Thursday, January 31, 2013
In 1961, Peter Fuhrmann, a German climber working in
Banff, arranged to take his professional mountain guide’s
exam with Walter Perren, the Swiss mountain guide heading
Parks Canada’s public safety program.
At the appointed rendez-vous, Fuhrmann learned Perren
was conducting a rescue. Driving to Castle Mountain, he
scrambled to where he could see Perren climbing solo up
south-facing cliffs.
“He yelled down, ‘come up, give me a hand and bring
my pack,’” Fuhrmann, now 80, recalled. “So I put his
pack on top of my pack and then I climbed up the right
hand ridge of Eisenhower Tower.”
Reaching the summit, he found Perren with three
climbers who, although uninjured, lacked the skills to descend.
Perren suggested that Fuhrmann descend with one of the climbers
as an examination exercise. That task completed, the following
day Fuhrmann climbed Mount Victoria, backdrop to Lake
Louise, with Perren, who declared him certified.
Today, candidates hoping to earn professional certification
follow a more structured and rigorous program through the
Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). Extensive
outdoor experience is required to gain acceptance; on average
the multiple exams take seven years to complete. This year, now
850 members strong, the association formed by Fuhrmann and
eight other guides in 1963 celebrates its 50
th anniversary.
Among those founding members was
Hans Gmoser who had established
himself as western Canada’s preeminent guide since
emigrating from Austria in 1951. Like Perren, who certified
him in 1956, Gmoser advocated for a Canadian association.
The group—the majority Europeans
— elected Fuhrmann as the
ACMG’s first president. Those already holding licences were
grandfathered in.
In Europe’s alpine nations, the guiding profession is long-established
and highly respected. Historically, people feared the alpine
as home to evil dragons, but by the first ascent of the Alps’
highest, Mont Blanc, in 1786, attitudes began changing. Rail
travel brought tourists eager to view peaks, glaciers and wildflower
meadows. Among them, wealthy Brits and Americans hired
locals to lead them safely to claim virgin summits. Chamonix,
France claims guiding’s oldest professional association, established
in 1821.
In Canada, the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CP) in 1885 lured mountaineers west. In 1897, friends of Phillip
Stanley Abbot, who died climbing Mount Lefroy the previous
summer, hired Switzerland’s Peter Sarbach—the first professional
guide to work in Canada. In 1899, CP began employing
Swiss guides to lead its hotel guests to summits in the Rockies
and Selkirks, a program that continued until the early 1950s. Perren
was one of CP’s last guides.
As chair of the ACMG’s technical standards committee, Gmoser
set the qualification bar high. As his helicopter skiing business,
Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) flourished through the
1970s and ’80s, demand for professional guides increased. While
the ACMG certified a growing number of Canadians, dozens of
European guides eagerly worked in the exciting new industry.
Many of them stayed.
In 1973, two of those Swiss guides, Hans Peter Stettler and Rudi
Gertsch (a second-generation guide) attended the annual meeting
of the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations
(IFMGA) in Liechtenstein, intent on demonstrating that
Canadian standards matched Europe’s. In 1974, the ACMG became
the IFMGA’s first non-European member.
Since then, the ACMG has steadily evolved, expanding to encompass
mountain, hiking and climbing gym programs. In addition
to safely guiding mountaineers around the world, today’s
ACMG guides work as highway safety technicians, avalanche
experts, coroner’s consultants, army instructors and as riggers for
Hollywood productions. Under the direction of Fuhrmann (who
succeeded Perren) and Jasper’s Willi Pfisterer, they also developed
Parks Canada’s world-class public safety program.
“Standards are usually minimums, and in Canada we had the
chance to set higher standards from the beginning,” said Gertsch,
whose own son, Jeff, is an ACMG ski guide. “We can be proud.
Canadian guides are leaders, some of the best in the world.”
While climbing for a living might appear glamorous, mountaineering
days can easily last upwards of 12 hours demanding that
guides evaluate rockfall and avalanche hazards at every step;
glacier traverses involve consecutive nights in tents eating dehydrated
dinners. Seasonal employment means irregular schedules
and incomes. Injuries are costly; physiotherapy visits essential.
Still, for those who pass the gruelling and expensive examination
process, few imagine doing anything else.
A Calgary native, Jen Olson earned her ACMG mountain guide
certification in 2008, one of eight women in Canada with that
qualification. She’s guided clients in Italy’s Dolomites and Argentinean
Patagonia as well as her backyard Rockies and Selkirks.
