The. Centennial. Alpine Club of Canada's

Transcription

1 The Centennial Alpine Club of Canada's Vol. 21, No. 1 Winter

2 ABSOLUTE ALPINE Swiss Quality For further informations please visit our Web site or contact Jim Sandford, Garibaldi Highlands, Phone +(604) ,

3 Dedicated, in the spirit of the founders, to the four generations of members, volunteers and staff who made the Alpine Club of Canada what it was and what it is today. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

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5 The Alpine Club of Canada Publications Mail Agreement No Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: The Alpine Club of Canada Box 8040, Canmore, Alberta, Canada T1W 2T8 Phone: (403) Fax: (403) Cam Roe, Peter Muir, Gord Currie, Roger Laurilla Isabelle Daigneault, Carl Hannigan, Bob Sandford, David Zemrau, Mike Mortimer, David Toole, Glen Boles, Bruce Keith, President Secretary Treasurer VP Activities VP Access & Environment VP Facilities VP Mountain Culture VP Services Director, External Relations Director, Planning & Development Honorary President Executive Director Submissions to the Gazette are welcome! The deadline for the Spring issue of the Gazette is April 10. If possible, please save your submission in digital format and it to Otherwise, type or handwrite it, making sure it is double spaced and legible and mail it to the address above. Please be sure to include complete contact information with your submission. Mike Mortimer, Centennial Chairman Bob Sandford, Centennial Editor Lynn Martel, Writer & Copy Editor Amy Krause, Writer Richard Berry, Photo Editor Rod Plasman, Digital Technician Suzan Chamney, Layout & Production Advertising rate sheet available upon request. Please direct all advertising inquiries to Bruce Keith, National Office (403) or by to: Corporate Supporters What s Inside... 5 National Office News 6 Short Rope 8 Our Origins are in the Alpine 10 Building a National Alpine Tradition 12 Extraordinary Leadership and Vision 18 A Woman s Place is in the Mountains 20 Sharing the Rope 22 Camps in the Clouds 24 The Canadian Alpine Journal 26 Science in the High Alpine 28 The Centennial of the Canadian Alpine Journal 38 Mount Robson What s Outside... Front cover: Alpine Club of Canada members lined up on the Yoho Glacier in 1914; photo by Byron Harmon, courtesy of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and Carole Harmon Phyl Munday helps climbers identify alpine wildflowers in 1964; photo by Len Chatwin Mount Alberta s summit ridge in August 2001; photo by Nancy Hansen Historic climbing photos courtesy of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies Dedication page: Skiers enroute to the Bow Hut on the Wapta Icefield; photo by Richard Berry Thank you to the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation and its Heritage Preservation Partnership Program for its generous support of this ACC Centennial project. 40 Mount Logan 42 Refuges Among the High Peaks 44 Slopes and Summits 46 National Parks and Protected Places 48 The Yukon Alpine Centennial 49 Mount Alberta 50 Volunteering for Club and Country 52 The Mountain Guides Ball 53 Giving Meaning and Value to History 54 Leadership Training and Development 56 Reaching New Heights 58 A Century of Leadership and Adventure 60 The Centennial Postscript 61 Le PostScript Centenaire Associate Members The Alpine Club of Canada thanks the following for their support, and encourages you to consider them and the advertisers in this newsletter the next time you purchase goods or services of the type they offer. Advantage Travelworld (Canmore, AB) Arc teryx Black Diamond Equipment Dunham Forty Below Corporate Sponsors MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP Corporate Members G3 Genuine Guide Gear GearUp Sport (Canmore, AB) Helly Hansen Integral Designs Mammut Ortovox Canada Outdoor Research Patagonia Petzl Yamnuska (Canmore, AB) The Alpine Club of Canada is proud to be associated with the following organizations that share our goals and objectives: Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) Federation of Mountain Clubs of British Columbia (FMCBC) Mountain Culture at the Banff Centre Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff, AB) Printed on recycled paper Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

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7 Since the inception of the Alpine Club of Canada in 1906, the National Office has been a central organizing force in providing membership benefits, maintaining facilities and coordinating the activities of sections. The National Office s enthusiastic and highly energetic staff plays a huge role in the continued growth and success of the Club. Crown Prince of Japan meets Cam Roe and Bruce Keith in 2005 National Office News It s on the telephone answering machine message, it s on the website and it s on the tip of everyone s tongue at the National Office it s the Centennial! But even as we celebrate our 100th birthday with members participating in commemorative camps and gala dinners, the hard working National Office staff members keep the day-to-day business of the Club running smoothly, with Executive Director Bruce Keith at the helm. Recognized for 10 years dedicated service to the Club last summer, Bruce embraced a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to sneak away from his office in February to cheer for his daughter Sandra, competing on the Canadian Biathlon Team at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. For the parent of a high performance athlete, it doesn t get any better, Bruce grinned. Enjoying another rare and well earned escape, in October 2005 Bruce and ACC President Cam Roe spent three days in Tokyo at the invitation of the Japanese Alpine Club ( JAC) to participate in that club s Centennial. The occasion offered a joyful reunion for Cam and Bruce and members of the 2000 JAC team who visited the Canadian Rockies for the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Alberta. In Tokyo, Bruce and Cam attended the JAC annual dinner, a gala affair with about 800 guests, including the Crown Prince of Japan whose bodyguards remained at the door while he mingled with climbers. Guests enjoyed a Japanese cultural exhibition and musical entertainment courtesy of an Austrian Om Pah Pah Band. Bruce was especially delighted to be seated next to a man in his 90s who was the first JAC member to climb in the Himalayas circa 1930s. In November, our own Club hosted its annual Mountain Guides Ball, held for the first time ever at the Banff Park Lodge, where a good dinner, good time and great Big Band sound were enjoyed by all. Celebrating the contributions of some of the ACC s most devoted members, the Club welcomed Eric Lomas, a member since 1963, generous volunteer and talented hut builder, and Mike Mortimer, who joined in 1977 and hasn t stopped volunteering since, as its newest Honorary Members. And in honour of his prolific climbing career, including reaching some 525 summits with 37 first ascents, reaching the summits of all but six of the 54 Canadian Rockies peaks higher than 11,000 feet (3353 metres), and all but one of the 17 peaks above 3353 metres in the Columbia Mountains, the Club welcomed Glen Boles as Honorary President. A talented artist and photographer, Boles has amassed a library of over 34,000 slides and 25,000 black and white negatives, many of which have appeared in guidebooks and climbing books and some of which you ll see in the pages of this very special Centennial Gazette. The Helmet, Berg Glacier and the North and Emperor faces of Mountt Robson, looking from the flats near Berg Lake PHOTO BY GLEN BOLES UPCOMING MEETINGS Executive Committee meeting: March 24, Winnipeg Board of Directors meeting: March 25 26, Winnipeg Annual General Meeting: July 15, Wheeler Hut, Glacier National Park, details to follow in the Summer Gazette. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

8 Short Rope Mike Mortimer addresses the Japanese Alpine Club in 2000 A Centennial is no small event in the history of any organization. In this opening article the Chair of the Alpine Club of Canada s Centennial Committee, the tireless Mike Mortimer, reflects on all the efforts Club volunteers have made to make 2006 one of the greatest years in the history of the Club. As the Chair of the Centennial Committee I have known for years that I would have to write the foreword to the Centennial Gazette. Yet it was one of those articles that could not be written until all the other reports were in. So after five years of waiting, here I am at last collecting my thoughts on what we have done to bring together the necessary tools to do justice to one of the Club s most significant events in its distinguished history. How did the planning for this event all start? In the spring of 2001 the Alpine Club of Canada formally created the Centennial Committee. Having just stepped down from serving as the Club s president, it seemed a logical move for me to become the chairman of this newly formed committee. This was to become a task that would consume me over the course of the next five years! It was decided that the Centennial Committee members would be the representatives of the Executive Committee of the Board. This was seen as the best way of keeping the senior board members of the ACC completely up to date on all the projects that were likely to be proposed over the course of time. The objectives were many. One of the hardest things about planning the Centennial was determining exactly what we should do to commemorate this auspicious occasion. The easiest thing would have been to simply catalogue the achievements of the past, but surely the celebration would have to be more than just patting ourselves on the backs (for the work done largely by our predecessors). Clearly the Centennial was an opportunity to look towards the future we knew where we came from but what about where we are going? Obviously we would not have the hubris to plan the next century, but maybe we would be in a position to examine the guidelines set by our founding members and see if the cornerstones, that had been laid in Winnipeg and which had served us so well in the previous century, could do the same in the next century. The pages that follow in this Gazette attest to the fact that we have been true to, and to a large extent have fulfilled, our original mandate. Obviously we were not the first national climbing club to celebrate its centennial. The venerable Alpine Club led the way in 1957, an event which Eric Brooks, the ACC President at the time, attended. I went to the American Alpine Club s Centennial Dinner in Denver in 2003 and our current President, Cam Roe, attended the Japanese Alpine Club s Centennial in Tokyo last year, so there was no shortage of ideas about what we could do based on the activities of other clubs. Originally we didn t know exactly what we were going to do for the Centennial but we knew it would more than likely cost money, so the first point of order was to set aside the appropriate resources. We established the Centennial Fund, which became one of the Club s most successful endeavours. The board decided that the earnings from our Endowment Fund would be allocated to this fund for the period 2001 to 2007, as were the proceeds generated from our annual dinner, the Mountain Guides Ball. Under the direction of the national Fundraising Committee, successful appeals were made to the members so that over $550,000 was raised for the Centennial events. More than half of this amount was to be spent on facilities, in particular the rebuilding of the Fay Hut and the construction of the Pat Boswell (Toronto Section) Cabin at the Canmore Clubhouse, built to replace the old Toronto Section Cabin. In addition we successfully applied for grants from agencies such as Parks Canada, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Alberta government. Throughout this publication there is an excellent list of both the national and regional events that are planned for the Centennial. It was decided that the national committee, while encouraging regional events, through the establishment of a Section Centennial Committee, would limit its focus to national events that would complement the activities of the five major portfolios of the Club. These included Mountain Culture, Facilities, Activities, Services and Access & Environment. Each Vice President was asked to identify projects that would best represent their portfolios that would be included in the official celebrations. These projects would become the nucleus for the Centennial: Mountain Culture The big project would be the digitization of all 100 years of the Canadian Alpine Journal. This endeavour would span the life of two technologies, the original idea had been to use compact disks (CDs), but by the time the project neared completion we were looking at digital video disks (DVDs) as the medium. Other major projects included this 64-page Centennial Gazette which would reflect on the history and essence of the Club; The Artist and the Mountaineer, an art exhibit at the Whyte Museum in Banff, a highly successful initiative that would be reported in Canadian Geographic magazine; and the Centennial edition of the Canadian Alpine Journal, planned for Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

9 Three climbers near the east face of Mount Robson, 1918 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES Facilities In 2003 a forest fire destroyed the Fay Hut, the first hut built by the Club. Within two years the hut was replaced through the Herculean efforts of our Fundraising and Facilities Committees. This was followed by the building of a new cabin at the Canmore Clubhouse, scheduled to open in 2006, in conjunction with the Clubhouse Heritage Room, which will tell the story of the Club's history. Activities Of course it would have been hard to celebrate 100 years of a climbing club without actually doing some climbing. Our grand plan was the offering of over 25 national leadership and adventure trips, including a camp based out of the Stanley Mitchell Hut in the Yoho Valley, where it all started in 1906 with our first camp. Services and Access & Environment Our major external initiative was to invite the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) to hold not only its General Assembly in Banff, but also allow its commissions to hold seminars that would prove to be of major interest to our members. We viewed the Centennial as an opportunity to celebrate the close ties that had been developed with our land managers, particularly Parks Canada and British Columbia Provincial Parks. We received permission to build a stone The Vaux family and friends on the Victoria Glacier, July 7, 1900 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VAUX FAMILY COLLECTION AND THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES monument at Yoho Pass to commemorate where the Club held its first camp, first climbing school and what was to become the longest continuous employment of professional mountain guides! None of these events could have taken place without the help of a massive army of volunteers. By the start of the 21st century the notion was raised that the Club lacked the requisite number of volunteers to continue to undertake the many tasks that it previously attended to. I disagree with this notion and believe that a quick tally bears me out on this. We have 10 major committees, 18 regional sections of varying size and one activity based section. Each section is a mini-club in itself with its own sub-committees that organize activities ranging from climbing trips to publishing section newsletters. If we allow that each of these activities requires the services of 40 volunteers then we find that this translates into the volunteer effort of about 1160 people. This means about 12 per cent of all the members of the Club volunteer their services in one way or another to the Club. This might help explain why over the last 100 years we have grown from strength to strength. As long as the Club can continue to inspire volunteers to serve, I believe that we have a strong future. We have come a long way from our humble origins in Winnipeg. Over the course of the century we did many things. We ran 100 General Mountaineering Camps, made the first ascent of Canada s highest mountain, published 87 volumes of the Canadian Alpine Journal, built or acquired over 30 huts, co-founded the Banff Mountain Film Festival, helped establish the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and created 19 sections. But more than this, we introduced thousands of Canadians to the mountains and gave them a sense of our mountain culture. I think that our founders would have been very proud. Although it is always dangerous to single out a group of volunteers (because of the possibility of omission), it is important to mention some of those people who guided the national centennial projects through to their successful conclusion. I must thank the following people for being part of the Centennial Committee: David Toole, Bruce Keith, Cameron Roe, Carl Hannigan, Gord Currie, David Zemrau, Peter Muir, Isabelle Daignault, Roger Laurilla, Paul Geddes, Rod Plasman and Bob Sandford. With respect to this publication I must stress the work that has been done by Lynn Martel, Richard Berry, Suzan Chamney, Rod Plasman and particularly Bob Sandford. Mike Mortimer Chair, Centennial Committee Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

10 A century ago Canadians were simply too occupied with the creation of their country to become formally interested in mountaineering. The Alpine Club of Canada might not have come into existence were it not for a passionate and persistent mountaineer named Arthur Wheeler and a patriotic Winnipeg journalist named Elizabeth Parker. Together they convinced a young country of the value of its own mountains. 8 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 Our Origins are in the Alpine The idea of creating the world s first alpine club first found its way into print in a letter written on February 1, 1857, by British climber William Matthews to a fellow mountaineer, Fenton John Anthony Hort. The letter invited Reverend Hort to consider establishing an alpine organization whose members might dine together, perhaps once a year in London, to give one another what information they might possess concerning mountaineering ascents in Switzerland and elsewhere. Each member of this organization, Matthews proposed, should be required to furnish, to the President, a short account of all the undescribed excursions he had made, with a view to the publication of an annual or bi-annual volume. A dinner party was held in November of 1857 where a list was drawn up of those of wealth, class and experience who might become founding members of the Club. The Alpine Club came into formal existence at a meeting held in a London hotel on December 22, Setting a precedent that would be followed by almost every other club created in the world, the Alpine Club s first general meeting was held in a tavern on St. James Street in January, Alpine clubs and pubs have had a close association ever since. Not to be outdone by the British, enthusiasm for things alpine soon burgeoned in the United States. Though the Williamstown Club formed in 1863, the White Mountain Club formed in 1873 and the Rocky Mountain Alpine Club formed in 1876, none of these survived to see the dawn of the 20th century. Other clubs, however, did. The foremost of these was the Appalachian Mountain Club which was formed in With founder and President Charles Fay at the helm, the Appalachian Mountain Club made a major contribution to mountaineering in North America. The Oregon Alpine Club, formed in 1887, attempted to do for western climbers what the AMC had done in the east. The Mazamas Club was formed in 1894, by which time interested in climbing in America had grown spectacularly. The success of these organizations, and in particular the profile of the Appalachian Club, We are, and always shall be, profoundly grateful, as we ought to be, to the American club for its strenuous and splendid gratuitous service to Canada and her mountains. And we shall give it praise and welcome it to further mountain tours. But we owe it to our own young nationhood in simple self-respect, to begin an organized system of mountaineering on an independent basis. Surely, between Halifax and Victoria, there can be found at least a dozen persons who are made of the stuff, and care enough about our mountain heritage to redeem Canadian apathy and indifference. It is simply amazing that for so long we have cared so little. Elizabeth Parker, Winnipeg Free Press, 1905 argued for the creation of a national climbing body in the United States. When the American Alpine Club was formed in 1902, Charles Fay became its first President. Almost immediately, Fay proposed that a Canadian chapter of the same club would suit the needs of America s northern neighbours. Canadians went ballistic. The proposal hit a nationalistic nerve which found its most lively expression in the Winnipeg Free Press where the idea of Canada becoming subsidiary to the United States in something as important as exploring the country s own mountains received a fierce penlashing from a staff writer named Elizabeth Parker. In an article signed M.T., Parker claimed it was downright un-canadian to subject local mountaineers to the dictates of foreign alpine institutions. Parker pilloried the idea s proponent, Canadian surveyor-mountaineer Arthur Oliver Wheeler, for his lack of patriotism and imperialistic zeal in even considering the American proposal. It knocks me speechless and fills me with shame for young Canada, Parker railed in response to Canadian apathy. The wily Wheeler knew a good thing when he saw it. When the Alpine Club of Canada was formed in Winnipeg in March of 1906, he made sure Elizabeth Parker was its founding Secretary. The constitution of the Club that emerged from the Winnipeg meeting still powers the organization today. If anything, the values and objectives of the ACC are more important now than they were when the Club was formed. The Alpine Club of Canada is not just a mountaineering organization. As if anticipating the ecological issues that would occupy the politics and conscience of Canadians a century later, the Club set high aesthetic and environmental standards for its activities that went far beyond a mere interest in summit bagging. The objectives of the Alpine Club of Canada included the promotion of scientific study and the exploration of Canadian alpine and glacial regions; the cultivation of art in relation to mountain scenery; the education of Canadians to an appreciation of their mountain heritage; the encouragement of mountain craft and the opening of new mountain regions; the preservation of the natural beauties of mountain places and the flora and fauna and their habitat; and the interchange of ideas with other alpine organizations. The founding meeting of the Alpine Club of Canada also addressed the somewhat thorny issue of membership. The founders of the Club decided there should be a number of levels of involvement. Honorary Members were deigned to be those who had already pre-eminently distinguished themselves in mountaineering, exploration or research of the

11 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA COLLECTION AT THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES The founding members of the ACC at the inaugural meeting in Winnipeg, March 27 28, Back row: (left to right) Rev. T. Fraser, L.O. Armstrong, Tom Martin, W.H. Belford, Rev. Alex Gordon. Middle Row (left to right) Miss Jean Parker, Stanley Wills, S.H. Mitchell, Lucius Q. Coleman. Front row (left to right) J.W. Kelly, W.J. Taylor, Arthur Oliver Wheeler, Elizabeth Parker, E.A. Haggen, Rev. J.C. Herdman, Very Rev. Dean Paget, Bill Brewster. alpine. These included such luminaries as John Norman Collie, who had discovered the Columbia Icefield in 1898, Edouard DeVille of the Dominion Land Survey and Edward Whymper, who had led the first ascent of the Matterhorn in Elizabeth Parker was also elected one of the Club s first honorary members. Active members were those who had made an ascent of a peak of not less than 10,000 feet (3048 m) in altitude in any recognized mountain range. Only active members were permitted to vote. A special clause, however, allowed artists and scientists to become active members without climbing a peak provided they had contributed significantly through their work to knowledge and appreciation of the alpine. Then the Club addressed the issue of women. The Alpine Club in England, after which most clubs were fashioned, did not allow women among its membership. Its members preferred to have a separate club for the ladies. Given that one of the two founders of the Alpine Club of Canada was a woman, and a powerhouse at that, the ACC would have had a riot on its hands had it even hinted at the exclusion of women from active participation in the Club and its activities. Elizabeth Parker s visionary notion of the ACC went far beyond its constitution and the work the Club had set before itself at its founding meeting in March of For her, just as for Arthur Oliver Wheeler, the Alpine Club of Canada was to be a social force that would help shape Canadian character. The Club was not only a vehicle for promoting the highest ideals of alpinism, it was Canada s first guardian agency for the vast wilderness aesthetic that Canadians took for granted in what they thought was a limitless mountain west. The ACC boasted among its founding membership some of the brightest lights of exploration, outfitting and mountaineering that had ever shone in Canada. But for all its luminosity, the ACC represented only a small and elite core of climbers whose hope it was to inspire Canadians to take a serious interest in their own peaks. The Alpine Club of Canada had a huge task before it. At the time it was created, Canadians were only barely aware of their mountain heritage. It wasn t just the landscape that proved an obstacle to Canadian acceptance of the mountaineering spirit. As a result of a few highly publicized accidents, mountaineering had a poor public image in Canada. The general feeling among Canadians was that mountains were dangerous and the people who climbed them crazy. The Alpine Club of Canada was faced with the dual challenge of changing the image of Canadian mountains while at the same time reforming the reputation of those who would consider climbing them. It was a huge task that would take decades to accomplish. Through the efforts of the Alpine Club of Canada, mountain place slowly began to penetrate the Canadian psyche. Canadians began having challenging, satisfying and memorable experiences in their own mountains. Canadian mountains transformed those who climbed among them. By overcoming physical and mental challenges inherent in mountaineering, climbers discovered in themselves a new identity, one shaped almost completely by intense experience of this new and extraordinary land. Canadians began to make their own maps of the mountains and create their own language and vocabulary of experience. Through the Canadian Alpine Journal their stories became the foundation of a growing literature and a new history. This developing history became an imaginative invitation for Canadians who would never have dreamed of being mountaineers to explore themselves through exploring their mountains. Canadians began making their own first ascents in the mountain west, in the Yukon and, finally, in the high Arctic. In time, a distinctly Canadian mountaineering community emerged. It wasn t long before Canadian climbers were establishing a reputation not only at home but abroad, in the Alps, the Andes and, finally, in the Himalayas. A national organization with sections all across the country, the Alpine Club of Canada continues today to reaffirm our identity as a people and to build our international reputation as a vibrant alpine nation. Because of the ACC, Canada is now recognized worldwide, not just for its mountain scenery, but for our strong and uniquely Canadian appreciation and protection of our mountain landscapes. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

12 In relative, terms the Alpine Club of Canada came out of nowhere. It arrived on the country s Winnipeg doorstep fully formed, fully alive, poised to spend a century, if necessary, to create a unique mountain culture in Canada. The Club s one hundred year legacy is born out by the great devotion that Canadians now lavish upon their mountains. Building a National Alpine Tradition While some advanced climbers today might dismiss the Alpine Club of Canada as being irrelevant to their experience, the Club was never meant to serve only those at the advanced end of the mountaineering spectrum. Right from the beginning the Club s founders recognized that there would always be loners, climbers who didn t want to belong to a club because they didn t need others to motivate them. It was never the Club s goal to stand in the way of individual achievement. If anything, its larger objective was to create a culture in Canada that would make such achievement possible. Having done just that, the Club sometimes finds itself being lapped by its own cumulative success. But that does not diminish its history or its relevance in contemporary times. The Alpine Club of Canada was not created to promote mere summit bagging. It was not only the activities of the Alpine Club of Canada that were important, but their purpose. The Club s motto says it all. Sic itur ad astra. This way to the stars. The real lesson of this motto is of course figurative. Through this literary device the high minded founders of the Club invited subsequent generations of members to seek not just physical but also spiritual heights. For the likes of Arthur Wheeler and Elizabeth Parker, the summit was not just an end, but a means to become a better, more complete person. Everything the Club did supported the creation a national mountaineering culture commensurate with the vision of making Canadians better people by experiencing and appreciating their mountains. We discover upon its Centennial that what the Alpine Club of Canada has accomplished by way of mountaineering is as important as the mountaineering itself. The accomplishments of the Club begin with the offering of mountain adventure which, by design, led to major national contributions to geography and cartography, science, land use and conservation, mountain literature, art and photography, and history. Each of these elements gradually and cumulatively contributed to the establishment of a unique Canadian alpine identity. It is by way of this identity that the rest of the world now knows us. Mountain Adventure The foundation of the Alpine Club of Canada has always been mountain activity. That the Club held its first annual national mountaineering camp barely four months after its inception offers a clear idea of how committed the founders were to ensuring that the Club s name was synonymous with adventure. Alpine Club of Canada members didn t just talk about climbing, they did it. By design, the membership regime encouraged neophytes to learn the basic techniques in the company of mountain guides and expert leaders. The goal was to learn by doing. The core of the Club, however, was its active membership. In a very short time the annual General Mountaineering Camp became an institution. If climbing was the heart of the Club, then camps were its soul. The Club s extensive huts system would later become its body, but by that time many of the preliminary goals of the Club had already been achieved. A.O. Wheeler recognized from the outset, however, that climbing alone was not purpose enough to make the fledgling club relevant in the public imagination. The Club needed the help of scientists, writers and artists to create an accurate picture of the glory of Canadian peaks in the minds of Canadians. A special clause in the membership bylaws allowed non-climbers to become active members without climbing a peak provided they had contributed significantly through their work to knowledge and appreciation of the alpine. On Geography and Mapmaking The original purpose of the Alpine Club of Canada, and the reason for its scientific focus, was the great uncompleted task of simply defining the Canadian alpine. When the Club was formed in 1906 there were still 20,000 to 25,000 square miles of unknown mountain terrain in the southern Rockies of Canada alone. No one knew exactly how much additional terrain remained unmapped in the Coast Ranges or in Canada s seemingly limitless north. The need to define these blank spaces alone, according to surveyor and mapmaker Arthur Wheeler, was reason enough to create an alpine club in Canada. The Advancement of Science Canadian mountains should not just be a gymnasium, Wheeler argued, but also a classroom. Arthur Wheeler believed that it was the duty of all mountaineers to know everything they could about the landscapes through which they travelled. One of the truly remarkable elements of the ACC s founding commitment to science was that extraordinary and enduringly significant early research into important aspects of study such as glacial recession was done by ordinary people. These included the famous Vaux family who undertook pioneering glacial and landscape change studies in the Rockies and Selkirks in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It also includes important ongoing early research undertaken by Arthur Wheeler himself and others in the Yoho Valley and elsewhere. 10 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

13 There is nothing quixotic about the Alpine Club of Canada: it is a sane, sober institution, organized by sane, sober men. As indicated, its mission is manifold. The education of Canadians to an appreciation of their alpine heritage, is of itself a raison d être. The Canadian Rocky Mountain system, with its unnumbered and unknown natural sanctuaries for generations yet unborn, is a national asset. In time we ought to become a nation of mountaineers, loving our mountains with the patriot s passion. Elizabeth Parker, 1907 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA COLLECTION AT THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES There was a period of almost two decades when the bulk of research on the natural history of Canada s mountain ranges was being undertaken almost exclusively by the Alpine Club of Canada and its members. Though scientific research continued to be published by the ACC, its later focus turned more exclusively to adventure. Land Use and Conservation Right from its inception, the Alpine Club of Canada announced that one of its principal roles was to champion the expansion of the national park system and to promote appropriate use in mountain regions throughout the country. Wheeler s role in the mapping of the mountain west allowed him huge influence on federal land use policies, an influence he made sure the ACC shared. As the Club s membership grew and members became familiar with the country s mountain regions, the ACC became the country s first national lobby for conservation. It influenced developing policy with respect to how national parks should be managed and was also instrumental in the formation of provincial parks such as the ones created around Mount Robson and Mount Assiniboine. The ACC later fought bitter battles to prevent inappropriate development inside and surrounding mountain national parks, a role that it continues to play, in a much larger field, today. Mountain Literature The founders of the Alpine Club of Canada recognized the importance of both writing and record to the building of the foundation of alpine appreciation in Canada. The moment the Club was formed, it created a library so that members could read and learn about their mountain heritage. There were 17 books in the ACC library in 1906, all of them classics today. Eight of these treasures were written by Club members. The next task was to create a journal of record for Canadian mountaineering, mountain science, photography and art. Only a year after the Club s formation, it published the first volume of the Canadian Alpine Journal. It was Wheeler s intent that the journal should immediately set a high standard for relevance and appearance. Using the annual record of The Alpine Club in Britain as a model, the ACC exploded into public consciousness with a publication that rivaled anything that existed in the country at the time. It was no small feat for a fledgling club with a membership of only a couple of hundred climbers to publish a book length journal complete with photographs and map inserts. It did so to prove, right from the outset, that the Alpine Club of Canada was a serious, wellorganized and highly ambitious project undertaken in a new spirit of alpinism in Canada. The most amazing thing about this sub-culture was that you could belong to it even if you didn t live in the mountains. Even if you lived in a distant flatland city you could be part of it. All you needed to belong was a subscription to the Canadian Alpine Journal and a desire to climb the heights. Appreciating Art and Photography Another important foundation established at the formation of the Alpine Club of Canada was its strong support of mountain art, and in particular photography. Because of the short time frame for the completion of the first volume of the Canadian Alpine Journal, Arthur Wheeler was approached by the Detroit Photographic Company which volunteered to place their series of Canadian Rockies views at the disposal of the Club for illustrative purposes. The ACC didn t need them. Photographs, instead, were offered by the Club s own members. Included among the contributors are many of the most famous figures in the early history of Canadian mountaineering. Through these images, Canadians began to see the glory of the peaks and imagine the drama associated with climbing them. Over the last century, some of the best alpine photography in Canada has been published in the Canadian Alpine Journal. Creating a History Through a century of cumulative accomplishment in each of these domains, the Alpine Club of Canada has helped create an inter-generation appreciation for this country s mountain regions. It has also built a foundation of leadership and training that allows Canadians to understand and appreciate our mountains and to share them safely with visitors from all over the world. By way of these achievements Canada is recognized around the world for its unique mountain places and remarkable mountain culture. The Club s founders would be very proud. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

14 Volunteer organizations in particular depend upon leadership to embody the purpose and provide the energy, enthusiasm and vision that will inspire members to the highest levels of on-going commitment. Over the past one hundred years, many great Canadians have served as the Club s President or as members of its Executive. Strong leadership and member commitment have allowed the Alpine Club of Canada to prosper in good times, and to endure when other organizations would have failed. Extraordinary Leadership and Vision Most organizations do not live a hundred years. Imperfections in their purpose or structure prevent growth, personal animosities creep into their operation or they lose sight of their reason for being and fail. The Alpine Club of Canada has had some low moments when there were doubts as to its viability, but strong leaders always appeared and, no matter the circumstances, the Club s purpose and mandate proved an adequate foundation for a revitalized future. The precedent of strong leadership was set at the Club s inception by its founders. Arguably, there have been few Canadians who have ever lived that had more passion for mountains and mountaineering than Arthur Wheeler. But Wheeler didn t build the Club himself. Like all great leaders, he was able to attract around him people of like or similar interest and passion upon whom he could call to advance the Club s noble aims. Arthur Wheeler and Elizabeth Parker may have been an unlikely duo, but they were certainly a complementary one. He was a surveyor and climber and a supreme organizer. She was a nationalist, a writer and a supporter of literature and the arts. Together they became the powerful force that ensured that the Alpine Club of Canada came into existence fully formed with a purpose and a constitution that would survive a century. The Club has had 31 different Presidents over the past century and at least five times as many volunteers who have assumed senior executive positions over that period. All deserve to be remembered. A. O. Wheeler President The formidable Arthur Oliver Wheeler was the Club s first President. He helped bring the ACC into existence in 1906 and remained President until If the Club s constitution didn t forbid Presidents to be in office for more than two terms, A.O. Wheeler might still be President of the ACC. The custom then, as now, was that Presidents often assumed other duties after their terms were completed. Wheeler was the founding editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal in 1907 and remained in that position for the next 23 years. Wheeler was also the driving force behind two of the Club s most successful expeditions, the 1913 Mount Robson camp and the legendary 1925 first ascent of Mount Logan. A.O. Wheeler also served as Honorary President from 1926 to Not surprisingly, a mountain in Glacier National Park was named for Wheeler. Nor is it any wonder that one of the Club s highest service awards is named for him. He was a giant. The man who replaced A.O. Wheeler as President of the Alpine Club of Canada was no less of a legend. Born in Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1852, Arthur Philemon Coleman became a highly respected geologist, and taught at the University of Toronto from 1891 until He made three famous expeditions to the Rockies between 1888 and 1893 during which he solved the mystery of the exaggerated heights of Mounts Hooker and Brown at the summit of Athabasca Pass. In 1907 and 1908, Coleman pioneered the exploration of the Mount Robson area. He recorded these and other adventures in his classic The Canadian Rockies, New & Old Trails which was published in Coleman then went on to conduct pioneer explorations of the Torngat Mountains in 1915 and A charter member of the ACC, he held the offices of Chairman of the Toronto Section and Eastern Vice President before serving as President between 1910 and He later served A. P. Coleman President J. D. Patterson President W. W. Foster President Dr. J. W. A. Hickson President Dr. F. C. Bell President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

15 as Honorary President. Mount Coleman, in the Canadian Rockies, is most deservedly named for him. J.D. Patterson succeeded Coleman as President in 1914 and, because of the hiatus in the Club s activities during World War I served until Born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, John Duncan Patterson made his living as a farmer. Patterson enjoyed climbing, but often gave up opportunities to do so to lead expeditions for less energetic members. To quote A.O. Wheeler: He was one of Nature s gentlemen whose kind and unselfish character placed him high among his fellows, he will be remembered as one who was most worthy. World War I changed Canada. Between 1920 and 1924, the Club came under the disciplined control of an extraordinarily competent military officer named W.W. Foster. Major-General William Wasborough Foster was born in England in He served at the front during the first World War, and was decorated no less than 15 times. Billy, as he was known, was also the Military Commander of western Canada during the Second World War. But above all else, Foster was a fine climber. He was a member of expeditions that made the first ascent of Mount Robson in 1913, and the first ascent of Mount Logan in In his diverse post-military career, Foster held many important positions. He was the Deputy Minister for Public Works in British Columbia, a member of the B.C. Legislature and the Chief of Vancouver City Police Department. At the time of his death, he was the Honorary President of the Alpine Club of Canada. This man is most deserving of a book on this life. The Alpine Club is nothing if not diverse in its membership. With a legacy of surveyors, geologists, farmers and soldiers as Presidents, it was time for an intellectual. Born in Montreal in 1873, Joseph William Andrew Hickson held a doctorate in philosophy and taught at McGill University from 1901 to He climbed for five seasons in the Alps before turning his attention to the Rockies. His ascents in the Alps included traverses of the Grepon and the Matterhorn. In 17 seasons in the Rockies and Selkirks, he made over 30 major first ascents, including Pinnacle Mountain, Mount Chephron and Mount Moloch, and a fine new route on Castle Mountain Tower. J.W.A. Hickson served as President of the ACC between 1924 and At the time of his death, he was the Honorary Chairman of the Montreal Section. J.W.A Hickson was succeeded as President in 1926 by Dr. Fred Bell. By profession, Bell was a respected physician and hospital administrator. By avocation he was a mountaineer. Bell lived in Winnipeg and Vancouver and was an active member of these sections. He attended many Club camps starting as early as the 1907 General Mountaineering Camp in Paradise Valley. He took part in the first ascent of Wenkchemna Peak in He is remembered today in part, due to his generous donation that was used to build the Bell Cabin at the ACC Clubhouse in Canmore. Fred Bell was succeeded in 1928 by T.B. Moffat. Thomas Black Moffat was born in Fergus, Ontario in A jeweler by profession, he later became the chief engraver for the prestigious Henry Birks and Company. Tom Moffat joined the Alpine Club of Canada in During his climbing career, he made over 100 ascents including Mount Robson and the first ascent of Wenkchemna Peak in In 1930, Mount Moffat, near Maligne Lake, was named in his honour. In 1930 Herbert Sampson became President. Sampson was born in Toronto in 1871 but later moved to Regina where he practiced law as Senior T. B. Moffat President H. E. Sampson President A. A. McCoubrey President A. S. Sibbald President C. G. Wates President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

16 Crown Prosecutor for 35 years. During his climbing career, he climbed over 75 peaks, including first ascents of Mount King Albert in 1929 and Coronet Mountain in Herb Sampson attended 39 General Mountaineering Camps between 1911 and Sampson was made the Honorary President of the Club in Herb Sampson was succeeded in 1932 by A.A. McCoubrey. Alexander Addison McCoubrey was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1885 but later settled in Manitoba where he began working for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mac, as he was called by his friends, was instrumental in introducing the Club to backcountry skiing. Much of his explorations were in the Purcells, crowned by his discovery and first ascents of the Leaning Towers. In addition to being President, he also served as the Manitoba Section Chairman and the Editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal for 10 years from It is said that McCoubrey died at his desk while in the final stages of editing the 1941 edition of the CAJ. Andrew Sibbald became the 10th President of the Alpine Club of Canada in Sibbald was born in Owen Sound, Ontario. He practiced law in Saskatchewan from 1914 to Sibbald made his graduating climb at the Club s Cataract Creek camp in 1917, after which he seldom missed the General Mountaineering Camp. Sibbald also served as the Club s Treasurer for many years and was a charter member of the Canadian National Parks Association, formed in He was buried near his old friend, A.O. Wheeler in Banff. Born in England in 1884, Cyril Wates moved to Edmonton in 1909, where he was employed by the local telephone company. He joined the Club in 1916, graduating on the Monarch at a camp at Simpson Pass. He attended 20 camps, and climbed more than 50 peaks, including the first ascent of Mount Geiki. The Club song book, Songs for Canadian Climbers, was entirely due to his initiative, as was the building of the ACC hut in the Tonquin Valley which now bears his name. Wates was President between 1938 and 1941, when he was succeeded by the legendary Eric Brooks. Born in England in 1902, Eric Brooks was a teacher by profession and joined the ACC in Brooks was President during the extended period between 1941 and 1947 when club activities were curtailed by gasoline and other forms of rationing put into place because of World War II. Until his death in 2001, Brooks devoted much of his energy to the Club. He was Honorary President from 1954 to 1964 and represented the Club at The Alpine Club centenary in London, England where he was made an Honorary Member. He acted for many years as the Camp Manager of the General Mountaineering Camp. In 1954 Brooks was elected Honorary President and in 1995 he was awarded the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award. Sydney Vallence joined the ACC in 1932 and served in many executive capacities at both the section and national level before becoming President in Born in Warwickshire in England in 1890, Vallance came to Canada in In his professional life he was a well-known and highly respect lawyer who practiced in Calgary and Banff. Vallance made over 100 ascents during his climbing career, and often climbed with the legendary Italian, Lawrence Grassi. Syd also held office with the National Parks Association and the Skyline Hikers. The ACC hut in the Fryatt Valley is named after him. In 1950, the ACC was once again in the competent hands of one of a long line of amazing Wheelers. The son of A.O. Wheeler, Sir Edward E. Brooks President S. R. Vallance President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 E. O. Wheeler President E. R. Gibson President H. A. V. Green President and

17 Oliver Wheeler was born in Ottawa in He attended the early ACC camps as both a camp helper and later as a climbing leader. In 1910, he joined the Royal Engineers, served in the Great War and then joined the Survey of India. In 1921 he surveyed Mount Everest where, along with Mallory, he examined the approach to the East Rongbuk Glacier and up the North Col which became the standard approach to the mountain before World War I. He became Surveyor General of India in In 1943, Brigadier Wheeler was knighted. Upon his retirement in 1947, he returned back to Canada and again became active in the ACC. E.O. Wheeler was succeeded as President in 1954 by another military officer, Rex Gibson. Born in Essex, England in 1892, Gibson came to Canada in 1926 and farmed near Edmonton. He served in both World Wars and took part in the training of the Lovat Scouts in 1943 and 1944 in the Rockies. He pioneered many routes in the Jasper area, especially in the Tonquin Valley. He was an early pioneer of ski touring in the Rockies. In 1937, he became the first person to climb the four 12,000 foot (3658 m) peaks in the Canadian Rockies. He made over two hundred climbs, many of them were first ascents. Tragically, Gibson died while in office in a climbing accident on Mount Howson in 1957 and was replaced by Harry Green. Born in Scotland in 1888, Harry Green immigrated to Winnipeg in 1912 where he worked for the legal department of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Harry served as Club President from 1957 to 1958 and again from 1960 until John Brett was President of the ACC between 1958 and Born in Switzerland in 1885, Brett spent his youth in Geneva, climbing many of the peaks in the greater Alps. He came to Montreal in 1913 and worked as a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer. In 1928, John recognized the potential of climbing in the Laurentians and in 1932 climbed Arabesque, which opened up climbing in the Val David area. In 1942, John helped found the Montreal Section. Following the second term of Harry Green, the presidency of the Club fell for two years to the modern climbing legend Bob Hind. Born on a farm east of Edmonton in 1911, Robin (Bob) C. Hind became a successful electrical engineer. He was also an ambitious climber. He made over 250 climbs of which 26 were first ascents. He climbed all the 12,000 footers, in the Rockies, and climbed in Britain and the Alps. Bob Hind was involved with the Club for almost 70 years and served in many executive positions including President and finally as Honorary President. The climbing hut on Mount Assiniboine is named after him. By the time that Roger Neave became President in 1968, he had already developed a fine reputation as a climber. A civil engineer for the Imperial Oil Company in Sarnia, Ontario, Roger made over 35 first ascents including Molar Tower near Mount Hector. He climbed in all the major ranges of B.C. as well as in Peru. In 1933, he came within 150 m (500') of the summit of the then unclimbed Mount Waddington. He was active in exploring the Premier Range of the Cariboo Mountains and the Stikine Icefields in Northern B.C. Phil Dowling was born in Ontario in He was a graduate student at the Imperial College of Technology in London before making his home in Edmonton, Alberta. He was a member of the 1967 Yukon Centennial Expedition, assisting the coordinator, David Fisher, with equipment and the commissariat. He was a member of the team that made the first ascent of Mount Alberta in the J. F. Brett President R. C. Hind President R. Neave President P. J. Dowling President D. R. Fisher President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

18 Yukon Centennial Range. Dowling also climbed Mount Logan. Phil was President of the ACC from 1968 to In 1979, Dowling wrote The Mountaineers: Famous Climbers in Canada, which was published by Hurtig. Phil Dowling s close friend Dave Fisher succeeded him as President in Before becoming President, Fisher was active in the rebuilding of the Toronto Section and served as its Chairman from 1959 to He climbed in the Alps, Alaska, Karakoram, Andes and the Rockies. He made a south to north traverse of Mount Athabasca in 1963 and in 1964, he was on the first ascent of Mount Bastisti in the Italian Military Group from the Elk Lake Camp. He acted as the Chairman of the Club Re-organization Committee from 1964 to 1966 and was the Coordinator of the Yukon Alpine Centennial Expedition in Fisher s wife, Marnie, edited the official account of that monumental season which became part of the ACC legend. Stan Rosenbaum succeeded Dave Fisher as President in Rosenbaum arrived in Montreal from England in He attended the 1957 Tonquin Valley camp, and joined the Montreal Section. Living in Ottawa since 1961, he served as Ottawa Section Chair, Eastern Vice President, and Safety Committee Chair. He climbed in the Tetons and the European Alps, and made various climbing and skiing visits to Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island, the west coast of B.C. and the Yukon. Don Forest was one of the best known and most liked climbers of his generation. Forest inherited the presidency of the ACC in 1972, during a tempestuous period in the Club s history. An engineer by profession, Don only started climbing at the age of 43. This did not stop him, however, from becoming the first person to climb all the 11,000 foot (3353 m) peaks of the Rockies and the Selkirks. At age 71, he became the oldest person to climb to the west summit of Mount Logan. He was a member of the Calgary based Grizzly Group of climbers. He also served as President of the Calgary Mountain Club. The ACC named a service award after Don in John Tewnion was President of the ACC for the four years between 1976 and Tewnion emigrated from Scotland to Edmonton in 1950 where he became a practicing civil engineer. He was the first Chairman of the Camps and Expeditions Committee. After managing the General Mountaineering Camp for eight years he was awarded the Distinguished Service Badge in He earned his Silver Rope on the Yukon Centennial Expedition in Ted Whalley came to Canada from Lancashire, England in At the National Research Council in Ottawa he led a department investigating the behaviour of materials at ultra high pressures. Whalley s climbing career spanned four decades, extending into the 1970s when he organized five expeditions to unclimbed areas of Baffin and Ellesmere Islands (Mackinson Inlet 1976, 1978). He served as Chairman of the Ottawa Section, the Safety Committee and Eastern Vice President before becoming President between 1980 and Peter Fuhrmann was born in Germany and came to Canada in He made first ascents in Canada and Peru and the Himalayas. He served as the first President of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides before becoming Club President in Under his leadership the Club was revitalized and was able to move in new directions. He was instrumental in the development of the Canadian Alpine Centre at Lake Louise. S. Rosenbaum President D. Forest President J. Tewnion President E. Whalley President P. Fuhrmann President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

19 Professionally he worked in the role of the Mountain Specialist with Parks Canada. Fuhrmann also served as Honorary President of the Club for the period 2000 until Ken Hewitt was born in Edmonton in 1950 and joined the ACC in He served as Chairman of the Calgary Section from 1980 and 1982, and then as President between 1988 and Under Ken s term, the ACC was restructured to allow sectiononly members to become full members and was an active participant in the building of the Canadian Alpine Centre in Lake Louise. Born in Winnipeg in 1944, Doug Fox served as Treasurer of the Vancouver Section, and national Treasurer and Publications Committee Chair of the Club, before becoming President in In he served on the Club s Finance Committee. Doug climbed throughout the Coast Range of B.C., in the Yukon, North Cascades and Europe, for more than 20 years. Mike Mortimer was born in England and raised in southern Africa. He travelled and climbed around the world for seven years before settling in Canada in He was in turn Chairman of the Calgary Section and later the Huts Committee where he laid the foundations for the modern hut system. He organized three major mountain leadership conferences for the Club in the 1980s and organized and ran North America s first conference on Energy and Waste Management Systems in Alpine Shelters in 2001 when he was President. Later as the Club s first External Relations Director he represented North America at the UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation). Mortimer s enthusiasm brought a great deal of the vitality to the Club to during the period from 1994 to 2001 when he was President. His great passion for the Club was the foundation for its high profile Centennial in He was made an Honorary Member in David G. Toole was born in Winnipeg. He joined the Montreal Section in 1984 and became Chairman of the section in He was elected as national Vice President of Services in 1993, then as Secretary in 1994, Treasurer in 1996, and served in 2000 as both Secretary and Treasurer. In 2001 he was elected President. After his presidency he served as the Club s first Director of Planning and Development. Cameron Roe attended his first General Mountaineering Camp in the Freshfields in He has served in several positions in the Calgary Section including Chinook editor, Vice-Chair and Chair of the section. He has been and remains active both at the section level in Calgary where he is currently the Section Librarian and on the National Board, most recently as the Vice President of Activities for almost 10 years. Cam has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award, and is also a second generation Silver Rope recipient, with his father, Dick Roe, being awarded the Silver Rope in Cam became President in Beyond Presidents and Executive, another strong feature of leadership in the Alpine Club of Canada is its long legacy of competent, committed and highly energetic Executive Directors. From Arthur Wheeler in 1908 to the remarkably diverse Bruce Keith a century later, the ACC has always benefited from strong leadership. K. Hewitt President D. Fox President M. K. Mortimer President D. G. Toole President C. M. Roe President Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

20 In the 19th and early 20th century, women were excluded from involvement in alpine clubs in many places in the world. This was not the case in Canada. Right from very beginning, women played a vital role in defining this country s mountaineering culture. This paid big dividends over the past century for now some of the best climbers and most competent professional guides in Canada are women. Mary Jobe and Bess MacCarthy at Lake O'Hara in 1909 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES A Woman s Place is in the Mountains As a driving force behind the creation of the Alpine Club of Canada, Elizabeth Parker is an improbable figure. Not only was she a woman, but she was one who wasn t a mountaineer. She did however possess a strong interest in the alpine. In the summer of 1904, she took her children to Banff so that she could benefit from the recuperative powers of its hot springs and revitalize her health in the fresh, clean air of the Canadian Rockies. She remained there for 18 months and began writing newspaper and magazine articles about the mountains for Canadian publications. Though she came to love the mountains deeply, her frail health did not permit her to become a climber. She could see, however, how climbing could help women become stronger and more independent. Meeting Arthur Wheeler helped her pave the way for women to become mountaineers in Canada. With a woman as a founding member and first elected Secretary, the ACC welcomed women into its executive ranks at a time when few other national mountaineering clubs welcomed women at all. At the ACC s first official camp in July 1906, 15 women were among the 44 members graduated into the Club. In its first year, 77, or a full quarter of the Club s 310 members were women. Word got out quickly that women were not only welcome in this club, but that they could flourish within it. The first woman to climb a major mountain in western Canada was Philadelphia s Mary Vaux Walcott. In 1900, with her brother George Vaux Jr. and guides Christian Häsler Sr. and Edouard Feuz Sr., wearing knee-high hob-nailed boots, woollen stockings, a woollen gymnasium suit, felt hat, heavy gloves and snow glasses, she climbed 2643 metre Mount Field. Not a mountaineer, Vaux, along with brothers George and William, became a highly respected pioneer of glaciology, contributing scientific articles to the CAJ. While William was a founding member of the American Alpine Club, in June 1906 all three joined the fledgling ACC. In 1914, Mary was made an Honorary Member. In 1916, New Jersey s Elizabeth Bess MacCarthy was one of four, including guide Conrad Kain, to make the first ascent of Bugaboo Spire. She joined the ACC in 1909 her husband, Albert Mack McCarthy, joined in Another American, Caroline Hinman, first visited the Rockies at the 1913 camp. An enterprising tour guide who led women s trips to Europe, for the next 40 years she led month long horse assisted expeditions throughout the Rockies. Sufficiently smitten, one client, Lillian Gest, attended her first ACC Camp in Gest would return to the Rockies nearly every summer for the rest of her life. In 1939 Gest, Christine Reid, Kathleen Chapman and Jean McDonald were the first women to climb 3747 metre Mount Columbia, guided by Edward Feuz Jr. A noted philanthropist, Gest donated to the ACC and served as Vice President in and American Polly Prescott joined the Club at the 1926 Tonquin Valley Camp, and remained a prominent member until her death at 100 in She was the first woman to receive the ACC s Silver Rope for Leadership, in recognition of leading manless climbs of Mounts Louis and Edith Cavell with Marguerite Schnellbacher. Prescott also served as the ACC s American Vice President from 1947 to 1950 and 1959 to Canadian Ethne Gibson started climbing in the mid 1930s, making a special effort to be on Rex Gibson s rope. Continuing to climb after giving birth to Kathleen in 1953, Ethne supported Rex after he became ACC president in 1955, attending camps and creating handmade menu cards for the annual Club dinner. After Rex died in a climbing fall in 1957, Ethne continued to ski tour, believing lifts were cheating. She contributed generously to the construction of the Wates-Gibson Hut, which was named for Cyril Wates and Rex Gibson. Among Canada s most famous women mountaineers, Phyllis Munday placed the first female boot on Mount Robson s summit in The following year Phyl and her husband Don embarked on their decade long odyssey to reach the Coast Mountains Mount Waddington. As a Vancouver teenager, Munday hid her skirt under a log while climbing, then put it back on before returning home. She was involved with the Red Cross, Women s Volunteer Corps, Girl Guides and B.C. Mountaineering Club. Not willing to be viewed a lesser climbing partner because she was female, Munday insisted on carrying at least as 18 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

21 Nancy Hansen on Lyell 3. The first woman (and sixth person overall) to climb all 54 of the Canadian Rockies peaks over 11,000 feet (3353 metres) PHOTO BY COLIN JONES much weight as men and was often the only woman on trips. She climbed over 100 mountains, making over 30 first ascents. The Mundays daughter Edith, born in 1921, made her first climb at 11 weeks. In 1938 Munday was made an Honorary Member and Silver Rope Award recipient. She served as CAJ editor from 1953 to 1968, and became Honorary President in 1971 the only woman to hold the position. In 1972, Munday received the Order of Canada. In 1995 she received the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award, and in 1998 the ACC sponsored Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival was designated the Phyllis and Don Munday Award. Munday died in 1990 at 95. Okanagan native Elfrida Pigou began mountaineering in 1949, joining the ACC that year. She made numerous first ascents and put up new routes in the Coast Mountains, Rockies and Bugaboos. Pigou led Vancouver Section trips, contributed to the CAJ, gave slide shows and helped build huts. Still backpacking today, in the 1960s Alice Purdy explored the Coast Mountains, making an early ascent of Mount Waddington and first ascents in the Pantheon and Hurley River region. As Canadians made a name for themselves on the international mountaineering stage through the 1970s and 80s, Canadian women shared the spotlight. Kathy Calvert and Judy Sterner organized the first all-women s expedition to Mount Logan with Lorraine Drewes, Cathy Langill, Diana Knaak and then 21-year-old Sharon Wood. For 24 days the team worked up the King s Trench on skis establishing six camps, but not quite making the summit. In 1983 Calvert, her sister Sylvia Forest, Martha McCallum and Lin Heidt succeeded as the first all women s team to ski the 130 kilometre Bugaboos to Rogers Pass traverse. Then in 1986, Sharon Wood became a legend in mountaineering worldwide by becoming the first North American woman to climb Mount Everest. Diny Harrison marked another first for a North American woman in 1992 when she became a fully accredited professional mountain guide. Eleven years later, Diny became the first woman to serve as (acting) president of a UIAGM member federation. Four of Canada s now seven female ACMG full From various climbs during five summers I believe that any woman with fairly sound organs can do mountain climbing with very great benefit to body and mind. I am convinced that making a fairly dangerous climb, where every sense must be alert and cool, makes a woman more fearless in attempting difficult tasks in her ordinary life. The ideas gained of the beautiful and sublime cannot be valued. Mary E. Crawford Mountain Climbing for Women, Canadian Alpine Journal, 1909 mountain guides, Helen Sovdat, Kirsten Knechtel, Sylvia Forest and Alison Andrews have led numerous ACC alpine adventures. Canadian women haven t just made their mark as mountaineers. In addition to being a leading Squamish climber in the early 1980s and an energetic ACC trip leader, Tami Knight is known internationally for her irreverent climbing cartoons. Though not an ACC member, in the ice and mixed climbing game, Kim Csizmazia was the 2000 women s Ice Climbing World Cup champion and the first woman to consistently onsight WI6 and first woman to climb M10. In recognition for her immeasurable contributions to the Club, and particularly for her efforts to keeping the GMC alive in waning years Louise Guy received the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award in That same year, Bev Bendell, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 1985, was also awarded the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award for her tireless contributions to all aspects of the Club s activities. Women continue to make important contributions to Canadian mountaineering. Kicking off the 21st century in style, in 2003 Nancy Hansen, ACC National Office director and prolific trip leader, became the first woman and only the sixth person to climb all 54 of the Canadian Rockies Peaks over 11,000 feet (3353 m). Completing her quest in less than half as many years as her predecessors, she climbed in high style on sometimes very technical routes. While women have consistently comprised between 26 and 40 per cent of the Club s membership over the past century and have won over two-dozen Silver Rope or Distinguished Service Awards, as well as Honorary Membership and Special Awards, the Canadian mountaineering club that started out so progressively has yet to welcome a woman President. There are women in the Club that think it is time to change that. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

22 Everyone knew in 1906 that mountaineering was dangerous. One of the primary goals of the Alpine Club of Canada was to accelerate the development of local climbing skills so that Canadians could become competent at travelling in their own mountains. Through annual mountaineering camps, the ACC created the first courses in mountaincraft in the country and in so doing established a century-long relationship with professional mountain guides. There were ascents and descents which no one but an expert or a fool would attempt alone. Thanks to the guides, however, these were made without difficulty. Reverend A.M. Gordon The Ascents of Mts. Marpole and Ambadamo Canadian Alpine Journal, Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 Sharing the Rope: Guiding and the ACC As the Canadian Pacific Railway opened up the Canadian west in 1885, British and European mountaineers began arriving to claim Canada s plentiful unclimbed summits none of which remained in Europe s Alps. Mountaineering in those times was almost solely the pursuit of the educated upper class, many of whom had climbed with professional European guides. After American Philip Stanley Abbot fell to his death on an unguided attempt of Mount Lefroy in 1896, a campaign was begun to encourage the CPR to hire Swiss guides to work at its resort hotel properties at Glacier House, Field, Lake Louise and Banff. Returning to Lake Louise in 1897 to avenge the death of Abbot, one of the climbers hired Swiss guide Peter Sarbach to guide the party up Mount Lefroy and to prove that climbing could be enjoyed safely. In 1897 Sarbach became the first professional mountain guide to lead a party to a Canadian summit and a national mountaineering tradition was born. In organizing its first camp in 1906, the Alpine Club of Canada decided the services of professional mountains guides should be included. The CPR had employed Swiss guides at Glacier House since 1899, when Edouard Feuz and Christian Häsler appeared outfitted in tweed jackets with waistcoats and ties, knickers and nailed boots with long wool socks, climbing ropes slung over their shoulders and ice axes in their hands. By 1902, Swiss guides were also permanently stationed at Lake Louise. For the ACC s inaugural camp, the CPR loaned the Club two of their guides, Edouard and Gottfried Feuz. With the camp hosting over 100 members, experienced volunteers led numerous climbs. But for many, having the proficiency of professional Swiss guides made difference between summitting or not. For the next 23 consecutive years, the railway Swiss guides worked at the annual Club camps, the only exception occurring in 1926, when two of the Canadian National Railroad s guides, Hans and Heinrich Fuhrer, worked at Jasper s Tonquin Valley camp. In so doing, the world s first national mountaineering club to welcome women into its ranks also provided its average, middle class members the opportunity to explore the high alpine in the company of professional guides. At the time, this was normally an extravagance reserved only for the wealthy. European guides didn t just leave their mark on Canadian summits, but also on our ski heritage. When Austrian Conrad Kain decided to seek adventure in Canada s unspoiled mountains in 1908, well-known Viennese climber Erich Pistor recommended Kain s guiding talents to the CPR. Responding it had already hired its guides for the upcoming summer, the CPR suggested the ACC might be interested. Pistor wrote A.O. Wheeler, who promptly promised Kain a summer job. Not only did Kain make a great impression at the 1909 Lake O Hara camp, come winter he made an equally great impression on the children of Banff, Alberta by introducing them to the sport of skiing. As inspiration for Banff s first ski club, Kain helped instill a Canadian love for skiing. After building the first alpine hut in 1902 five kilometres from Glacier House, Swiss guides went on to build Abbot Pass Hut in These alpine refuges became the foundation for what later would become today s expansive system of Alpine Club of Canada huts. It was only a matter of time before Canadians would qualify as professional guides in their own mountains. Born in Golden British Columbia, as a young man Ken Jones worked as a porter for the Swiss guides in Lake Louise. Under the diligent tutelage of Edward Feuz son of Edouard Jones served his mountain apprenticeship and by the mid 1930s became the first Canadian-born professional mountain guide. In 1941, 18 ski camp participants arrived at Stanley Mitchell Hut in Little Yoho Valley under the capable direction of A.A. McCoubrey. A recently arrived mountaineer and experienced Swiss ski instructor, Bruno Engler, was hired as guide, while Jones was hired as cook. On the first morning of the camp, novice skier Douglas Adcock broke his leg on a patch of breakable crust. Realizing he should be evacuated to Field as soon as possible, Jones, Engler and McCoubrey built a sturdy toboggan using only a few nails, cord, two stout spruce spars and parts of the hut s only chair. Heading out on the hard 2 a.m. snow, Engler towed while Jones steered, and the patient was delivered safely to Field. For more than a decade, Jones s contributions became integral to the camps success, prompting Winnipeg Section member Roger Neave to write, The hard-working member of the party was Ken Jones in his triple capacity of cook, guide and instructor. However, he seemed to thrive on it and after a morning or afternoon of ski-ing he would dash back to the hut ahead of us and have the meal practically on the table by the time the rest of us arrived. By 1950, only two Swiss guides were working in

23 Roger Laurilla ACMG mountain guide and ACC Vice President, Activities Christian Häsler and Edouard Feuz PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VAUX FAMILY COLLECTION AND THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES Canada, Ernst and Edward Feuz, who were guiding privately. To stimulate interest in mountaineering and its guide services, CP brought Edmund Petrig and Walter Perren from Switzerland to the Chateau Lake Louise. When their contracts expired in 1955, mountaineering interest was so low that CP released them and Petrig returned to Switzerland. Then in the wake of two separate accidents that claimed four lives on Mount Victoria and the lives of seven teenage boys on Mount Temple, Perren accepted a National Parks Service offer to organize mountain travel and rescue training for park wardens and aspiring guides. Throughout the late 1950s, Perren taught basic mountaineering skills to dozens of park wardens who were more comfortable on horseback than on glaciers and steep cliffs, and Canada s first generation of skilled mountain rescuers was born. When Perren became too busy to examine guide candidates, he suggested those who he had already passed, including Austrian Hans Gmoser, form their own association under the auspices of Parks Canada and the ACC. Established in 1963, the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides founding members included Peter Fuhrmann, Hans Gmoser, Brian Greenwood, Heinz Kahl, Leo Grillmair, Dick Lofthouse, Eric Lomas, Willie Pfisterer, Hans Schwarz and Frank Stark. 43 years later, there are now more than 100 fully accredited ACMG guides in Canada. Throughout the 20th century, dozens of European guides who explored the Canadian mountain wilderness chose to settle here. From the CP employed Swiss guides of the early 1900s, to those recruited to work in the burgeoning helicopter skiing industry during the 1970s and 80s, European guides didn t just hold the rope, chop steps on steep icy slopes or warn novices away from hanging cornices. Coming from countries where roads and villages and ski resorts and gondolas were as numerous as the peaks themselves, those guides shared their love and enthusiasm for exploring the Canadian wilderness with their Canadian clients, who in turn developed an enriched appreciation of their own mountains. Many of these professional mountain guides took a direct interest in the Club s direction, as Peter Fuhrmann did in establishing the Wapta Icefield huts, and serving as the Club s President from 1984 to Similarly in 2005, Canadian born ACMG guide Roger Laurilla was named the ACC s Vice President of Activities. Mountain guides have been in the employ of the Alpine Club of Canada for a hundred years. During this time, they exerted a quiet but formative influence on Canada s developing mountaineering tradition. By exhibiting excellent route-finding skills, leading edge climbing ability and cool judgment in trying or dangerous situations, they demonstrated to North Americans the physical and mental toughness that were the hallmark of Swiss mountaineering competence. With them they brought significant evolutions in mountaineering technique garnered from long experience in the Alps. But, more importantly perhaps, they brought an attitude about mountains and a disposition toward climbing that would gradually change the way many Canadians would think about their own summits. The Swiss had a reverence for the alpine which would gradually permeate the fabric of Canadian culture. Through the Swiss guides, Canadians would gradually learn the real value of the overwhelming nature that was their alpine birthright. It was this guiding community that made manifest the meaning of having so many mountains. That community is no longer Swiss, but Canadian, and one of the central vehicles for it becoming so was the Alpine Club of Canada. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

24 From the moment of its inception, one of the main goals of the Alpine Club of Canada was to make it easy for Canadians to experience their own mountains. By providing comfortable, safe climbing experiences, it was held that over time we would become a nation of competent mountain travellers with a deep sense of what the Canadian alpine means to us and to the world. For a hundred years, Alpine Club of Canada mountaineering camps have done just that. Thanks to Mr. Wheeler, the meet, which began as an experiment, ended as an institution. Elizabeth Parker Report of the Secretary Canadian Alpine Journal 1907 The first Alpine Club camp at Yoho Pass in 1906 PHOTO FROM THE CANADIAN ALPINE JOURNAL Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 Camps in the Clouds That a four-month-old Canadian alpine club should decide to host a national mountaineering camp was to say the very least an ambitious undertaking. Travelling in style aboard the Canadian Pacific Railway, eager campers arrived at Field, B.C. in Yoho National Park on July 8, The next morning most travelled 10 kilometres to Emerald Lake on foot, while some rode in carriages or perched aboard commissariat wagons. The procession was made up of dozens of horses and wagons carrying food, cooking equipment, 40 unwieldy canvas tents, bedding, climbing ropes and personal luggage including proper dining attire. A camp on this scale had never before been undertaken in the Canadian west, and certainly not by such a young organization. Over 100 ACC members paid a dollar a day each to congregate in a temporary tent village at Yoho Pass. They rose before the sun to climb routes on eight mountains, gathered for meals and companionship in the dining pavilion and shared jokes, stories and songs around a giant evening bonfire. By the end of the week, participants declared the event a resounding success. The enterprise had been made possible by generous donations from the Dominion government, who in the spirit of patriotism had donated $500, the Alberta government who contributed $250, the CPR who loaned tents, canopies, cooks and the services of two of their Swiss guides, Eduoard and Gottfried Feuz, the North West Mounted Police who also loaned tents, and the generosity of four outfitters who volunteered their services Bob Campbell, Tom Martin, Jack Otto, Elliot Barnes and Syd Baker. The camp was divided into Residence Park, Official Square and the horse paddock, with tenting areas subdivided into male, female and married quarters. The massive dining tent accommodated all 100, with meals served from early morning to late at night. A bulletin board announced the daily programs. In the Square, a robust fire burned unceasingly, brightening up for the evening hours. From the main camp, participants embarked on overnight trips to climb distant peaks, and to explore Yoho Glacier where a row of metal plates placed across the ice tongue marked its rate of flow, and rocks marked its advance or retreat. The camp s chief mountaineer, Morrison Bridgland chose the varied rock, snow and ice route up 3066 metre Vice President as the official climb, and on July 10 nine climbers graduated to the standing of active members including two women. By camp s end, 44 had graduated, 15 of them women. The average ascent time had been seven hours, the average descent three hours. That the camp unfolded as it did was no accident. The Club s constitution provided for an annual summer camp where graduating members could qualify for active membership and where all members (except subscribing members) were welcome to gather for climbing or mountain study. The camp was also the site of the Club s annual general meeting, which followed the Sunday church service. At the AGM, the camp was declared a financial success, with money left over disbursed among the outfitters, with a small balance going to the Club. Although hosted in remote corners of the magnificent mountains of western Canada, from the beginning, the camps could not operate outside of the realm of world events. The 1920 Assiniboine Camp was billed as Coming Home Camp for Club members who had served in WWI. Running in conjunction with A.O. Wheeler s Walking Tour, it attracted over 300 people, with Rudolph Aemmer and Edward Feuz serving as guides. The bustling camp scene would be repeated every summer for the next 100 years, and would provide Canadians numerous opportunities for first ascents of Canadian mountains. Preparations for the annual gatherings involved cutting trails, swimming horses across turbulent rivers, building rafts and hauling three or four tonnes of food, canvas, stoves, wooden boxes and even hay. The Club s camps were the highlight of virtually every member s year, offering opportunities to share the lessons, the joys and the laughs generated by a week s mountaineering exploits. In 1946, Bill Harrison was hired to manage the camp in the Bugaboos, an undertaking involving three hard days pack train travel from Spillimacheen. An experienced outfitter, Harrison was awarded the contract for the 1947 Glacier Station camp in Rogers Pass and again for the 1954 camp in the Goodsirs, thus beginning a family legacy that continues to this day. Through the 1950 and 60s, every member of the Harrison family, including Bill s wife Isabel

25 Bill Harrison, outfitter and guide in the early ACC camp tradition PHOTO COURTESY OF R.W. SANDFORD Brad Harrison leads a rope team, 2004 Icefall Brook General Mountaineering Camp PHOTO BY JACQUELINE HUTCHISON and their six children worked at the camps as horse wranglers, packers or cooks their dinners becoming the meals of legends. Though not a climber, Bill Harrison was a scrambler who appreciated climbers exploits. He spent a lot of time hunting above treeline, walking his horse as much as he rode it. Over the decades, technology brought changes to the camps. In 1962, guests rode a bus on a road still under construction from Jasper to Medicine Lake for the Maligne Lake camp, finishing their journey by boat. Then for the 1967 Centennial Steele Glacier camp in the Yukon, helicopters were used for the very first time to ferry guests and supplies. Bill Harrison, his son Brad recalls, didn t much like using helicopters, preferring to trust his horses. In 1967, the Canadian government awarded Bill Harrison the Centennial Medal, and in 1976 he became the only non-climber to be named an Honorary Member. Bill died in 1993, at the age of 88. With three decades of family history invested in the Club s annual camps, Brad Harrison gradually took over the ACC camp tradition from his father. Brad had ridden into his first camp at Jasper s Fryatt Creek at the age of three aboard his brother s horse. Nearly 25 years later, when the economic downturn of the 1980s negatively affected registrations for the GMC, Brad put together a proposal for the 1985 camp. He drew up a budget, arranged logistics, Campfire during the 1965 Glacier Lake General Mountaineering Camp PHOTO BY LEN CHATWIN secured requisite permits and hired staff, all under the agreement that if he lost money that would be the end of the camps. He managed his first camp, a two week event at Wates-Gibson Hut in Jasper s Tonquin Valley with about 20 guests sleeping in the hut, with a cook tent erected outside. That year the camps made a profit and Louise Guy became Chair of the Camps Committee. In an effort to encourage interest in the camps, Louise mailed out hand written invitations to the following year s camp. Since then, the General Mountain Camp has flourished. In addition to overseeing all the tents, kitchen supplies, helicopter flights, guides and cooks, Brad also leads guests on climbs. Flowing with the times, Camp Committee organizers have worked hard to minimize the impact of the annual camps. The historically popular evening bonfires are now contained in giant drums. Trees are no longer cut down for tent poles those needed to hold up the large canvas cook tents are flown in by helicopter. In the mid 1960s, meals stopped being cooked over open fires, and are now prepared on large propane fuelled ranges. Camp participants have changed too. In the earlier decades, guests sometimes climbed on their own without guides. Today nearly all guests expect to be led by experienced professionals or amateur leaders. The 2005 camp provided hot and cold running water and a double shower. While today s camps provide more physical comforts for guests, the atmosphere has changed little over the last 100 years. The focus remains on learning to climb safely and joyfully sharing the experience of Canadian mountains with others. The 2005 GMC at Moby Dick in the Battle Range boasted six sold out weeks, each hosting 33 guests and 11 staff, and members look forward to celebrating the Centennial GMC in B.C. s Premier Range in General Mountaineering Camp at Icefall Brook in the Rocky Mountains PHOTO BY PATRICIA DAUM Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

26 Alpine Club members had life changing experiences on mountains in Canada and abroad. They formed relationships that lasted a lifetime and told stories about climbing that made others want to become mountaineers. Many of these stories and accounts found their way into the Canadian Alpine Journal. As the official and permanent record of Canadian mountaineering, the CAJ is the DNA of Canadian mountain culture. I ve had few honours in my life as rich as the opportunity to helm the CAJ. Spanning one hundred years, it s not only one of the oldest publications in the country, but also one of the most consistently compelling and insightful. The arc of the Journal traces not only the evolution of climbing in Canada, but offers a fascinating glimpse of the eras that gave birth to those climbers. The CAJ is the place where everything gets remembered, including the history of our country itself. Geoff Powter Editor, Canadian Alpine Journal 24 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 The Canadian Alpine Journal The first volume of the Canadian Alpine Journal is a true testament to the energy and enthusiasm of the Club s founders. Only a year after the Club was formed, it published essentially as its newsletter a 196 page book which not only carefully recorded all the details of the Club s formation but set the stage for all of the organization s future accomplishments. From the hint of later ascents of Mounts Robson and Logan, to the widespread popularity of climbing today, everything the ACC needed to make mountaineering mainstream in Canadian culture was already all there in the 1907 journal. Published in 1907, the first volume of the Canadian Alpine Journal was essentially a mountain primer. A great number were printed so that they could be distributed both as promotion of the new club and an embodiment of the Club s goals and ideals. The vision was ambitious. The CAJ announced the birth of a Canadian subculture associated with the exploration of mountains landscapes. In time this subculture would abide by its own customs and create its own traditions, history, legend and heroes. In order to accomplish these goals, it was important to establish a permanent record of the Club s many achievements which embraced not just mountaineering, but all things alpine. We take the legitimacy and popularity of mountaineering for granted today. It is easy to forget that in 1906 only a handful of Canadians could even imagine climbing a mountain let alone setting out to do. While familiar to climbers, mountaineering accounts and photographs must have made the average Canadian question if these early mountaineers had all their mental faculties. The CAJ set out to completely change that perception. The CAJ was born fully formed complete with climbing accounts, maps, articles on history, philosophy and science, all accompanied by astounding photographs. The first volume of the CAJ gave the solid appearance of mountaineering as sane and progressive. It suggested that mountaineering was the sport of intellectuals who were not afraid of adventure. The wide range of articles was meant to appeal to the broadest range of educated people, for it was held that it would be these who were most likely have the interest and the means to take up this new sport. The Club s founders, however, were right up front about the hazards. Some photographs, such as those published with P.D. McTavish s article on the ascent of Crowsnest Mountain, must have caused quite a stir among those unused to pictures of people clinging to seemingly impossible walls foreshortened in their steepness no doubt by early telephoto effects. These never-before-seen in Canada images were undoubtedly as startling to readers in 1907 as the photographs we see today on the cover of Climbing magazine of Alex Lowe soloing the overhanging wall of an Antarctic iceberg. They were so different and eye-catching they could not fail to have the desired effect. They made people want to climb. The 1907 CAJ established a number of formal Alpine Club of Canada traditions, the first being that of marking first ascents. In so doing, the journal of record established the foundation that permitted later generations of climbers to quickly find out what had been done in the past and plan attempts on new routes on both climbed and unclimbed peaks. As a result, Canadian understanding of the geography of the country s mountains established itself firmly in the Rockies and interior ranges of British Columbia and then radiated outward to every other range of mountains on the continent. The earliest volumes of the CAJ also established the reputation of classic routes on famous peaks and, by virtue of reports on annual camps, identified climbing areas where the most intense alpine experiences could be had in the shortest period of time. The 1907 Canadian Alpine Journal laid the foundation for inter-generational knowledge of mountain place. It provided a baseline for continuing exploration of our mountains. A person discovers that his or her mother or grandmother did some amazing things that were reported in the Canadian Alpine Journal. What were they? If she did that, what might I do? A classic example begins with Mary, George and William Vaux and their groundbreaking early research into glacial recession in the Rockies and the Selkirks in 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century. A century later, the Canadian Alpine Journal account of this work inspired a grandson, Henry Vaux Jr., to visit the same locations to record landscape change since his time of his grand-siblings. Record becomes inspiration which become record and the whole process iterates itself again and again through time. The founding purpose of the CAJ was to ensure that the future could be inspired by stories from the past. In this purpose, it has been successful for a hundred years.

27 1907 Canadian Alpine Journal The Canadian Alpine Journal has a long history of highly respect editors: Arthur Wheeler Alex McCoubrey M.D. Fleming Phyllis Munday 1969 Pat Boswell Andrew Gruft Moira Irvine David Harris Geoff Powter Beyond the capturing of historical record, the CAJ has also played a huge role in the advancement of mountain literature in Canada. That the Canadian Alpine Journal aimed right from its inception at a literary audience is undeniable. Among the articles in the inaugural edition was one written by Ralph Connor, who in 1907 was easily the Canadian literary equivalent of Margaret Atwood today. Connor s books were translated abroad and sold in the millions. His tongue in cheek article entitled How We Climbed Cascade is not only the first published work of Canadian mountaineering humour, it was also the first work on mountaineering by a renowned Canadian novelist. Even in the first volume we are introduced to the range in mountaineering ability and literary skill that would be reflected in the CAJ over the next century. The articles in the 1907 Canadian Alpine Journal range from an hilarious account of a scramble up Cascade Mountain by poorly equipped amateurs, to solo ascents without ropes on big peaks by highly motivated mountaineers like George Kinney. The writing ranges from the sublime to the pompous. It is all there in the first volume. By 1908, it was clear that the energy that burst forth in 1907 would be sustained. The CAJ would be marked by good writing, strong imagery and a marvellous capacity to bring mountain adventure in previously unknown ranges in Canada and abroad into the pubic ken. As the decades passed, the CAJ mirrored the literary style of the day and the style of each successive cultural period over the next century. It begins with the classical literary style borrowed from the educated classes of Britain complete with colonial euphemisms and clearly defined class politics typical of the intellectual milieu of the time. A century later, membership in the climbing community is no longer confined to highly literate upper classes. Literary pretence has almost vanished in society as a whole. Many climbers write almost in the manner in which they speak, which does not always respect traditional grammar and syntax. Words that would never come to the lips of a gentlemen climber a century ago are, for better or worse, now in common use, both in climbing and in popular culture. But while language may have evolved, one essential element still connects the four generations of contributors to the Canadian Alpine Journal. At the heart of each article is the love of mountains and a passion for climbing. As one might expect, the actual climbing section in the 1907 Canadian Alpine Journal was very small compared to the science and club news sections. This was because not much climbing had yet been done by the Club s new members. This would change dramatically over the next few years and over the century that followed. The Club s members would become very active during an early golden age that ended with the beginning of World War II and the passing of the first generation of membership. A different but still very active period followed the war when a new generation of climbers took to the peaks. This period came to an end with the near collapse of the Alpine Club of Canada in the early 1970s when mountaineering became so popular and widespread an activity that many experienced climbers no longer felt they needed the support of a club to help them advance their skills or find partners. While the ACC reestablished itself through the development of leadership programming and the expansion of its huts system, the Canadian Alpine Journal continued to record the history of mountaineering and the rise of new forms of climbing interest both inside and outside the Club. Because of its longstanding history of diverse contributors and contents, solid editing and elegant design, the CAJ remains today the longest standing and most influential publication on mountaineering in Canada today CAJ: featuring a photo of Don Forest on a rock spire in the Opal Range in Kananaskis Country, AB PHOTO BY GLEN BOLES Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

28 Firmly embedded in the original mandate of the Alpine Club of Canada is a strong commitment to leading edge scientific understanding of the Canadian alpine. Though pursued ambitiously by Arthur Wheeler, the Club s interest in science declined as the research become more complex and was taken up by institutions that didn t exist when the Club was formed. As the mountains became crowded, however, the ACC took the lead in the introduction of new waste, water and energy management technology. As climate change threatens the alpine worldwide, the Club s scientific research mandate may have to be revived Vaux family photograph of the Illecillewaet Glacier Science in the High Alpine At the time the Alpine Club of Canada was formed in 1906, mountaineering was still in its infancy in Canada. Though our history focuses mostly on climbers of independent means and ambitions, most of the climbing at that time was done as part of formal scientific research performed in service of nationhood. Though largely unsung, the real heroes of this period were Dominion Land Surveyors who, not uncommonly, would climb up to 200 mountains in their careers in order to complete the maps that would later open Canada s mountain ranges to climbers. It is not surprising that the Club s principal founder, A.O. Wheeler, was a prominent surveyor before becoming famous as a mountaineer. Other founding members, including Wheeler s son, E.O. Wheeler, Edouard Deville, Col Aime Laussedat, Morrison Parsons Bridgland, P.A. Carson and the legendary J.J. McArthur, were, or would become, well-known and historically respected surveyors. Complementing the scientific bent of the surveying community of the day, was a popular sense created in Europe that mountaineering, even at the amateur level, ought to be tied directly to scientific inquiry. Mountaineering should be exercise for the mind as well as for the body. Arthur Wheeler personally knew many of the most accomplished amateur as well as professional scientists of his time and made sure there was a prominent place for them in the newly formed club. While A.O. Wheeler applauded and supported the research of serious amateurs like the members of the Vaux family, he also recognized the value of work being done by professional scientists of the caliber of the American glaciologist William Hittell Sherzer. In turning the pages of Sherzer s classic 1902 Smithsonian monograph on the glaciers of the Canadians Rockies and Selkirk Mountains, one glimpses where Wheeler might have found his inspiration for the design and content of the first edition of the Canadian Alpine Journal. That Wheeler bested even the Smithsonian in the design and quality of Canada s first mountaineering journal says a great deal about his passion for both science and mountaineering. Science would become an integral part of this country s emerging mountain culture if only because Arthur Wheeler would have it no other way. Though not a banner year for reports on bold new ascents, the 1908 CAJ had a very strong scientific section which again featured articles by world renowned experts such as Arthur Philomen Coleman on geomorphology and Charles Doolittle Walcott on the fossils of the Burgess Shale. Just as they do today when scientific articles are published in the CAJ, some members at the time complained that the Walcott paper, in particular, was beyond their understanding. Today, however, the Walcott article on the fossils preserved in the Burgess Shale is considered a classic, fully understandable by anyone with an interest the evolutionary explosion that took place in the Cambrian seas 543 million years ago. Works of advanced academic nature were from the outset part of Canada s mountain culture as defined by A.O. Wheeler and the Alpine Club of Canada. Through persistence in recognizing equally accomplishments in mountaineering and mountain science, Wheeler ensured that the ACC would transcend club status to become the country s foremost alpine institution; the repository for all knowledge and expertise related to the mountains of Canada. For a time Wheeler made the ACC that kind of institution. But, just as climbers eventually transcended the Club s founding role of establishing and advancing climbing techniques and style, universities and government research programs gradually superseded the ACC s scientific role. While the Club moved away from its scientific research mandate, a surprising range of articles related to mountain science continued to appear sporadically in the Canadian Alpine Journal. These ranged from articles on the long term impact of glacial recession to the effect of adventure on mental health. Meanwhile the Club was forced, by the realities associated with growing development in Canada s mountain regions to focus practically on applied rather than pure research in order to confront growing human impact issues connected to its expanded hut operations. In the 1980s, it became clear that new techniques of supplying safe water, managing human waste and minimizing backcountry impacts were essential to the Club s future. Under the direction of Mike Mortimer, conferences were sponsored by the Alpine 26 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

29 First named among the reasons for the Club s existence is the claim of science: the promotion of scientific study and the exploration of Canadian alpine and glacial regions. Elizabeth Parker The Alpine Club of Canada Canadian Alpine Journal Vaux family photograph of the Illecillewaet Glacier Club of Canada resulted in the introduction of innovative new technology and techniques that reduced the human footprint of backcountry huts. Vice Presidents responsible for facilities and a strong cadre of ACC maintenance staff have worked with volunteers ever since to put the ACC at the forefront of environmentally responsible backcountry hut management. With the completion of the new Fay Hut in August of 2005, the Alpine Club of Canada became a internationally recognized leader in the application of technology and sound practices in service of minimization of human impact in the alpine. Another area in which science has greatly served the mountaineering community is in the areas of avalanche research and Global Positioning and communications systems. Because of research, much more is known now about the dynamics of avalanche conditions than ever before and, with the advent of helicopters, portable GPS systems and cellular and satellite telephones, a climber is seldom out of range of rescue. But all of these technological innovations have come at a cost. The greatest uncertainty we face at the centennial of the Club s formation are the potential impacts of climate change on Canadian mountains. When we think of climate change as we know it today, it is important to think of where the dawn s light first strikes at the beginning of the day. It strikes the tops of mountains. When we think of climate change, we think also of where the sunlight touches the Earth most persistently and that is where 24 hour light falls on the poles. Because they are glaciated, both of these regions are within the domain of the Club s mandate and interests. We are already seeing dramatic impacts of change in both the arctic and the alpine. At present a temperature increase of between one and six degrees Celsius is expected to occur in both these regions. Mountain vegetation zones are expected to shift upwards by approximately 500 to 600 metres (approximately 1600 to 2000 feet), the equivalent of one vegetative zone in any given mountainous region. Alpine species are predicted to be driven upward and northward into oblivion. We are already seeing this with species like the pika along the southern spine of the Rockies. One quarter of the glacial mass in the Canadian cordillera has disappeared in the last century. Climbing routes on Rocky Mountain glaciers are now changing faster than guidebooks can keep up. Many climbers are also observing dramatic changes in the amount of rockfall on many routes as higher temperatures melt the ice that holds broken rock to the mountainsides. Even more troubling are reports of the unexpected extent of glacial recession that took place over much of the northern hemisphere during the unusually hot summer of What we learn from this is that it is entirely within the domain of possibility that glacial recession could accelerate beyond current rates. It may be that ours will be the generation that says adios to the mountain cryosphere. We can only begin to imagine attendant impacts. Climate change is not something we can afford to ignore, it is not something that is going to happen somewhere else to someone else. It is happening here, now, to us. This brings up a spectre that is almost too overwhelming to imagine. It has been predicted by a study commissioned by Parks Canada itself that many of our most treasured national parks and reserves may no longer remain within the biogeographical regions they were created to represent. Such a change is not, at present, expected to occur naturally over geological time but over the much shorter duration of a few human generations. Unless feedback mechanisms that slow this process kick in soon, impacts on the Canadian alpine could be catastrophic. It will difficult to have an alpine club if we don t have any alpine. It may well be time for the Alpine Club of Canada to revitalize its science mandate, and to become active in the climate change debate. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

30 There is only one official record of mountaineering in Canada and that is the Canadian Alpine Journal. In 2007, in an event as important as the Centennial of the Club itself, the ACC will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of its first CAJ. With a digital version of all 100 years of this official record soon to be made available, Canadians will at last be able to fully comprehend the full range of cumulative achievement that is the Alpine Club of Canada s lasting contribution to our nation s identity. 28 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 The Centennial of the Canadian Alpine Journal Even in an expanded edition of the Gazette dedicated completely to the Centennial, it is only possible to hint at the rich history of the Alpine Club of Canada. The expanded story of the Club s evolution and a remarkable year by year account of the history of mountaineering achievement in Canada has entered posterity through the pages of the Canadian Alpine Journal. It is unlikely there are more than a few dozen people alive however, who have read every edition of the Canadian Alpine Journal. Because many numbers are hard to find, and complete sets now very expensive to buy even if one can be found for sale, all but the most committed are denied access to the rich history of mountain culture in this country. This is about to change. In 2007, the Alpine Club of Canada will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Canadian Alpine Journal with a stunning special edition. The Club will also offer members a boxed set of every volume, digitized and fully indexed for easy reference. This landmark work will allow climbers and historians full and easy access to a century of mountaineering and exploration achievement in Canada. It will also ensure that the climbers and writers who did so much to contribute to the development of our unique mountain culture in Canada are not forgotten. With the complete literary works of the Alpine Club of Canada available digitally, it will become possible for anyone to observe the flow Partial page 174 of the 1907 Canadian Alpine Journal digitized for DVD of mountaineering experience and ethic through time. The Canadian Alpine Journal is a record of all things alpine. The early numbers of the Journal constitute a record of the Club s constitution and organization. They provide form official Hansard of the Club s business. As a record of adventure the Canadian Alpine Journal is an unparalleled source of access and route descriptions, observations on conditions, circumstances, challenges and triumphs built up over a century of mountaineering in all the ranges in the country. It is the one place in which a climber can find information on most of the first ascents ever done in Canada and all of the major first ascents done by Canadians abroad. The Canadian Alpine Journal is also an archive preserving the history of mountain photography in Canada as well as a repository of geographical and natural science observations. Interspersed within the nearly 10,000 pages of documented climbing history are poems and songs, articles of philosophy, and reflections about risk and beauty in the high places of the world. There is also mountain humour, cartoons and advertisements that tell us what it was like to live in world in which people did not travel and think as we do now. Finally, there are obituaries remembering Club members, not for what they were in their professional lives, but for who they were in the mountains. We should all be so lucky to be remembered in this way. There have only ever been nine editors of the Canadian Alpine Journal. Each has left a different mark on history. Their choice and ordering of articles, their acceptance of contemporary description and vernacular and their determination of what was really important about what was happening in mountaineering in their time has shaped what climbing is today. The great joy of being able to read leisurely through 100 years of Canadian Alpine Journals will be that every reader will be able to determine for themselves the direction that history has taken us in our search to understand ourselves by experiencing our mountains. They will be able to determine for themselves how the flow of time through the Canadian alpine has shaped our perceptions about what is important about where and how we live in our mountains. That, in its own right, should be inspiration for expeditions and projects enough to keep Alpine Club of Canada going strong for another century and more. See the next issue of the Gazette for full details on how you can order your complete digital set of the Canadian Alpine Journal.

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32 Living the astounding is Chic. Imagine the Choc of living it, at an altitude of over 615 m. Be among the first to experience the astounding adventure of the Chic-Chocs Mountain Lodge in the heart of Gaspé s Matane wildlife reserve. Discover the Chic-Chocs mountains. Relax in the outdoor spa. Savour the exquisite mountain cuisine of the renowned chef Alain Laflamme. Our package, including lodging, 3 meals per day, a guide, alpine touring and snowshoe equipment and a snowcat shuttle, starts at $255*. You too can experience the choc of this astoundingly chic mountain lodge. For details visit Steve Deschênes Live the Choc of the astoundingly Chic. * Price per night, per person, double occupancy. Taxes not included. Price may change without notice. Congratulations to the Alpine Club of Canada on your centennial. A Mountain Culture production of

33 The Association of Canadian Mountain Guides Congratulates you on your first 100 years Proud Partners Since 1963 Professional Leadership High Standards Great Experiences For Mountain Conditions Reports

34 Join Us for a Mountain Rockies Classic Peaks & Ski Tours Date: March Cost: $ GST Staff: Geoff Ruttan, Mike Stuart Ski some of the best classic peaks and tours in the Canadian Rockies Mts. Hector, Field and Jimmy Simpson, Surprise Pass, Dolomite Circuit, Purple Bowl and more. Based out of the CAC at Lake Louise, this action packed week will not disappoint! Fairy Meadow Ski Extravaganza Date: March Cost: $ GST Staff: T. Styles, S. King, B. Critchley, M. Carpenter Join us on our annual journey to one of the greatest backcountry ski destinations in North America the Bill Putnam Hut at Fairy Meadow. Great food, great people, peak bagging and bottomless powder are to be expected. Moberly Pass Ski Camps Week 1 Date: March 24-April 1 Staff: L. Andrews, T. & L. Palechuk, R. Andrews Week 2 Date: March 31 (eve) April 8 Staff: H. Sovdat, T. Styles, D. Dornian, P. Roozendaal Cost: $ GST Our 2006 tent-based ski camp will be held in this littlevisited area which boasts a deep snowpack, varied terrain, & mild weather. With access by helicopter, we will sleep in mountain tents, but will have the convenience of big tents in which to dry gear, warm up, & eat sumptuous meals. Bugaboos Ski Mountaineering Date: April Cost: $ GST Staff: Pat Baird, Felix Camire Join us in Bugaboo Provincial Park for phenomenal ski touring and peak bagging. The Bugs are probably the single best spot for ski mountaineering in Canada the position and views are truly amazing. (Pat Baird, 2005) Bugaboos to Silent Pass Traverse Date: April Cost: $ GST Staff: Conrad Janzen, Ray Norman The week will involve hard physical effort & unforgettable rewards as we travel through some of the most outstanding glaciated geography in the Purcell Mountains. Ascents of Mt. Conrad & Malloy are possible. Yukon ACC Centennial Camp Dates: June 2-18 Cost: $ GST Staff: Helen Sovdat, Paul Geddes From camp, ski mountaineering ascents of numerous snow and ice covered peaks are possible, including opportunities for first ascents. Mts Badham (3670 m) and Donjek (3560 m) are a short distance from camp. A high camp is planned for the Mt. Walsh/Steele col. Views of Canada s highest mountains: Logan, Lucania, Steele and Walsh, will fill the horizons. photo by Nancy Hansen Bow Valley Rock Review Date: June 29 July 3 Cost: $995 + GST Staff: Grant Meekins, Brett Lawrence, D. Nelson Kick your summer off by learning or reviewing all of the basics for multi-pitch climbing & rappelling, short roping & basic rock rescue. We will spend 4 days climbing & learning on 5.5 to 5.7 limestone & quartzite. First Summits Summer Mountaineering Date: June 29 July 3 Cost: $850 + GST Staff: Peter Amann, Gabrielle Savard This hut-based camp on the Wapta Icefield will cater to members looking to learn or refresh skills in: terrain evaluation, route selection, glacier travel and navigation, crevasse rescue systems and more. The Full Wapta Traverse Date: July 8-15 Cost: $ GST Staff: Murray Toft, Pattie Roozendaal Learn about glacier travel and summer mountaineering on this incredible journey across the Wapta Icefield. We will stay in four different ACC huts, and ascents will be attempted on several peaks. Women s Camp Date: July 9-14 Cost: $995 + GST Staff: A. Andrews, J. Olson, J. Clarke The intent of this mountaineering camp is to provide opportunities for women to work on leading skills & gain mountaineering experience. The camp will be based out of the Bow & Peyto Huts on the stunning Wapta Icefield. Rockies Panorama Date: July Cost: $ GST Staff: Marco Delesalle, Jeff Bullock This camp is aimed at aspiring mountaineers & those who want to explore the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The week involves traversing through 3 national parks & staying at 4 classic ACC huts, including the new Fay Hut. Yoho Valley Centennial Camp Date: July Cost: $ GST Staff: Cyril Shokoples Peter Amann, Cam Roe, Dave McCormick, Bev Bendell This week of hiking, scrambling and mountaineering will be in celebration of the ACC s first General Mountaineering Camp at Yoho Pass in Based out of the Stanley Mitchell Hut, most evenings will feature a special guest speaker. Mts. Tsar & Clemenceau Climbing Date: July Cost: $ GST Staff: D. Smith, D. Glowacki, T. Haggarty With its huge relief, grand views & terrific mountaineering, it will be a very lucky group of members who get to venture into this remote country. Climbing objectives include Mts. Tsar, Somervell, Clemenceau, Tusk & others. photo by Daniel Dufresne Lake O Hara Clim Date: July 29 Aug 5 C Staff: J. Gudjonson, G. Ru Join us at the incomparable L exploration & peak bagging. B Elizabeth Parker & Abbot Huts Mts. Odaray, Schaffer, Wiwaxy, Peak Weekend A Andromeda Date: August 3-7 C Staff: Ken Wylie, Andrew Mts. Athabasca and Androme should be on every mountain Both over 11,000 feet, these p and ice climbs of moderate di Fryatt Valley Clim Date: August 5-12 Staff: Aaron Beardmore, M The Fryatt Valley in Jasper offe objectives from the comforts be on rock, snow & ice, and th opportunities with lakes, glac explore. Jumbo Glacier Cl Date: August C Staff: Roger Laurilla, Ma The Jumbo Glacier area is the interior ranges of B.C. Mts. Far Karnak and Commander, all o our campsite. Sorcerer Lodge C Date: August C Staff: J. Gudjonson, C. Ja Sorcerer Lodge in the Selkirks mountaineering objectives lik Matterhorn and Mt. Pearce. Th wilderness experience it is r the weak-hearted. 55+ Trekking and Date: August C Staff: F. Taxbock, P. Duffy This camp is aimed at those o for easy-to-moderate mounta spectacular hiking opportunit Gibson Hut in Jasper, horses a loads in and out of the hut. Mountain Photog Date: Sept C Instructor: Richard Berr This weekend workshop, duri concentrates on improving co skills through lectures, field tr photographs taken during th

35 Adventure bing Adventure ost: $ GST ttan, D. Dornian ake O Hara for a week of ased out of the historic, climbing objectives include Victoria, Lefroy & others. thabasca & ost: $895 + GST Langsford, Deryl Kelly da at the Columbia Icefield eer s list of peaks to climb. eaks provide superb snow fficulty. bing Camp Cost: $ GST ike Stuart, Matt Mueller rs excellent mountaineering of the Fryatt Hut. Climbs will ere are also abundant hiking iers, caves & meadows to imbing Camp ost: $ GST t Peter, Cam Roe Columbia Icefield of the nham, Delphine, Jumbo, er 11,000, will tower around limbing Camp ost: $ GST zen, Z. Robinson is surrounded by stunning e Mt. Iconoclast, Little e area is very much a ugged, remote, and not for Climbing Camp ost: $ GST, D. Toole, T. Cooper ver 55 who are looking ineering routes and/or ies. Based out of the Watesnd porters will ease our raphy Workshop ost: $325 + GST y ng the peak of fall colours, mposition and technical ips and by reviewing e course Centennial General Mountaineering Camp Dates: July 1 to August 12, 2006 (six one-week camps) Cost: $1295 (one week) + GST $1195 (additional weeks) + GST an ACC tradition since The Centennial GMC will be held in the Premier Range of the Cariboo Mountains in BC. At an elevation of 2215 m (7400 ) we will have a spectacular campsite situated in a small basin that is graced by the beauty of the Kiwa Glacier. We will have access to over 15 peaks with varying degrees of difficulty, ranging in height from 2910 m (9550 ) to 3520 m (11,550 ). Possible ascents include Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir John Abbott, Richard Bennett, Mackenzie King, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, Goodell, Twin Towers, Bivouac and Black Martin. The area has great diversity and offers up a variety of climbing from scrambles to technical rock climbing, as well as the snow and ice of the Kiwa, Laurier, Tete and Black Martin Glaciers. The camp operates on a seven day, Saturday to Saturday basis. Camp fees cover tent accommodation, guiding and instruction, sumptuous meals, helicopter flight in and out and group climbing equipment (not personal gear). This camp is aimed at all mountaineers from novices to the very experienced. You Won t Forget! photo by Jackie Clark Find Out More For more information on each camp, including their levels of difficulty, please visit our website at and follow the links to Mountain Adventures. Alternatively, call Jon Rollins at the ACC s National Office (403) , ext. 112 or him at: adventures@alpineclubofcanada.ca Ecuador s Volcanoes Dates: Nov 6-23, 2006 Cost: $4800 (no GST) Staff: Helen Sovdat, Tim Haggarty Ecuador is a beautiful country that is home to some of the world s highest volcanoes. The climbing objectives on this expedition will include Cayambe (5791 m/18,996 ), Cotapaxi (5895 m/19,335 ) and Chimborazo (6311 m/20,700 ). This trip is an excellent choice for anyone wanting to gain some high altitude experience with relatively non-technical summits. Aconcagua Expedition Dates: Jan 14-Feb 6, 2007 Cost: TBA Staff: TBA Aconcagua is the highest peak in the western hemisphere at 6962 m/22,841. We will ascend the normal route mostly rocky terrain with one snow and ice slope near the summit. The route is non-technical, however the high altitude must not be taken lightly. Come and share this amazing opportunity to experience other cultures, austral beauty, and a challenging adventure. photo by Pat Morrow The North Face Centennial Summer Leadership Course Date: July 29-August 5 Cost: $650 + GST Apply by: May 1, 2006 Staff: Cyril Shokoples, Kirsten Knechtel, Masten Brolsma Held at the 2006 Premier Range GMC, this course is aimed at current ACC trip leaders and will deal with the following leadership skills: rope handling (specifically in general mountaineering situations); glacier travel; route planning and selection; navigation; multi-pitch climbing; rescue systems; group dynamics, interaction and management; and emergency-situation response.

