Editor’s note: Readers of Aspects will remember a story we published on Valentines Day in 2017. about finding and nurturing romantic love at the club’s General Mountaineering Camps. This is the conclusion of the story. Best wishes, Natasha and Colin.

Ever since Colin and I got engaged at the top of Goldstream South at the Sorcerer General Mountaineering camp in 2016, we had our hearts set on having our wedding on a mountaintop. We pondered this for many months and finally decided that the logistics were just too hard to overcome. In lieu of our mountaintop wedding, we chose to hold true to our ACC roots and we booked an August wedding day at the ACC Clubhouse in Canmore.

A few months after making wedding plans for Canmore, we were leading a local ACC hike in Nanaimo BC, where we met Barry Hansen. Barry is a pastor, as well as having very strong ties to the ACC himself. Once Barry had heard our story, he made a very generous offer to marry us on top of a mountain! For many months, Colin and I thought long and hard on how we could achieve a wedding day that was truly ours and in the end we decided that two weddings would be the ideal way of having our perfect day. In the dark months of winter, we came up with a plan to keep the Clubhouse booking but also lead an ACC trip to Kings Peak, on Vancouver Island and not let anyone on the trip know that there would be a surprise wedding at the top.

Wedding day #1

On Friday May 24th 2019, the whole team who were heading to Kings Peak spent the night at the Buttle Lake Campgroup in Strathcona Provincial Park, close to the trailhead. We set early alarms for the next day so we would have plenty of time to make our objective.

Saturday May 25th began a little bit cloudy, as our team of eight set off up the trail at 6:00am. We made really good time to the upper meadows and then worked our way up to the North Glacier under the Queen’s Face. The winter gully was in great condition and it did not take us long to reach the top of it. Half way up the gully, we caught up with two more climbers who turned out to be friends of ours. As luck would have it, they were very happy to join our team, since they were interested in the route we were going to take. At this point, I could see that the weather was looking a bit unsettled and foggy around the summit ridge but we pressed onwards, as a team of ten now. Colin spied a possible weakness in the rocks leading up off the glacier towards the ridge and we decided as a group to give it a try. The route had some easy snow ramps that we took advantage of until the rocky ramps led us all the way up to the ridge of the North Spur. It went very well and it was quite an enjoyable variation to gain the ridge. It even put us up on the summit side of the infamous notch, which saved us a lot of time. The ridge itself had a bit of snow still lingering on it but it was in good enough condition that we were able to make our way up to the summit without much trouble. Much to my joy the clouds that threatened to dampen our day were melting away to reveal Elkhorn Mountain and Mt. Colonel Foster in all their glory, under blue sky!

A surprise wedding

We let the team have a decent break and some food before Colin and I made the announcement. We thanked everyone for coming up with us that day and casually informed the group that they were about to witness our surprise wedding. After many exclamations of surprise and disbelief, it dawned on everyone that we were totally serious. Barry prepared to begin the ceremony and our very talented photographer, Chris George, found the best possible position to capture our surprise wedding (with only 14% battery life left!) I still cannot believe our luck that we ran into Chris half way up the winter gully and that he decided to join us for our climb!

The ceremony was short and perfect, complete with our own climbing vows. We promised to be each other’s wedded climbing partner, to be each other’s belay and piton, on summits, through cruxes, on alpine starts and rainy days. Under a beautiful sky, with no other people around, surrounded by amazing friends and fellow climbers, with Elkhorn and Foster providing the most stunning backdrop we could have wished for, Colin and I became man and wife! After many photos and congratulations, we began our journey down to the King’s-Queen’s Col, then down the North Glacier to the winter gully and then we all descended back to the cars.

Possible new route

Everything on this day came together in ways that we could not have ever planned. We are uncertain if Colin’s shortcut route has been climbed before, or recorded but if it hasn’t, we decided that a very appropriate name for it would be The Royal Wedding route, since it was part of our potentially record-breaking wedding processional, over looked by King’s and Queen’s peaks. It was the most perfect day, made all the more special by the people who were there with us.

Wedding #2 - with a detour back to the GMC

With our mountaintop wedding day safely under our belts, we were on our way to the more family-friendly wedding in Canmore. Unknown to us when we booked the second wedding a year prior, we would have to contend with a significant complication. Back in February, I was lucky enough to be chosen as the recipient of the ACC’s Karl Nagy Memorial Award. This award involved spending a week at the Westfall Glacier GMC, to work as an amateur leader for one week of the camp. The complication arose when we found out that the only GMC week that was available would have me flying out of the camp on the exact day of our second wedding! Where most people would have chosen to just tackle the wedding, my wonderfully supportive husband-to-be told me we would do both!

One week out from our wedding in Canmore, and with our complicated and somewhat crazy plan in place, Colin drove me into the staging area for the start of week 6 of the GMC. I had the best and most challenging week up at the camp. I learned so much from the other leaders and guides in such a short amount of time. I also received many crazy looks regarding the fact that my second wedding day was being held the moment our week at camp ended. As long as the weather cooperated, we had a solid chance of pulling this crazy plan off!

After a torrential downpour the night before, the morning of August 17th dawned clear with light dustings of snow on the mountains - the helicopter would indeed be flying that day. Since I had a somewhat pressing deadline of making it from staging to Canmore by that afternoon, I was gifted the first ride out on the helicopter. Colin had made his way back to the staging area to pick me up and we took off for the Clubhouse. We managed to arrive with plenty of time to spare; I even managed a real shower before the ceremony began!

Our second wedding was intimate, with only our family and close friends in attendance. My father-in-law Rick performed a hand fasting ceremony for us on the Clubhouse deck, with the lightly snow-dusted Three Sisters in the background. Still true to form, Colin and I wore our mountaineering boots proudly with my formal gown and his family tartan.

A Mountain Love Story: Part II

Wedding day #1

A surprise wedding

Possible new route

Wedding #2 - with a detour back to the GMC

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