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. Ostheimer never climbed again though he did visit the Rockies in 1977. Hardcover, DJ, New.
