“SNOW PASS” – a highly selective annotated mountaineering history to some parts of the Northern Rockies
“Snow Pass” (7,300 ft.) is the name first used by the Alberta/British Columbia Interprovincial Boundary Survey in 1919 and then adopted by J. Monroe Thorington in 1931 for the low point between the Sullivan and the Athabasca Rivers. In 1936 Francis North referred to it as the “Toronto Pass”; however, with regret, we will resist the temptation of popularizing this alternative, and let first use take precedent! The name “Snow Pass” is rarely seen in print; a notable exception is the map, p.17 in “Columbia Icefield, A Solitude of Ice”.
There is nothing remarkable about the mountaineering history of the Snow Pass area, but, from its summits one is in an ideal position to observe the terrain that dominated much of the exploration and climbing history of the northern Rockies; the three 12,000 footers – Columbia, N. Twin and Clemenceau; three major icefields, Clemenceau-Chaba-Columbia; the valley of the upper Athabasca and the great mountain dominating its eastern flank – Mt. Alberta.
Many of the well known Rockies explorers/mountaineers have passed through the country within your gaze – David Thompson, A.P. Coleman, Norman Collie, Jean Habel, James Outram, Conrad Kain, Monroe Thorington, A.J. Ostheimer, etc.
Hence, it maybe of interest to some who haven’t been in this part of the Rockies to provide a highly selective and severely annotated history.
1807: David Thompson was the first known European to cross (June 25, 1807) and describe the location of Howse Pass, 5020 ft. Howse Pass became the route of choice for the North West Fur Company to travel between Rocky Mountain House (in the Alberta foothills), via the Saskatchewan River to the pass and then the Blaeberry River to the Columbia River.
The Pass is named after James Howse who crossed in 1810. Howse built the only Hudson Bay Company post west of the Rockies.
Late 1810 the local Piegan Indian Band made it clear that they opposed the fur trading companies use of Howse Pass and basically closed passage. Hence, David Thompson on behalf of the North West Company needed to locate a new route from the Prairies to the Pacific.
1811: David Thompson entered the “upper” Athabasca Valley, from what is now Jasper, and in January 1811 followed the Whirlpool River over the Athabasca Pass (5,736 ft.) to the Wood River and down to the Columbia River. Thompson over wintered at Boat Encampment at the Big “Bend” of the Columbia, and eventually made his way to Astoria, J.J. Astor’s fur trading post, at the mouth of the Columbia River just inland from the Pacific Ocean.
Alexander Henry had previously described the Athabasca Pass as a route used by Nippising and Iroquois Indians and it is possible that Thompson was not the first white man to cross the Athabasca Pass but he was the first to accurately establish its position and provide details of the route to and across it from the Athabasca to the Columbia.
From 1811 to about the 1850’s the Athabasca Pass was probably the most used route through the main range of the Rockies especially after the amalgamation of the North West Company with the Hudson Bay Company in 1821. The pass continued to have occasional use until 1913 when the Grand Trunk (now CNR) line was completed from Jasper, through the Yellowhead Pass.
The Yellowhead, at 3711 ft., is the lowest pass in the northern Rockies but was not fully explored and documented until after the Athabasca Pass. Though it does lead to the headwaters of the Fraser River and thus to the Pacific, the Fraser was “both too difficult and too dangerous” to provide the fur companies with a reliable access to the Pacific. This was the attraction of the “mighty river of the west”, the Columbia, which did provide a navigable water route to the Pacific. The Yellowhead regained prominence in the1860’s as a means of access to the gold fields of the Cariboo Country.
1827: The significance of the Athabasca Pass to Canadian mountaineering is its passage in 1827 by David Douglas. In just 5 hours Douglas ascended a peak on the west side of the pass and in so doing made the first recorded ascent of a Rockies peak. Subsequently Douglas named his peak “Mt. Brown” and assigned it a height of 16,000 ft. to 17,000 ft. Douglas named a prominent mountain lying east of the pass “Mt. Hooker” with a height of 15,700 ft. “Mts. Brown/Hooker” became the “highest peaks in N. America” and later efforts made in their “rediscovery” provided a major spur to mountaineering exploration in the northern Rockies.
The Brown/Hooker saga is a fine tale recounted at length in many of the references appended, especially the chapters and appendix in Thorington’s “Glittering Mountains”. Coleman’s bewilderment/ disappointment is clearly expressed in his original account on finally reaching the Athabasca Pass in 1893. The “Controversies” section of the Canadian Mountaineering Anthology p. 171-187 helpfully extracts some of the original references and provides pertinent discussion and some incisive editorial comment, especially on the divergent views of A.O. Wheeler and Monroe Thorington on what exactly David Douglas did or did not do, on his 6 ½ hour solo snow shoe hike, at the Athabasca Pass on May 1st, 1827.
J. Monroe Thorington, “The Glittering Mountains of Canada”, pages. 200/201.
“Therefore (Mtns. Brown/Hooker) are probably not the peaks Douglas named; in fact we remain in ignorance as to precisely where he went, what he did, and what he named during his few hours at Athabasca Pass. The Interprovincial Survey has unquestionably done the best thing possible in perpetuating these classic names by applying them to a lovely peak on either side of the pass. But the ambition to stand upon them is a deeper thing than it appears; for the naming of peaks by Douglas, and the over-estimation of altitude – no matter how strange and ludicrous the mistake may seem; no matter who was at fault in figuring – these things first led men in search of great Canadian heights. They came from the far corners of the earth, following pioneer trails, seeking beauty. And none there was who returned insensitive to the glory of that mountain vastness”.
1850’s:The Athabasca Pass was still a major trans Canada route. In the spring (March) trading parties left Edmonton to cross the pass to Boat Encampment by which time boats had arrived from Vancouver (i.e. Vancouver, Oregon, on the Columbia River). Goods were exchanged and taken back to Edmonton and to York Factory on Hudson Bay. The reverse journey occurred in September. The journey from Hudson Bay to the Pacific by this route generally occupied about 3 ½ months and “involved an amount of hardships and toil that cannot be appreciated by those who have not been traveling in these territories”.
1859: Dr. James Hector (of the Palliser Exploration, 1857-60) and Walter Moberly (then of the Hudson Bay Co.) make a partial ascent of Roche Miette and later in February explore the Athabasca River above its junction with the Whirlpool. Later in 1859 Hector discovered the Lyell Icefield and ascends part of the Lyell glacier, and thus was the first European to venture onto a Rocky Mountain glacier?
1862: Viscount Milton and Dr. Cheadle travel from Edmonton to Kamploops via the Yellowhead Pass, they describe Mt. Robson and Tete Jaune Cache.
1871: Walter Moberly, surveying for the CPR for a suitable pass through the Rockies, completed a detailed survey of Howse Pass and concluded that it was the best line for the CPR. However, in 1872 it was decided to adopt Yellowhead Pass for the transcontinental line and the Mr. Moberly’s work in Howse Pass was discontinued”, A/BC, p.15.
The 1918 Alberta/British Columbia Interprovincial Survey agreed with Moberly: “Howse Pass is of lower altitude than Kicking Horse (by 319 ft.) it has no steep approaches and will some day be found suitable for a trunk motor road from the Columbia to the prairies, the feasibility of using the pass for such a road or for a railway having already been established”.
At present the major logging road up the Blaeberry reaches within 5 km of Howse Pass.
The concept of a “Howse Pass road” leaving the Trans Canada Highway about 10 km north of Golden, following the Blaeberry to Howse Pass, and linking up with the David Thompson Highway at Saskatchewan River Crossing and thus act as an alternative or supplement to the Trans Canada Highway is an idea that comes up for discussion every 20 years or so!
1872: Walter Moberly, having been ordered by the CPR to discontinue the survey of the Howse Pass, first surveys the Athabasca Pass and then the Yellowhead Pass. The CPR rejected both of the northern passes in favour of the much more southerly Kicking Horse Pass; however, survey of the Yellowhead continued until 1880 when the railway rights were transferred to a private syndicate that became the Grand Trunk Pacific and then the CNR. The Yellowhead Pass became the route for rail lines from Edmonton to both Kamloops/Vancouver and to Prince George/Prince Rupert.
1888: The beginning of the Mts. Brown and Hooker search. Professor A.P. Coleman, of the U of Toronto, and party fail to reach the Athabasca Pass from the Columbia River.
1892: A.P. Coleman and party enter the upper Athabasca Valley from the north (i.e. from what is now Jasper) and name the Chaba River. The Coleman party rediscover Fortress Lake and were the first Europeans to provide a comprehensive description of the area. They also made the first ascent of Mt. Bouillard (which they call “Misty Mountain”) from which they become the first persons to record seeing Mt. Clemenceau (which they called “White Pyramid”) and the Clemenceau Icefield.
1893: A.P. Coleman reaches the Athabasca Pass and L.Q. Coleman and L.B. Stewart climb the highest mountain on the west side and so Mt. Brown receives its second ascent(?) but its height declines from ±17,000 to Coleman’s estimate of 9,050 ft. and so the “Brown/Hooker” myth is over?
Coleman establishes the height of the Athabasca Pass to be ± 5,710 ft. not ±11,000 ft.!
1893: James McEvoy, a government surveyor calculates the height of Mt. Robson at 13,700 ft.
1896: Walter Wilcox and R.L. Barrett travel north from Banff and are the first Europeans to discover the Sunwapta and Wilcox Passes. They observe the snouts of the Saskatchean and Athabasca Glaciers but have no idea of the presence of the Columbia Icefield. Then they continue north to the Athabasca River, i.e. Wilcox has defined the basic line of the present Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper. Wilcox and Barrett then follow the Athabasca River to Fortress Lake, and thus establish a route to the “middle” reaches of the Athabasca River from the “south”, i.e. Lake Louise. Barrett makes the first ascent of Fortress Mountain.
1897: Norman Collie, from a high point on Mt. Freshfield observes, “perhaps 30 miles to the NW a magnificent snow-covered mountain, its western face being a precipice, it towered above its neighbours”. Collie thought the mountain might be 15,000 ft. high and thus could still be one of the mystical Mts. Brown and Hooker.
1898: Norman Collie/Hugh Woolley make the first ascent of Mt. Athabasca and in doing so discover the Columbia Icefields and see Mt. Bryce (“the Finsteraarhorn”), and “directly westward of Peak Athabasca, rose probably the highest summit in this region of the Rocky Mountains (i.e. Mt. Columbia)…I at once recognized the great peak I was in search of; moreover a short distance to the northeast of this mountain, another (i.e. Mt. Alberta) almost as high, also flat topped, but ringed by sheer precipices, reared its head into the sky above all its fellows…at once I concluded that these two might be the two lost mountains, Brown and Hooker”. Collie/Stutfield/Woolley attempt to climb Mt. Columbia via an approach up the Athabasca Glacier, “but Mt. Columbia proved to be much further off than it looked”, but they did succeed in making the first ascents of Snow Dome and Diadem and discovered the source of the Athabasca River.
From the summits of Snow Dome and Diadem Collie realizes that Mts. Columbia and Alberta cannot really be Mts. Brown/Hooker because there is no Athabasca Pass lying between them, leading from the Athabasca River to the Columbia River.
1900: Collie and Stutfield attempt to reach Mt. Columbia via the Bush River but do not succeed.
1900: C.S. Thompson rediscovers and follows the Indian trail leading to the east/west pass between the Saskatchewan River and the Bush River lying south of Mt. Bryce. This is the pass now known as Thompson Pass.
