This week we resume our virtual recreation of Neal Carter & Charles Townsend’s 1923 exploratory mountaineering expedition. This video, the second of three, depicts the first ascent of Mount James Turner. (Check last week’s clip here).
Though lower and less well-known than its neighbour Wedge Mountain, Mount James Turner is still a formidable peak, revered for its remoteness and technical challenges by hardcore climbers and ski-mountaineers. For a more recent episode of James Turner lore, check this account of the mountain’s first ski descent by local ski builder and steep-ski pioneer Johnny “Foon” Chilton. Note that Foon and friends skied Turner’s massive north face, while Carter and Townsend approached from the south.
Our story will conclude next week as Carter and Townsend head up the Fitzsimmons Creek Valley to spend a week based out of a now-gone prospector’s cabin in Singing Pass. Watch for some striking photos from the undeveloped summit of Whistler Mountain, and their gripping attempt on the aptly named Mount Diavolo.
This week we’ve got something a little different for you.
We’ve written before about the beautiful Neal Carter photo collection, which documents a two-week exploratory mountaineering expedition into the mountains surrounding Alta Lake by Neal and his friend Charles Townsend in September 1923.
Approaching the summit of Wedge Mountain.
Well, since we also have the written account that Charles wrote for the British Columbia Mountaineering Cub’s journal, we plugged some of their photos and words together into Google Earth, and have recreated their encounter with these mysterious, unexplored peaks as a sort of virtual tour that you can follow from the comforts of your home:
This first video revisits the first two days of their trip, during which the pair managed the first ascent of Wedge Mountain – the highest peak around. Instead of contently heading back to Rainbow Lodge, Neal and Charles continued deeper into the Coast Mountain wilderness towards the lesser-known but equally formidable Mount James Turner, which they named after a popular Vancouver reverend. Check back next week for this episode, as well as their subsequent climb of Whistler Mountain and more first ascents deeper in the Fitzsimmons Range.
Of course, watching this little video doesn’t provide quite the same experience as actually climbing these peaks. Since we’re currently enjoying a wonderful window of late summer weather similar to 1923, hopefully the virtual tour inspires you to get up into the alpine for some fresh air, exercise, and inspiring views!
We have tens of thousands of photos in the museum archives. Amongst the plethora of photos of our pioneers, the community, and the ski hill is the occasional image that really defies explanation, and to be honest, these photos sometimes seem better without knowing the stories behind them. We thought it was high time we shared some with the public. In the hopes of making you laugh a little, here are a selection of photos we’ve dubbed ‘Awkward Archival Photos’.
A personal favourite (and the photo that inspired this blog post) is the following photo of a baby in a tree. This baby is Doreen Tapley, and apparently the boughs were shoved in the tree to give it “a more festive look”. Unfortunately, little Doreen’s facial expression is not so festive.
She looks cold – throw some more cedar boughs in there to keep her warm!
Apparently the problem of parents trying to capture their teenagers’ awkward coming of age has persisted through the ages. The young man below looks like he’s dressed in his Sunday best, ready for a photo shoot, when someone suggested he curl up in fetal position and perch on top of a stump.
Time to put on your Sunday best and pose on a tree stump.
Some of our photos have red pen markings on them, but I like the way that in this photo, two women appear to have been specifically crossed out (one of them is Myrtle Philip).
When I first saw this photo, I thought this man was rescuing this woman. Then I realized that no, unless he’s wearing that bandana to prevent infection, this is a bizarrely posed mountain shot.
When trying to protect yourself from the sun, tie a bandana over your face. To complete the bandito look, grab a helpless maiden.
The following photo really grabbed me because the gentleman reading his newspaper on a frozen lake looks incredibly casual. Perhaps this family visited from the southern hemisphere, forgetting that the seasons are reversed, and had hoped for a lovely lakeside summer vacation. Being a stubborn fellow, this man insisted on adhering to his plan.
This is one of those accidental optical illusions that worked out to comic ends. The photo is actually labeled ‘See the length of that cow!’, so it appears that the photographer may have been in on the joke.
When I first saw this photo, I thought it was a member of the KKK. Thankfully, I was wrong, but I have no idea what this costume is about. A wizard? Moses? A scarecrow?
We have a surprising number of photos of men in drag. This was apparently a popular costume for Whistler’s pioneers. This photo stands out because the drag is incredible, and the pose just tops it off.
We’ll never forget the year Dad put on a one man show of Swan Lake.
One question stands out for me from this photo: Do you think her parents specifically chose this outfit because it matched the two dead birds she’s holding?
Our collection of photos of squatters and ski bums has a few gems. In the days when people partied hard and threw caution to the wind, bizarre photos were fairly common place. I like the facial expression of the child in the background, which seems to say, “Shame on you.”
Getting naked at a family event is sure to attract the attention of law enforcement.
This month sees the completion of the project to catalogue the George Benjamin collection. This collection is definitely different to any other that I have encountered in my career in archives before, but it is certainly of great significance to the history of Whistler. George Benjamin moved to Whistler in 1970 and took up residence in “Tokum Corners”, a roughly made cabin with no electricity and no running water. Many of you will find the name “Tokum” familiar from the eponymous ski-run on Whistler Mountain – and this is no coincidence – one of George’s roommates at Tokum Corners named it while working on the mountain as this was his route home from a hard days work. “Tokum Corners” was also used to refer to a part of Dave Murray Downhill – the downhill ski racing run that was used during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. As you can gather from these accolades, Tokum Corners was an institution in 1970s Whistler, and was host to many parties and a hub for the “ski-bum” population of Whistler.
George Benjamin outside Tokum Corners
George or “Benji” as he was more commonly known was also a semi-professional photographer. His family, back in Ontario, owned a photo finishing business and this allowed him to develop his photographs for free – a handy asset in the days before digital photography.
Awesome 70s skiing
In 2009 when I was working on the Museum’s new exhibit we were looking for material to use in our squatters and ski-bums display and it became apparent that there was actually very little material relating to that aspect of Whistler’s history in the Museum. The pioneers were well covered, as was the history of the development of the ski-hill, but the history of the ‘counter-culture’ of squatters in the 1970s, which was actually more like the main-stream culture at that time was pitifully under-represented. This provoked a search for material and we were rewarded with the donation of a huge collection of photographs from Benji. Although I was very excited to receive the collection I was also a little overwhelmed. Working as the Collection’s Manager for the museum is busier that I could ever have imagined and finding the time to sit down and catalogue five thousand photographs was extremely daunting. Luckily, a grant from the National Archives Development Program was forthcoming and we were able to hire Bradley Nichols for four months to catalogue the collection, re-house it in acid-free boxes to prevent deterioration and to digitize 50 of the photographs for our website.
Part of the Benjamin collection in its swanky new archival-quality housing
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through Library and Archives Canada, and administered by the Canadian Council of Archives.