36 Canadian Mountian Holidays Heart Grabbing Mountain Adventures

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38 Congratulations to the Alpine Club of Canada and your centennial anniversary Lincoln Park, Canmore, AB Toll Free North America: Proud Corporate Member ALPINE, ROCK & ICE CLIMBING - MOUNTAINEERING - SKI TOURING SKI MOUNTAINEERING - AVALANCHE SAFETY - HIKING & TREKKING Giving Direction to Mountain Adventure. OFFICIAL CLOTHING SPONSOR

39 2007 SKI WEEK LOTTERIES The Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut lottery will take place on May 1, 2006 for the 2007 ski season at Fairy Meadow. The Kokanee Glacier Cabin lottery will take place on May 22, 2006 for the 2007 ski season at Kokanee. Lottery forms are available on the ACC website. For more info, visit: and click on the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut or Kokanee Glacier Cabin. PHOTO BY JOHN DERICK Summer Job Opportunities The ACC is looking for four responsible individuals to work as full time Custodians at the Kokanee Glacier Cabin (early June to late October) and at the Conrad Kain Hut in Bugaboo Provincial Park (mid June to mid September). In order to qualify, you must be: Honest and reliable Customer service oriented Mechanically minded and handy with tools Experienced in backcountry travel Physically fit and healthy Applicants must also have valid standard first aid and CPR prior to beginning work. The jobs are loosely scheduled on a weekon week-off basis. During the week-off, subsidized staff accommodation is available at the Clubhouse property in Canmore. Custodians will be paid $90/ day based on a 7.5 hour workday, plus a car allowance, plus a bonus, if earned. The deadline for applications is April 15, Please submit your resume to: Carole Perkins, Facilities Administration Manager cperkins@alpineclubofcanada.ca Box 8040, Canmore, Alberta T1W 2T8 OR fax: (403) Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

40 In order to establish the Alpine Club of Canada as an organization of true international stature, Arthur Wheeler recognized that its activities had to embrace the great remaining climbing challenges of the day. Foremost, but not alone among these, was the ascent of the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. Though a bold ascent had already been claimed, there were doubts about whether the true summit had in fact been reached. In 1913, the Alpine Club of Canada set out to make sure there was no doubt whatsoever about whether Canadians could climb this giant. Mount Robson At 3954 metres, Mount Robson reaches 3000 metres above Kinney Lake which lies at its base. It is not only its height however, that gives Robson its formidable character, but its sheer mass. It dominates not just the skyline, but the very atmosphere of every valley, pass, river, waterfall and lake in its vicinity. Viewed from Highway 16, Mount Robson is a massive layer cake of dark and light rock, stacked with the fine gradation of a carefully constructed café latte. Its South Face is split by a glacier and smeared with snow patches. On its north side, the mountain harbours one of the most impressive glacier systems in all the Rockies, via which most mountaineers attempt to climb the peak. With Robson towering so high above any of its neighbours, the prevailing westerly winds struggle to pass over it, more often than not leaving the summit enshrouded in clouds, no matter how pleasant the day at valley bottom. The ensuing high precipitation levels have created a cedar forest at Robson s base that is unique to the Rockies. Moisture-laden air also causes the formation of teeth-like pinnacles across the summit crest. There is no easy route up the mountain, made all the more challenging by frequently poor weather. As the Rockies highest, Robson was a highly sought after prize. At the Club s 1906 camp, Arthur Oliver Wheeler encouraged Arthur Philomen Coleman, a veteran explorer and geologist to organize an attempt. The following summer Coleman, his brother Lucius, Jack Boker and an intrepid reverend from New Brunswick named George Kinney spent 39 days plotting a course to the mountain. They returned in 1908, when Kinney climbed alone through snow clogged chimneys and across ledges to the lower spine of what is now known as the Emperor Ridge, turning back at 3200 metres as a storm threatened. After two attempts, Kinney became obsessed with making the first ascent of the mountain. In 1909 he embarked on a solo expedition, en route teaming up with a fit and energetic horse wrangler named Donald Curly Phillips who agreed to attempt Robson as his very first climb. On their fifth try at the summit, and in poor weather believing they were a few hundred feet below the peak from where masses of snow prevented further progress, they left a Canadian flag and an ascent record in the rocks proclaiming they had climbed the mountain for God, Country and the Alpine Club of Canada. While their climb was heralded a great accomplishment, and the CAJ published the article Kinney and Phillips co-authored, speculation brewed as to the veracity of their claim. Decades later the matter was considered settled after a team from the Harvard Mountaineering Club, while descending Robson s steep northwest bowl in 1959, found Kinney s summit register in a rusty tin can, a few hundred metres below and west of the summit. To this day, however, no one has ever doubted the courage the committed Kinney brought to his many attempts on the mountain. Wheeler however, had his own plans for the mountain all along. In 1911 he led a major scientific expedition to the area with guide Conrad Kain, photographer Byron Harmon, Curly Phillips as outfitter and George Kinney as general assistant, A.H. MacCarthy, Elizabeth MacCarthy, Caroline Hinman, Conrad Kain and unidentified boy with Hinman party on Resplendent Mountain. ACC camp at Mount Robson PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND CAROLE HARMON 38 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

41 Conrad Kain during the 1913 ACC Robson camp PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND CAROLE HARMON plus four biologists from Washington D.C. s Smithsonian Institute. Bored and restless one day, Kain soloed Mount Whitehorn. He also made a first ascent of Mount Resplendent with Byron Harmon. From the summit they admired a stupendous view including Robson s eastern side. The 1911 expedition served a greater purpose than collecting plant and animal specimens. It was the basis of a plan to make sure the mountain was climbed. In 1913, Wheeler organized a special Alpine Club of Canada camp at Mount Robson. Attendance at the camp was limited to active members who rode special luxury cars on the newly completed Grand Trunk Northern Railway to an unofficial stop near Yellowhead Pass. Kinney was not there, but Curly Phillips was in charge of packing. For the summit team, Wheeler chose W.W. Billy Foster B.C. Deputy Minister of Public Works, and Albert Mack MacCarthy, a New Jersey banker, retired U.S. navy captain and prominent American Alpine Club member. The ascent was to be guided by Conrad Kain. Of the event, Foster wrote the ACC had come to climb Robson, the monarch of the Canadian Rockies, a peak which the Club s Executive had determined to make its own. On July 30, the three men bivied on the moraine and began climbing at first light. They ascended Robson Glacier, climbed the icefall to the Dome and negotiated the tricky bergschrund. With a thin layer of melting snow on the ice face, Kain cut 105 steps in a zigzag fashion to a rock ledge then led up a 60 metre ice slope. After more rock walls, more snow and ice slopes and lots more steps, they reached what is now known as The Roof a maze of ice walls. Never before on all my climbs have I seen such snow formations, Kain wrote, The snow walls were terraced. The ledges between the walls were of different widths, and all were covered in loose snow. I often sank to my hips Some of the walls were In all my mountaineering in various countries, I have climbed only a few mountains that were hemmed in with more difficulties. Mount Robson is one of the most dangerous expeditions I have made. The dangers consist in snow and ice, stone avalanches, and treacherous weather. fifteen to twenty metres high. It was difficult to find a way up from one terrace to another. Not too long afterward, Kain spoke his now famous line, Gentlemen, that s as far as I can take you. Just then the clouds rolled away to reveal the spectacular panorama of peaks and glaciers. Kain wrote they spent 15 minutes on the summit, 10 pleasurable, five teeth chattering. Retracing their steps to the shoulder and knowing steep ground and afternoon avalanches would prevent them from returning the way they d ascended, Kain led them down the west side. Working their way down the south glacier, retreating at dead ends and climbing beneath dangerous overhanging ice, they finally moved off the glacier and onto the rocks, where they spent a cold night with seracs calving off and thundering nearby. In the morning they worked their way down chimneys and cracks, crossed under the glacier s snout, which exposed them to big icefall danger, and finally made it to camp at Berg Lake. It had been by far among the most difficult ascents to date in North America and the Kain route was not repeated for 40 years. Wheeler had his perfect climb, and it was not without its sensation, as over the campfire, Phillips announced that four years earlier he and Kinney hadn t climbed the last 60 or 70 feet to the summit. Wheeler Conrad Kain Canadian Alpine Journal, officially declared the 1913 climb to be the first. In 1924, the Club returned to Robson for its annual camp, once more setting the stage for a notable ascent, when with Conrad Kain in the lead, Phyllis Munday became the first woman to set foot on the mountain s summit via its South Face route, followed shortly afterward by four male climbers and Miss Annette Buck. During the 35-hour outing, Munday showed her exceptional leadership skills when the group was forced to spend the night out at 3200 metres. Since Kain led the first Alpine Club of Canada ascent in 1913, determined mountaineers have pioneered nearly a dozen routes on the mountain. But none have been more satisfying than those made when the ACC was young, and great climbers were making first ascents of great Canadian peaks. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

42 With the highest mountain in the Rockies climbed, the next major prize was the highest mountain in the country Mount Logan. The peak s great remoteness and almost Himalayan height, however, would ensure it would not fall easily. This was not a mountain that could be climbed in a day or even a week. The first ascent of Mount Logan was a major expedition that demanded all the resources of both Canadian and American Alpine Clubs. It remains a difficult climb to this day. Hauling supplies by sled PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES # V014/AC 0P/808(17) Mount Logan While virtually the entire mountaineering world was absorbed in the British attempts on Mount Everest, the Alpine Club of Canada focused its sights on another of the world s great mountaineering challenges Mount Logan. Soaring into the Yukon sky at 5959 metres, Logan measures 100 kilometres around its base. The massive, complex mountain supports a 20 km long upper plateau, most of it above 5000 metres, surrounded by numerous peaks approaching 6000 metres. At 60 degrees latitude, the region is home to some of the planet s coldest weather. Ferocious storms barge in from the Pacific depositing monstrous snowfalls that create glaciers of a magnitude of size exceeded only in Greenland and Antarctica. Mount Logan is one of the planet s greatest mountains and as such presents mountaineers with an irresistible challenge. Even today, with planes and far better and lighter equipment, many more set out than succeed in reaching its dizzying summit. The idea of sending an expedition to Logan germinated in ACC circles after A.O. Wheeler brought it up at the 1913 Mount Robson camp. The idea, however, took a back seat to World War I. Ten years later the Mount Logan Executive Committee appointed Albert Mack MacCarthy expedition leader. At that time, just getting to the mountain promised a huge adventure. Standing 240 km from the nearest human habitation, not only was a potential route to the summit unclear; the route to its base was largely unknown. Through June and July 1924, MacCarthy, Andy Taylor and Miles Scotty Atkinson explored nearly 160 km over 45 days up the Chitina River valley, then travelled another 80 km over the Chitina Glacier, Logan Glacier and Ogilvie Glacier to finally reach the mountain s base. With its upper section shrouded in clouds, the climbing route was still in doubt. The severity of the approach however, was clear establishing a base camp on the Ogilvie Glacier would involve ferrying a mountain of supplies. In the dark of the Arctic winter, on February 17, 1925 MacCarthy, Taylor, Atkinson, assisted by Henry Olsen, Austin Trim, William Meyers, six horses pulling two big bobsleds and 21 dogs left McCarthy Alaska with nearly 9000 kilograms of supplies and equipment. Enduring open water, ice jams and minus 45 degree temperatures, they travelled up the Chitina Valley. After 10 days they reached an abandoned prospector s cabin and sent the horses back to McCarthy. Following the Chitina Glacier s south flank, they negotiated a constantly fluctuating gorge carved by a glacial stream where they had to lead the dogs along a thin ice shelf frozen to the rock wall hanging above the raging torrent. They made it through just before the shelf collapsed. By March 31 they established camp on the Logan Glacier, from where travel was relatively smooth onto the Ogilvie Glacier. Fifteen kilometres further they cached 2150 kg of food, supplies and equipment for the climb, leaving a second 450 kg cache not much further above it. On May 12 the team left McCarthy Alaska led by MacCarthy, a retired U.S. navy captain and veteran of first ascent of Mount Robson, with deputy leader Howard Frederick John Lambart, a Dominion government surveyor who worked for seven years along the Alaska-Yukon border, Major General William Wasborough Foster, also on the Robson first ascent, and Andrew Morrison Taylor, adventurer, prospector, miner and hunting guide, plus four Americans Allen Carpe, representing the American Alpine Club, Henry Hall Jr., R.M. Morgan and Norman H. Read. MacCarthy, Foster and Taylor were all 49 years old; Lambart was 45. In fine weather, they made steady progress to the Ogilvie Glacier, then moved loads 13 kilometres further to Cascade Camp, 30 km from the summit. Working their way up a huge icefall to the top of Quartz Hill, they ferried another 680 kilograms of supplies to Observation Camp at 3120 metres, then on to King Trench, a narrow glacial corridor beneath the north face of King Peak leading to King Col on the mountain s west shoulder. 40 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

43 The 1925 Mount Logan Expedition leaving Cascade Camp PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES # V014/AC 0P/808(17) With some of our party snow-blind, others near the limit of exhaustion, and all with either feet or hands or both touched with frost, I am sure that terrible ordeal on Hurricane Hill will long remain in the recollection of every member of the party as the most dangerous menace to life and limb the expedition offered. A.H. MacCarthy Canadian Alpine Journal 1925 Then the good weather came to an end. The climbers would battle storms for the rest of the expedition. Feeling their way up to King Col in fog and driving sleet, they planted willow wands every 30 metres to mark their route in case of a whiteout on their return. By June 10 they d brought ten loads to King Col Camp at 4100 metres, then sat out a snowstorm until the morning of the 13. The next day the entire team broke trail through metre-deep fresh snow. Wearily working their way through a labyrinth of crevasses and ice blocks, they camped at 4815 metres. The storm returned the next day. On the 16th they reached Windy Camp at 5180 metres, where the night temperatures dropped to minus 38 C. The next day everyone climbed to a high saddle between two peaks but through breaking clouds realized the summit was still a long way away. Circling north they reached a pass at 5500 metres leading to the summit plateau. After two more stormy days, they stumbled back to Windy Camp in a blizzard, collapsing in their eiderdown sleeping bags. On a cold and blustery June 20 they carried loads to Prospector s Pass at 5500 metres, where it stormed through the night. With frozen feet, Morgan, joined by Henry Hall, descended. The six others set off at 3 p.m. under clear skies on the 21st, camping in the pass by 10 p.m. Altitude took its toll, their actions were slow, painful and inefficient. Fingers frozen, they packed up the next day and descended 200 metres to what they would later call Hurricane Hill. With food and fuel for eight days stashed at Plateau Camp at 5325 metres, they knew their strength wouldn t last that long. The night of the 22nd, a violent storm nearly destroyed their small tents. But the next day the wind subsided and the clouds broke. Foster led, then Carpe and MacCarthy, with Lambart, Read and Taylor following on a second rope. Walking on windpacked snow to the base of a double peak, they donned crampons to reach the summit and realized they must travel another three kilometres with a 300 m drop between the peaks. Placing their last willow wand in the dip, finally at 8 p.m. MacCarthy led the group along a knife edge ridge to the summit, where we all shook hands and were foolishly happy in the success of our venture and the thoughts that our troubles were at and end. Starting down after 20 minutes, dense fog rolled in and the wind increased. With no wands and footprints soon erased, they wandered lost for four hours in the Arctic half-light, stopping at 1:30 a.m. Using ice axes and snowshoes, they excavated meagre shelters against the storm that raged into the morning. It took two hours after MacCarthy ordered them to move to get going; the long hours of shivering and nightmares having seriously drained the small reserves strength of our party. Taylor led carefully through the whiteout and finally they spotted a wand, but soon afterward as one stopped to adjust a crampon strap, the teams became separated. Lambart, Taylor and Read returned to Plateau Camp, while MacCarthy, Foster and Carpe wandered in fog. Hopelessly lost they trudged through the night fighting a storm. Exhausted and hallucinating, they stopped twice to nap restlessly in snow holes. When the fog lifted in the morning, they struggled down Plateau Camp and spent the next 24 hours eating and sleeping. But the nightmare wasn t over. Under clear skies they left behind tents and sleeping pads to climb Hurricane Hill. Stopping to put on crampons, a bitter wind tore into them. Spent and fearful of holding the others back, Lambart urged them to continue without him, but MacCarthy would have none of it. Finally they reached the pass at 5500 metres, took a break behind some rocks and then continued downhill. Retrieving their boots at Windy Camp, they descended to Col Camp where they ate, drank and slept for 36 hours. Foster was treated for frozen fingers and toes some of which were turning black. From the top of Quartz Hill, the normally 15 minute descent to Cascade Camp took three painful hours. Their final two-week journey back to civilization was an arduous and dangerous struggle. No summit, in the history of the Alpine Club of Canada was ever more hard-won. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

44 In the early years of Canadian mountaineering access was one of the central challenges facing climbers. With the gradual development of its expanded hut system, the Alpine Club of Canada was able to offer safe, if rustic, refuge in some of the best climbing areas in the country. Well maintained and well run, the Alpine Club of Canada s huts offer an open invitation to explore this country s mountains. Elizabeth Parker Hut, Yoho National Park, B.C. PHOTO BY MELODY GROSS Refuges Among the High Peaks Motoring through Kootenay National Park in a Studebaker on what is now called Highway 93 South was an exotic thing to do in 1928, especially if you wanted to visit Fay Hut. Full of adventure, Alpine Club of Canada members would drive as far as Marble Canyon and continue up the Tokumm Creek trail on horseback a means of travel many consider exotic today to a cozy, dim, but utterly charming single room log cabin reserved for the exclusive use of mountaineers. The hut was named for Charles Fay, the first President of the American Alpine Club and a great friend of Canadian mountaineering. Though Fay Hut was not the ACC s first hut, it was the first to be built entirely under the aegis of the Club rather than in association with Canadian Pacific Railway. Three generations of hikers and climbers enjoyed the hospitality provided under Fay Hut s peaked roof before it was consumed by a wildfire that burned much of Kootenay National Park in August of The rebuilding of the Fay Hut in 2005 was one of the most positively energizing events in ACC history and a perfect prelude to the Club s Centennial. At the time of its 100th birthday, the Alpine Club of Canada is proud to operate 24 huts in some of the most spectacular mountain landscapes in the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirk and Purcell ranges. The ACC also operates five section huts in Ontario, New York State and British Columbia s Coast Mountains. Over the more than 75 years since Fay Hut hosted its first guests, Alpine Club of Canada backcountry huts have continued to provide not only physical shelter from the caprices of high mountain weather, but welcome refuge for those who seek spiritual fulfillment among the rocky peaks and ancient glaciers of our mountains. Log cabin, stone house or sturdy metal Quonset, ACC backcountry huts are not merely buildings, they are mountain homes to which visitors return again and again with longing and affection. When the Alpine Club of Canada was formed in 1906, attention was focussed almost immediately on the need to build a permanent facility to accommodate Club activities and visiting mountaineers. In 1909, the ACC s first Clubhouse opened its doors on the slopes of Banff s Sulphur Mountain, close to Middle Springs. For more than 60 years it remained one of the grandest heritage buildings in the Canadian Rockies. When Parks Canada insisted on it being demolished in 1971, Canada lost one of its greatest historic treasures. A new Clubhouse did, however, open later at the present Indian Flats location in Canmore. Through the commitment of a generation of committed staff and volunteers, the Canmore Clubhouse has become a centre for mountaineers in the Rockies. In 2004 it welcomed guests from around the world and recorded a whopping 10,778 visitor-nights in its hostel facilities. While consolidating its operations in Canmore, the ACC also dramatically expanded its role in providing refuge among the high mountains by building new alpine huts and taking over and restoring huts that had been built by others. In 1919, the Canadian Pacific Railway built a log cabin at O Hara Meadows. In 1923, it built a sturdy stone house at Abbot Pass, on a col between Mount Victoria and Mount Lefroy above Lake Louise. The same Swiss guides who hauled supplies up the Death Trap to build Abbot Hut, had also recommended the location for Fay Hut. In time, Fay Hut and the huts at Abbot Pass and Lake O Hara would become the core of a developing system of backcountry facilities that would change how Canadians experienced their mountains. It was not just the national organization that was involved in this evolution. Individual Club sections did a great deal in their own interest, and in the interest of Canadians. Eager to promote the Rockies regions recently made accessible by the Canadian National Railway line, the 20-strong Edmonton Section raised funds to build a cabin in the Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park. Combining its resources with the Soldiers and Slark-Rutis Memorial Funds, the Edmonton Section made the cabin a joint memorial to climbers who lost their lives in the Canadian mountains and Club members who gave their lives in the Great War. Clearing snow to lay the foundation in late June of 1929, section volunteers battled mosquitoes and steady rain to finish the hut later that summer. Memorial Cabin was officially dedicated in mid August, the day before Capt. E.R. Gibson, W.E. Streng and Bunny Cautley made Outpost Peak s first ascent. With no set charge for the general public, 50 cents per night toward maintenance was suggested. A completely new and much expanded Wates-Gibson Memorial Hut was built in The hut commemorates the contributions to mountaineering and backcountry skiing by two of the Club s former Presidents, Cyril Wates and Rex Gibson.

45 Opening the newly constructed Fay Hut, August 2005 PHOTO BY RICHARD BERRY her memory is preserved by the very popular tribute inscribed with her name, the Elizabeth Parker Hut, maintained in one of the most charming centres of the Canadian Rockies, close by beautiful Lake O Hara. Malcolm Tabs Talbot first joined the Huts Committee in Twenty years and some 50 work parties later, Tabs, now Chairman of the Committee, continues to plan and lead work parties. In 2006 the intent is to go to the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut to replace the roof, amongst other things. I once asked Tabs why he devoted so much time to the huts. He told me that he felt that when he retired he would always have a place to visit and stay in the mountains. As such l believe that we should nominate Tabs as one of the best volunteers of the century. Mike Mortimer Two years after the first Memorial Hut in Jasper, the CPR donated its O Hara Meadows cabin to the Club, and members promptly spent $518 on improvements. They also paid tribute to the Club s formation by renaming it for Elizabeth Parker. It was not until 1985 that Parks Canada turned over Abbot Pass Hut which it acquired in a run-down state from the CPR in the 1960s to the ACC. In the meantime, additional huts were being constructed throughout the mountain west with other aims besides meeting the needs of summer mountaineers. In 1937, Montreal s Helen Trenholme donated $1500 toward a hut to be named after Stanley Mitchell, in recognition of his huge volunteer contribution to the Club and his great popularity among beginner climbers. Despite October snowstorms and the necessity of using unseasoned logs, Stanley Mitchell Hut was handed over to the Club in mid-october 1939 and promptly hosted the Club s annual ski camp the following March. Six years later, a two-storey log cabin located at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park and named for Arthur Oliver Wheeler would become another enormously popular winter Club destination. Until the 1960s, the ACC s mountain huts were constructed on site, below tree line and, with the exception of Abbot Hut, built of logs. Helicopter technology however, facilitated construction of shelters in less accessible high alpine locations where first ascents were still possible. In August 1964 a dozen volunteers climbed up to Glacier National Park s Sapphire Col to assemble the country s first prefabricated high altitude bivouac shelter. Designed by architect Philippe Delesalle, this structure marked the beginning of a new era in alpine hut construction and operation. That same year, Bill Putnam and Ben Ferris began constructing the Great Cairn Hut using stones from a six metre cairn erected in 1953 by Harvard Mountaineering Club members sitting out a rainy day. It was completed in 1965, the same year as Fairy Meadow Hut. In honour of their lifelong support for Canadian mountaineering, Great Cairn Hut was renamed Great Cairn Ben Ferris Hut in 1996, and Fairy Meadow Hut was renamed Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut in While Putnam focused his attention on the Arthur Oliver Wheeler The Canadian Alpine Journal Selkirk s remote peaks and glaciers, ACMG guide Peter Fuhrmann looked to the Rockies Wapta Icefield to facilitate European style traverses. Starting with Balfour in 1965, the fibreglass Wapta igloos were predicted to serve a few hardy ski mountaineers willing to carry packs and endure stormy nights in the rudimentary shelters. Conceived by Fuhrmann and funded by Vici and Lucho Mondolfo and built by Calgary Ski Club and ACC volunteers, Balfour Hut endured terrific storms, dismantling and reconstruction with Swiss Army knives, and plundering by wolverines until being replaced by a cedar log successor. Located on Mount Olive s south side, the refuge served skiers well for 18 years, until the current hut at the toe of Vulture Glacier was built in Part of the Wapta system, the Peter and Catharine Whyte Hut is also known as the Peyto Hut because of its location. The hut started out in 1967 as a 12-person fibreglass igloo. Soon after construction, it was taken over by Parks Canada who replaced it with a white wolverine-proof fibreglass bubble. In 1983 a large Whyte family donation facilitated construction of the current building, which was further improved by Huts Committee volunteers in Another generous Whyte donation supported Bow Hut s construction in Easy access however, attracted unappreciative crowds, so in 1989 Huts Committee Chair Mike Mortimer spearheaded construction of a new, modern Bow Hut half a kilometre from the original site. Last renovated in 2003, Bow Hut features open sleeping areas, two woodstoves, indoor toilets, propane cooking, lights and a custodian s room. This hut also sets a new high standard for waste, water and energy management for alpine huts in North America. In order to complete Canada s Haute Route, Rocky Mountain Section members built the Scott Duncan Hut in Its construction was funded largely by Calgary s Duncan family in memory of their son. Scott Duncan is the only Wapta hut never run by Parks Canada which, after recognizing its competence in managing and maintaining backcountry refuges in sensitive environments, turned over Balfour, Bow and Peyto Huts to the Alpine Club of Canada in Today, many hikers and climbers are first introduced to the ACC by staying in a backcountry hut. By way of this experience thousands of Canadians have come to appreciate our long tradition of shared alpine experience, a heritage that would not exist today were it not for the century-long commitment of Alpine Club of Canada maintenance staff and volunteers who have worked so diligently to maintain and cherish their alpine huts. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