1901: Jean Habel (of Berlin), with Fred Ballard and Dan Campbell as his horse packer and cook left Laggan (Lake Louise) on July 2nd and used Wilcox’s route to reach Fortress Lake on July 22nd, a journey of 21 days. Then they continued south to become the first Europeans to explore the “inner” reaches of both the Chaba and the Athabasca valleys. Habel notes that they are following Indian trails and at the terminal forks of the Athabasca River there are “still standing tepee poles”. On July 26, they reached and explored the West Chaba glacier; then on July 31st they attempted to climb Chaba Peak, but found the East Chaba glacier icefall too difficult. On August 1st, 1901 they successfully climbed “Mt. Chaba”. The first ascent of an “inner” Athabasca valley peak. Ascent 7 hrs. 40 mins., descent 5 hrs. Habel gives a height of 9245 ft. for “Chaba Col” and of 10,300 ft. for “Mt. Chaba”. Both of these heights are remarkably accurate. One of the impressive aspects of this ascent is that Habel managed to cajole his horse packer and cook, Ballard and Campbell to accompany him on the climb, it was hardly their normal activity so it is not surprising when one of them turned to him and said, “A man may break his neck here”! As the stories recorded in Fraser’s book reveal, Ballard and Campbell were not particularly enamored of their rather “straight-laced”, 60 year old plus, Berlin employer/companion. Equally interesting in Habel’s very detailed account of his Athabasca explorations he never once actually names his “companions/employees”!
Habel then moved camp from the Chaba valley to explore the innermost recesses of the Upper Athabasca valley. Habel reached the foot of the Columbia Glacier and scrambled up to 6,700 ft. on the northern flanks of “Toronto”. Habel named most of the major mountains and glaciers in the area though virtually all his names have been rejected by both the A/BC and the Canadian Geographic Names Board, Habel had an “Ontario Glacier”, a “Toronto Glacier” and a “Mt. Ontario”, for a transcription of Habel names versus A/BC/Cdn. Geog. Board names, see table in Thorington, CAJ, Vol. 20, p. 31.
Habel ascended Habel Creek to a col at 9,845 feet, i.e. the Woolley shoulder and looked down at the Sunwapta valley.
Habel also produced a wonderful first photograph of the N face of “Mt. Gamma” (Mt. Columbia) rising more than 7,500 ft. above the Athabasca River.
Running short of food Habel left the Athabasca valley on August 12 and reached Laggan (Lake Louise) on August 24, exactly eight weeks after he had started out. “Not very much was achieved, for, like all former expeditions, mine ran short of provisions, and we had to return a fortnight earlier than I had anticipated, just when we had found the right way to advance on difficult ground, and in perfect weather”. Habel’s had spent 21 days reaching Fortress Lake, 13 days getting back to Lake Louise, and only 20 days in the Chaba and Athabasca valleys, 10 of which were spent in camp due to torrential rain.
Habel must have met or corresponded with Norman Collie after his 1901 trip as a footnote on page 37 (Habel. App., Volume 10) states, “Collie, who has had the kindness to look at some of my photographs, identifies my “Alpha” as Mt. Alberta, and “Gamma” as Mt. Columbia”.
Jean Habel first visited the Rockies in 1896 when he was almost 60 years old. Whilst on a CPR train descending to Field Habel saw a snow peak at the head of the Yoho Valley, which he called “Hidden Peak”. He returned to the Rockies in 1897 and discovered the Yoho Pass, Takakkaw Falls, the Yoho glacier and the western approaches to Mt. Balfour. Later in Field it seems he met Norman Collie (Fraser, 1969, p.156) who discussed the Brown/Hooker “problem” and Collie’s recent observation of a huge snow peak lying to the north of Mt. Freshfield. It’s likely this conversation stimulated Habel’s 1901 exploration. Habel died in 1902 in Ostende, Belgium.
Habel’s “Hidden Peak” became Mt. Habel as named (by the Appalachian Mountain Club – Thorington 1947 ref., or as named by Norman Collie, Place Names of the Canadian Alps) and remained as Mt. Habel until at least 1924 (see A/BC Boundary Volume, p.9) and there was also a Habel Glacier draining the Wapta Icefields. However, sometime after World War I Mt. Habel became today’s Mt. Des Poilus.
In some accounts Habel is described as “mysterious” however, Thorington, (1947) provides five pages of incisive information and six further references, and Fraser (1969, p.156/157) provides a number of neat vignettes.
1902: From a camp in Castleguard Meadows James Outram and Christian Kaufmann make the first ascents of Mts. Columbia and Bryce. Then they join up with Collie and party (the discovers of Mts. Columbia and Bryce!) to climb Mts. Freshfield and Forbes. In the Canadian Mountain Anthology, p. 157 there is a pithy editorial comment: “Norman Collie, wrote private letters about his rival James Outram describing him as an interloper and opportunist, bent on self-serving first ascents missions built on the work of the real explorers who had proceeded him. But not a word of this appears in Collie’s published writings”.
Long gone are the days of the stiff (silent) upper lip when someone “steals” your mountain/route/pitch!
1906: Mary Schäffer and Mary Adams reach the Wilcox Pass. The first recorded visit of European ladies to the northern Rockies.
1906: Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada and #1 item on A.O. Wheeler’s agenda is a Canadian first ascent of Mt. Robson.
1907: Mary Schäffer/Mary Adams cross the Wilcox Pass and reached Fortress Lake and carried on south down the Athabasca River to view Mt. Columbia from the north. Schäffer renames Jean Habel’s “Mt. Manitoba” as Mt. King Edward. On their return to Jasper they meet A.P. Coleman and his party travelling north on their way to make the first mountaineering exploration of Mt. Robson.
1907: First designation of Jasper National Park.
1908: Mary Schäffer/Mary Adams rediscover Maligne Lake and are the first to reach it from the south. Henry McLeod, a railway surveyor had previously discovered the lake from the north, from the Athabasca River, in 1870. Then Schäffer/Adams travel on to Jasper and to the Yellowhead to view Mt. Robson.
1913: A.L. Mumm and Moritz Inderbinen visit Athabasca Pass and climb Mt. Brown.
1913: Conrad Kain, W.W. Foster and A.H. MacCarthy make the first ascent of Mt. Robson at the ACC GMC.
1914: Jasper National Park enlarged, virtually to its present boundaries.
1916: B.W. Mitchell and H. Bryant visit the upper Athabasca Valley.
