Hans Gmoser (1932-2006) was an energetic pioneer in the 2^nd generation of Canadian mountaineering. The 1^st generation of mountain guides that was shaped by the Swiss tradition and Conrad Kain was waning as Gmoser came on the scene in the 1950s. Gmoser was born in Austria, and he came to Edmonton in 1951. He had spent many a day and week in the Austrian rock ranges, and it was just a matter of time before the Canadian peaks would draw him.

 

Gmoser was penniless when he arrived in Edmonton, so some sort of job had to be found. The prospects were not promising, but Gmoser (and a good friend of his from Austria, Leo Grillmair) found work as an electrician and plumber. The lure of the mountains did call, though. Gmoser joined the Alpine Club of Canada in 1952, and many a trek to the mountains drew him ever upward. It was in the late summer of 1952 that Gmoser met the legendary Lizzie Rummel and Erling Strom at Sunburst Lake Cabin and Mount Assiniboine Lodge (where he worked guiding in 1953-4).  It was, also, in the autumn of 1952 that Gmoser and Grillmair climbed the narrow Yamnuska face that is now called ‘Grillmair Chimneys’. The legend was beginning to take shape and form.

 

Gmoser was on the summit of Mount Assiniboine in 1953, and the same year he pioneered the ‘Calgary Route’ at Yamnuska. The Stanley Mitchell Hut in the Little Yoho Valley became the Christmas home for Gmoser in the early 1950s, and by ‘January 1954, Hans quit his job in Calgary and moved to Banff to live the life of the professional mountaineer and guide’ (Scott: p.91). Gmoser was fortunate in 1955 to assist the well known Swiss Guide, Walter Perren, in teaching national park wardens basic mountaineering skills, and in the summer of 1956 both Gmoser and Bruno Engler passed Perren’s demanding 4 day test to become certified mountain guides. Gmoser had become ‘Canada’s Leading Mountaineer and Guide’ (Scott: p. 116), and in 1956 he guided at the 50^th anniversary of the Alpine Club of Canada.

 

Many a new challenge continued to come Gmoser’s way, and he rose to the occasion. Mount Robson was climbed in 1957, and, perhaps even more important, Gmoser made the transition to being a lecturer, filmmaker and raconteur of the Rockies. The first film, quite rare at the time in both its footage and visual mountain appeal, With Skis and Rope, was an immediate hit, and enticed the off piste champagne powder buffs. There was no doubt that Gmoser by the late 1950s was finding his vocational footing. Gmoser climbed imposing Mount Blackburn and Mount Alberta in 1958, and in 1959, he led the Canadian Mount Logan expedition to the white roofed summit. 1959 was also an important year for others reasons: Gmoser’s guiding company, Rocky Mountain Guides Limited was finally incorporated, and his 2^nd film, Vagabonds of the Mountains, won the hearts of many. Gmoser was making it abundantly clear that he was a mountaineering pioneer at a variety of levels.

 

Gmoser was never fond of failure, but in 1960, his planned Canadian Icefield expedition faltered and floundered, but his 3^rd film (certainly not his finest), Of Skis and Mountains, took to the mountaineering circuit. The mountain vagabond was becoming, by the early 1960s, an astute businessman. Rocky Mountain Guides Limited was growing, and Gmoser

was learning how to be mountaineer, filmmaker and businessman.  Powder snow was his forte, and Gmoser’s 4^th film (1961), Deep Powder and Steep Rock, established him as an alternate visionary of mountain skiing. Gmoser

toured Canada and the USA in the early 1960s at a hectic pace, films and lectures means by which his guiding business could be promoted. To The Forbidden Snowfields took to the mountaineering circuit in 1962-63, and ‘by this time Hans’ presentation had become the social high point of the season for many North American mountain lovers’ (Scott: p.201). Even the young Nancy Greene was on board, and a few years later she would spend her honeymoon at Gmoser’s Bugaboo Lodge.

 

‘In February 1963, Hans tried helicopter skiing for the first time’ (Scott: 201), and this was to significantly alter the nature of Canadian backcountry skiing and Gmoser’s life. It was also in the spring of 1963 that Gmoser assisted in founding the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. There was no doubt that Gmoser was at the centre and core of the Canadian mountaineering tribe at the time, and his influence was further enhanced by the demanding climb he led to the summit of McKinley (Denali) in 1963.  It was in 1963 that Canadian Mountain Seminars was initiated, and the 5^th film, Skis Over McKinley, took to the circuit in 1963-4. Adventure Bound was the talk of the town in 1964-1965, and by this period of time, Gmoser was turning to the Bugaboos as the first site of his helicopter skiing. Heli-skiing became Gmoser’s bread and butter between 1965-1991, and Canadian

Mountain Holiday became a byword for powder skiing in which the long trudge to cols and spacious bowls could be done in more haste. The vagabond was now catering to the glad rag crowd and blue bloods.

 

Needless to say, Gmoser’s approach did not appeal to the purists. There was a heated exchange between Gmoser and Fred Becky in the 1970s about the crowd that Gmoser was pandering to, and Gmoser responded to Becky in a firm manner. Prime Minister Trudeau was led on a variety of climbing trips (1968, 1972) by Gmoser, and ‘by 1991 CMH was operating nine heli-skiing areas, with a staff of 300, and was welcoming 5000 skiers each winter and 3000 hikers each summer.’ (Scott: 303).

 

Gmoser had become the reigning patriarch of the Canadian mountaineering family by the time he edged towards retirement in the 1990s. Many had been drawn to Gmoser’s innovative approach to mountaineering, whereas others had their nagging doubts. There is no doubt, though, that when Gmoser died

in 2006, he had forever redefined and altered the way skiing would be done in Canada and beyond.

 

Chic Scott, Deep Powder and Steep Rock: The Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser (2009)