Renaissance Mountain Man   

Bruno Engler, like the Swiss Guides that shaped early mountaineering in Canada, was born in Switzerland. Engler was trained, as a young man, in mountaineering, guiding and photography. Engler’s interest and training in mountaineering, photography and skiing placed him in an enviable position when he arrived in Canada in 1939. The Swiss Guides were not trained skiers, Sunshine Village was developing its ski program, and Engler was hired to build up the Sunshine Village ski school near Banff. Engler was also offered a position with Swiss Guides (Ernest Feuz & Rudolf Aemmer) at Lake Louise. The fact that Engler came to Canada in WW II, and his mountain skills were well known by those like Rex Gibson, meant that the military was interested in him, and he trained many Canadian troops.

 

Engler was much more the bon vivant than the more staid Swiss Guides. He was a raconteur of the mountains, and he had many a lively tale to tell. Much of Engler’s life went from one dramatic episode to another. Such a well lived life is recounted in Bruno Engler: A Mountain Life (1996). Engler led many a climb with such well known early mountaineers as Tony Cromwell, Frank Smythe and Georgia Englehard. Mountaineering was not a fulltime job in the post WWII years, though, and Engler had to cast about for other work. Engler found a job in Blairmore (Alberta) at a strip mine, and he lived in the area for four years with his second wife, Angel Engler. It was at this time that Engler climbed many of the mountains in the Crowsnest Pass area with Fritz Frei, and he assisted in creating a ski area in the Pass.

 

The post WWII boom of the 1950s-1960s-1970s, increasingly so, tapped into Engler’s many gifts and talents. Engler was in demand as a mountain guide and ski instructor, his stunning black-white mountain photography (that is at the same level as Ansel Adams and Bradford Washburn) was selling well, his work at Rogers Pass on avalanches placed him at the forefront of mountain safety, and the movie industry was drawn to his charming looks and photogenic poses. Engler became a freelance correspondent for the CBC in the 1950s, he started ‘Alpine Films’ at the same period of time, and his life as a filmmaker dominated the next few decades.  In fact, Engler was involved in the making of more than twenty-five films between 1950-1980. The CBC did a feature on Engler’s life in the 1960s called ‘Diary of a Mountain Man’, and in 1966 Engler initiated ‘The Veterans’ Race’ at Sunshine Village.  Engler had become a legend in the mountain community, and he and Hans Gmoser led Prime Minister Trudeau to the Bugaboos in 1972. 

 

Engler was, in his rich and varied life, a fine skier and ski instructor, a pioneer in avalanche safety, mountain climber and guide, photographer, filmmaker, actor, exquisite story teller and ambassador for Canadian mountain culture. He was, in a sense, the complete renaissance mountain man.

 

Engler’s commitment to mountain culture was rewarded with a variety of accolades to name but a few: Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence, Premier Cup for Photography and Mountaineering and the distinguished Rose Award. Engler was made an honorary member of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides in 1975.                

 

 

Bibliography

 

 A Mountain Life: The Stories and Photographs of Bruno Engler (1996)   

 

Bruno Engler Photography: Sixty Years of Mountain Photography in the Canadian Rockies (2001)

 

Guardians of the Peaks: Mountain Rescue in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains (2006)

 

Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering