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Canadian Adventurers and Explorers Bundle. John Wilson
Читать онлайн.Название Canadian Adventurers and Explorers Bundle
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781459724730
Автор произведения John Wilson
Жанр Биографии и Мемуары
Серия Quest Biography
Издательство Ingram
Phyl also sewed climbing clothes because store-bought clothing did not last in the bush, nor did it keep the flies from biting and the rain from soaking their bodies. She often made climbing trousers out of old wool blankets, for the natural oils in the blanket made the trousers rainproof, almost waterproof, windproof, and warm. Yet the wool breathed, so the wearer never really got heated in these home-made pants. Phyl generally sewed hers as knickers and then wound puttees around her legs. She always wore a wool shirt and carried extra sweaters. She never put the sweater on until they stopped, because this was when the sweat on her skin would cool and give her shivers. For instance when she stopped for lunch, Phyl would put a sweater on and then if needed, she would also add what they called a “bone-dry.” The bone-dry coat was the same canvas-type coat as that worn by loggers, except an extra piece of canvas was sewn over the shoulders and down the back to help with perspiration beneath the climber’s pack and as an extra padding against the wooden pack frame. The bone-dry coat also had pockets for carrying a compass, a notebook, pocket knife, and snack foods that would be awkward to get to in the clothing layer beneath. The bone-dry trousers generally did not have pockets, but they were essential when pushing through wet bush as they were almost completely waterproof.
When Don and Phyl began climbing the mountains around Vancouver, people packed their supplies by wrapping everything up in a wool blanket and then fastening and knotting it up with rope or belt. They looped the rope or belt to make a shoulder strap and slung the load over a shoulder. Soon packboards were invented and hikers could have their hands free because their load was fixed to a wooden frame fitted with shoulder straps, which balanced the load between the shoulder blades. Don did not like the Trapper Nelson style packboards then in vogue. He thought the wooden side pieces were far too long for hiking in dense underbrush as they easily caught on vines, salal, or fallen logs. He fashioned his own packboards, tailor-made them for himself, Phyl, and eventually Edith. The two wooden bars down the side of the frame were shorter than conventional ones. The other advantage to Don’s design was that the canvas packs were completely self-contained and could also be used without the packboards, unlike the Trapper Nelson design that integrated the pack onto the board.
In 1923 alone, the Mundays managed to squeeze an amazing number of trips into a single season. Beginning in February, Phyl was the only woman amongst thirteen club members to participate in a snowshoe trip to Mount Strachan (elevation 1455 metres). They stayed overnight at the club cabin on Grouse, where, no doubt, they thawed the gramophone by placing it inside the wood-fired cast-iron oven before playing dance music until the wee hours. As Edith was now two years old, Phyl could leave child-minding to Don or her mother on an occasional weekend.
The following month Don led a group of twenty BCMC members to Goat Mountain and returned via the Lynn Valley. In April, Phyl, Don, and club members went to Cathedral Mountain near Seymour Lake. In May, Don again led a group, this time on a one-day trip up Dam Mountain. In August the BCMC annual camp was at Avalanche Pass, southeast of Alta Lake (now known as Whistler). At the time there was no Sea-to Sky Highway, and travel to the area required some planning and co-ordination. The climbers took the Union Steamship from Vancouver up Howe Sound to the dock at Squamish, and then caught the train. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway line, built in 1914, left from Squamish and stopped at Alta Lake, thus reducing the time for overland travel. Once off the train, the climbers rented pack horses to carry their supplies and food the remainder of the way into camp. The two-week camp allowed the Mundays (accompanied by Edith, aged two years), to make several excursions in the vicinity as they explored their favourite Garibaldi Park. They made first ascents of Mount Blackcomb (elevation 2440 metres) on the western end of the Spearman Range and Overlord Mountain (2625 metres) in the Fitzsimmons Range.
Later in the month, after the camp was over, Phyl and Don, again accompanied by Edith, travelled by train to the small town of Hope, which lies at the foot of the Coast Mountains, up the Fraser Valley from Vancouver. From Hope they went by automobile to Laidlaw, where they had arranged to hire pack and saddle horses for the ride through the timber into the Cheam Range of mountains near Jones Lake (now known as Wahleach Lake). There, at the north end of the lake, was a small B.C. Electric Railway cabin beside the hydroelectric dam. Mr. Barr, the operator, gave the Mundays a royal welcome and it was from here that they set up their base camp. They reconnoitred the “Lucky Four” group, so named for the Lucky Four Mine by Arthur Williamson, the mine superintendent. Three of these peaks bore the names of the principals of Foley, Welch and Stewart, a railway construction company that at one time was the largest in North America. This company built the Fraser Canyon section of the Canadian Northern Railway and many other rail lines.
The fourth peak, also named by the mine superintendent, received its name only after the Munday visit to the area. He named it Baby Munday Peak in honour of Ediths mountaineering experience. Another mountain nearby he named Lady Peak in Phyl’s honour. The Geographic Board of Canada adopted Baby Munday Peak as an official name in 1946. On this 1923 trip the Mundays explored the area with an eye to a return trip and during a thirteen-hour climb, made a first ascent of Mount Stewart, reputed to be the most difficult mountain in the range. On the club trip the following July they returned to the area for a successful ascent of Mount Foley.
Phyl and Don had extraordinary and finely tuned abilities to navigate in the bush and to climb in areas where few ventured to go. Their reputation gave Mr. Williamson, the mining superintendent, an idea. He invited the Mundays to put their mountaineering skills into use for the mining industry, and told them of his hopes to relocate the first producing silver mine in the province, the Eureka-Victoria mine, which had not operated for almost half a century. Although its specific location had been lost, the mine site was generally believed to be high on a mountain some thirteen kilometres from Hope. In July, right after their climb in the Cheam area, the Mundays headed to Hope and to this search.
Phyl took photos as Don swung precariously on a rope over a cliff edge outside the entrance to an overgrown mine tunnel. The rocks of the cliff edge showed that the tunnel had been cut right into an open vein of ore. As Don dangled, he used his ice axe to break off samples of rock around the entrance, which he then brought down the mountain with them. The samples that Don collected were assayed and discovered to be a silver-gold ore. The miners acted quickly and within a week or so commenced mining operations. The revival of the mine signalled an economic boon for Hope and the vicinity, and the story of its discovery added to the popular lore about the Mundays.
Climbing with a young daughter took a certain fortitude and patience, although Edith was never much trouble. She had accompanied her parents from an early age, and being on climbs was just a natural part of her life. The rhythm of the climb, of Don’s stride and arm swings as he carried her, lulled her and kept her content for several hours at a time. She would hum with the rhythm of his walking. For her mother, this humming was a soothing and sweet sound of absolute contentment, and Phyl never tired of hearing it. Edith knew and accepted the routine of the outdoors. As she grew, Don adapted his method of transporting her. The sling over his shoulder that held her as an infant had soon developed into the specialized backpack, then a larger one, and finally, once she was walking, Edith began to climb on her own. A little at a time in areas free of dense underbrush and on wide trails, Edith and her parents worked on finding the right combination of carrying and putting down. Eventually Edith had her own pair of hiking boots with tricouni nails and also snowshoes for winter walking.
On many of the climbs, going in to Garibaldi, the Selkirks, and the Rockies, the Mundays, like other climbers, used pack horses to carry their provisions. Edith loved horses and as a toddler pretended she had her own. Phyl told an interviewer who asked about hiking with Edith: “She always has an imaginary pack train, she will talk to these horses and pick up a stone every now and again, and throw it ahead of her and call out her horse’s name, and tell him