Among the Canadian AlpsBurpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
History
Among the Canadian Alps
Burpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
"I stuck my knees into the snow, but felt my whole weight was on the
rope. Then I heard a swishing noise in the air, and glancing downwards
saw that the whole snow slope had cracked across and was starting away
down towards the valley in one huge avalanche. H. hauled cautiously
but firmly on the rope, and getting what grip I could with toes, knees
and ice-axe I was quickly in a safe position, and the two of us
standing side by side watched the clouds of snow filling the abyss
below and the huge masses bounding outwards. We listened to the sullen
roar which gradually subsided and all again was quiet."
It was probably this same stout rope by which Green pulled himself
back to safety, of which he elsewhere gives the history, quite an
eventful one, though sadly ignoble in its latter days. "Its first good
work was to save the lives of some of our party in a bad slip, near
the summit of the Balmhorn on the Bernese Overland. It was next used
as the mizzen topping-lift of a fifteen-ton yawl. It was my tent-rope
in the New Zealand Alps. It was the bridle used on a deep-sea trawl
that went down to 1000 fathoms beneath the surface of the Atlantic. It
trained a colt. Now it was in our diamond hitch; and I regret to say
that its old age was disgraced by its being used for cording one of my
boxes on the voyage home."
Compared with Rocky Mountains Park and Yoho Park, Glacier Park at
present is somewhat deficient in roads and trails, those that have
been opened all radiating from headquarters and extending not more
than six or eight miles in any direction. This, however, will be
remedied in a few years, the park being still very young, and in the
meantime it is not an unmixed evil to those who care to get off the
beaten track. Old Indian trails follow all the rivers and creeks
throughout the park, and though these will be more or less obliterated
and blocked with fallen timber, a competent guide can always be relied
upon to take you to any corner of the park, and when you have found a
good camping ground, with feed for the horses, a sparkling stream at
your feet, and a circle of noble peaks smiling down upon you, you
will, if you are the right sort, thank your stars that railways and
hotels and roads lie far away in another world beyond the mountains.
To really enjoy this sensation of out-of-the-worldness, however, you
must have brought with you a sufficient supply of worldly eatables.
Of the available trails, one leads up to Rogers Pass, at the summit of
the Selkirks, with Mount Macdonald on one side and Mount Tupper on the
other. These two great peaks were named after the famous Canadian
statesmen, Sir John Macdonald and Sir Charles Tupper. The latter,
after watching the growth of Canada from a group of weak and scattered
colonies to a strong and ambitious Dominion, is still alive in England
in his ninety-third year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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