46 There is one branch of mountaineering which has so far received but scant attention from those to whom the Rocky Mountains are a happy hunting ground, and that is winter mountaineering by the use of ski. It is quite easy to see how this fascinating means of carrying out mountain trips in winter has not so far come into prominence, for winter sports in the Rockies are at present in the pioneer stage only. E.R. Gibson Canadian Alpine Journal 1930 Ice River ice school, led by Rex Gibson in 1954 PHOTO BY LEN CHATWIN Slopes and Summits In recognizing the potential of skimountaineering, Rex Gibson was just a little ahead of his time. By the end of the century, the mountains of western Canada would be heralded internationally for offering some of the world s greatest backcountry and ski mountaineering opportunities. Alpine Club of Canada members, including Gibson, were among those who broke trail pioneering several long distance wilderness ski traverses and making the first ski ascents of prominent Canadian mountains. The Club s contributions toward the development of ski mountaineering weren t limited to the members exploratory ventures, however. Its over two-dozen backcountry huts continue to this day to make backcountry skiing more accessible to growing numbers of enthusiasts. While ACC huts provide comfort in the rugged alpine environment in summertime, their value increases greatly during the harsh, frosty winter months. Huts, particularly Yoho National Park s Stanley Mitchell and Elizabeth Parker Huts, A.O. Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, and those on the Rockies Wapta Icefield are popular winter destinations that make outings not only more comfortable, but also safer, allowing more and more people to enjoy the magic of the mountains in winter. Skiing came to North America in the later 19th century, imported mainly by Norwegian immigrants who settled in communities across Canada. Carving skis by hand from hickory and other hard woods, they formed ski clubs in virtually every community in which they settled. They also exhibited impressive athletic feats at competitions in ski running, downhill racing and long distance ski jumping. But while the majority of early North American skiers stuck to slopes near or in their hometowns, a few intrepid adventurers explored the wilderness. In 1929, Jasper s Joe Weiss skied solo from Jasper to near the Columbia Icefield. The following winter he set out with four others, skiing all the way from Jasper to Banff following the route that would later become the Icefields Parkway. Hooking up with Weiss over New Year s in 1931, Rex Gibson skied into the Tonquin Valley for three days. He wrote about the trip in the one of the more than a dozen articles he wrote on skiing and winter travel for the Canadian Alpine Journal. The following winter Gibson and Weiss cranked their turns up a notch, skiing up 3426 metre Resplendent Mountain, neighbour to Mount Robson. Strapping on crampons for the hard, windswept upper slopes, they reached the summit where the winds were so fierce they couldn t stand. Retreating quickly to their skis, Gibson later wrote, off came our crampons and on went our skis for the glorious thrill of the descent of nearly 5000 feet of glacier under perfect snow conditions. That same year, Winnipeg Section members Campbell Secord and brothers Roger and Ferris Neave were the first to ski onto the Wapta Icefield. Starting from Yoho Valley s Twin Falls Chalet, they skied up the Yoho Glacier, continuing to the summit of Mount Gordon. Descending the east side of the mountain to just below Vulture Col, they skied up Mount Olive s flank and scrambled to the summit. Back on the glacier, they rounded the north end of Mount Gordon and skied back down the Yoho Glacier just as the sun set. In 1937 Gibson explored new ground again, setting up camp for five nights on the Columbia Icefield with Sterling Hendricks and Ken and Hugh Boucher. Using skis, they reached the summits of Snow Dome, North Twin and Columbia Gibson and Hendricks making mountaineering history as the first to climb the four Canadian Rockies peaks over 3636 metres (12,000 feet). With the first of its annual ski camps in 1937, the ACC began opening up backcountry skiing to its general membership and the public. A 20 year veteran of backcountry skiing in the Rockies, Selkirks and Purcells, Alexander Addison Mac McCoubrey was elected editor of the CAJ in He devoted an entire section to ski mountaineering. In April 1937, McCoubrey hosted the first ACC ski camp at Lake O Hara an excellent venue for the majority of participants who were likely to be novices. Despite stormy weather, the camp was a success. While most practiced their technique near the hut, five people climbed Mount Schaeffer and another group made a three-day excursion to Fay Hut via Opabin Pass. Some participants, including McCoubrey, Rex Gibson, Ethne Gibson, Norman Brewster and Dorothy Hartley, would return year after year to the ski camps. Even though McCoubrey died just a few weeks before the 1942 camp in Little Yoho Valley, the camps endured through World War II although at the 1945 camp women outnumbered men ten to six. 44 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

47 Skiers at the Stanley Mitchell Hut during an ACC camp in 1947 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF KEN JONES I feel that this expedition has demonstrated the feasibility of winter ascents in the Rockies by means of ski and I trust it will be but a forerunner of many trips of a like nature. Rex Gibson Canadian Alpine Journal 1931 Through subsequent decades, ski camps attracting as many as 30 people were held at the Tonquin Valley s Memorial Hut, Stanley Mitchell Hut and A.O. Wheeler Hut, in a garage building at the Columbia Icefields Chalet in 1947, and at privately run cabins at Assiniboine and Mount Robson s Berg Lake. Experimenting with new technology, snowmobiles were used to haul skiers to the Bald Hills above Brewster s Lodge at Maligne Lake in 1957 and to tow skiers uphill at Little Yoho in After the formation of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides in 1963, the Club began hiring certified guides to lead camp participants on ski tours, including Leo Grillmair, Lloyd Kiwi Gallagher, Sepp Renner and Kobi Wyss. Through the 1970s the camps grew in popularity, with two camps in 1974 one for three weeks at Little Yoho and one week at Fairy Meadow. Four years later the Club ran five backcountry ski camps. In 1981 there were six. Although interest waned during the 1980s, in 1991 the Club successfully ran a ski ascent of Mount Logan and the southern half of the Great Divide Traverse, from the Columbia Icefield to Lake Louise. By the 21st century, numerous Alpine Club of Canada ski camps ran through the winter, ranging from weekend section trips to full weeks at fly-in huts, commercial lodges and tent based camps in the remote Columbia Mountains, and multi-day wilderness traverses all led by professional guides. While most Canadians are aware of their countrymen s stellar talents on the hockey rink, few are aware of our impressive accomplishments in the domain of wilderness ski traverses. In May 1967 a young team comprised of Chic Scott, Neil Liske, Don Gardner and Charlie Locke skied 300 kilometres over 21 days across glaciers and high alpine passes from Jasper to Lake Louise, establishing the Great Divide Traverse. Still a formidable challenge, it went unrepeated for 20 years. Since 1967, numerous high altitude short and long distance traverses have been pioneered, many of them by Canadians, including the Southern and Northern and Cariboos traverses in 1976 and 1982, the Northern Selkirks in 1976 and the Southern Purcells in 1982, by some of the country s most intrepid ski explorers, including Steve Smith, Don Gardner and Dave Smith. In 1991 Don Gardner accomplished his most impressive journey, skiing 900 kilometres in 28 days in March and April from his Calgary home to the Pacific without tent or stove, cooking over brush fires and camping in tree wells. Kicking off the exploits of a younger generation, in 1998 Dan Clark and Chris Gooliaff traversed the Columbia Mountains from McBride to Kimberley B.C., skiing 700 kilometres over 61 days, but unfortunately they were unable to link the Northern Selkirks with the Southern Cariboos through the Monashees. However, in April 2004, Greg Hill, Ian Bissonette and Aaron Chance completed the Northern Monashees traverse, skiing over 200 kilometres across complicated terrain from Lempriere railway siding to Kirkup Creek near Revelstoke in 21 days, bagging 21 summits along the way. Looking north, in April 2002, Lena Rowat, Jacqui Hudson, Merrie Beth Board and Kari Medig, left Chilkat Inlet near Haines, Alaska. For 54 days they skied 700 kilometres across the Saint Elias Range, spending 18 days climbing 5959 metre Mount Logan along the way. A year earlier, Canadians Guy Edwards and John Millar, joined by several friends for various sections, skied the first complete Coast traverse 2015 kilometres over five and a half months from Vancouver to Skagway Alaska. While ski resorts experienced declines in business during the 1990s and into the 21st century, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering among the peaks and glaciers of western Canada have grown steadily. Although modern skis are constructed of lightweight wood and synthetic combinations, the feeling of floating on powder snow hasn t changed at all. Perhaps, in the superconnected world of 2006, people with the ACC providing a myriad of opportunities are still finding what Norman Brewster wrote about after the 1939 Tonquin Valley camp: All will retain happy memories, of climbs, of thrilling schusses, of a sunlit world which contained no newspapers and no radios Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

48 Because of the fierce intensity of the mountaineering experience, climbers often develop a strong desire to protect the landscapes they love so that others might in the future have the opportunity to be similarly affected by them. Right from its inception, the goals of the Club were made wholly consistent with the national park ideal. In 1906, the ACC began vigorously volunteering support for the development and expansion of our country s now worldrenowned protected places system. This important work continues today in close association with the Club s National and Provincial Parks partners. Entrance to Mount Robson Provincial Park PHOTO BY R.W. SANDFORD National Parks and Protected Places At the turn of the 20th century, most of the country s mountain ranges were still remote and relatively wild. As the country was immense and most of its landscapes still largely pristine, the idea of creating national parks to protect the best and most representative landscapes was indeed a visionary ideal. Just as today, however, the notion of protecting public lands from economically productive private ownership had its opponents. Western politicians, in particular, held that newly created national parks such as Banff, Yoho and Glacier ought not to be a drain on the public purse. In order to pay for their own formation and operation, the managers of these new reserves had to accept some compromises. When the Alpine Club of Canada came into existence in 1906, logging, mining and extensive development were reluctantly being permitted in the western mountain national parks. The Club s founders could see the direction this was going and set out to argue eloquently on behalf of the preservation of these parks through changes in public policy. With science on its side, the Alpine Club of Canada became a nationally recognized champion for protection of spectacular mountain landscapes and for access to good climbing areas, not just in the Rockies, but all over the country. As with so many things associated with the Alpine Club of Canada, the man behind this was Arthur Oliver Wheeler. As one of the country s most important surveyors and mapmakers, Wheeler knew the geography of the mountain west as well as any living Canadian. He was also very well connected in both federal and provincial political circles. With outstanding maps at hand, Wheeler was able to translate what were once blank spaces on the map into concrete geographical coordinates that politicians utilized in land use decisions. For a time it seemed that wherever Wheeler went in the mountain west, landscapes were somehow transformed into national or provincial parks. The most productive period of ACC-inspired park creation began in 1911, following Wheeler s second and final term as President. In that year Wheeler was given a contract by the B.C. government to survey a road between Port Alberni to Long Beach on Vancouver Island. It turned out that the Deputy Minister of Public Works for the Province of British Columbia, W.W. Foster, was a climber and he and Wheeler became fast friends. William Foster had huge political sway and when Alpine Club of Canada members on Vancouver Island put forward the idea of creating a reserve in the spectacular mountains that form the backbone of the island, the idea was readily embraced by government. In 1911, Strathcona Park became the first provincial park in British Columbia. It was with similar purpose that Arthur Wheeler made William Foster a member of the first summit team at the Club s now famous Mount Robson Camp in In that year, Deputy Minister Foster crafted a special act in the British Columbia legislature that created Mount Robson Provincial Park. With this park as the second jewel in the foundation of a new parks system, other reserves came quickly into existence. The agents once again were Wheeler and Foster, but the vehicle was the Alpine Club of Canada. In 1913, a survey to delineate the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia was initiated by the Surveyor General in Ottawa. This landmark survey was undertaken by Robert Cautley of the Alberta Land Survey and Arthur Wheeler, who was now in charge of the British Columbia Land Survey. During the first three years, the survey concentrated on the southern Rockies, from Akamina Pass to Mount Assiniboine. On February 6, 1922, British Columbia, at the urging of the Alpine Club of Canada, set aside 5,120 hectares as Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park. It wasn t until the Interprovincial Boundary Survey was completed in 1924 that enough was known about the geography of the Columbia Icefield area that proposals could be put forward to include it in Jasper National Park. As principal author of the survey, Wheeler immediately understood the extraordinary dimensions of this ice age feature and began pressing for recognition of its significance. Through his careful lobby, an order-incouncil was passed in 1927 that placed some 2500 square kilometres south of Sunwapta Pass under national protection. The Alpine Club of Canada lobby did not stop at park creation. It was also a principal agent in the creation of the Canadian National Parks Association in The Alpine Club of Canada and the Canadian National Parks Association then joined forces to fight hydro-power development in the country s national parks. Since then, Club members have continued under the expanded 46 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

49 This Gateway to Rocky Mountains Park was located in Kananaskis until 1930 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHYTE MUSEUM OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES By virtue of its constitution, the Alpine Club is a national trust for the defence of our mountain solitudes against the intrusion of steam and electricity and all the vandalisms of this luxurious, utilitarian age; for the keeping free from the grind of commerce, the wooded passes and valleys and alplands of the wilderness. It is the people s right to have primitive access to the remote places of safest retreat from the fever and the fret of the market place and the beaten tracts of life. Elizabeth Parker The Alpine Club of Canada Canadian Alpine Journal 1907 umbrella of a growing conservation movement to press hard for the clarification of national park policy in support of firmer guidelines for protection of the country s mountain heritage. The significance of this lobby over time should not be underestimated. While it would be easy to view the history of the mountain west as the serial decline of the natural character of the region through exploitation, that is not a true picture of what has happened. Something very different, in fact, may be in play. There is a new history emerging, which defines human activity in this region based, not in the context of how we have divided it up and fragmented it, but in the remarkable steps we took, once we knew what we had, to restore the Rocky Mountains both as an ecosystem and as a place. Among the key dates in this new history are 1885, the year the country s first national park came into existence at Banff; 1886 when Yoho was created; 1906 the year the ACC was formed; 1907 when Jasper was formed; 1913 when Mount Robson became a provincial park; 1922 when Mount Assiniboine park was set aside; 1923 when Kootenay National Park was formed; 1930 when the National Parks Act was passed; 1941 when Hamber was made into a B.C. Provincial Park; 1984 when the four national parks together were granted UNESCO World Heritage Site designation; and 1990 when the three provincial parks were added to the national parks under that designation to create one of the most remarkable and significant large scale ecological and cultural reserves in the world. This great whole is much more than the sum of its parts and will continue to be so long into the future. The fact that, in a very tangible way, we are moving in the direction of restoring a landscape of this magnitude and importance to our country s future is something in which the Alpine Club of Canada should take great pride. Through individual and collective attention to minimizing our own impacts, Alpine Club of Canada members contribute to the sustainable future of our mountain regions. By striving continuously for ever higher standards for waste, water and energy management in the maintenance and operation the Club s front and backcountry huts, and by embodying the ideals of our country s expansive protected places system in all that it undertakes, the Club is achieving a century old goal of sharing meaningfully in the stewardship of places that mean a great deal to mountaineers, and to Canadians. Individual sections, such as the ones in Edmonton and Calgary, still continue the tradition of lobbying in strict defence of the national park ideal. But it is no longer just in the west, or in national and provincial parks, that Alpine Club of Canada members continue, individually and collectively, to press for protection of natural landscapes and for sustainable land use policy. At a time of rapid growth and change in our society, human use issues are becoming complex and more highly contested. In many climbing areas in the country, access is becoming a greater and greater issue. It is perhaps ironic that, a century after its inception, the Club is now having to defend the right of access in some of the natural places it helped save. As Arthur Wheeler understood a hundred years ago, we cannot live on our landscapes as we do and not expect them to change. In the next century, the Alpine Club of Canada will be faced, along with its national and provincial parks partners, with big challenges related to how we should manage and use our ever more precious mountain landscapes. Fortunately, we have the founding values of the Club to direct and inspire us. Sic itur ad astra. Let our mountains show us the way. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

50 Throughout the Alpine Club of Canada s history there have always existed those who, through hard work and sacrifice, have been able to bring the Club s complete membership together in pursuit of a larger common vision. The Yukon Alpine Centennial was one of the most exciting and inspiring events in the history of the ACC. But more important than the achievement was the manner of its doing the spirit of the enterprise which enabled so many unknown peaks to be climbed and, at the same time, so much enjoyment to be had by so many. Lord John Hunt Foreword, Expedition Yukon Base camp of the joint Canadian-Alaskan Expedition party that climbed Good Neighbour Peak, (upper left) during Canada and Alaska s Centennial in 1967 PHOTO BY GLEN BOLES 48 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 The Yukon Alpine Centennial In 1967, Canadians from coast to coast celebrated their country s 100th birthday, and fittingly, Alpine Club of Canada members planned their own memorable event. For two months during the 1967 summer, 250 people, including the nation s best climbers, gathered for the Yukon Alpine Centennial Expedition. Quite likely the largest mountaineering expedition ever undertaken, it resulted in 26 first ascents. An appropriate location for the extravaganza was selected in the Centennial Range, a cluster of unclimbed peaks above 3050 metres wedged between the St. Elias Mountain s Chitina and Walsh Glaciers. The plan boasted three impressive components. First, since 1967 also marked the centenary of the purchase of Alaska, a joint Canadian-American team would attempt the unclimbed south summit of 4789 metre Mount Vancouver, also called Good Neighbour Peak, which straddles the Alaska-Canada border. Second, 13 fourperson teams would attempt first ascents of Centennial Range peaks from three base camps on T-Bone, Prairie and Fundy Glaciers the peaks named for the ten provinces and two territories, with the highest christened Centennial Peak. Mount Saskatchewan s team would be all women. And third, the Club s annual General Mountaineering Camp would host 100 climbers from around the world. Coordinating the celebration, ACC Vice President David Fisher was assisted by Don Lyon, Phil Dowling, Eric Brooks, Bob Hind, Hans Gmoser, Frank Smith, Vera Norman, Joan Greenwood and Cam Ledingham, with Bill Harrison as outfitter. The YACE organizers received $77,000 through grants from the Federal Centennial Commission, the Department of Health and Welfare and the Yukon government. With the only available maps showing 152 metre contours, teams had to make reconnaissance climbs to determine feasible routes, then conduct second reconnaissance climbs to find routes to the summits, after which they could plan and execute an attempt. All of this had to be done within two week periods of erratic mountain weather. As an additional challenge, the Centennial Range received two and half times its normal precipitation in July Nevertheless, on June 25 all eight Good Neighbour Peak Expedition members, including Canadians Monty Alford, Glen Boles, Dr. Alan Bruce-Robertson and Leslie McDonald reached the south summit of Mount Vancouver via a first ascent of the southeast buttress. Phase one was a success. Through the following weeks, climbers endured stormy weather and uncomfortable bivouacs, negotiating fog, cloud and rock ridges not visible from aerial photos. From T-Bone Camp, the Mount Baffin team endured 500 metres of the worst scree they d ever encountered, avalanches, rock that disintegrated without being touched, cornices that threatened to collapse and snow bridges that did. On Mount Prince Edward Island, climbers were forced to move au cheval along a narrow ridge. The Mount Saskatchewan women s team spent 32 hours out, 22 of them on the descent. Climbing for 27 hours, Fips Broda pursued an unknown, difficult and exposed route on Centennial Peak. Phase three succeeded brilliantly. Participants boarded a bus from the Kluane Lake staging area then rode by four-wheel drive truck to board a helicopter that dropped them at the glacier s snout. From there they walked seven kilometres to camp, planted in a moist meadow of grassy hummocks beneath 5073 m Mount Steele and jumbled Steele Glacier. Guests included Bob Hind, Sterling Hendricks, ACC President Roger Neave, Fritz Wiessner and Lord and Lady Hunt, with guides Hans Gmoser, Hans Schwarz and Peter Fuhrmann leading jubilant climbers. Participants witnessed a once in a lifetime surge of the Steele Glacier, which created a mass of teetering ice pinnacles. Fortunately, the only serious injury occurred when Rollie Reader fell and broke both legs. While two teammates stayed with him, three spent three days climbing Mount Steele s west ridge to a high camp to summon a helicopter rescue. After several years of organizing, 33 peaks were climbed, 27 of which were first ascents, with a dozen first ascent peaks named for deceased ACC presidents. The biggest peaks, Mounts Walsh, Steele and Wood were all climbed, some several times. The massive mountain celebration generated books, films, maps and articles. In 1968, Thomas Nelson & Sons published Expedition Yukon, edited by Marni Fisher, which has since become a rare and sought after classic of Canadian mountaineering history. Not since its first camp in 1906 had the ACC so spectacularly celebrated its talent for exceptional organization, wholehearted commitment and unabashed national pride.

51 Over a period of a hundred years, the Alpine Club of Canada has made many friends abroad. In 2000, the Club celebrated the history and heritage it shares with the Japanese Alpine Club with a special international commemoration of the first ascent of Mount Alberta which was made by a team of Japanese climbers in Neither club will forget the generosity or the kindness of the other. Mount Alberta As I said goodbye to my Japanese friends, I felt a sense of kinship, happiness and sadness at the same time. Would I ever see these wonderful people again? I had been blessed by their friendship over the past week. We would be friends for life. Glen Boles Mount Alberta Report There are few mountains in North America that are surrounded by as many legends as Mount Alberta. Its remoteness, its difficulty of access, the bleak and forbidding character of its fabled peak and the remarkable stories of its first and subsequent ascents have entered history as legends that celebrate mountaineering courage and the shared heritage of nations. On July 21, 1925, Japanese climber Yuko Maki and his exhausted party stood triumphantly on the summit of Mount Alberta. On their descent they plunged an ice axe into the broken rock below the peak to commemorate their first ascent. That ice axe assumed mythical status in Jasper where locals came to believe it had been made of pure silver and had been presented to the Japanese party by the Emperor himself. Less well known were the events that followed. Intrigued by the rumour that the ice axe was made of solid silver, American climbers Fred Ayers and John Oberlin made the second ascent of Mount Alberta in They wrenched from the summit ice the head and upper shaft of a very ordinary ice axe and presented it to the American Alpine Club in New York. Nearly 50 years later, Canadian Greg Horne negotiated its return to Jasper and its permanent exhibition at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum. Horne s success in repatriating the famous ice axe was the inspiration for a 75th anniversary commemoration of the climb. In 1994, ACC Vice President of Publications, Bob Sandford decided to write the Japanese Alpine Club to see if they had an interest in pursuing a joint celebration. More than a year went by without any response. Then, finally, Kazuhiro Kumasaki who at the time was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Japanese Alpine Club answered. In the spring of 1997, Kumasaki was able to organize a meeting of all the members of the Japanese Alpine Club who had an interest in Mount Alberta. They brought all of the artifacts they had collected relating to the mountain to a meeting. Among the relics was the broken base of a wooden ice axe. A balsa wood copy was made and sent to Satch Masuda in Canada. A trip to Jasper was made to see if it might fit into the top of the original ice axe that was now on display in the heritage gallery of the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum. When it was realized that both parts of the broken axe from the 1925 expedition still existed, a Canadian delegation was invited to a special ceremony in Tokyo. Canadian Airlines International sponsored the visit. In front of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Crown Prince Naruhito and an audience of nearly 800 Japanese mountaineers, ACC President Mike Mortimer finally restored the Emperor s famous ice axe. Even after nearly 50 years, the pieces fit together so perfectly, it was difficult to pull them apart. The ice axe was restored once more in July of 1999 in Nagano at a ceremony marking the centennial of the Nagano High School Mountaineering Club. Seventy-five years after the first ascent, the Alpine Club of Canada, Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific Hotels partnered with the Japanese Alpine Club to mount an ambitious celebration of the climb and to retell the story. In July of 2000, the town of Jasper turned out to welcome a joint Japanese-Canadian climbing team and 75 Japanese trekkers who came to the Rockies for the event. The 75th anniversary celebration of the first ascent of Mount Alberta accomplished all of its most cherished goals. Though extreme conditions did not permit ascent of the mountain, the famous ice axe was restored in Canada by the joint Japanese-Canadian mountaineering team; a lasting relationship was established between the Alpine Club of Canada and the Japanese Alpine Club; and Canadians all over the country were made aware of the shared heritage that makes our national parks so special to the world. The restored ice axe was put on exhibition at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum where it can still be seen today. Mount Alberta: a peak with a lot of history PHOTO BY R.W. SANDFORD Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

52 More than anything else, the Centennial of the Alpine Club of Canada is a tribute to a proud tradition of Canadian volunteerism. When Canadians offer their time and support, they deliver. Though the Alpine Club of Canada does have a small core of highly committed staff, the great bulk of its activities rely on the energy and enthusiasm of volunteers. From the section activities to the agenda of the national board, volunteers are the heart of the Club. Skiers at the Stanley Mitchell Hut in 1947 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF KEN JONES Volunteering for Club and Country Creating a national, volunteer run organization in a country as physically large as Canada is no small challenge. Today the Alpine Club of Canada s 10,000 members are sharing ideas and adventures more actively than ever. With 19 sections comprised of dedicated mountain enthusiasts ranging from 5.6 rock climbers to high altitude alpinists, from hikers to urban boulderers, members willingly and generously share their skills and their time to help introduce others to the camaraderie and spirit of discovery that for a century has been the essence of Canadian mountaineering. It is at the section level that the many colours and textures of the Canadian mountaineering mosaic come to life. Proudly expressing their heritage, Manitoba s St. Boniface and Quebec s Outaouais Sections greet visitors to their web pages with French language introductions. It s at the section level that ACC members are visible and active within their communities as repositories of local route information, and as hosts of potluck dinners, slide shows, climbing gym nights and photo competitions, as well as organized mountain outings. Also, it s at the section level that volunteer trip leaders are nurtured and trained, sharing their skills and experience with continuing generations of ACC members. Formed in 1907, the Winnipeg Section was the Club s first regional chapter, and like the Club s other early sections, Winnipeg Section members actively and enthusiastically participated in the exploration of western Canadian mountains, and in the creation and improvement of the backcountry huts. The tradition continues. In 1990, the recently renamed Manitoba Section raised the profile of the Club and the activity of climbing by creating Winnipeg s first indoor climbing wall. By establishing Winnipeg as a regular stop for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, the Section has introduced mountaineering to 1000 people annually since Also formed in 1907, the Calgary Section is currently the Club s largest, with over 750 members. Although always active in construction and maintenance of ACC backcountry facilities, Calgary Section members made particularly significant contributions through the 1960s, 70s and 80s toward the creation of the Wapta Icefield huts. With varied trip schedules offering rock and ice climbing weekends to weeklong ski traverses, section members monitor regional access issues in the Ghost River, mountain national parks and Kananaskis Country. Based amidst the concrete of the country s largest city, Toronto Section members continue to be among the Club s most involved. The Section was created by Arthur Coleman in 1907, after he chaired the 1906 Winnipeg meetings and was elected national Vice President. After dissolving in 1933, the Section reformed in 1957, after the first ascent of the Bon Echo cliffs at Mazinaw Lake. Since then the Section has provided hut and boat custodians to facilitate climbing in the area, while also organizing section camps in the mountains of western Canada. On the west coast, the Vancouver Island Section was founded in 1912 by A.O. Wheeler, who along with 16 Section members played an integral role in establishing Strathcona Park. After Wheeler led an expedition to explore and report on the park s alpine attractions for the provincial government, the park was made much larger than originally planned. After a lull during World War II, the Section enjoyed a slow recovery through the 1950s and 60s and has been growing steadily ever since. Continuing its legacy of preserving environmentally valuable places, Vancouver Island Section members are working toward making Mount Arrowsmith a protected park. Across the Strait of Georgia, the Vancouver Section was formed in In the manner of their Vancouver Island Section counterparts, Vancouver Section members undertook pioneering exploratory trips into the remote corners of the Coast Mountains. By far the most prolific and dedicated were Phyl and Don Munday who spent countless days walking, canoeing and climbing in the coast wilderness in search of Mount Waddington. Formed in 1921, Edmonton Section members showed great enthusiasm even in their earliest days. While numbering fewer than 20 they raised funds to build Jasper National Park s Memorial now Wates-Gibson Hut. Current Edmonton Section 50 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

53 Peter Taylor and Joe Baker erect the first wall of the Jim Haberl Hut in 2005 PHOTO BY SUE OAKEY-BAKER 1907 Winnipeg Section, renamed Manitoba Section circa Calgary Section 1907 Toronto Section 1912 Vancouver Island Section 1918 Vancouver Section 1921 Edmonton Section 1933 Toronto Section folds 1921 Saskatchewan Section 1943 Montreal Section 1946 Saskatchewan Section folds 1949 Ottawa Section 1957 Toronto Section reforms 1972 Banff Section formed, renamed Rocky Mountain Section in Thunder Bay Section 1992 Jasper/Hinton Section 1993 Central Alberta Section 1994 Saskatchewan Section reforms 1994 St. Boniface Section 1995 Prince George Section 1997 Whistler Section 1997 Okanagan Section 2002 Outaouais Section 2005 Competition Climbing Section members continue to lovingly maintain the stately log building, while also maintaining the invaluable Alpine Accidents in Canada website. In truly Canadian style, the ACC s Saskatchewan Section thrives despite being based among flat wheat fields. Keen organizers of expeditions to Canadian and international high altitude peaks, Saskatchewan Section members also organize events close to home. Each year members organize a popular annual Thrasher s weekend, introducing beginners to rock and ice climbing outside of the gym. Through two fundraising events the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour and the Prairie Pitch Adventure Race, the Section raises money for mountaineering related organizations such as the Canadian Avalanche Association and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Further east, the Montreal Section welcomes both English and French speaking members who organize regular outings not only in their own province, but also in nearby New York, Vermont and New Hampshire mountains. Formed in 1943 as an essentially English speaking organization, the Montreal Section has flourished and evolved. It has been introducing French-speaking Quebecers to alpine activities since the 1950s and is a truly bilingual group. Nearby, members of the Ottawa Section formed in 1949 run local trips to the Eardley Escarpment in the Gatineau Mountains, where they are also committed access advocates. First formed in 1972 as the Banff Section, the Rocky Mountain Section was renamed in Led by Bernie Schiesser and Eric Lomas who built several huts in their backyards during the 1980s and 90s, this section has always been committed builders and stewards of ACC backcountry facilities. Occasionally, one section s initiative benefits many others over time, as is the case with the Banff Mountain Film Festival. In the mid 1970s, Section members gathered in a Banff basement where Chic Scott suggested creating a mountain film festival in the style of Italy s Trento festival. It has since morphed into the world-class event it is today. From Saskatoon to Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, ACC members sponsor organized screenings of the festival s best films, raising resources for local Club initiatives. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the Club welcomed eight more regional sections including Thunder Bay, Jasper/Hinton, Central Alberta, St. Boniface, Prince George, Whistler, Okanagan and Outaouais. Through the past quarter century, across the country section members continually coordinate events and projects, ranging from new route development and anchor upgrading to the publication of guidebooks and participation in initiatives such as Project Peregrine. In 2000, Jasper Section member Greg Horne inspired one of the Club s finest accomplishments, the joint ACC/Japanese Alpine Club celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Alberta. Although the Club s smallest section with 31 members, Central Alberta contributes to hut maintenance and trail building efforts in the Rockies, and attracts new members through its winter ice climbing program. Like the Okanagan Section, the Central Alberta Section serves as a hub for residents of numerous small, remote communities in its region. Serving its region, in 2005, B.C. s Prince George Section welcomed the Smithers Chapter. Further west, Whistler Section members pitched in thousands of volunteer hours making the Wendy Thompson Hut in the Cayoosh Range s Marriott Basin a reality obtaining permits, drawing plans, building and transporting the hut and rebuilding it in its alpine location. Formed in 1993, St. Boniface became the Club s first French speaking section. It was followed by Outaouais in While St. Boniface has become well known throughout North America for its Festiglace ice climbing festival and competition and all winter ice tower, Outaouais Section members are passionately involved in regional access issues. Joining forces with other groups including the ACC Ottawa Section they ve formed the Gatineau Park Climber s Coalition in response to the 2004 National Capital Commission s 10-year master plan for Gatineau Park, which proposed prohibiting climbing in the park. Working out an agreement with the NCC to preserve access to key sites, the group also created a climbers code of ethics to help respect and conserve the endangered species. From telemark clinics to backcountry orienteering, watercolour painting workshops to writing contests, from adventure races to ice climbing festivals, members across the country embrace and promote the Club s founding objectives the encouragement and practice of mountaineering and mountain crafts, the education of Canadians in appreciation of their mountaineering heritage, the exploration of alpine and glacial regions and the preservation of their natural beauties. And it s all accomplished by volunteers. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

54 Since its inception in 1990, the Mountain Guides Ball has become the premiere social event in the mountain calendar. It is the one party in the year at which the entire Canadian mountaineering community gathers. Thanks to the unflagging efforts of volunteer organizers, it is now an established ACC tradition. Mountain Guides Ball Patrons 1990 Bruno Engler 1991 Andy Russell 1992 Bill Putnam 1993 Glen Boles 1994 Peter Fuhrmann 1995 Bob Hind 1996 UIAGM 1997 David Fisher 1998 Louise and Richard Guy 1999 Sydney Feuz 2000 Don Forest 2001 Hans Schwarz 2002 Canadian Mountain Rescue Services 2003 ACMG founding members 2004 Sharon Wood 2005 Don Vockeroth 52 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006 The Mountain Guides Ball No organization as esteemed as the Alpine Club of Canada would be complete without a signature annual party. Every autumn since 1990, the Mountain Guides Ball has offered Alpine Club of Canada members and their friends an opportunity to gather in a social setting with other members of the Canadian mountain community including mountain guides, Parks Canada representatives, local business owners and Club supporters. Dressed in formal evening attire or kilts and lederhosen guests sip cocktails, savour a multicourse dinner, dance to a live band and bid on auction items, including fine works of mountain art, backcountry lodge weeks and outdoor gear. The proceeds benefit various Club related initiatives and programs. Like so many great traditions, the Guides Ball evolved from a single event. In celebration of its 25th anniversary in 1988, the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides staged a lavish party at the Banff Springs Hotel, honouring Hans Gmoser as special guest. The evening was so successful many felt it should become an annual event. To ensure solid organization and longevity, Gmoser suggested inviting the Alpine Club of Canada to become involved. As a senior Vice President of Canadian Pacific Hotels and General Manager of the Banff Springs Hotel, Ivor Petrak had a deep appreciation for CP s role in establishing the Swiss guiding tradition in the mountains of western Canada. He also appreciated the ACC s role through the 20th century in introducing many Canadians to the joys and challenges of mountaineering and high alpine wonders. Seizing the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the Canadian mountaineering tradition, the ACC s Peter Fuhrmann, along with Ken Hewitt and Mike Mortimer collaborated with Petrak to create the Mountain Guides Ball. The Chateau Lake Louise was selected as venue, in recognition of its role as the base from which professional guides worked for half a century. With legendary mountain guide, photographer, filmmaker and storyteller extraordinaire Bruno Engler as patron, the 1990 Mountain Guides Ball was a great success. More than a celebration however, Guides Ball Committee members decided the event provided an outstanding opportunity to raise funds to help further the Club s objectives, so they incorporated a live auction into the evening. Proceeds from the 1990 event went toward the Canadian Alpine Centre. Over the past 16 years, the Guides Ball has evolved and changed. The original live auction became a silent one allowing guests to socialize more while surveying the items and recording their bids. Over the years, attendees have been introduced to an interesting and talented variety of mountain artists who donated their works. Continuing a format initiated with an ACC Publications/Mountain Culture Committee booklet on esteemed member Bob Hind in 1996, in 2000 the committee published a biography of Don Forest, officially launching the Summit Series of mountain biographies, which annually recognize individual and group contributions that strengthen the appreciation of Canada s mountain heritage. Facing several challenges, including increasing ticket prices, in 2005 the Mountain Guides Ball moved to the Banff Park Lodge. On average, the evening attracts 300 guests, most from the Bow Valley between Golden B.C. and Calgary, with others from as far away as Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and even the U.S., including ACC board members attending the annual fall meetings. The new Banff venue alleviated the need for local guests to add the cost of overnight accommodations in Lake Louise. For those who would stay overnight, Banff offered a wider range of accommodation options. As well, since the gala has always been open to all not just Club members the Banff venue made the Ball more accessible to the general public, providing an excellent opportunity for everyone to learn more about the ACC. The Centennial also contributed to the move. With the ACC hosting the annual UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation) meetings, for which delegates and their spouses would travel from around the world, Banff provided a wider range of activities for family members. The 2005 Ball at the BPL provided an excellent dry run for the 2006 gala. Guests enjoyed a fine meal, danced to an excellent band and the silent auction raised $16,000. Many fine traditions were continued, as several recently graduated ACMG full guides were presented their pins, Glen Boles was named ACC Honorary President, and the Club toasted its ongoing role in the evolution of Canada s unique mountain culture.

55 Because of the remarkable and complete nature of the early records, the focus of the Alpine Club of Canada s legend has largely been on the mountaineering history that took place at and around the time of the Club s founding. A century later, however, we see that each era in the Club s history represents a formative contribution to mountaineering culture in Canada. The ACC s Mountain Culture Committee is committed to ensuring that the important figures and events associated with mountaineering in our time are not forgotten. A developing culture often passes through a number of stages on its way to maturation. People share unique experiences that transform them. These experiences are told to others through story. When recorded, stories become history; history becomes legend and legend becomes tradition. To keep the original inspiration alive through time, tradition must be experienced and then transcended by each successive generation. By becoming the embodiment of this process over the last century, I believe the ACC has been the central vehicle for development of mountain culture in Canada. R.W. Sandford Vice President, Mountain Culture Giving Meaning and Value to History While producing a book length annual journal of record and a regular newsletter in the form of the Gazette would, for most alpine organizations, suffice to meet all publications objectives, it is not enough for the Alpine Club of Canada. From its inception, the ACC began publishing Annual General Meeting reports, Canadian Alpine Journal off-prints and song sheets. Beginning in 1920, it also published, in association with the American Alpine Club, a series of classic mountaineering guides that, within the climbing community, achieved almost biblical status by virtue of the information they contained and the desires that information inspired. The tradition of joint-publication of climbing, hut and access guides has continued to this day but has expanded to include climbing areas in almost every part of the country. The Mountain Culture Committee has also been active in the preservation of the Club s history through support for books that celebrate Canada s mountaineering heritage. A new and highly active era of ACC publication began with the appearance of Canadian Summits in Edited by Geoff Powter and Bob Sandford, this very well received book chronicled the most influential articles to appear in the Canadian Alpine Journal over the first 77 volumes of publication. This book was followed by a series of elegant replica reprints of mountaineering classics created in partnership with Aquila Books in Calgary. This series included popularly priced reprints of works such as Climbs and Explorations in the Canadian Rockies by Norman Collie and Hugh Stutfield, Among the Selkirk Glaciers by William Spotswood Green and The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails by A.P. Coleman. The Mountain Culture Committee also published a landmark biography of mountain photographer and guide Bruno Engler in 1996 and an account of 75th anniversary celebration of the first ascent of Mount Alberta, in association with the Japanese Alpine Club of Canada in The Mountain Culture Committee went on to publish the first ever account of the remarkable Rocky Mountain climbs and explorations of Alfred Ostheimer in In addition, the Committee also published tributes to prominent mountaineering figures honoured at the annual Mountain Guides Ball such as Don Forest, the Grizzly Group, Hans Schwarz, Sharon Wood and Don Vockeroth. The Mountain Culture Committee has also published monographs on historical themes such as the discovery of the Columbia Icefield, the contribution of Swiss mountain guides to the development of a unique Canadian alpine tradition, the creation of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and the birth of Parks Canada s elite mountain rescue function. As well, the Mountain Culture Committee has worked hard to honour the Alpine Club of Canada s art and culture mandate. Building on an artistic tradition within the Club established by early artists of the reputation of Fred Brigden and others beginning in the late 1930s, the Alpine Club of Canada has published two contemporary books related to art and the Canadian alpine. Published with the support of the estate of longtime member Nel Whellams, Donna Jo Massie s A Rocky Mountain Sketchbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Watercolour Painting in the Mountain Landscape has now achieved the status of a national bestseller in Canada. In 2003 with the support of Lois Currie, the Alpine Club of Canada also published Dr. Jane Gooch s stunningly beautiful Artists of the Rockies on art and inspiration at Lake O Hara. In addition to publishing materials, the ACC has a library collection of approximately 3,500 Canadian and international titles, as well as many archival documents containing information on the history of the Club. The Club s Library and Archives are currently housed in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. The Alpine Club of Canada s Centennial has presented the Mountain Culture Committee an opportunity to expand its partnership possibilities with the sections and with other areas of Club such as Facilities and Activities. It will also allow the Committee to return to the original Club mandate relating to understanding of science as it relates to mountain places. It is the aim of this Committee to honour the Club s history and culture and to use the Centennial to build a strong foundation for the Mountain Culture Committee that will hopefully last well into the next century. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

56 It was never the central purpose of the Alpine Club of Canada to represent the pinnacle of mountaineering achievement, though many of its members over the last century certainly did. The Club s principal goal was to popularize mountaineering by establishing a reliable vehicle for Canadians to learn to climb safely and skillfully and to lead others toward self-fulfillment through accomplishment. The main vehicle for the creation of a unique and enduring mountain culture in Canada was the Club s leadership and training development program. Lorraine Harrison and Susanna Oreskovic decending Mount Jupiter, Marmot Women's Camp in 2002 PHOTO BY MARG SAUL Leadership Training and Development From its day of inception, the Alpine Club of Canada sought among its main purposes to open the minds and hearts of Canadians to the mountains of their very own country through the mountaineering experience. As an organization dedicated to providing that experience to all interested Canadians, and not just those who were already competent in the art of alpine exploration, glacier travel and technical climbing, the Club made sure to invite two professional mountain guides to its inaugural 1906 camp. Under the guidance of Eduoard and Gottfried Feuz, camp organizers included in the week s program the very first ACC mountaineering school, thus beginning a tradition in mountain craft that is now a century old. With over 100 people attending the camp and so many eager to climb their first real mountains, there were not enough guides. To make up for this, the Club arranged for experienced amateurs to render good service to climbing and exploring parties. As such, the Club established itself as an inclusive organization where members could learn by doing under the care and attention of those eager to share their skills and experience. Through the following decades, the tradition continued, as many who climbed their first mountains and crossed their first glaciers under the leadership of enthusiastic ACC volunteer leaders graduated to lead their own rope parties. In recognition of the invaluable contributions made by volunteer trip leaders both at their local section and national camp levels, in 1933 the Club created the Silver Rope for Leadership Award. Since then the award has been presented annually to Club members who have demonstrated technical skills and leadership abilities of a high caliber in mountaineering or ski mountaineering over a number of years. During the 1980s, in the interest of attracting and encouraging qualified, experienced trip leaders, the Club organized a series of leadership conferences. The first, titled The Mountain Leadership Conference, took place at the Banff Centre in May Chaired by John Tewnion, it was hosted by the Alberta Mountain Council an autonomous group formed under the auspices of the ACC to promote all aspects of safety and awareness in mountain oriented recreation. With 120 people taking advantage of the valuable opportunity, delegates participated in small seminars designed to follow the conference theme: If you are leading a group in the mountains, have you fully considered all the implications of the responsibilities involved? Speakers included guides, educators, alpine specialists and emergency physicians. Topics discussed included the psychological aspects of accident prevention, organization and leadership in a group, mountain weather, outdoor equipment and basic search procedures. Hailed a success, the conference was followed by a second titled Winter Mountain Leadership in December Over two days 200 delegates gathered at the Chateau Lake Louise to discuss topics including snow stability evaluation, avalanche hazard forecasting techniques, planning for extended ski tours, emergency situation management, snow shelters and ice climbing hazards. Sufficiently encouraged, the organizers coordinated a third Mountain Leadership Conference in The event took place at the Kananaskis Lodge over two days and attracted 250 delegates. Furthering the ongoing theme of accepting the implications of the responsibilities involved in volunteer trip leading situations, session topics included helicopter safety and flight rescue systems, expedition goal setting, group dynamics from a leadership perspective and efficient and effective route finding. The purpose of the conferences was to offer those interested in leading trips plus many already doing so an opportunity to seriously consider a myriad of issues and factors other than straightforward technical mountain skills. All three conferences produced publications designed to serve as valuable resources for backcountry users by providing knowledge that would enhance safety and enjoyment in the mountains. In 1990, those publications culminated in The Mountaineering Course Syllabus, prepared by Brian Spear for the ACC Education Committee. It aimed at establishing a system of courses to provide students with the skills required to develop as mountaineers and leaders. With the understanding that mountaineering is the art of traveling safely in dangerous places employing learned skills, those behind the syllabus also understood that mountaineering is a dynamic field that can t be regimented, and that safe and efficient leaders must develop judgment and experience to be used within a key framework. The syllabus grew out of an expressed need to standardize mountaineering courses within the province of Alberta. The ACC s Alberta Sections collaborated with the ACMG, University of Calgary, Mount Royal College and several other outdoor agencies, aiming to ultimately establish common practices for mountaineering training courses run by the ACC and through other organizations throughout Canada.

57 For the Alpine Club of Canada will, more than any national sport in the Dominion, weld together the provinces in the bonds of brotherhood; and furnish training in the more Spartan virtues of times of peace. It will not be many years before it will have entrenched itself deep in every province between the two oceans, when its membership will be in the thousands, and each and every Canadian mountaineer make the Club s motto his own sic itur ad astra. Elizabeth Parker The Alpine Club of Canada Canadian Alpine Journal 1907 Below: The North Face Leadership training course participants Zac Robinson and Diane Schon short rope on the west ridge of Waikibi Peak (2,625 m) Right: Guide Peter Amann demonstrates analysis techniques in one of many snow pits dug during the week PHOTOS BY RICK HUDSON Before the century was out, the stage was set for the birth of formalized, annual leadership courses. In 1997, the Club s Board of Directors established the Leadership Development Fund to subsidize training programs for volunteer leaders. In addition to being generously supported by The North Face gear manufacturer, a portion of each national camp fee is placed in the fund. Benefiting from the efforts of Mike Mortimer, The North Face ACC Leadership Courses were created that year. The week-long courses are designed to provide advanced training for the Club s active section trip leaders, General Mountaineering Camp amateur rope leaders and national camp managers. A ratio of ten students per three instructors provides an intense, focused yet fun learning environment. In December 2000 ACMG guide Cyril Shokoples created a formal curriculum with course objectives and goals. In 2001 he created the objectives for the summer course. Since 1997, over 100 active amateur trip leaders have participated in the program. Running from Golden Alpine Holidays lodges in winter, and in conjunction with the GMC in the summer, The North Face courses offer experienced amateur leaders a valuable opportunity to learn skills and techniques from experienced professional guides, which they in turn share with Club members on section trips. Following the success of The North Face course, Mike Mortimer and Bruce Keith negotiated another leadership course specifically for women. Despite great increases in female interest and participation in mountain activities, women continue to be in the minority most of the time in the climbing environment. While some feel perfectly comfortable learning from male partners who by nature tend to be more aggressive, physically stronger and more tolerant of physical risk, others may not feel sufficiently at ease to take their turn in the lead often enough to develop their leadership skills. A lack of female leaders at both the section and national levels confirmed the challenges of nurturing female trip leaders. Working with Tom Fritz, a long term ACC supporter and marketing Vice President for outdoor clothing manufacturer Marmot, Mortimer and Keith secured sponsorship to create the ACC Marmot Women s Camps. That done, the two men retreated, and an all-women ACC volunteer committee was formed to oversee the program. Edmonton Section member Julia Keenliside served as its first Chair, and working with Tami Knight, Willa Harasym and Leslie DeMarsh the program was designed and candidates were selected for the first Marmot course in The aim of the course was to give women a chance to learn and use leadership skills in an allfemale setting. The course was targeted at women who had the basic skills and were ready to learn to lead in either the summer or winter setting. Moving steadily forward and upward, in September 2005 members of the Club s National Leadership Committee held a four-day experimental Central Canada Rock Leadership Course in Val David Quebec, following curriculum models prepared by Shokoples. Committee members hope to proceed with a course that s even better than the successful trial. With formally organized and professionally executed leadership courses, the Club continues to secure its foundation from the bottom up. Through section level leadership courses as well as the formal North Face and Marmot programs, the ACC actively fulfills its stated Objects: the encouragement and practice of mountaineering and mountain crafts and the promotion of these skills through participation in the activities of the Club. These courses also help promote the work of the Club: the development of reliable professional and amateur guides to assist the Club in carrying out its training, climbing and ski mountaineering programs. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

58 With all the major peaks climbed by at least their simplest routes, mountaineering took a different turn. The exhilaration of achievement moved indoors onto climbing walls, and outdoors onto icefalls. Competitive climbing burst onto the international scene bringing in its train thousands of new adventure enthusiasts with new ways of thinking about upward mobility. Dozens of new organizations have been created to advance this growing interest. The Alpine Club of Canada embraces and actively supports these new directions in climbing. Will Gadd competes at an Ice Climbing World Cup competition at Kirov, Russia; circa 2000 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WILL GADD COLLECTION Reaching New Heights: Indoors and Out Over the course of the century, climbing has evolved to encompass an extraordinary range of individual disciplines. Climbers no longer set out solely in the hopes of reaching a summit in sport climbing the summit is likely to be a set of metal chains permanently attached to bolts drilled into a vertical cliff about 30 metres above the ground. Ice climbers scale frozen waterfalls as self-contained objectives. Mixed climbers combine the technical skills of advanced ice climbing with the gymnastics of technically challenging indoor wall or outdoor sport climbing. Modern sport, ice and mixed climbing are not so much about the alpine experience as they are about the simple joy of exploring the relationship between thoughtful body movement and climbing medium. Like virtually all recreational activities, mountaineering benefited greatly from advances in technology throughout the 20th century. As mountaineers attempted increasingly challenging peaks, belay techniques evolved, and harnesses were constructed of stronger webbing. Shortly before World War II, the invention of sturdy rubber Vibram soles gave outdoor footwear a step up. Also in the 1940s, the first solid, hard pitons, forged from the axle of a Model-A Ford, were used to tackle the high steep faces in Yosemite National Park. Early in the 1960s, French climbers introduced climbing footwear with smooth rubber soles, and in 1983 the Spanish brought forward a sticky rubber-soled rock climbing shoe. It was also in the 1960s that temporary, removable yet safe camming devices that didn t scar the rock were developed. Hemp ropes were replaced by strong, dynamic synthetic fibres capable of holding long falls of weights far in excess of a human body. By the early 1970s, full body harnesses were replaced by waist harnesses, allowing for greater range of movement. In November 1952, Hans Gmoser and Leo Grillmair, a pair of young climbers recently arrived from Austria, with Isabel Spreat made a first ascent of an obvious line of cracks and corners on the Rockies landmark Mount Yamnuska. Their route, Grillmair s Chimneys, and several others in the subsequent years, launched a whole new level of technical rock climbing in Canada, and Canadians joined in the fray. In 1961, coast climber Jim Baldwin and American Ed Cooper set a milestone in Canadian mountaineering with their first ascent of the Squamish Chief s Grand Wall. Throughout the 1960s, bold Canadian rock climbers practised their craft on increasingly challenging routes across the country, some of which were among the most difficult climbs in North America at the time. The 1970s saw the birth of waterfall ice climbing an arena in which Canadians found their niche, mounting an international presence that endures to this day. With the birth of ice climbing, improvements in ice axes and crampons allowed for more efficient climbing on steep and bulging ice. From the 1970s onward, advances in technology and technique led mountaineers to attempt more technically challenging routes to summits that had seen countless ascents by their easiest standard routes. Through the 1980s, Canadians including John Lauchlan and Barry Blanchard set a new standard for bold and daring north face climbs in winter. By the 1990s, experienced ice climbers began combining gymnastic rock climbing skills with technical ice climbing skills to develop mixed climbing as a discipline of its own, with low profile fruit boots fixed with built in crampons designed to hook into tiny spaces and rock ledges, and leashless ice axes wielded as extensions of a climber s arm. By virtue of a long season and plenty of suitable chossy rock, Canadians have established themselves among the world best mixed climbers. From its earliest days, mountaineering was a competitive pursuit, with climbers racing to be the first to claim a summit, usually in the name of their country. Through the latter two decades of the century, with all the major peaks climbed many times over on all continents, it almost seemed logical that competitive climbing move indoors. Canada s first indoor climbing wall was designed by Murray Toft and built into the structure of Mount Royal College in In 1989, universities in Montreal, Chicoutimi and Edmonton constructed indoor climbing walls. Outdoors, by the end of the 1980s, the use of expansion bolts permanently drilled into rock faces became commonplace despite ethical debates that continue to this day. Since then, tens of thousands of sport climbing routes have been established on hundreds of cliffs from coast to coast to coast. Bolted crags opened climbing to a wider range of people who wanted to enjoy a day or a few hours on the rock, without the technical and psychological commitment demanded by climbing on traditional gear. With the progression of the relatively safe and low risk activity of sport climbing through the 1980s and 90s, interest in rock climbing literally exploded across North America and Europe. In the 1980s the first official difficulty competitions took place in Europe, with the first indoor event held in a gymnasium France in By the late 1980s, the UIAA recognized the burgeoning competitive 56 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

