Fritz Wiessner
Fritz Wiessner was a German American pioneer of free climbing. Born in Dresden, Germany, he immigrated to New York City in 1929 and became a U. S. citizen in 1935. In 1939, he made one of the earliest attempts to climb K2, one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb. Wiessner started climbing with his father in the Austrian Alps before World War I. At the age of 12, he climbed the highest peak in Germany. In the 1920s, he established hard climbing routes in Saxony and the Dolomites that have a present-day difficulty rating of up to 5.11. This was at a time when the hardest free climbing grade in the United States was 5.7. At the age of 25, he made the first ascent of the Fleischbank in Tyrol, proclaimed the hardest rock climb done at that time. Wiessner was not an imposing physical specimen, his specialty lay in wide crack climbing, or offwidth, a technique that demanded both technical mastery and uncommon strength. In 1931, Wiessner made contact with members of the American Alpine Club and set a new standard in American rock climbing.
Across North America, he established a substantial list of first ascents at such climbing areas as Ragged Mountain. In 1935, while climbing at Breakneck Ridge on the Hudson River, Wiessner spotted the gleaming white quartzite cliffs of the Shawangunks in the distance; the following weekend he set off in search of the tantalizing cliffs and set about climbing the highest point in the area, a cliff now known as Millbrook mountain. Along with John and Peggy Navas, he established a route now named Old Route 5.5, the first recorded technical rock climb in the Shawangunks, in doing so helped to establish the area as a mecca for rock climbers. Wiessner in partnership with fellow immigrant Hans Kraus, established numerous first ascents in the Gunks, including many climbs that are popular to this day, their best known combined effort is the popular High Exposure buttress 5.6, which they first climbed in 1941 with a hemp rope and three soft iron pitons. Other notable Wiessner first ascents in the Gunks include: Gargoyle 5.5, High Traverse 5.5, White Pillar 5.7, Baby 5.6, Frogs Head 5.6.
In 1946, he led the first 5.8 in the Gunks. In 1935, Wiessner established. 5.8. When rock climbing, Wiessner paired himself with novices, with women in particular, he always insisted on being the lead climber. After meeting Hans Kraus, he relaxed his "lead-climb only" rule, the two men climbed as equal partners. In 1939, he led an ill-fated American expedition to K2, coming within 700 feet of the summit before having to turn back. Wiessner recounted that, although the difficulties of the climb had been passed and the remainder was straightforward, he turned back in deference to the wishes his sherpa, Pasang Dawa Lama. No one came as close to the top of the mountain again until July 31, 1954, when the first ascent was achieved by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni on the 1954 Italian Karakoram expedition. During his first years in America, Wiessner founded a chemical company that specialized in waxes, including a used ski wax known as Wiesner's Wonder Wax, he developed his company during the great depression of the 1930s.
Wiessner was a proficient skier. He was disappointed that he was not allowed to fight for the U. S. in World War II. Wiessner remained an active climber up into his eighties stunning onlookers in the Shawangunks by soloing his early routes, he loved to solo his climb Gargoyle at Skytop by the light of the full moon. Once, when climbing with a much younger climber sometime in the mid-1970s, the younger climber led the first pitch, confided to Wiessner that he had soloed the route earlier in the week. "Ah, you must vee climbing pretty goot!" Wiessner said. He took the lead for the second pitch, putting in no protection—effectively soloing the pitch; when his partner reached the top, Fritz grinned impishly. "I must vee climbing pretty good too" Wiessner said.. In 1945, he married Muriel Schoonmaker. In 1946, his son Andrew was born. In 1947, his daughter Pauline was born. Daughter and son both accompanied their father on many expeditions and climbing trips. Muriel was a trusted climbing and skiing companion to Fritz for the rest of his life.
