Edmonton, 1979, 1st edition. 258 pp, illustrations. Biographies of ten great Canadian climbers: Fay, Fynn, MacCarthy, Kain, Feuz, Munday, Beckey, Gmoser, Greenwood, Culbert. DJ, Near Fine.
This presents good mountaineering histories of Conrad Kain, Fred Beckey, Hans Gmoser, Dick Culbert, Charles Fay, Ed Feuz, Albert MacCarthy, Phyllis Munday, Val Fynn, Brian Greenwood.
This book relates mostly to their climbs in Canada, and is rich in details of their climbs & their climbing partners.
Kain made first ascents of many peaks and routes in the Canadian Rockies and Interior Ranges including Mt Robson, Mt Louis, Bugaboo Spire. Fay made several first ascents in the Canadian Rockies between 1899 and 1930, including first ascent of Mount Temple near Lake Louise. MacCarthy made the famous ascents with Kain, plus organized, and led -- to the summit -- the first ascent of Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada. Phyllis Munday is best known for her pioneering explorations (with her husband) of Mt Waddington in the Coast Range of British Columbia. Together they discovered the route to and around the mountain, made several valiant attempts to reach the peak of Waddington, and made several first ascents of nearby peaks.
Ed Feuz was a Swiss guide who made numerous first ascents in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, including Mt Sir Sandford & Mt Adamant. The other 4 climbers featured in this book pushed the limits of technically difficult routes in Canada, picking off numerous hard new routes and first ascents. Discussion of some of their other climbs is included such as Beckey's part in the 1955 Lhotse expedition and his skiing the Khumbu glacier (then a height record for skiing), and Gmoser's ascent of the Wickersham Wall (1963) on Mt McKinley in Alaska.
From the blurb for the book:
The The Mountaineers is a splendid and entertaining tribute to nine men and one woman whose unique skills and accomplishments have made significant contributions to Canadian alpine history.
In this first book of its kind are the incredible stories of climbers who have faced the challenge of the mountains and met it in their own extraordinary ways: Albert McCarthy, who, in 1925 at the age of forty-nine, led the perilous first ascent of Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak; Phyl Munday, who led several rigorous expeditions in her attempts to reach the summit of Mount Waddington, British Columbia's highest point; the lovable, legendary Conrad Kain, whose exceptional talent and physical energy brought him more Canadian first ascents (including that of Mount Robson) than any other climber who ever lived; the dean of Swiss guides, Ed Feuz, who, with a perfect safety record during a forty-six-year career, led a host of remarkable clients into hidden valleys and onto wind-swept peaks; the mighty Val Fynn, an engineer-inventor who dared to make 'impossible' ascents.
Among present-day heroes, The Mountaineers introduces the great heli-skiing guide, Hans Gmoser, who achieved the first ascent of Mount McKinley's 4000-metre Wickersham Wall; the amazing, inscrutable Fred Beckey, an innovative leader whose forty-year career [Now 60 years and counting!] has earned him a reputation as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time; and Dick Culbert, the geological engineer who launched the exploration of hundreds of peaks in the unknown wilds of the Coast and the Cariboo mountains, and wrote the first guidebook to the mountains of British Columbia.
A seasoned climber, Phil Dowling is personally acquainted with several of the great mountaineers -- and many of the mountains -- in this book. Using interviews, first-person accounts, and extensive research in archives and libraries, he has written an engrossing study that is as authentic as it is spellbinding.
