Investing in our legacy
The ACC enlists celebrated mountain writer Chic Scott to capture our story
Chic Scott researching in the archives research room at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Photo Kate Riordan.
The ACC’s history is a bit of a mystery
To the extent that ACC members or Canadians think about the history of our club, they probably think of old-time camps, huts and hobnail boots in black and white photos. They may be vaguely aware of Elizabeth Parker and A.O. Wheeler rejecting the idea of Canada being a chapter of the American Alpine Club and forming the ACC in Winnipeg. It is certainly true that as the ACC has evolved over the years it has done a poor job of telling the story of where it’s come from and what it’s done along the way.
Conrad Kain leads a party at the summit of Resplendent Mountain at the ACC camp in 1913. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, photographer Byron Harmon, V263_i_a_i_a_na_0936.
But why does the ACC’s history even matter? In a world where climbers have gone from relying on rough maps to carrying GPS devices and from mail delivered by horses to Instagram and online guidebooks, what do the before times have to teach us?
One reason is the obvious pride in accomplishments and the inspiration that comes with it. But there are also the lessons that can be learned and incorporated into future decisions.
Any organization that wants to chart an intentional path forward should recognize the patterns in its past – the good and the bad – and factor those into where it’s going. In short, to move forward with purpose, we need a clearer picture of where we’ve been.
The man for the moment
The good news is that the club’s history hasn’t been lost to the mists of time, it just hasn’t been sifted through and compiled into a coherent story. Club logbooks, executive papers, letters, photos, Gazettes, journals and original documents are all archived in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. And what’s more, the club now has a plan to bring that history to life.
Chic Scott is a name that many club members will immediately recognize as one of Canada’s most accomplished skiers, mountaineers and mountain authors. Chic has written a dozen books from ski guides to biographies to comprehensive large-format histories of mountaineering in Canada, of Banff’s Whyte family, and of Mt. Assiniboine. Last June, after seeing Chic’s latest book, the beautiful Mount Assiniboine – The Story, the ACC commissioned him to write the ACC’s history.
Chic has been around the mountains for the past 60 years and a member of the ACC since 1973. His resume includes an impressive list of ascents and long ski traverses in Canada, the European Alps and the Himalaya.
When asked about his motivation for this project he’s very quick to describe it as a “fabulous story” and one that should be properly told.
He’s aware of other writings that have brought parts of the ACC story to the page in other books (as well as a Gazette story during the club’s centennial in 2006), but he describes those as “playing around the edges.” The full story of our club’s history has yet to be written.
Preview of the ACC history
The ACC Gazette caught up with Chic recently to discuss the project, his progress and his early view of what his book will look like.
Early in the process, Chic says that he realized that there were three distinct periods of ACC history, periods that will make up three main sections of his book. The first began with the formation of the club and continued to the end of the Second World War. The second period coincided with the post-war time in Canada to the mid-1980s and the third is what we see as the modern ACC.
The founding members of The Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg on March 28, 1906, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, V14_acOOp_77.
The first of these periods included an early boom after the club was formed, followed by decades of struggles. From 1906 to 1914 saw the establishment of many of the things that would become associated with the club to this day, including the Canadian Alpine Journal, an annual camp (today the GMC), a Clubhouse and a library. But from 1914 to 1945 with two World Wars, a flu epidemic and the Great Depression, club growth largely stopped.
The club’s second historical period began after World War II and continued into the 1980s. The post-war period was one in which Canada grew rapidly, both economically and socially. It was a time of baby boomers, universal health care, the Canadian flag, Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. Among other things, Canada adopted official bilingualism and multiculturalism and convened a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. During this time Canada started to become the country that we recognize today.
Elizabeth Parker, co-found er of The Alpine Club of Canada, from CAJ 1938 Vol. 26 p. 92, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.
A. O. Wheeler, co-founder of The Alpine Club of Canada, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, V14_acOp_805.
During this period the ACC grew modestly. In 1946 the Victory Camp in the Bugaboos accommodated 200 people and turned a significant profit but did not stabilize financially. By the end of this second period, the club was on the verge of bankruptcy and considered selling the Clubhouse in Canmore and cancelling the GMC as it continued to lose money.
Through this time the club remained overwhelmingly British-influenced, white and male. From 1945 to 1985, the club had 13 presidents, nine of whom were either English- or Scottish-born and who had grown up in the UK. To the time of this writing, the ACC has never elected a woman president.
The dining tent at the first ACC camp in July 1906 at Yoho Pass. Elizabeth Parker and A.O. Wheeler at front right. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, V14_acOp_409.
This post-war period coincided with a renaissance in Canadian climbing led by members of the Calgary Mountain Club, Squamish climbers on the west coast and Francophone climbers in Quebec. The climbs evolved from Grillmair Chimneys in 1952 to the north face of North Twin in 1985. By the mid-eighties, Canadian climbers were amongst the best in the world. Unfortunately, the ACC had almost nothing to do with this renaissance. The ACC remained stuck in their conservative ways.
Chic marks the beginning of the third distinct period of ACC history as the mid-1980s that coincided with a modernization of the ACC’s hut system. During this time the club recognized the potential of operating alpine huts in a business-like way and of using the revenue that they generated to support other club services.
Around the campfire at an ACC camp. Elizabeth Parker at left reading her report. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, V14_ac55_5_984_na66_2131.
By the mid-eighties, the club had a terrific huts system, including the Elizabeth Parker, Stanley Mitchell, Wates-Gibson, Wheeler and others, but had not yet figured out how to manage it and profit from it. During the late eighties the club began to run the huts on a much more business-like manner – payment for overnights ensured there was lots of firewood when guests arrived and the hut was clean. This period also saw the building or otherwise acquiring of huts across western Canada’s mountain ranges.
The ACC also took on the projects of building the Alpine Centre in Lake Louise and hosing the 1988 UIAA conference in Banff. The club forged ahead with new ideas and new energy in this time, much of which was led by Peter Fuhrmann as president and a dedicated executive. It was a team that saved the club.
As for his process, Chic paces himself as you would expect from someone who’s been down the road of large research and writing projects before. He works most days, researching at the Whyte Museum in Banff where he lives, and writing a few hours at a time. He finds time to ski a couple days a week.
Group photo at the 2015 GMC. Photo Zoltan Kenwell.
His plan is to research and write each of the periods separately – each should take about a year – weaving quotes, notes and facts together with photos selected from the thousands available in the ACC collection. He expects there will be a full year of his polishing the final manuscripts to make the writing flow into a captivating story, followed by a final year of copy editing, photo processing, layout and design with his team. He’s visualizing appendices that will include camps, presidents, huts and sections. He’s planning on a short history of the local chapters highlighting important people and their contributions across the country.
Chic pictures the book, when finished, as having a similar impact for the ACC as his Pushing the Limits did for Canadian mountaineering at home and internationally: it will tell a relatively unknown and uniquely Canadian story about the history of Canadians in our mountains. And it will put the club on the map for other alpine organizations in the world. It will be something that we can be proud of.
He and the club are eyeing a release date coinciding with the 2026 Mountain Guides Ball.
Help us uncover buried treasure in the archives!
The ACC and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies have committed to hiring an archivist to assist Chic Scott with his research. Together they will delve into the club’s more recent history in order to include this in the book. Fundraising has begun to support this hire.