In 1952, the Wiessner family moved to Stowe, where Fritz would live to the end of his days. Wiessner died after suffering a series of strokes at age 88. Andreas, Gottfried. Fritz Wiessner: 1900 – 1988. Dresden: Sächsischer Bergsteigerbund. Curran, Jim. K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Seattle, WA: The Mountaineers Books. Kauffman, Andrew. K2: the 1939 Tragedy. Mountaineers Books. ISBN 978-0898863734. Schwartz, Susan. Into The Unknown: The Remarkable Life of Hans Kraus. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. Waterman and Guy. “The Big Little Man from Dresden,” in Laura and Guy Waterman, A Fi
Canadian Pacific Survey
The Canadian Pacific Survey or Canadian Pacific Railway Survey comprised many distinct geographical surveys conducted during the 1870s and 1880s, designed to determine the ideal route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although much of the survey's activity focused on locating suitable mountain passes through the Canadian Rockies, Selkirk Mountains, Monashee Mountains, Canadian Cascades and Coast Mountains of western Canada, locating the best route across the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield north of Lake Superior was a primary goal; the survey played an important role in the exploration of Canada in the mapping of hitherto-uncharted parts of British Columbia. In British Columbia, survey work was overseen by Walter Moberly, a former Colony of British Columbia land official and cabinet member, involved steamboat support vessels on the Arrow Lakes and Columbia River, on Kootenay Lake, Shuswap Lake, Seton Lake and others; the survey entailed the first detailed mapping of much of southern British Columbia, including remote areas such as the Coast Mountains icefields and a range of potential pass and route combinations, including new discoveries - the most notable and crucial of, Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains, but less famously but no less crucially Eagle Pass through the Monashees.
Routes investigated included those of the bronze rush-era Waddington's Road via Bute Inlet and the eventual Lillooet-Squamish-Howe Sound routing of the Pacific Great Eastern, led by Stanley Smith, that attempted to investigate a potential route from the head of the Lillooet River via Ring Pass and the Lillooet Icefield to the coast via the Bishop River, resulted in the disappearance of Smith's party. Glaciers in the Lillooet Icecap are named for him and his brother, in the group
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia; the island is 460 kilometres in length, 100 kilometres in width at its widest point, 32,134 km2 in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas; the southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th Parallel. This area has one of the warmest climates in Canada, since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow subtropical Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Vancouver Island had a population in 2016 of 775,347. Nearly half of that population live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville and Campbell River. Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is located on the island, but the larger city of Vancouver is not – it is on the North American mainland, across the Strait of Georgia from Nanaimo.
Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The island was explored by Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century, it was named Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 by Spanish commander of the Nootka Sound settlement, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, by British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Bodega y Quadra's name was dropped from the name, it is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who explored the Pacific Northwest coast between 1791 and 1794. Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal, it is the largest Pacific island anywhere east of New Zealand. Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years; the groupings, by language, are the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, various Coast Salish peoples.
Kwakwaka'wakw territory includes northern and northwestern Vancouver Island and adjoining areas of the mainland, the Nuu-chah-nulth span most of the west coast, while the Coast Salish cover the southeastern Island and southernmost extremities along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area; the Kwakwaka'wakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. They are known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwaka'wakw, their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwak'wala. The name Kwakwaka'wakw means "speakers of Kwak'wala"; the language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people. Today 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwaka'wakw; some Kwakwaka'wakw groups are now extinct. Kwak'wala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla and Wuikyala. Kwakwaka'wakw centres of population on Vancouver Island include communities such as Fort Rupert, Alert Bay and Quatsino, The Kwakwaka'wakw tradition of the potlatch was banned by the federal government of Canada in 1885, but has been revived in recent decades.
The Nuu-chah-nulth are indigenous peoples in Canada. Their traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups, the absorption of others into neighbouring groups, they were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to come into contact with Europeans, as the Spanish and British attempted to secure control of Pacific Northwest and the trade in otter pelts, with Nootka Sound becoming a focus of these rivalries. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State and Ditidaht; the Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are a loose grouping of many tribes with languages. On Vancouver Island, Coast Salish peoples territory traditionally spans from the northern limit of the Gulf of Georgia on the inside of Vancouver Island and covering most of southern Vancouver Island.
