By Ron Dart

 

       Mount Waddington is almost a nightmare in its grim

          inaccessibility, draped with plumes of huge, crumbling

          ice-feathers.

                                                                              Don Munday  

        

          Mt. Waddington, ice crowned king of the 1,000 mile British

          Columbia Coast, is known with respect by mountaineers

          around the world.                                        Paddy Sherman

                                             Beautiful British Columbia (Fall, 1963)

             

 

It was thought by many, for years, that Mount Robson (3954 metres) was the reigning monarch of all the jutting rock peaks of BC mountains. But, in 1925, BC climbing legends, Don and Phyllis Munday, having climbed Mount Arrowsmith (near Port Alberni), descended,  binoculars in hand, gazed northward across the Georgia Straight, and saw a white crowned peak that altered the direction of their hiking lives. Don summed up the telling experience, in his insightful and evocative way, when he said:

  

        Phyl’s eyes shone as she handed me the binoculars and

        pointed to a tall mountain nearly due north through a new

        cloud-rift. The compass showed the alluring peak stood

        along a line passing a little east of the head of Bute Inlet

        and perhaps 150 miles away, where blank spaces on the

        map left ample room for many nameless mountains.

 

        It was the far-off finger of destiny beckoning. It was a

        marker along the trail of adventure, a torch to set the

       imagination on fire.

 

 

The peak that could be seen through the cloud-rift was the rock spire and spear point of Mount Waddington (4016 metres). Such a sighting did, indeed, set the climbing imagination of Don and Phyllis on fire. The fire provided warmth and much light for many for decades. The quest was on to visit, dine with and get to know the queen of the BC Coastal Range. The Mundays made many attempts, beginning in the spring of 1926, to scale the arduous glaciers, ice fields and plant a firm flag atop Mount Waddington, but they were denied such an honour. Munday Peak in the Waddington Range was named after Don/Phyllis, but the torch was passed onto others.

 

‘Mystery Mountain’, as Waddington was called by Don, welcomed and drew many to her challenging embrace. The publication of Round Mystery Mountain: A Ski Adventure (1935), by Sir Norman Watson and Edward King, emerged from the hard decade long research done by the Mundays

in the area. Round Mystery Mountain is replete with historic photographs of the journey round the feet and lower garments of Waddington. The tome is well worth the curious read for literary and historic reasons, although those with a more technical interest in the Waddington Range and the many glaciers in the area might crave something more demanding. But, Round Mystery Mountain: A Ski Adventure does hold the reader spellbound with well crafted phrases and descriptions of the tough and rigorous nature of the adventure round mountains others longed to do more than go around.

 

The fire lit when Don/Phyllis Munday first saw Waddington continued long after Watson/King had finished their ski adventure round the base of this queen of the glaciers and sentinels of old. The fire that was lit upon first sighting Waddington in Don inspired not only many a literal hike and climb in the area, but pen also took to parchment. Don Munday was a superb wordsmith, and he could tell a tale well. And, in the 1940s Don wrote the tale, in a most inviting way, of the many trips he/Phyllis and others took to the Waddington area.

 

Don’s literary efforts were rewarded by the birth of The Unknown Mountain (1948). WW II was now well over, and The Unknown Mountain walks the interested and curious reader, chapter by chapter, into an important phase of BC history and mountaineering. Those who are more than mere rock jocks and given to mountain machoism cannot help but be held, entranced and intrigued by the way Phil unfolds and unravels the many trips to Waddington in The Unknown Mountain. Fine photos abound, and the descriptive text draws the reader into the actual experience of being in the area. The 27 chapters in this well wrought literary urn are not to be missed. And, to think this was a form of mountaineering before much of the modern garb and gear we have these days. Weights carried were immense, tents were not as light as today and climbing equipment much less sophisticated. But, Don/Phyllis and others sought to know this unknown mountain, this queen of the Coastal Range, and they went back year after year to draw ever closer and know ever better the delights and joys of Waddington, the unknown and mystery mountain.

 

Don Munday died in 1950, and most of his voluminous writings are still in the archives, awaiting someone to draw them forth and publish them. The Unknown Mountain can still be purchased, but the bulk of Don’s missives and novels, essays and prose patiently linger, eager for someone to publish them, to walk them into the public reading environment.

 

Phyllis Munday continued her passion for the mountains after Don died, but trips to Waddington waned as age thinned out energy and aches and pains demanded their due. A new generation, in the 1950s-1960s, turned to Waddington to test their skills against the queen of the Coastal Range.  

