep the program going, Nielsen said.
Although he’d retired, Chantler was still drawn to merchandising and loved to find sources for exotic ingredients, long-time friend and REI coworker Lisa Beaudreau said. People started coming into the store to ask for special cheeses, she said.
“He was such a foodie. He loved to cook and eat good food,” Nielsen said. He earned the nickname Freddy Fromage, and the staff of the meat department sometimes called him the Cheese Whiz, she said.
Chantler had always loved gourmet cooking and fine wine, Lucas said. “It was a treat to get invited to dinner — he was an exceptional cook, and you never ran out of wine,” he said.
Chantler took food and cooking so seriously that, if he noticed your kitchen was missing an important tool, the next time he dropped by, he’d bring you a better vegetable peeler or a classy wine opener, Beaudreau said.
Music
Chantler was also an accomplished pianist from an early age. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1963, he checked the box on the Army’s paperwork that asked if he played a musical instrument. He was assigned to the Army band and became accompanist for the chorus.
Chantler played for military bands, at the NCO club, and at theater productions. When based in Texas, he became the accompanist for local operas and for Metropolitan Opera tryouts. His piano solos were broadcast live on Texas Public Radio.
Chantler later drew on his love of music to support the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, where he served on the board and wrote program notes about the music and musicians.
Birds and worldwide travel
Chantler joined friends on a birding trip to Trinidad and Tobago in the 1980s, which launched one of the dominant passions of his life. He ultimately traveled to 60 countries on every continent except Antarctica, and saw 6,764 unique species of birds.
Chantler was a lifelong learner and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the places he’d traveled. Even in his last days, Chantler could name a species of bird and where and when he’d seen it, Lucas said. “One of the things that’s so fascinating about Dave’s mind is that something went in — and never came out. I was always dumbfounded about the clarity he had,” Johns said. He remembered every mountain, ravine and valley from his travels, Beaudreau said.
An accomplished photographer, Chantler documented birds, other wildlife, landscapes and people on these trips. He also took photos of his exploits in the mountains, including a ski tour in the Pasayten in 1975. “He did some pretty audacious stuff” in the mountains in the ’50s and ’60s, Johns said.
Thousands of Chantler’s photos can be viewed on Flickr, meticulously categorized and labeled. In addition to photos of mountain biking, skiing, friends and wildlife in the Methow, the website showcases his photos from far-flung locales including Ecuador, Cameroon, Sulawesi, Thailand, China, and Nepal.
Chantler built a cabin in Pine Forest in 1979 and moved to the Methow full-time after he retired in 2000. He spent his last four years at Jamie’s Place. Although he could no longer hike or ski, he remained active, making a daily trip — sometimes two — in his electric wheelchair to visit with friends at the Rocking Horse Bakery in Winthrop.
And he continued to pursue his passion for birds. Friends picked him up at Jamie’s Place to take him to watch and photograph nesting owls. Shortly before he died, with help from volunteers at Aero Methow Rescue Service, Chantler went to Thompson Ridge, simply to be outside as the snow was falling, Johns said.
“I will never be able to separate Dave from the valley, or the valley from Dave. It was just his character — a match of the beauty of the valley and the beauty of Dave,” Johns said.
“The valley lost somebody amazing. There’s a lot of legacy that’s going to live on because of him,” he said.
Dave Chantler’s photos can be viewed on Flickr at flickr.com/photos/pinebird.