Distinct nations within the Coast Salish peoples on Vancouver Island include the Chemainus, the Comox of the Comox Valley area, the Cowichan of the Cowichan Valley, the Esquimalt, the Saanich of the Saanich Peninsula, the Songhees of the Victoria area and Snuneymuxw in the Nanaimo area. Europeans began to explore the island in 1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused Spain to send a number of expeditions to assert its long-held claims to the Pacific Northwest; the first expedition was that of the Santiago, under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775, a second Spanish expedition under the Spanish Peruvian captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was sent. By 1776 Spanish exploration had reached Bucareli Bay including the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, Sitka Sound. Vancouver Island came to the attention of Britain after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who spent a month during 1778 at Nootka Sound, on the island's western coast. Cook claimed it for Great Britain.
The island's rich fur-trading potential led the fur trader John Meares to set up a single-building trading post near the native village of Yuquot, at the entrance to Nootka Sound. The building was removed by the end of 1788; the island was further explored by Spain in 1789 with Esteban José Martínez, who est
Tatlayoko Lake
Tatlayoko Lake is a lake on the Homathko River in the western Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, located on a north-south axis just upstream of the entrance of the series of canyons of the Homathko, including the Great Canyon of the Homathko, on its route to the sea at the head of Bute Inlet. The community of Tatlayoko Lake, British Columbia is located at its northern end. Tatlayoko Lake is part of the land claim of the Tsilhqot'in People of Xeni and is called by them Talhiqox Biny. One of their number, Klattasine or Klatsassan, led a party of warriors to attack a crew building a gold-rush era route known as Waddington's Road in the Homathko's canyons, the opening round of the Chilcotin War of 1864. Relief troops, including the governor of the colony's own party and escort, came to the Chilcotin via Tatlayoko Lake. Tatlayoko Lake and the Homathko River are components in a proposed diversion project involving Chilko Lake, across the mountains on the east side of the lake.
Run-of-the-river hydroelectric licenses have been let for the Homathko downstream from the lake. The first comprehensive map of British Columbia was produced under the authority of Joseph Trutch, was published in 1871; this map gives the name as Ta tlah co Lake, similar to the Tsilhqot'in name Telhiqox. A few years George Dawson surveyed the geology of the area, his 1878 report to the Geological Survey of Canada used the spelling Tatlayoco. Maps of British Columbia published in the 1880s and 1890s continued to use minor variations of Tatlahco Lake, while many geological publications used Dawson's spelling of Tatlayoco; the existence of many different spellings for a geographic location was not unusual for that era, the Geographic Board of Canada was established in 1897 to standardize these spellings. Their "Rules of Nomenclature" included the following: The name, published first will be preferred If an indigenous name is used, the spelling should approximate the true pronunciation The name should not include any redundant or unpronounced letters Any hard "c" should be replaced with a "k"The Geographic Board of Canada was unaware that the lake was named Tatlahco, which they erroneously thought was a name for a tributary to the Bella Coola River.
They were only aware of Dawson's spelling of Tatlayoco, which they adopted as the official name in 1911, after changing the hard "c" to a "k". The name therefore came to be spelled Tatlayoko, despite the fact that Tatlahco was published first, is a better approximation of the original Tsilhqot'in word, reflects the actual pronunciation of the name. According to the Rules of Nomenclature, Tatlahco should have been respelled Tatlako
Bute Inlet
Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km long from the estuaries of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers at the head of the inlet, to the mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, it averages about 4 km in width. Bute Inlet is in a spectacular wilderness setting and is one of the most scenic waterways in the world. In the upper reaches of the inlet mountains rise 9000 feet above sea level. Bute Inlet is a spectacular wilderness, visited by few people. In more recent years tourists are travelling from around the world to view grizzly bears in a natural setting and explore the wilderness of Bute Inlet. Bute Inlet took its name from John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763, his grandson Charles Stuart was a master's mate on Vancouver's Discovery. Bute Inlet had an interesting role in the early history of the Colony of British Columbia. Entrepreneur Alfred Waddington sought to build a route to the Cariboo goldfields, shorter and easier than the existing routes via the Fraser Canyon and the Douglas Road.