59 Progress and evolution in anything is invariably tied up with the idea of competition. Competition provides comparison and context for most human activities, and is as important in the mountains as in a gymnasium. The Alpine Club of Canada is not only a vehicle for cultural or social appreciation it s an internationally recognized sports federation with commensurate responsibilities. It has a role to play in determining the future of climbing in Canada, and in the future of Canada itself. Dave Dornian Chair, Competition Climbing Section Zak McGurk eying the crux at the Vsion Gym in Canmore in 2004 PHOTO BY FRASER MCGURK climbing circuit, and the first World Cup competition, with events in speed and difficulty took place in In 1997, a new structure, the ICC International Council for Competition Climbing, was created inside the UIAA, with a bouldering discipline introduced the following year. Today, more than 75 countries participate in climbing competitions. Competition climbing debuted in Canada at the Banff Centre s Eric Harvie Theatre in 1988, with the first Canadian National Sport Climbing Championships. Organized by Marc Dube, under Peter Fuhrmann s leadership, the ACC supported the event, thus beginning its commitment to the evolution of competitive climbing. Canadian Jim Sandford won, and in 1989 the first Canadian National Team formed. Later that year, Dube and Sandford travelled to Russia to represent Canada at an international competition. Through the 1990s, Will Gadd was Canada s leading competitive climber, reaching the semi finals in World Cup competition in Kobe Japan in 1991 and A decade later, and benefiting from organized training and coaching, Vancouver s Sean McColl placed first in both speed and difficulty events in the 2002 Youth World Championships in Canteleu, France. A year later, McColl won the Boys category at the Youth Worlds in Bulgaria. In 2005, he won the USA Climbing Nationals. Throughout 1990s it became increasingly evident that indoor competitive climbing had great appeal for youth even for those whose parents had no experience or interest in climbing. Driven by long-time volunteer and competition climbing advocate David Dornian, at the 2005 spring Board of Directors meeting, the ACC welcomed the Competition Escalade Canada (CEC) as the Club s first non-geographic section. As the only sanctioning body for competition climbing in Canada recognized by the UIAA s International Council for Competition Climbing, CEC membership is required for any athletes representing Canada at sanctioned international events. In redefining Competition Escalade Canada as an ACC section, young climbers interested in participating in the popular competitive climbing circuit would now become ACC members in the process, thereby exposing them to the benefits of Club membership from an early age and raising the profile of competition climbing within the Club. At the start of the 21st century, and by virtue of the ACC s membership in the UIAA, the Club assumed the role of Canada s national governing body for another growing competitive activity Ski Mountaineering Competition. In the latter part of the 1990s, the International Ski Mountaineering Council was established to oversee the organization of competition calendars, an international World Cup series and to lobby for inclusion in the Olympics of the sport that had been evolving in Europe since the 1980s. The first official ISMC World Championships were held in Serre Chevalier, France, in January On very short notice, the ACC organized a two man team consisting of Ptor Spriceneiks and Richard Haywood to represent Canada, who were grateful to not finish dead last behind experienced and über-organized Europeans. Ski mountaineering competitors race over steep alpine terrain using ski touring gear, gaining and losing up to 3000 metres worth of elevation past a series of checkpoints set along ridges and peaks. They skin up slopes, scramble up ridges carrying their skis on their packs and make a few well deserved turns down other slopes, travelling from valley floor with a mandatory pack full of gear in less than three hours. Whistler hosted Canada s first ski mountaineering competition in 2003, which was handily won by Revelstoke s Greg Hill, who also won the two subsequent years. With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games set for Vancouver, the ACC is enthusiastically backing UIAA efforts to have the new sport included as an Olympic sport. One hundred years after introducing the sport of mountaineering to its members, the Alpine Club of Canada is actively working toward making the myriad of climbing disciplines more accessible to ever increasing numbers of Canadians. Club members help support and organize ice climbing festivals across the country, in places including Orient Bay Ontario, Quebec City, Lillooet British Columbia, St. Boniface Manitoba, and Canmore and Nordegg Alberta, bringing climbers together in a casual, festive setting and introducing new people to the activity. As the sanctioning body for competitive climbing in Canada, the Club continues to expand Canadians awareness and appreciation of its mountains and ever evolving mountain craft. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

60 The Centennial of the Alpine Club of Canada is a once in a lifetime opportunity to highlight what Canada s premiere mountaineering organization has contributed to the development of a truly unique mountain culture in this country. Judging from the activities planned both at the section and national levels for 2006, it will be a year the Club will never forget. A Century of Leadership and Adventure In its first one hundred years, the Alpine Club of Canada has left an indelible mark on Canadian mountaineering history, but it has also stood as a reminder that mountains wherever they may be in Canada are a part of every Canadian s psyche. They represent some of what we are proudest to be, and much of what we aspire to. In a world that has changed so much in 100 years from motorized transportation to modern health care and weapons of mass destruction the Alpine Club of Canada and other clubs like it have changed precious little. The values it holds dear are remarkably durable and the pursuits it supports still honour the distance we can cover on foot a human scale of time and energy in the midst of magnificent geology and in spite of our technological prowess. Though the world may change, these values do not. The spirit of the original Alpine Club of Canada still guides the Club s activities today. Members from across the country are planning and preparing events for the Alpine Club of Canada Centennial in We will celebrate with art, science, social gatherings and of course with climbing camps in some of Canada s most spectacular mountain locales. Events are planned for provinces across the country. In Winnipeg, on March 25 and 26, the Manitoba Section will host the Alpine Club of Canada s Centennial Board of Directors meetings halfway between the west and east, just as the original meetings were held in The prairie sections will kick things off with a Centennial Party, March 24, at historic Fort Gibraltar. March 25 the party moves uptown with a Gala at the stunning Fort Garry Hotel. Of course, the Manitoba Section will also celebrate its own alpine history with a special book commemorating notable Manitoban mountaineers Elizabeth Parker would be proud. Next door in Ontario, celebrations will be doubled thanks to the 50th anniversary of the Toronto Section in The Section will commemorate the Centennial and its own golden anniversary with a special reunion at the cliffs of Bon Echo September 1. The section will also release a revised version of the notable Bon Echo climbing guidebook. The Montreal Section is bringing art and mountains together for a special exhibition of artwork by section members Sheila Eamer, Celestine Segers and Ed Potworowski. The Section is also hoping to designate a charitable mountain in honour of the Club s Centennial year. All summiteers would be encouraged to seek sponsorship from friends and family, to support a designated charity. The Outaouais Section is holding a Centennial photo contest of summits: 100 ans de leadership et d aventures en montagne. Members have been challenged to take the official Centennial banner to a new summit and capture a photo of themselves with it on the summit. The winning photos will be compiled into a poster and/or calender. Not surprisingly, Alberta and British Columbia will also be abuzz with Centennial events. In Alberta, many of these will be front-country as the National Office prepares to welcome members from across the country, and colleagues from around the world. The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) is, today, the largest mountaineering organization in the world. It represents 97 member organizations in 68 different countries worldwide and speaks for the mountaineering community in international forums, such as the Mountain Partnership. In 2006, the UIAA General Assembly will take place in Banff, October 12 to 14. A celebratory Centennial dinner will be held at the Banff Park Lodge on the final evening. John Wheeler grandson of ACC founder A.O. Wheeler will attend as Patron. For those who prefer smaller gatherings, the ACC plans to open two upgraded facilities at the Canmore Clubhouse on October 13: the Pat Boswell (Toronto Section) Cabin and the Heritage Room, which commemorates the history of the Club. October 11, prior to the UIAA meetings, a one-day seminar is planned in Banff entitled Climate Change in the Alpine a crucial issue in mountain places. Finally, the much-anticipated exhibition The Mountaineer and the Artist: Reflection on a Mountain Place will open in October at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. Local sections in Alberta are also planning special events for the Centennial. Camps, photo and story competitions, a commemorative book, celebratory dinners, and a community party in Canmore are all under development. That said, the Alpine Club of Canada was first and foremost a mountaineering organization and, true to form, there are plenty of outdoor adventures to inspire members in this, its Centennial year. In British Columbia alone, no fewer than ten camps and celebrations are planned. The Marmot Women s Centennial Ski Camp and the North Face Centennial Winter Leadership Course will both take place before the end of February Their summer counterparts will take place July 9 to 14 in the Bugaboos and July 29 to August 5 in the Premier Range, respectively. The Centennial General Mountaineering Camp (GMC) will coincide with these events, running 58 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

61 Outaouais members Mélanie Lalande and Frédéric Lavoie on the top of Aconcagua (6992 m) participate in their section's photo challenge Centennial event. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OUTAOUAIS SECTION July 1 to August 12 in B.C. s Premier Range. The GMC is sponsored by Mountain Hardwear. All of these events will offer great skills development at week-long camps. For the more adventurous, the Yukon Alpine Centennial Camp will take place in the truly grand St. Elias Mountains, June 2 to 18. If you have never attended an Annual General Meeting of the Alpine Club, 2006 is the year to do it. In commemoration of the importance of the region to the history of Canadian mountaineering, the Centennial AGM will be held July 15 at the popular Wheeler Hut, at Rogers Pass in British Columbia s Glacier National Park. The following day, the Stanley Mitchell Centennial Camp will begin, running July 16 to 22 in the Little Yoho Valley of Yoho National Park. Several sections are also planning camps in British Columbia. The Edmonton Section will be holding two one-week camps in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park in August The Vancouver Section will host a fly-in, summer climbing camp at Lake Lovelywater near Squamish, B.C. from August 5 to 12. On Vancouver Island, day and weekend trips are planned for Strathcona Provincial Park. And July 23 to 30, the Vancouver Island Section is also planning an ambitious traverse of the Golden Hinde, Vancouver Island s tallest peak no huts, no trails, eight days. Finally, in honour of the ACC Centennial the Section is also working to have the Arrowsmith Massif protected for its significant avian and mammalian habitats and for its watersheds, which support five different species of salmon. Regardless of how or where you may choose to celebrate the Alpine Club of Canada Centennial in 2006, there will be events and activities to enjoy from all parts of the country. Canada Post will issue a commemorative stamp in July An historic play, Elizabeth Parker and the Alpine Club of Canada, will be mounted by Parks Canada s World Heritage Interpretive Theatre in March Several special publications will also be released. The entire collection of the Canadian Alpine Journal from 1907 to 2006 will be made available in digital format making trip reports keyword searchable. A Centennial Canadian Alpine Journal will be published, as well as Ever Upward: The Canadian Alpine Journal and the Evolution of the Mountain Spirit in Canada a book exploring everything from evolving climbing techniques to the changing role of parks and reserves in Canadian mountain culture will follow in Yet when all of these events are over, what happens next? This question is ours to answer. One hundred years ago the Alpine Club of Canada captured the imaginations of Canadians by embodying what inspired the nation at that time. Mountains and mountaineering yes but also the spirit of adventure, the noble fortification of mind, body and spirit, the enamoured pursuit of scientific knowledge, and an admiration for art as an expression of cultural refinement. At the time, it was also a sport for the wealthy drawing people from around North America with the means to travel for weeks at a time. Today, many climbers make tremendous material sacrifices to carve out the time and save the money required to enjoy their passion for mountains. Not to mention, after two world wars and the birth of popular culture, Canada s Edwardian hopes and dreams have been tempered in the last one hundred years. Our admiration for personal refinement has been replaced by more relaxed and informal ways of living. Exercise is no longer considered a form of moral fortification, and science is no longer a romantic form of intellectual exploration but a professional pursuit that is both politically and economically charged. Our founders never imagined that great wilderness would ever see roads and civilization nor could they possibly have imagined that the lauded industrial growth of that time would wreak such havoc that the very climate of the alpine would be altered. Today we face challenges on a scale they could not have imagined. Yet the values of the original Alpine Club of Canada still resonate today. The Club will continue to teach mountain-craft, to deplore wanton defacement of the wild natural beauty of mountain places, and to bring mountains to the forefront of the Canadian consciousness. But should the Club last another hundred years, it will do so by doing what the original Club did so well capturing the imaginations of Canadians and embodying what we hope to be, as climbers, as individuals, and as a nation. Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

62 After its first one hundred years of service to mountain culture, the Alpine Club of Canada looks with enthusiasm to the 21st century. In his concluding article, the current President of the ACC, Cameron Roe, reflects on the essential nature of the Club and its purpose and ponders the future development of our uniquely Canadian appreciation for the alpine. ACC members descend Mount Robson, 2004 PHOTO BY CAM ROE The Centennial Postscript The Alpine Club of Canada is 100 years old. This is a notable achievement by any yardstick and one well deserving of some contemplation of past events and reflection on what the future might hold. With much of this issue of the Gazette dedicated to shedding light on the past history of the Club, it falls upon me to look at that past and attempt to describe where the future of the Club might lead us. The Alpine Club of Canada has always seemed to me to be about communities and our relationship with those communities. The Club was started by a like minded group of individuals who got together to foster Canadian mountaineering. The British Alpine Club and various clubs in the USA had been active in the mountains of Canada, and it occurred to the likes of Elizabeth Parker and Arthur O. Wheeler that Canadians should perhaps be exploring and climbing the mountains of Canada instead of leaving it to visitors. From this beginning, came a series of mountaineering adventures and trips that saw the exploration of the western mountains develop and mountaineering leadership and training grow by leaps and bounds. A strong mountaineering community was born. The growth of the Club from the earliest times to present can be thought of as a series of relationships with other communities with whom we share the mountains. Early on it was relationships with the Canadian Pacific Railway and access to transportation, hotels and guides that helped define the Club. With more people moving to the western cities like Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, section relationships became increasingly important. This strong relation between the Club as a whole and the various local sections went on to represent the most enduring and important relationships that the Club has ever had and probably ever will have. The sections of the Alpine Club of Canada in turn foster relationships with individuals by mentoring and providing an environment in which these individuals can learn and grow their mountaineering skills. The people being mentored most often go on to lead and mentor others in turn. Other communities have had real influence on the Alpine Club of Canada. The Club s relationships with other organizations such as Parks Canada, Provincial Parks, the burgeoning Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, and environmental groups had clear, positive and lasting influence on the Club. We are, however, faced with a broad range of challenges that will, in the next hundred years, demand strong, productive relationships with these other communities. We will inevitably be affected in the coming century by changing demographics, evolving technology and population growth. Among the specific challenges we face will be growing issues related to access and environmental footprints in ever more crowded mountain regions. Also looming large in the future are the impacts we have already begun to witness associated with climate change. To remain relevant as a club, we will have to be active in addressing these very real concerns. We will also have to actively welcome and embrace the rise of new, sometimes unforeseen, kinds of climbing interests besides mountaineering. So what does all this mean? At the core of it all, the Alpine Club of Canada is a mountaineering club and to continue for the next hundred years, I believe that we must never lose sight of this. I think the future direction of the Alpine Club of Canada should be simple. Keep climbing. Keep enjoying your time spent with others in the mountaineering environment that you love and let others know that you love it. Work with other individuals to foster and mentor love and respect for the Canadian alpine. Do the same for other groups and organizations that form the larger mountain community. If we do all of this, I believe that the Alpine Club of Canada will grow and prosper in the next century. Cam Roe President of the Alpine Club of Canada 60 Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette 2006

63 Après avoir promu la passion des montagnes depuis un siècle, le Club Alpin du Canada se tourne avec enthousiasme vers le 21e siècle. Dans son article de clôture, le président actuel du CAC, Cameron Roe, partage ses réflexions concernant la mission du club, son objectif et notre appréciation grandissante et tout à fait canadienne du monde de la montagne. Cam Roe leading a group of ACC members on the east ridge of Mount Edith Cavell, 2004 PHOTO BY ROGER LAURILLA Le PostScript Centenaire Le Club Alpin du Canada fête ses 100 ans. C est en soi une réalisation admirable qui mérite bien un retour en arrière pour souligner les succès et un bond en avant pour cerner ce qui nous attend. Comme ce numéro de la Gazette consacre une grande partie de ses pages à l histoire du club, mes fonctions m amènent à jeter un éclairage sur le passé et à tenter de décrire l avenir du club. L histoire du Club Alpin du Canada, c est l histoire des collectivités et des liens qu il a tissés avec elles. Le club a été créé par un groupe de personnes partageant certaines affinités, qui se sont regroupées pour donner naissance à l alpinisme canadien. Le British Alpine Club et divers clubs états-uniens parcouraient à l époque les montagnes du Canada quand des gens comme Elizabeth Parker et Arthur O. Wheeler prirent conscience que les Canadiens pouvaient eux aussi explorer et gravir les montagnes du pays. Selon eux, cette activité ne devait pas être réservée aux visiteurs. Leur réflexion a ouvert la porte à une série d aventures et d excusions alpines qui ont favorisé l exploration des montagnes de l Ouest, ainsi que la création de cours d alpinisme et de leadership d expédition qui ont connu un franc succès. Une solide communauté alpine était née. La croissance du club, des premiers balbutiements jusqu à maintenant, peut être perçue comme un ensemble de liens avec d autres collectivités avec lesquelles nous partageons les montagnes. Au début, ce sont les liens avec le Canadien Pacifique et l accès au transport, à l hébergement et aux guides qui ont façonné les fondements du club. Avec la migration croissante vers les villes de l Ouest comme Calgary, Edmonton et Vancouver, les liens entre sections sont devenus de plus en plus importants. Le solide lien qui s est tissé entre le club en tant qu entité et les diverses sections locales est devenu avec le temps la relation la plus durable et la plus importante de toute l histoire du CAC. Aujourd hui, les sections du Club Alpin du Canada créent à leur tour des liens avec des particuliers en leur offrant un encadrement et un environnement dans lequel ils peuvent apprendre et améliorer les techniques alpines. Les gens ainsi formés forment et encadrent à leur tour d autres personnes. D autres «collectivités» ont aussi exercé une réelle influence sur le Club Alpin du Canada. Le club, qui entretient des relations avec Parc Canada, les parcs provinciaux, l Association des Guides de Montagne Canadiens en pleine croissance et les groupes environnementaux, a clairement bénéficié de l influence positive et durable de ces interlocuteurs. Toutefois, nous faisons face actuellement à un éventail de défis qui, au cours du prochain siècle, nécessiteront l apport de liens solides et productifs avec ces autres collectivités. Au fil du siècle en cours, nous seront inévitablement touchés par les changements démographiques, les découvertes technologiques et la croissance de la population. Des problématiques de plus en plus importantes liées à l accès et aux empreintes environnementales laissées dans des zones montagneuses de plus en plus visitées figurent parmi les défis que nous auront à relever. De plus, nous aurons à affronter un autre défi de taille, celui des effets que nous avons commencé à sentir et qui sont liés aux changements climatiques. Si nous voulons préserver l intégrité de notre club, nous devons nous pencher sérieusement sur ces questions vitales. Nous devrons aussi accueillir activement la montée, parfois imprévue, de nouveaux loisirs qui sont liés à l ascension de montagnes. Que devons nous tirer de cette réflexion? Et bien à la base, le Club Alpin du Canada est un club d activités en montagne. À mon avis, nous devons adhérer à cet énoncé si nous voulons poursuivre notre mission. Selon moi, nous devons tenir la future orientation du CAC à son expression la plus simple : gravir des montagnes. Continuez d apprécier le temps que vous passez avec d autres personnes dans les montagnes que vous aimez, et faites savoir aux autres que vous les aimez. Travaillez en collaboration avec d autres individus pour favoriser et générer un amour et un respect du milieu alpin canadien. Faites en autant pour d autres groupes et organismes qui font partie de la grande collectivité alpine. Si nous suivons tous ce chemin, je suis convaincu que le Club Alpin du Canada grandira et s épanouira davantage au fil de notre siècle. Cam Roe Président du Club Alpin du Canada Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Gazette

64 INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAINEERING AND CLIMBING FEDERATION UNION INTERNATIONALE DES ASSOCIATIONS D'ALPINISME Bern, January 2006 To the President and all the members of the Alpine Club of Canada On behalf of all member clubs and federations of the Union Internationale des Associations d Alpinisme (UIAA) it gives me great pleasure to extend our warm greetings and congratulations to the Alpine Club of Canada on reaching its centennial. For many years the ACC has played an important role in the UIAA, sitting on many of the commissions and the competition committees. We have always been grateful for the involvement with which your members have represented Canada at our meetings. When we think of your wilderness and your protected areas, we can only compliment you on the foresight that you have taken to preserve your mountain places. By doing this you have done a favour for the members of the UIAA and all the other people who love and respect our mountains and wilderness. We think of the vitality of Canadians and how young a country you are, we must believe that the ACC will have a continuing important role to play in Canadian society by being a group that not only speaks for the preservation of your mountains, but that also recognizes the importance of recreating in them. Not only do you have some of the world s top climbers but your guiding community has a reputation for excellence. How you work with your land managers and the way you manage your mountain huts has shown the success of good practices. In October 2006 we will have the opportunity to join your celebrations when the ACC generously hosts the General Assembly of the UIAA. We will have important work to accomplish in Canada but can think of few better places to meet than in the Rocky Mountains. We are looking forward to meeting with your members and having the opportunity to visit your wonderful country. We wish the ACC a new century of distinction. Pierre Humblet, UIAA President a.i. The UIAA thanks its partners: Bask, Entre-Prises, Grivel UIAA Office Monbijoustrasse 61 Postfach CH-3000 Berne 23 SWITZERLAND t: +41 (0) f: +41 (0) e: office@uiaa.ch w:

65 congratulations on your 100 years of alpinism Contemplating a new route in the Pigeon Feathers, Bugaboos. Photo: Andrew Querner Patagonia pledges at least 1% of sales, $20 million in grants and in-kind donations to date, to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment Patagonia, Inc.

66 Congratulations on your first 100 years CPR ad which appeared in the Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 7, CPR has been a proud supporter of The Alpine Club of Canada since

67 1993- Mountain Hardwear founded Introduced first window use in tent flys Ethereal Parka earns Backpacker Magazine Editors Choice Award Introducing the new innovative line of suspension packs Adjustable U-Bar Congratulations to the Alpine Club of Canada on 100 years of mountaineering! Patented the Tension Shelf in our tents Introduced the innovative Maneuver Soft Shell Jacket Fit-Lock Harness Pivoting Waist Belt Original Pack Pant earns Backpacker Mag Editors Choice Award Spectre SL sleeping bag earns Backpacker Mag Editors Choice Award OUR EXODUS SYSTEM MOVES WITH YOU FOR UNMATCHED COMFORT AND MOBILITY ADJUSTABLE U-BAR CONNECTS THE YOKE TO THE FRAME, DISTRIBUTING WEIGHT EVENLY THE FIT-LOCK HARNESS CUSTOM CONTOURS TO YOUR SHAPE PIVOTING WAIST BELT ADJUSTS TO YOUR POSTURE AS YOU MOVE U-Bar Fit-Lock Pivoting Waist Belt Trango 2 and 3.1 tents earn American Alpine Institute Guides Choice Award Quantum adjustable fit sleeping bag earns Backpacker Mag Editors Choice Award Waypoint tent features first welded seam construction in an outdoor product

68 Each one of us dreams dreams and sees visions. The peaks we climb in our reveries are nobler than any we can hope to ascend in real life, but it is our visionary mountains which govern our actual accomplishments. Cyril Wates The Gazette, 1938