 

The publication of Aware of the Mountain: Mountaineering as Yoga, by Gil Parker (VP of the Alpine Club of Canada from 1976-1980), tells some interesting tales of Waddington. Parker has a great admiration for Roger Neave, and Neave attempted to climb Waddington in 1934. He never made it to the summit, but his ascent paved the way for Fritz Weissner and Bill House who scaled the rock turret in 1936. Aware of the Mountain is a finely written missive, and within its many compact and evocative pages, Parker recounts a climb with Roger Neave up Mount Noel in 1977 when Neave was

71 years of age (pgs. 99-107). Aware of the Mountain also includes Parker’s time spent at Waddington and the Plummer Hut (pgs. 90-99). 

 

The first Canadian ascent of Mount Waddington took place in 1958 (BC’s centenary). The triumph of 1958 soon gave way to the tragedy of 1960. John Owen, Derrick Boddy, Elfrida Pigou and Joan Stirling were all killed in their

attempt to scale the Queen and reigning monarch of the Coastal Mountains.

Many attempted to climb Waddington in 1962, and this was the year that

Paddy Sherman, Ken Baker, Byron Olson, Martin/Esther Kafer, David Kennedy, Jim Craig and Paul Binkert were welcomed by the Queen. 

 

Paddy Sherman does deserve his due in any discussion of mountaineering in BC and Mount Waddington. Sherman was front and centre for many years in the west coast mountaineering ethos, and two of his books are a must read for a solid feel for ascents on the white clothed peaks in BC. Cloud Walkers: Six Climbs on Major Canadian Peaks (1965) and Expeditions to Nowhere

(1981) are keepers in the mountaineering genre. Cloud Walkers is more important for this essay for the simple reason that the missive deals with Canadian peaks whereas Expeditions to Nowhere is primarily focused on South America, Alaska and Africa. The original edition of Cloud Walkers has a graphic photograph of Jim Craig dangling from a thin rope, suspended in space, with the blue canopy and snow crowned peaks in the background.  The title, Cloud Walkers, has close affinities with the autobiography of Conrad Kain (Where the Clouds Can Go: 1935).  Cloud Walkers has a superb and well crafted chapter on Mount Waddington. ‘Mount Waddington: Nightmare Moulded in Rock’ tells the tales, as only a gifted journalist can of Paddy Sherman and others ascents to the grand lady of the Coastal Mountains. The tale is told in a detailed yet dramatic way, and when the chapter is set down, the memory of the climb lingers ever on and begs more rereads.  .        

 

There are many ways to recount the different early attempts to approach Waddington, but, probably, the finest overview of those who dared to visit the reigning queen of the turrets and spires of the Coastal Mountains is by Chris Jones. Climbing in North America (1976) does have its serious and substantive omissions, but the chapter on Mount Waddington does provide an inviting and informed aerial overview of those who had the courage to take leg to mountain and visit the ancient white castle. ‘Mount Waddington’ (pgs. 159-169) is replete with fine photographs, a tight and compact text and

some suggestive references to follow for those who demand more depth from their writers. The references, though, take the curious reader to fine articles by Fred and Helmy Becky, Bill House and Fritz Wiessner, Ferris Neave and Don Munday, of course.  Needless to say, ‘Mount Waddington’ could have followed the tale of Waddington more, but Jones did his deed well. Climbing in North America is really a primer on the topic, and, as such, more could have been said, but the leads are there for those who are interested in ascending such an historic pitch.          

 

The publication of The Mountaineers: Famous Climbers in Canada (1979)

was significant for three reasons. First, the book by Phil Dowling was published through Hurtig Publishers, hence the important Canadian nationalist. Mel Hurtig. Second, Dowling does a fine job, chapter by chapter, of highlighting the lives and main ascents of significant climbers in Canada,

BC and the Coastal Range: Charles Fay, Val Fynn, Albert MacCarthy, Conrad Kain, Ed Feuz, Phyl Munday, Fred Becky, Hans Gmoser, Brain Greenwood and Dick Culbert. The Waddington Range is important for such a climber as Dick Culbert. The Mountaineers: Famous Climbers in Canada

did much to reveal a vivid mountaineering history in Canada, and, rightly so,

it concluded with the climbing exploits of Dick Culbert.

 

Cloud Walkers: Six Climbs on Major Canadian Peaks (1965), Climbing in North America (1976) and The Mountaineers: Famous Climbers in Canada

(1979) are imperative reads for anyone interested in a variety of perspectives on Mount Waddington. Each author records and fills in gaps where another author has been silent. Those who are keen and drawn to early attempts to visit the grand lady in her citadel do need to sit and hear the  tales so well told by Sherman, Jones and Dowling.  