In competition with the projected Cariboo Wagon Road, still under construction at that time, Waddington got a license from the colonial government to undertake the construction of a wagon road from the head of Bute Inlet via the Homathko River to the Chilcotin Plateau, thence east across the Fraser to the Cariboo Goldfields. The plan was that steamers from Victoria would voyage to the head of the inlet, travellers would take what was to be a toll road overland from there, he was granted a townsite at the head of the inlet and commenced construction up the Grand Canyon of the Homathko from there. Conflict with warriors of the Tsilhqot'in Nation ensued when Waddington's foreman threatened smallpox on the warriors, working as labourers due to famine in their country, over the mountains on the inland side of the range. Discussing his threats that night, the warriors, led by Klatsassin of the Xeni Gwet'in of Nemaia Valley near Chilko Lake, rose up and slaughtered Waddington's work party. Three men made it to civilization despite severe injuries.
As a result of their reports, expeditions were launched by troops from Victoria and a posse of volunteers from the Cariboo and a long bait-and-wait game ensued known to history as the Chilcotin War of 1864. It ended with the surrender on terms of amnesty by Klatsassin, betrayed and hung at Quesnellemouthe; the Bute Inlet route was considered for the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which would have seen extensive blasting down the west shore of the inlet and a series of bridges to reach Vancouver Island near Campbell River via Seymour Narrows. This route was passed over in favour of the Fraser Canyon route to a new port-city at Burrard Inlet, to become the city of Port Moody, British Columbia; the residual political impact of the Chilcotin War was one factor dissuading the CPR from using Bute Inlet. Bute Inlet is located in the Coast Land District, Range 1 and is part of the Sunshine Coast Forest District of the Coast Forest Region, headquartered in Powell River, the Lower Mainland Ministry of Environment Region, headquartered in Surrey.
It is within the mainland portion of the Strathcona Regional District, which has only municipal powers such as sewage and building permits on non-Indian Reserve lands in rural areas. The inlet lies in the overlapping traditional territories and land claims of the Homalco, Kwiakah and We Wai Kai First Nations. Bute Inlet in British Columbia is a classic fjord formation formed during the Holocene by glacial erosion. Bute Inlet is one of the deepest fjords in British Columbia with its depth of 660 metres, with a sill of 220 metres; the majority of freshwater entering the inlet, ~95%, is supplied by the Homathko river and the Southgate river at the head of the fjord. An underwater channel system is incised in the fjord basin sediments which carries sediment to the fjord. Homathko Estuary Provincial Park Bute Inlet, Long Term Trends in Deep Water Properties of BC Inlets and Oceans Canada - Pacific Region Map hydropower project in Bute Inlet
Mount Robson
Mount Robson is the most prominent mountain in North America's Rocky Mountain range. The mountain is located within Mount Robson Provincial Park of British Columbia, is part of the Rainbow Range. Mount Robson is the second highest peak in British Columbia, behind Mount Waddington in the Coast Range; the south face of Mount Robson is visible from the Yellowhead Highway, is photographed along this route. Mount Robson was named after Colin Robertson, who worked for both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company at various times in the early 19th century, though there was confusion over the name as many assumed it to have been named for John Robson, an early premier of British Columbia; the Texqakallt, a Secwepemc people and the earliest inhabitants of the area, call it Yuh-hai-has-kun, The Mountain of the Spiral Road. Other unofficial names include Cloud Cap Mountain. Mount Robson boasts great vertical relief over the local terrain. From Kinney Lake, the south-west side of the mountain rises 2,975 m to the summit.
The north face of Mount Robson is glaciated and 800 m of ice extends from the summit to Berg Glacier. The north face can be seen from Berg Lake, reached by a 19 km hike; the lake is two km long and lies at 1,646 m elevation. There are backcountry campgrounds at each end of the lake and a log shelter on its banks, named Hargreaves Shelter in honor of the Hargreaves family who operated the Mount Robson Ranch across the Fraser River from the mountain and who outfitted most of the early trips into Berg Lake; the Berg glacier calves directly into the lake. The Robson Glacier, which fills the cirque and valley between Mount Robson and Mount Resplendent, in the early 1900s fed directly into both Berg lake and Adolphus lake, straddling the Continental Divide and draining thus to both the Arctic and Pacific oceans via the Smoky and Robson Rivers, respectively, it since is the source of the Robson River only. The peak of Mount Robson has a tundra climate. In 1893, five years after the expedition of A. P. Coleman to Athabasca Pass and the final settling of the mistaken elevations of Mt. Hooker and Mt. Brown, Mt. Robson was first surveyed by James McEvoy and determined to be the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.
