Mountain evening, 1970

Overnight camp at 7000' in a wind cirque, while climbing Mt.Baker, WA, with the BC Mountaineering Club

At summer's end the old snow surface is dingy, probably due to pollution from civilization far below, but maybe partly because of the sulphurous gases coming from a small crater near the peak of this dormant volcano.



These glaciers near Mt.Waddington run for many miles and clearly show the merging moraines - rock falling on top as the ice slowly gouges out the valleys.

At more than 13,000', Mt.Waddington, the highest point in B.C.'s Coastal range, is truly in "the middle of nowhere" on the map.

To get this photo I flew from Ocean Falls and refuelled at Nimpo Lake in the Chilcotin. It was a long flight and quite a struggle for height in the little Bellanca Scout floatplane, even with just myself on board, but it was worth it.

I haven't climbed in this area - it's way out of my league.

Never enjoyed the crowds and line-ups of downhill skiing, but in the '70s did many long trips into the BC wilderness on back-country skis. In those days "top of the line" touring skis meant wooden Bonna's with metal edges - big, heavy beasts.

In May '72 two of us did a three-day trip from Bralorne, over McGillivray Pass, and emerged at the tiny community of D'Arcy. Enroute we found this old cabin almost buried in the snow and I had the unusual luxury of relaxing on a chair in the sunny wilderness while reading an ancient copy of National Geographic.

A rest stop to figure out where we are, backpacking in on the long hack to Mount Challenger in the wild mountains of Washington's North Cascades, 1971.

Mystery Mountains - help!

Can someone please tell me from where this was taken, and the name of that big peak?

The date was March 1971 on an overnight ski trip. I remember we camped on a snowed-in logging road to get there after skiing a long way from the cars. It was sub-zero weather at night, and the next morning we skied and kicked steps up through icy crust to get to the top of this peak (or maybe it was just a ridge) where we had this great view.

It was somewhere in the Coast Mountains not too far from Vancouver, but where? It wasn't Manning Park. Could that be Black Tusk?

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