 

 

Both The Canadian Mountaineering Anthology (1994) and Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering (2000) build on the pioneering work of The Mountaineers yet deepen and broaden the work and research of Phil Dowling. The Canadian Mountaineering Anthology suggests, and legitimately so, that 1960-1975 in the BC Coastal Range should be called ‘The Culbert Era in the Coast Mountains’. Bruce Fairley is spot on when he says, ‘Dick Culbert was, for the 15 years between 1960 and 1975, the most famous and prolific climber in the Coast Mountains’ (p.273).

Chic Scott, in Pushing the Limits, very much agreed with the assessment of

Fairley about the role of Culbert in building on yet going beyond the heroic work of Don/Phyllis Munday and their work in the Coastal Range and Mount Waddington  (pgs. 237-241). Culbert’s two missives on BC mountaineering, A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia (1965) and Alpine Guide to South Western British Columbia (1974), are now classics and part of the rich lore of the West Coast. Both

books were essential building blocks and  foundations stones for the fuller yet somewhat dated, Climbing & Hiking in Southwestern British Columbia

(1986 & 1999), by Bruce Fairley.

 

It is most interesting to note that Dick Culbert dedicated A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia to ‘the land of beyond’—its explores, its dreamers, and its victims. ‘The Land of Beyond’ is a poem by the well known Canadian people’s poet, Robert Service. Service was, in many ways, a poet and prose writer of the peaks, and he wrote with much artistic beauty and descriptive insight of the Gold Rush days, and the arduous and death dealing trip by many over the Chilkoot Pass. This brief description from Service’s The Trail of Ninety-Eight: A Northland Romance (1910) tells it all. ‘Like a stream of black ants they were, between mountains that veered up swiftly to storm smitten palisades of ice’.  Such a line, and there are many like them, could not but hold and charm Dick Culbert. This is why, in the 1960s, he wrote many a verse in the ballad like style of Service, and why A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia, drew its inspiration from a title of a poem by Robert Service.      

 

The climbing life of Dick Culbert connects well with both Glenn Woodsworth and Arnold Shives. Dick, Arnold, Glenn and Ashlyn Armour Brown were in the Howson and Seven Sisters Range in 1962, funded by the BC government with a grub stake grant. But, it was in 1964 that Arnold Shives took to the SW Range of Waddington in the Franklin and Confederation glacier area, while Glenn Woodsworth and Dick Culbert took to higher peaks and did more ascents in more challenging areas of Waddington. Glenn (grandson of J.S. Woodsworth—founder of the CCF party in Canada) wrote the first climbing book to the Chief in Sqaumish in 1967, and Glenn’s recent book, Hot Springs in Western Canada: A Complete Guide (1999), remains the best book to date on hot springs in Western Canada, Washington and Alaska. There is little doubt that Arnold Shives is one of the finest and most nuanced mountain painters in British Columbia.

His work has been highlighted and showcased in many magazines and art galleries. Trevor Carolan’s article,‘The Wilderness Sacraments of Arnold Shives’ (Image: Summer: 2001), walked the extra mile to make it abundantly clear the sheer vigour and depth of Arnold’s artistic contribution to West Coast mountain painting. Arnold was kind enough to do some superb lookout sketches for my recent book, Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades (2005). The Waddington Range has done much to welcome and inspire painters and poets, climbers and cloud walkers of the finest and best. Dick Culbert, Glenn Woodsworth and Arnold Shives, without a doubt, have paid much homage and rightful due to the Queen of the Coastal Mountain range.              

 

Chic Scott, to his credit, goes much further and does a better job on unpacking the many ascents of Waddington in his chapter, ‘Coast Mountains’ (pgs. 226-254) than does Fairley. The graphic and eye gripping images in Pushing the Limits: The Story of Mountaineering in Canada up the ante to a much higher degree and quality about reporting on Canadian and BC mountaineering. Scott has rendered more than exquisite yeoman’s service to the tale and drama of mountaineering in Canada, the BC Coastal Range and Mount Waddington. The passion and mountain commitments of Don/Phyllis Munday, Dick Culbert, Glenn Woodsworth and Arnold Shives  are raised to new heights, and the queen of the Coastal Range could not help but be more than pleased with the services offered and effort rendered at the royal court fully decked in the purest of white.