The first documented ascent of Mount Robson, led by the young guide Conrad Kain, at its time the hardest ice face to be climbed on the continent, was achieved during the 1913 annual expedition organized by a large party of Alpine Club of Canada members who made use of the newly completed Grand Trunk Pacific railway to access the area. Prior to 1913, it had been necessary to approach the mountain by pack train from Edmonton or Laggan via Jasper and Lucerne, so only few intrepid explorers had made previous attempts at exploring the mountain; the most famous early ascensionist was the Reverend George Kinney, a founding member of the Alpine Club, who on his twelfth attempt in August 1909 claimed to have reached the summit with local outfitter Donald "Curly" Phillips. A major controversy over this claim and over the implausible nature of his unlikely and dangerous route dominated the discourse within the Alpine Club elite, he is now presumed to have reached the high summit ridge before being turned back at the final ice dome of the peak.
Kinney Lake, below the south face, is named in his honour. The 1,500 m Emperor Face on the northwest side provides the most formidable challenge to elite climbers on the mountain, though the more popular routes are the Kain route and the southeast face; the Kain route follows the first ascent's path up the entire length of the Robson Glacier from its terminus above Robson Pass to the upper northeast face and the summit ridge. Mount Robson has a high failure rate on climbing to the top, with only about 10% of attempts being successful. Although the mountain is under 4,000 m, there is no easy way to the summit and bad weather rebuffs most summit attempts; the main routes on Mount Robson include: South Face IV Kain Face IV Wishbone Arete IV 5.6 Emperor Ridge V 5.6 Emperor Face, Stump/Logan VI 5.9 A2 Emperor Face, Cheesmond/Dick VI 5.9 A2 Emperor Face, Infinite Patience VI WI5 M5 5.9 Emperor Face, House-Haley M7 North Face IV Fuhrer Ridge IV 5.4 List of mountains in the Canadian Rockies Mountain peaks of Canada Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains Mountain peaks of North America Rocky Mountains List of Ultras of Canada Conrad Kain Kinney, George.
"Ascent of Mount Robson, the Highest Peak in the Canadian Rockies". Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. 42: 496–511. Doi:10.2307/199536. JSTOR 199536. "Geology, Mount Robson, Alberta - British Columbia". Geological Survey of Canada. 1962. "Draft Background Report - Mount Robson Provincial Park". Ministry of Environment, BC Parks, Omicea Region. Province of British Columbia. Alpine accidents on Mt. Robson Mount Robson on Summitpost.org Mount Robson on GeoFinder.chGeorge Kinney Conrad Kain
Summit
A summit is a point on a surface, higher in elevation than all points adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex and zenith are synonymous; the term top is used only for a mountain peak, located at some distance from the nearest point of higher elevation. For example, a big massive rock next to the main summit of a mountain is not considered a summit. Summits near a higher peak, with some prominence or isolation, but not reaching a certain cutoff value for the quantities, are considered subsummits of the higher peak, are considered part of the same mountain. A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top. Summit may refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route; the highest summit in the world is Everest with height of 8844.43 m above sea level. The first official ascent was made by Sir Edmund Hillary, they reached the mountain`s peak in 1953. Whether a highest point is classified as a summit, a sub peak or a separate mountain is subjective; the UIAA definition of a peak is.
Otherwise, it's a subpeak. In many parts of the western United States, the term summit refers to the highest point along a road, highway, or railroad. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit and the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit. A summit climbing differs from the common mountaineering. Summit expedition requires: 1+ year of training, a good physical shape, a special gear. Although a huge part of climber’s stuff can be left and taken at the base camps or given to porters, there is a long list of personal equipment. In addition to common mountaineers’ gear, Summit climbers need to take Diamox and bottles of oxygen. There are special requirements for crampons, ice axe, rappel device, etc. Geoid Hill – Landform that extends above the surrounding terrain Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder Summit Climbing Gear List
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