1919: Caroline Hinman begins her “off the Beaten Track” tours for young ladies from the eastern U.S.A., these include horse back tours from Lake Louise to the Columbia Icefields.
1919: The Alberta/British Columbia Interprovincial Boundary Survey (A/BC) map from south of Mt. Columbia through “Snow Pass” to Clemenceau. The A/BC produces Sheet 23 and 24 of the Interprovincial Mountain Boundary Survey, which remain the basic topographic maps of this area until 1964!
The A/BC leave Banff on June 20, reach the Thompson Pass (south of Mt. Bryce) June 28, unsuccessfully attempt both Mt. Columbia and Snow Dome, in both cases there is too much cloud to make photographic surveying worthwhile. August 18 they move to Fortress Lake, then on Sept. 3 to the head of the east branch of the Chaba. On Sept. 8 they make the 1st ascent of Sundial Peak; and then move to the “inner” Athabasca; Sept. 17 1st ascent of Warwick Mountain; Sept. 23 pack up to return to Banff; October 3 arrive Banff.
The A/BC Volume a “report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia” may sound like a typical “austere” government publication. However, it is not. Firstly it contains many superb mountain photographs, often taken from some unusual view spots, as the surveyors required wide arcing views of valleys and slopes as well as summits. Also it is ninety percent (90%) written by A. (Arthur) O. Wheeler (the founder of the ACC) and frequently Wheeler simply gets carried away by the beauty of a meadow, lake, flowers, alpine trees, the splendor of an icefall; a wholly new view of an icefield, a totally unexpected waterfall, the “joy of exploration” always finds its way through the official prose.
Then there are a few pearls of familiar mountaineering experience, e.g. page 29, “on one occasion the leader of the party broke through the snow and disappeared into a crevasse. Fortunately the members of the party were roped together and he was hauled out without other mishap than a drop into space at the end of a rope”, a description of the 1918 Survey Party crossing the Conway Icefield.
An equally familiar tale, “dropping a rucksac”, p. 31, “The (1918) party on the 1st August made the ascent of Coronation Mountain, when there occurred a very serious mishap resulting in the absolute loss of a book of field notes of the work from the commencement of the season. The climbing party in charge of the chief assistant, Mr. A.J. Campbell, made the ascent of the peak by a route both difficult and dangerous and completed work at the summit. When descending by another route it became necessary at one place to lower the other two members of the party – both of whom were novices and in their first season at mountaineering – down a bad piece of cliffs; the survey instruments, camera, transit, and a rucksack containing a satchel with the field book in it, sweaters, etc., then had to be lowered separately. Untying the rucksack from the rope, one of the assistants placed it upon a too narrow ledge and the moment he removed his hand it fell off, struck the ledge on which he was standing and bounded over the edge out of sight. Climbing down it was nowhere to be seen. For two days, in pouring rain, every possible spot in the vicinity was searched and only one conclusion was probable. On bounding over the ledge the rucksack must have fallen into a narrow rock gully with a steep incline to its mouth, across which flowed of mass of glacier ice. Directly opposite the mouth of the gully there was a large hole in the ice, doubtless carved by water flowing down the gully, which furnished a run-off channel for the melting snow from above. The incline of the gully continued steeply under the ice and the only conclusion possible was that the rucksack had continued its course down the gully and under the ice. Mr. Campbell lowered a weighted rope for one hundred and fifty feet down through the hole in the ice and found that the steep incline continued beyond that distance. There was no possible way of ascertaining where the rucksack had gone.
This serious loss necessitated the re-occupation of a number of stations on the west side of Bush Pass, and Mr. Campbell, who in my absence was at his wits’ end to know just what to do in the circumstances, took the only common-sense action possible by re-occupying them immediately. All the photographic views previously taken, were safe at the camp, but the transit readings for azimuths and orientation of the views, without which the views themselves were of little value, had to be done again”.
See below A.O. Wheeler, as one of the two Commissioners of the A/BC strengthens his surveyors mountaineering capabilities in the following year, 1919, by hiring Conrad Kain!
In 1918 the A/BC commented with regard to the Thompson Pass (6,511 ft.), immediately south of Mt. Bryce, “a road could be constructed without a great deal of difficulty”. As everyone who attend the Spring Rice GMC can attest the logging road from the Bush River almost makes the crest of the pass! But I very much doubt if Parks Canada is going to complete a trail through to the Icefields Parkway!
Omega Peak was the final photographic tie-in station covering the southern margin of the Columbia Icefield of the A/BC’s 1919 field season.
1919: Conrad Kain was employed by the A/BC from June 23-September 28 and he worked from Rice Brook to Castleguard Meadows/ Thompson Pass to the Columbia Icefields and then northwards to Fortress Lake.
Kain’s long summer of surveying in the upper Athabasca valley, provide him with ample opportunity to realize the wealth of unclimbed mountains that lay at hand, to the west in the Chaba group, to the east – Mt. Alberta and the Twins and to the south Mt. King Edward.
There is somewhat of an “information gap” here. In “Where the Clouds Can Go” there is a complete list of Conrad Kain’s ascents, and these include: “Warwick (first ascent), Sundial (first ascent) and a number of others- Chaba W., three peaks east of Fortress Lake including Chisel (first ascent), two peaks west of Fortress Lake, peak north of Sundial”. In Thorington’s guidebook to the Rockies all of these ascents are attributed to the anonymous A/BC Survey with no credit being given to Kain. But indeed all of the A/BC reports are “anonymous”, only three individuals are ever named and there are no appendices listing each years employees.
1920: The A/BC survey the Athabasca Pass area and twice climb Mt. Brown. The A/BC establishes a height of 5,736 ft. for the Pass, and 9,156 ft. for Mt. Brown. Later in their 1920 field season the A/BC make Mt. Robson’s height decline to 13,068 ft.
1920: Allan Carpe, Howard Palmer and W.D. Harris climb Mt. Serenity from Fortress Lake.
1920: Allan Carpe and Howard Palmer attempt to climb Mt. King Edward via Habel’s “Ontario Glacier” (King Edward Glacier). They reach a height of 10,600 ft. below the final cliff band.