 

It would be impossible to hike much further in this journey without mentioning another hiking/climbing couple that has done much to point the way to the Queen of the Coastal Mountains. Martin and Esther Kafer became key people in the BCMC, and in 1969, they played the lead role in

building the Plummer Hut near Mount Waddington (THE BC MOUNTAINEER: 2004, pgs. 120-124). ‘The Plummer Hut, 1969 to ? (I hope a Long Time’, by Martin Kafer, tells in exquisite and not to be forgotten detail, the reasons for the building of Plummer Hut and the building of it at the base of Claw Peak. The front door of Plummer Hut gazes into the long glaciated face of Mount Waddington. In many ways, Martin/Esther Kafer became the Don/Phyllis Munday of the 1960s-1970s in the Coastal Mountains and beyond, and they should be recognized for such a full and hearty contribution to both the building of the Plummer Hut and the support they gave to so many in the BCMC and beyond.  Esther was the first woman to climb Waddington, and this tale was well told and recounted in a fine visual and written way by Paddy Sherman in ‘The Conquest of Mount Waddington’ (Beautiful British Columbia: Fall 1963). The building of the Plummer Hut is told in a finely textured and evocative way (pictures aplenty), by Liz Bryan, in ‘They built Canada’s highest cabin’ (Western Homes and Living: November 1969). Plummer Hut, standing at the base of Claw Peak at 9,000 feet, is, indeed, the highest cabin in Canada, and Martin/Esther Kafer played a leading role in the building of such a refuge and hut in the high ramparts of the Waddington range.      

 

 

It might be valuable to backtrack for a few fleeting moments. The fact that Don Munday’s, The Unknown Mountain, was so well written did not go unnoticed.  There was many a call for a reprint and new edition. But, such a reprint had to also deal with the extraordinary lives of Don/Phyllis Munday.

Hence, in a recent republication of The Unknown Mountain (1993) ,  Angus M. Gunn,  has written an admirable and generous introduction to the book and the life of Don/Phyllis Munday. ‘Behind the Unknown Mountain’, by Gunn, hikes the reader into the fascinating life of the Munday family and their life in the BC mountains. Gunn’s timely introduction to the legendary Munday family should be read alongside the recent biography of Phyllis

Munday. Phyllis Munday: Mountaineer (2002), by Kathryn Bridge, although wanting in some context and depth, does offer a fine primer into the creative and energetic mountain lore of, mostly, Phyllis Munday. There was a desperate need for such a introduction to the climbing life of Phyllis Munday, and Kathryn Bridge should be offered many a kudo for her primer.

Much more work needs to be done on the life and times of Don/Phyllis Muday, the BC Coastal Range and Mount Waddington, but it is impossible to understand the appeal and drama of the Queen of the Coastal Range without significant attention being paid to the Munday family and Dick Culbert.

 

The cover of the Canadian Alpine Journal (2002) has a splendid picture of Bruce Kirkby in the Mount Waddington area (peaks and snow aplenty in the background), and the Journal is not shy about including in the 2002 edition an article on Mount Waddington.

 

The most recent and without doubt the most important book on the Waddington Range is by Don Serl. Serl contributed a significant chapter to

The Canadian Mountain Anthology (‘The Traverse’), and he was featured in

Pushing the Limits (pgs. 254-259). Serl has, as a climbing prince of Waddington, been to the stately Queen often, and he has lived to write about his many climbs. The Waddington Guide: Alpine Climbs in one of the World’s Great Ranges (2003) stands in a class of its own. The book is written well, the photos speak volumes and the routes listed, mentioned, tracked and traced, tell us many things about the various routes and paths to the Queen of the Coastal Range. There is no doubt that Don Serl’s The Waddington Guide is a keeper that will last for many a decade. Serl has paid his dues, and he writes about what he has said, seen and done (while listening closely to what others have done, seen and said) in an articulate and readable manner.

 

Those who dream and hope of taking to and seeing the Queen of the Coastal Range (and the Great Ranges round Waddington) should sit, chew on, inwardly digest and thoroughly absorb Serl’s The Waddington Guide: Alpine Climbs in one of the World’s Great Ranges.  The book is a comprehensive guide to not only Waddington but the beauty and fullness of the best of the Canadian Coastal Range.

 

We have come quite a distance from 1925 when Don/Phyllis Munday saw

Mount Waddington from Mount Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island. The imagination of many has been set on fire. The Queen welcomed Don/Phyllis, but she never allowed them too close to her mystery. Fred Becky and Dick Culbert drew much closer to the unknown mountain and the mystery, and they lived to write many a fine book about the Queen of the Great Ranges. Don Serl has taken the challenge to a greater and fuller level, and The Waddington Guide is the book of books, the Bible of both the way to Waddington and the royal court that surrounds this Queen in the Great Ranges of BC. Do purchase, read and take the trip to the Alps of BC.

 

RSD