Throwbacks from the Canadian Alpine Journal

From historic ascents, to stories about friends and ethical debates, the Canadian Alpine Journal has always been the permanent record for all-things-related to Canadian climbing. With today's quick-burn media and plethora of online platforms, it's more important than ever to have a consolidated record of mountain experiences to share with our future.

While the official submission due date for 2020 CAJ entries was Feb 1st, if you submit an email to our editor, Sean Isaac, he’ll be able to work with you for any late submissions.

To help and inspire the above, we’ve pulled a few #CAJArchives stories with a wide range from our Instagram to share. We hope you enjoy them, and may it highlight the importance of documenting Canadian climbing.

Windtower, the North Face

I've left a hook on an edge 10' down; held on in 'quasi-tension' from the rope. The hook I'm on blows:
'Holy shit!!'
'What?!'
'The hook held!'
I swing over and grab the rope that runs up to the hook.
'Elevator going up!'
'What?!.. You're not going to haul yourself back up on the hook are you?'
'It held the fall didn't it?!'

- Steve DeMaio, 1989 Canadian Alpine Journal.

A wild and nail-biting aiding epic, as Steve DeMaio recalls the effort it took to put up “The Iron Buttery”, VI 5.11 A4 with Jeff Marshall. With big whippers on hooks, the route unsurprisingly remains unrepeated.

Jeff Marshall lecturing on rope management. Photo: Glen Reisenhofer.

The ice axe and record left by Mr. Maki’s Party. Photo: John C. Oberlin, Herb Pownall.

Second ascent of Mount Alberta

Without warning, John, who was ahead, let out two unintelligible and piercing yells, which gave me quite a fright since it was my axe which was back at the gap. However it developed that his shouts had only been 'The axe! The axe!' I moved up a few steps and saw what was causing his excitement. Not more than 300 feet ahead, projecting out of the snow and dramatically silhouetted, was the axe left by the original party, 23 years ago. The summit at last!

- Fred D. Ayres, 1949 Canadian Alpine Journal.

The fabled story of the Silver Ice Axe continues on as the second ascent team discovers the axe from the original Japanese team.

Always go with a guide

I know the ACMG certification is really hard but it's worth it... so keep up the good work, and know that we value all of you. You're the best in the world and you need to know that.

- Margaret Imai-Compton, 2009 Canadian Alpine Journal.

In this heart-warming piece from Margaret Imai-Compton, she writes on her experiences being under the care of a guide at the ACC General Mountaineering Camp (GMC) and why it’s important to experience the mountains through them. This is a wonderfully written article that should definitely be on the reading list for guides and aspiring guides!

Crossing Bear Creek and Lookout Point. Photo: Don Forrester.

Mountain climbing for women

When the mountaineer's friends one and all greet her with the exclamation 'How well you are looking, I never saw you looking better in your life!' she knows that she is the happy possessor of the beauty of health gained from her sojourn among the heights.

- Mary E. Crawford, 1909 Canadian Alpine Journal.

For our third ever issue of the CAJ, this was a piece pretty well ahead of its time. It’s a serious throwback to how far we’ve come in the world of mountaineering and gender, and it’s a fun read well to see how differently we used to do story-telling.

Clouds as tall as mountains

From Calgary, at night, in the depths of the university library, or when the mountains were obscured by clouds, I'd imagined the peaks that should stand there: towering crags, splintered and soaring. I thought this was normal, everyone must do it. Now I'm wondering. I seem to have forgotten the reason that made me study in the first place. When we drove through the Stoney Indian Reserve, I remembered a Navajo chant popular in the poster shops on campus: Everything forgotten returns to the circling winds.

- Jerry Auld, 2010 Canadian Alpine Journal.

Not all stories in the CAJ need to be non-fiction. In this piece from Jerry Auld, he melds in his own experiences in the mountains into fiction, basing it around what it’s like to be living in the city (Calgary) and yearning for the mountains.

Glen Boles in front of Mt. Brussels. Photo: Heinz Kahl.

How Steep is Steep?

After reading the reports in various alpine publications one can come to only two conclusions: either there are still a few supermen climbing in those mountains, or else most of us are so impressed by our deeds that we tend to exaggerate them, sometimes to quite an extent.

- Hans Gmoser, 1961 Canadian Alpine Journal.

In this piece Hans Gmoser ruffles a few feathers in the climbing community, disputing recent ascents and their reports of how steep a climb is. It’s an interesting piece that goes beyond what is typically submitted, and dives into the psychology of personal experiences in the mountains and what can change when we put them onto paper.

Fruitcake

For someone so achievement oriented, Raphael Slawinski is remarkably egalitarian. Soft-spoken, considerate, urbane and accommodating, he will climb anything, anywhere, with anybody. He'll burn skin on plastic in town over a weekday lunch hour while suffering the company of junior-high-school girls, siege a mouldy canyon sport climb with the baseball-hat-backward crowd on a similar evening, ramble a classic with his father and his Polish-community cohorts come Saturday, or dump everything out of his pack and run at the biggest north faces in the Rockies when there's a slightly longer weekend available. Which is how I ended up holding his rope below the Stanley Headwall on a frigid January day; if you wait long enough, sooner or later Raph runs out of cannon fodder and it's your turn.

- Dave Dornian, 2004 Canadian Alpine Journal.

Long-time friend of the ACC, Dave Dornian, writes on what it’s like to climb with the famous Raphael Slawinski, aka “Dr Evil”. In typical Dave-style, this is a humour piece. If you have interesting stories about your friends in the mountains that are similar, we’d love to hear about them as well!

Jean-Michel Charbonneau on Unknown (WI5+), Pont-Rouge Quebec. Photo: Andrew Querner.

Submit a story to the 2020 CAJ

The CAJ is interested in articles and reports (both in English and French language) of significant mountain achievements, both in Canada and by Canadians internationally, as well as mountain science related articles. We also encourage submissions in alternative avenues of expression including poetry, fiction, humour and reflection.

Word count can range anywhere between 300 and 2500 words. MS Word documents or RTF format please. Text can be e-mailed to: caj@alpineclubofcanada.ca