1921: A/BC survey provide a final height for Mt. Robson of 12,972 feet, so in fact there is no >13,000 ft. mountain in the Rockies, and, at 3954 m no >4000 m peak either!
1921: Publication of Howard Palmer’s and J. Monroe Thorington’s seminal first edition of “A Climbers Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada” with its front page photograph of the unclimbed Mt. Alberta.
1923: D.B. Durand, H.S. Hall, W.D. Harris, H.B. de V. Schwab make the first ascent of Mt. Clemenceau via an epic back packing trip from Fortress Lake following the route of their 1922 reconnaissance.
1923: From Castleguard Meadows, Conrad Kain with William S. Ladd and J. Monroe Thorington, make the first ascent of N. Twin and then make the second ascent of Mt. Columbia. On the latter the climbing party included Jim Simpson, the horse “packer” who had taken Outram/Kauffmann to Castleguard Meadows to make the first ascent, 21 years before. Later Jim Simpson makes the first pack horse descent of the Saskatchewan Glacier.
Thus by 1923 Conrad Kain had climbed three of the four 12,000 peaks of the Canadian Rockies.
1924: W.O. Field, F.V. Field, L.U. Harris, guides Edward Feuz/Joseph Biner made the first ascent of South Twin, 2nd ascent of North Twin, 3rd ascent of Mt. Columbia.
1924: Conrad Kain, with M.Max Stumia and J. Monroe Thorington visit the Athabasca Pass. With them is A.J. Ostheimer, who is then 16 years old, but Ostheimer had climbed Mts. Temple and Rainer the previous summer, i.e. when he was 15. In the “Glittering Mountains”, opposite page 170 there is a photograph of the 1924 party, Ostheimer appears to have a full beard and is smoking a pipe and seems to be well built for a 16 year old!
They make an ascent of Mt. Brown and then make the first ascent of Mt. Hooker, which has declined in height from 16,000 ft. to 10,782 ft.! Their ascent of Mt. Hooker is an epic journey which lasts 54 hours with some masterful leading by Conrad Kain. The party then made the first ascent of Simon Peak in the Ramparts, and continued to Mt. Robson where Ostheimer/Thorington made the first ascent of “Little Mt. Robson” on the SSW ridge route to Mt. Robson and Conrad Kain made the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th ascents of Mt. Robson by the S.S.W. ridge route as part of the ACC GMC.
1924: Byron Harmon (photographer) and Lewis Freeman (writer) “On the Roof of the Rockies” visit the upper Athabasca Valley as part of their 70 day/500 mile journey in which Byron Harmon takes 400 glass plate still photos and 7,000 ft. of movie film, see the classic black and white photographs of the Columbia Icefields, Mt. Columbia, Fortress Lake, packhorses on glaciers in “Great Days in the Rockies”.
1924: The first ascent of Mt. King Edward by Conrad Kain, and J.W.A. (Joseph William Andrew) Hickson (President of ACC 1924-26). Palmer’s original description of their ascent is a fine read. The party realizes one could climb Mt. Columbia by a traverse south of Mt. King Edward (as was done by Bell and Michel in 1951).
They make a complete circum navigation of the Columbia Glacier and reject it as a reasonable route to reach the Columbia Icefield. They do see a break towards N. Twin (used by Ostheimer in 1927). The party then makes an extensive reconnaissance of Mt. Alberta and defines what would become the successful 1925 route. They climb “Little Alberta” but the weather is always too poor to attempt Alberta.
1925: 1st ascent of Mt. Alberta, Jean Weber (see below, 1927) is the additional Swiss member of the Japanese party led by Yuko Maki.
In “Where the Clouds Can Go” Kain makes continuous comments as to what a great climb Mt. Alberta would be, and as the pre-eminent guide of the time and the most knowledgeable of the inner Athabasca Valley one wonders why he wasn’t with the Japanese party? However, as stated in (“Where the Clouds Can Go”, p.390) “1925-1928 Conrad Kain seems to have done little or no mountaineering in the three summers that followed (1924); and as explained in Bob Sandford’s excellent account (Sandford, Mountain Heritage Summer, 2000) the Japanese party had traveled by CNR to Jasper and then “joined forces” with Swiss guides in residence for the 1925 summer, Heinrich Fuhrer and Hans Kohler and the visiting Swiss amateur Jean Weber. This may or may not have been coincidence.
Yuko Maki’s great route was the Mittellegi (NE) Ridge of the Eiger, in the Bernese Oberland. Maki made the first ascent, Sept. 10, 1921 with three Swiss guides, F. Amatter, F. Steuri and S. Branwand.
So though Maki did not climb the Mittellegi with Heinrich Fuhrer he may well have met him in the Bernese Oberland as Fuhrer was one of the most notable local guides and the Mittellegi (in its virgin state) was a great route, otherwise it seems strange for both the Japanese and the Swiss to simply “turn up” in Jasper in July 1925!
1927: A.J. Ostheimer (now 19 years old) and his two Harvard undergraduate companions, John de Laittre and Rupert Maclaurin, their guides Hans Fuhrer and Jean Weber and their two horse packers and cook climb 36 peaks, 27 of which are first ascents, in a period of 63 days. Their 1st ascents include Tsar Mtn., Stutfield, Kitchener; 2nd ascent of Clemenceau, 3rd ascent of N. Twin; first access of the Columbia Icefield from the north, etc. and the rest of the epic of “Every Other Day”. Their second from last “first ascent” is Wales Peak by Jean Weber, de Laittre and Maclaurin via the East Chaba Glacier and then the west slopes of the mountain.
Weber with de Laittre and Maclairin also made the second ascent of Sundial Peak, ascent from the Chaba Valley and then descent via the “Sundial Glacier” to the Athabasca Valley and cross the terminal forks of the Athabasca River on foot to reach Ostheimer’s packhorse camp. There is a wonderful, effectively vertical photo of the terminal forks of the Athabasca River in “Columbia Icefield, A Solitude of Ice” plate VII which shows exactly what an unpleasant “on foot” proposition this is, and has been done by all “Up the Athabasca” climbing parties after the demise of the packhorse.
One of the notable features of Ostheimer’s eight-man team is that everyone climbs mountains; the horse packers, the cook, the Harvard botany/geology students, never mind Ostheimer and the two Swiss guides. Everyone is involved in every aspect of their 63-day marathon, which, in part, is why they achieved so much.
It’s interesting to speculate why Ostheimer didn’t employ Conrad Kain on his epic 1927 summer, especially as Ostheimer had climbed with Kain in this area in 1924. But Ostheimer had been guided by Hans Fuhrer on an ascent of Mt. Rainier in 1923 when Ostheimer was 15 and Fuhrer moved to Canada in 1926 to work for the CPR and then to Jasper in 1927 to work for the CNR so Fuhrer was in the right place at the right time and clearly Fuhrer and Ostheimer related extremely well with each other. Kain seems unperturbed and he provides Ostheimer with numerous written details from his 1919/1924 explorations.
Ostheimer’s and Fuhrer’s other “goal” for their 1927 season was to climb all four 12,000 peaks in the single summer, still a laudable ambition.
“Pushing the Limits” (p.153) lists Hans Fuhrer’s later accomplishments of first ascents in the Coast Mountains, Mt. Steele, the Fuhrer Route on Robson, etc. Ostheimer never climbed again though he did visit the Rockies in 1977.
1927: Jasper National Park, final extensions.
1928: 1st ascent of Chaba Peak, autumn by E. Schoeller (Breslau, Germany) and his guide Julius Rähmi (Pontresina, Switzerland) via East Chaba glacier (they also made 2nd ascent of Mt. Serenity at Fortress Lake)
1929: Joe Weiss (solo) skiied from Jasper to the Columbia Icefield.
1930: Joe Weiss and party skiied from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields, explored the Icefields and almost made the summit of Mt. Castleguard.
1930: Joe Weiss and party, first ski trip from Jasper to Banff, down the line of the Banff/Jasper highway
1931: First winter ski ascent of Snow Dome, March 1931, Cliff White, Joe Weiss and Russell Bennett
1931: July 13, 1st ascent of Habel’s Toronto Glacier by the Cromwell’s, Spadavecchia and Thorington and first party to reach the “snowy watershed pass at 7,300 ft.”…, in morainal debris at the summit we found balls of iron pyrite similar to those found on the Freshfield, Lyell and Alexandra glaciers”.
July 15, Cromwell, Spadavecchia, Thorington, 1st ascent of “Watershed N. Peak” (pt. 10,160 ft.), “by the west (NW) ridge, sharp broken slabs being encountered below the summit”. Descent made by the south slopes.
July 18, Cromwell/Spadavecchia 1st ascent of Pt. 10,300 ft. (“SW Warwick”) up west face, from col to the west
July 19, Cromwell, Cromwell, Spadavecchia, Thorington 1st ascent of Pt. 10,100 ft. (“SE Sundail”) via west face.
July 20, Cromwell/Spadavecchia, 1st ascent of “Watershed S. Peak” (Pt. 10,340 ft.) via the south face/the SW rock ridge (from about 9,500 ft.) “fairly interesting rock climbing”. CAJ, Volume 20, p.30-35 and App. Volume 18, p.347-356.
1931: Late in 1931 construction of the original, narrow, gravel highway from Banff to Jasper was begun as an unemployment project providing 600 jobs each summer through the 1930’s.
1933: Joe Weiss, C.V. Jeffery, A.D. Jeffery, A.L. Withers attempted a ski ascent of Mt. Columbia, but failed 100 m below the summit.
1936: July 6, by Cromwell, Cromwell, North and Thorington, 2nd ascent of Chaba Peak, via south side of East Chaba glacier/icefall to summit, found record of 1st ascent.
July 8, 2nd ascent of “Mt. Chaba” (which they called “Chaba Minor”) via east lateral tributary glacier, i.e. Habel’s route, found record of 1st ascent.
July 12, via Toronto Glacier to “Toronto Pass”, i.e. Snow Pass, “mounted a steep icefall, crossed a difficult bergschrund and made first ascent of Pt. 9,700 ft. (“North Aqueduct Peak”) and then followed long undulating snow arête south to make 1st ascent, Pt. 10,300 ft. (“Central Aqueduct Peak” and cut back to Snow Pass.
July 14, followed the SW branch of the Toronto Glacier to col at its head and up SW slope to make 1st ascent of Triad Peak.
1944: Lovat Scouts (a Scottish Regiment) made the first winter ascents of Mts.
Columbia, Kitchener, Andromeda, etc.
1947: The Alpine Club of Canada held their first ski camp on the Columbia Icefield.
1949: 2nd ascent (?) of Watershed Mountain North Peak by George Livingston (as recorded by the Petroske’s in 1979)
1951: Sterling Hendricks and George Bell utilized a totally different approach to solving the logistics of a major climbing campaign in the Columbia/Clemenceau/Chaba Icefields, instead of packhorses and man packing they utilized floatplanes and airdrops.
Hendrick’s party landed their float plane on Glacier Lake, in Banff National Park, and had food/fuel dumps dropped off at the Lyell’s/Spring Rice Brook, climbed their way north via Mt. Columbia and exited via the Athabasca Glacier to the Icefields Parkway. Not sure what Banff National Park officials would think of this scheme nowadays!
Meanwhile the party consisting of: George Bell, Graham Matthews, David Michael and John Rousson were flown to Fortress Lake July 9 and had a major food/fuel dump dropped off on the Clemenceau Icefield.
Bell and Michael made 1st Ascent of Mt. Shackleton (West and Centre summits), the party made 2 attempts on the NE ridge and N. face of Clemenceau reaching within 300 feet of the summit; climbed NW ridge on Tusk; they then backpacked all their gear to the Tsar/Mt. Somervell col; Bell/Rousson made the 1st ascent of Mt. Somvervell. NB: every edition of the Northern Rockies Guidebook has the wrong names for the 1st ascent party. Bell/Matthews/Michael made the 2nd ascent of Tsar. As had Ostheimer before them, they discovered that the route from Tsar Creek to Snow Pass consists of the wild icefalls of the “Lower” Wales Glacier rather than the gentle slope shown by the A/BC map.
“On this trip it was noted that A/BC Interprovincial Boundary Map is completely erroneous in the region “Headwaters of Tsar Creek”.
Still they were the first party to ever traverse Snow Pass from west to east.
From a camp below the King Edward Glacier, Bell and Michael climbed Mt. King Edward (? 2nd/3rd ascent) and then from a bivouac ledge at 9,000 ft. on Mt. King Edward’s SW ridge they traversed across to Mt. Columbia and made a new route up the west face joining the SW ridge near the summit of Mt. Columbia. They returned to the Athabasca Valley, ascended Habel Creek and exited to Banff-Jasper Highway on August 6. Their month long journey almost rivals that of Ostheimer’s 1927 party, minus the packhorses!
1953: MacIntosh party up the Athabasca. Climbing guide Walter Perren. First ascent of Blackfriars. Maybe one of the last (?) classic packhorse, outfitter, cook, and guide parties “to go up the Athabasca”.
1954: The first attempt to ski via the Icefields/glaciers from Jasper to Banff.
1955-1962: Banff/Jasper Highway reconstructed and paved.
1960: Second attempt to ski the glacier/icefield route, from Banff to Jasper, Hans Gmoser, Neil Brown, Kurt Lucas, Pierre Garman, Pat Boswell, Philip DeLaSalle. Reached the Columbia Icefield after 25 days and abandoned their attempt.
1964: ? 1st use of helicopter to reach Clemenceau Icefield peaks ($130/hr!)
1967: The first north to south glacial/icefield ski traverse from Jasper to Banff. This involves crossing the col between Chaba Peak and “Mt. Chaba” (the “Chaba Col”) and continuing down the Wales Glacier, crossing Snow Pass from north to south, and exiting via the “Watershed” Glacier and the 9,320 ft. pass to the Columbia Icefields below Mt. King Edward. Party: Don Gardner, Charlie Locke, Neil Liske, Chic Scott. Their trip took 21 days.
1967: John de Laittre (of Ostheimer’s 1927 Expedition) made a “40th Anniversary” visit to his glacier markers on the East Chaba Glacier.
1970: Mt. Columbia, N. Face/Ridge, Chris Jones/Gray Thompson.
1972: Mt. Alberta, N Face, Jock Glidden/George Lowe.
1973: Mt. King Edward, NE ledges, H. Mitchell (solo).
1974: North Twin, N Face, Chris Jones/George Lowe.
1974: Another N-S (Jasper to Banff) ski party (Smith team) via the Clemenceau Icefield and then they descended to the Wales Glacier by rappelling from the col between the “Deamon Horns” and Chaba Peak to the Wales Glacier and then skied out to the south as per the 1967 party.
1975: Alpine Club of Canada Climbing Camp in the “inner” Athabasca Valley. The participants walked in from the Icefields Parkway over the Woolley Shoulder and down Habel Creek to a base camp at Habel Creek and the Athabasca. From a high camp in the valley on the west side of Mt. King Edward the ACC group made the 4th/5th ascents of Mt. King Edward; the 2nd (?) ascent of Triad Peak and the 1st ascent of Omega (by two separate routes) and the first ascent of “Toronto”; 2nd ascent of “SW Warwick” by a new route; 2nd ascent of “SE Sundial”; 3rd ascent of Sundial Mtn. etc.
The records of camp attendees, routes and mountain climbs, incidents amusing or interesting are somewhere filed in Don Forest’s basement. Don is currently searching for his files!
1975: Dane Waterman spent 18 days alone in and around the headwaters of the Athabasca River. He first attempted an ascent of Mt. Alberta, but was stormed off. He then put up new routes on South Twin, Mt. King Edward via the NW ridge “a crumbling classic” and the N face of Sundial “a 500-foot snow and ice face with a beautiful shape” and attempted the N face/NW ridge of Mt. Dias. A.A.J, Volume 50, p. 469, 1976.
1977: A.J. Ostheimer/John de Laittre make a “50th Anniversary” visit to Rockies.
1978: Bob Kruszyna’s party helicopter to a camp south of the south fork of the Sullivan River from which they made numerous first ascents in the “Chessboard” group. Then they made the first ascent of Aqueduct (South) Mountain via a long traverse to reach the Aqueduct Glacier and ascended via Pt. 9900 ft. and the north ridge.
1979: Jim Petroske and his three sons, Bill, John and Jim Jr. In 5 days with 80 lb. packs, walk in from the Icefields Parkway, over the Woolley Shoulder/Habel Creek and up the Athabasca River. They climbed from July 18 to August 4. They walked out via the Athabasca Valley to Sunwapta Falls (35 miles/2 days), which they found to be vastly preferable to their 5-day epic entry via the Woolley Shoulder. Their base camp was on the NW side of Snow Pass at the Watershed/Wales divide. They made the 3rd ascent (?) of “Mt. Chaba”, 3rd ascent of Chaba Peak; first ascent of the “Deamon Horns”; 2nd ascents of Centre Aqueduct, Pt. 9,900 ft. and Aqueduct (South) Mountain; 3rd ascent of Watershed North; 2nd ascent of Toronto; first ascents of Pt. 9,400 ft. above the Triad Glacier and of “NW Toronto”.
1986: Winter ascents of Triad Peak and Toronto by Bob Saunders and Robin Tivy, April 1986, part of a ski excursion south down the Athabasca and then up the Wales Glacier and over “Chaba Col” and then north up the Chaba Valley.
1987: The second complete glacier/icefield ski traverse from Jasper to Banff by Peter Tucker, Rory MacIntosh, Steve Langley and Charlie Eckenfelder.
2001: Toronto Section “Mt. Chaba Centennial” Camp. On six of our ten days we were either in the cloud, in torrential rain, driving snow or white out but the good days were really good! During any poor weather you can always have a competition to collect the largest, most perfectly spherical, pyrite nodule. You will be in good company. J. Monroe Thorington did this back in 1931 whilst sitting around in the rain and snow on a Snow Pass moraine, C.A.J. Volume 20, p. 31!
REFERENCES (in order of publication)
1. Hugh E. M. Stutfield and J.Norman Collie, Climbs & Exploration in the Canadian Rockies, (Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1903)
2. Jean Habel, At the Western Sources of the Athabasca River, Appalachia Volume 10, p. 28-43, 1902-1094
3. James Outram, In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies, (MacMillan & Co, London, 1905) – Republished in 1998 with an introduction by R.W. Sandford, Canadian Mountaineering Classics # 1.
4. A.P. Coleman, The Canadian Rockies – New and Old Trails, (Henry Frowde, 1911) Republished in 1999 with an introduction by R.W. Sandford, Canadian Mountaineering Classics # 3.
5. Howard Palmer and J. Monroe Thorington, A Climber’s Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada, Edition 1, The American Alpine Club, 1921
6. William S. Ladd and J. Monroe Thorington, A Mountaineering Journey to the Columbia Icefield, C.A.J., Volume 14, p. 34-47
7. J. Monroe Thorington, The Mountains of the Columbia Icefields 1923, Alpine Journal, Volume 35, p. 178-198, (1923)
8. Howard Palmer, The First Ascent of Mt. King Edward, Canadian Rockies, with a note on Mt. Alberta, A.J., Volume 37 (xxxviii), p. 306-317
9. R.W. Cautley and A.O. Wheeler, Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Part II, 1917-1921, from Kicking Horse Pass to Yellowhead Pass”, Office of the Surveyor General, Ottawa Appendices, p. 1-155 plus, 1924
10. J. Monroe Thorington, The Glittering Mountains of Canada, a record of exploration and pioneer ascents in the Canadian Rockies, 1914-1924, John W. Lea, Philadelphia, p. 1-310, 1925
11. Alfred James Ostheimer III, “From the Athabasca River to Tsar Creek-1927”, C.A.J., Volume 16 (xvi), p.16-43 (1926 and 1927)
12. Nicholas W. Spadavecchia, “Up the Athabasca”, Appalachia Volume xvii, No. 4, Bulletin, Volume xxv, No.4, p. 347-356, December, 1931
13. J. Monroe Thorington, “Up the Athabasca Valley”, C.A.J., Volume 20 (xx), p.30-35
14. Francis S. North, “Ascents along the Athabasca”, A.A.J., Volume 3 (iii), p.56-62
15. J. Monroe Thorington, The North Wing of the Columbia Group, Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alpine Journal, Volume 38, p.290-294, (1936)
16. J. Monroe Thorington, Jean Habel in the Canadian Rockies, C.A.J. Volume 30(xxx), p. 58-62, 1947
17. Sterling B. Henricks and George I Bell, “West of the Divide”, A.A.J., Volume 8 (vii), p. 248-260
18. George Bell, “Ascents in the Clemenceau Icefield Region”, C.A.J., Volume 37 (xxxvii), p.101-103
19. A. MacIntosh, “The Athabasca Valley”, C.A.J., Volume 37 (xxxvii), p. 100-101
20. J. Monroe Thorington, with collaboration of William Lowell Putnam, A Climbers Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada, 6th Edition, (The American Alpine Club, 1966)
21. Esther Fraser, The Canadian Rockies, Early Travels and Explorations, (Edmonton, M.G. Hurtig Ltd., 1969)
22. William L. Putman, Robert Kruszyna, Chris Jones, Climber’s Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada –North, (1974)
23. M.B. Taylor, 1975 ACC Alpine Climbing Camp, Mt. Alberta Area, Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 59, 1976, p.83
24. Chris Jones, Climbing in North America, published for the American Alpine Club by University of California Press, 1976
25. Dane Waterman, South Twin, King Edward and Sundial, American Alpine Journal, Volume 50, p. 469, 1976
26. Carole Harmon, Great Days in the Rockies, The Photographs of Byron Harmon, 1906-34. Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1978
27. Conrad Kain, Where the Clouds Can Go, 3rd Edition, J. Monroe Thorington, ed., (New York, The American Alpine Club, 1979)
28. Robert Kruszyna, Checkmate!, C.A.J., Vol. 62, 1979, p.6-9.
29. Jim Petroske, The Athabasca Adventure, The Mazama’s, Volume LXI, No. 13, Dec., 1979 p. 18-21
30. Bart Robinson (text), Don Harmon (photographs), Columbia Icefield – A Solitude of Ice, (1981)
31. Robert Kruszyna, William Putnam, The Rocky Mountains of Canada North, (New York, The American Alpine Club, Banff, The Alpine Club of Canada, 1985)
32. Robin Tivy, Chaba Icefields Ski Traverse Bivouac, Com-Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia, April, 1986
33. W.L. Putman, G.W. Boles, R.W. Laurilla, Place Names of the Canadian Alps, (Footprint, 1990)
34. R.W. Sandford, The Canadian Alps, The History of Mountaineering in Canada, Volume 1, (Alberta: Altitude Publishing, 1990)
35. Eric Trouillot, Heads or trial, C.A.J., Vol. 75, 1992
p. 68-70
36. Bob Enagonio, Rethinking the Clemenceau Icefield Traverse, Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol.76, 1993 p.93
37. Chic Scott, Summits and Icefields, Alpine Ski Tours in the Rockies and Columbia Mountains of Canada, Rocky Mountain Books, 1994
38. Bruce Fairley (editor), The Canadian Mountaineering Anthology, Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.
39. R.W. Sandford, “Called by this Mountain” (a history of climbing Mt. Alberta) Mountain Heritage Magazine Summer, 2000, p.8-17.
40. Chic Scott, Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering Rocky Mountain Books, 2000
41. R.W. Sandford and John Whelan, eds. . Every Other Day, The Journals of the Remarkable Rocky Mountain Climbs and Explorations of A.J. Ostheimer, A record of the 1927 Ostheimer Expedition, 2002