Internationally recognized certification allows her to explore
new wilderness areas while providing her clients an adventure
far beyond what they could manage on their own.
“I like teaching, I like to travel and I like introducing people to
a lifestyle I value,” Olson said. “To travel as a guide really makes
a difference.”
Even at 70, when Ferdl Taxbock is not hiking, backcountry skiing
or rock climbing recreationally, he guides part-time. Every
summer he runs the Alpine Club of Canada’s 55 Plus Summer
Trekking and Climbing Camp out of Stanley Mitchell Hut in
Yoho National Park.
“I still really enjoy guiding,” said Taxbock, who emigrated from
Austria in 1967. “It’s fun to be with other people who also love
the mountains and to help them enjoy the scenery or to help
them move on exposed rock safely.
“And,” he added, “It gets me out too!”
From traversing the Wapta Icefields to backpacking in Jasper to
climbing in Mongolia, ACMG guides are trained and eager to
make your adventure dreams reality.
~By Lynn Martel
Photos:
Top photo from the 1967 ACMG guides course includes, back row, from left, Don Vockeroth, Ottmar Setzer, Bob Geber, John Gow, Charlie Locke and Bernie Royle. Seated in the front row, from left, are Leo Grillmair, Lloyd Gallagher, Hans Gmoser, Peter Fuhrmann and Hans Schwartz. Credit: Chic Scott collection.
Bottom photo: ACMG Hiking and Ski Guide, Félix Camiré (front left) leads two Alpine Club of Canada amateur trip leaders on a backcountry ski touring skills course in the popular Rogers Pass area of BC’s Glacier National Park. Photo by Lynn Martel.
Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
It was Canada Day Weekend and there was a steady stream of cars trying to get through the gates and down the narrow highway into Waterton Lakes National Park for a day of hiking, touring, and sight-seeing. Normally we would have been one of those vehicles had I not done a bit of research before our trip and discovered an alternate way of accessing the popular park. The Kootenai Brown bicycle trail starts at the Park Gates and brings you right to the Visitor Centre on the edge of the Waterton town site. Although you do have to pay and drive through the gates to reach the signed parking lot, you will quickly find yourself on a stunningly beautiful paved trail that parallels the highway as you make your way to the Visitor Centre. The trail is 7km one way and is rated as easy by Parks Canada. As a novice cyclist, I had to walk a few hills but my husband managed to do the full 14km trail while pulling our son in a bike trailer – and never had to get off his bike. Obviously one of us is out of shape.
Though the bike trail mostly follows the highway, you will have periods of isolation where you drop down to a beautiful meadow and ride amongst the wild flowers. I’ve driven this road many times and honestly, had never really noticed this meadow with the mountains looming over it. Without a windshield in front of you everything is so much more crisp and meaningful. The meadow transformed into living scenery when I was right beside it and able to interact with my surroundings.
Once you get to the Visitor Centre, it’s an easy ride downhill into the town site on a sidewalk shared with pedestrians. It was a steep ride back up to the Centre on the way back for me and I confess that this was one of the hills I had to walk. That shouldn’t be a reason for not attempting the trail though. Walk or ride, you’ll get back to your car at the end of the day.
When we got to the town site, we continued riding on the Townsite Loop Trail. It’s a 3.5km loop that follows the very scenic Upper Lake shoreline. There are lots of benches to stop and rest at as well as beach areas for children who might want to throw rocks in the lake. This trail is shared with pedestrians and can get quite busy so that was perhaps the one challenge of biking the loop rather than riding the town streets. We didn’t finish the full loop because we wanted to visit the town splash park and community playground located in the centre of town near the campground. Again, the bikes make it easy to access without having to find parking. Any family with young kids will definitely want to visit this park. It was definitely the key attraction for most families in Waterton the day we were there.
We finished off our tour with a quick stop at Cameron Falls, a popular tourist site located a couple blocks away from the playground, and then started our ride back home to finish out our 18km ride.
Other things you might want to include on your bicycle tour:
- A hike up the Bears Hump (this 2.8km return hike climbs 200m up from the Visitor Centre to a fabulous viewpoint overlooking the whole town site, Prince of Wales Hotel, and Waterton Lakes)
- A walk around the Prince of Wales Hotel (this 2km loop is easy and a good way to stretch your legs)
- Ice-cream! (there are a lot of fabulous ice-cream shops in Waterton not to be missed)
~By Tanya Koob
www.RockiesFamilyAdventures.com
Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink
