SEARCHING
FOR THE HIGH GROUND
BY JACKIE GOLD SPECIAL TO THE CRAG & CANYON
Arthur P. Coleman was born in 1852 in Quebec. As a highly
educated man he took his place among his peers, becoming a
professor of Geology at the University of Toronto after completing
his own education.
So deep was his interest in geology that he made eight major
trips to the Canadian Rockies to explore the mysteries that
the mountains held.
While other mountaineers longed to visit the Athabasca Pass
and climb legendary peaks such as Mount Brown that were touted
to have an extremely high elevation, Coleman was also interested
in the interiors of the mountains themselves, and not just
the heights to which they rose.
“A high mountain is always a seduction, but a mountain with
a mystery is doubly so,” Coleman said. Though his interest
was more earth bound than others, Mount Brown and Mount Hooker
held a draw for Coleman as well. “I studied the atlas and saw
Mount Brown and Mount hooker … (and) I longed to visit them.
Coleman's first visit to the Canadian Rockies was in 1884,
at the age of 32. After reaching the end of the railroad at
Lake Louise he climbed a small mountain to get his mountaineer
legs. While it was not a stately mountain like some of the
others that frames Lake Louise, it was the perfect beginning
for Coleman. “It was only a commonplace mountain, about eight
thousand feet high, without a name, so far as I am aware; but
it belonged to the family of Rocky Mountains, and gave one
an introduction to its stately neightbours, for here one could
gaze up and down the pass with nothing but clean air between
one and the summits, while down in the valley a trail of smoke
from the “right of way” (CPR construction) where the timber
was burning blurred and sullied the view…” Colman said.
“Northward, up Bow River, one could see a blue lake at its
source; and across the main valley, with its smoke and bustle,
rose several fine mountains with glaciers, and at the foot
of one of them beautiful Lake Louise.”
The following day Coleman continued on to Golden and the Selkirks
before returning once again to the Rockies, this time making
a stop at Castle Mountain. He ascended the mountain from behind
Castle Mountain, ascending to camp in the Horseshoe Valley
before ascending the rest of the way. "Above the edge
of the cliff, however, going was easy, so that the highest
part of the Castle (nine thousand feet) was not hard to reach,
and the wonderful view of the valley of Bow River, four thousand
feet below, was quite worth seeing. The tower standing in front
of the Castle to the south-east looked as unscalable as it
was reported to be."
Coleman returned again in 1888 and then in 1892. On his second
return trip he was accompanied by his brother Quincy, who lived
near Morley, Alberta, two other friends and two Stoney guides,
Mark Two-young-men and Jimmy Jacobs. Coleman and his party
relied on the native's knowledge of the mountains to help them
complete the journey.
They roamed extensively, covering about 800 km of mountains
before they gave up reaching the Athabasca Pass.
While they did not find the legendary mountains they were
looking for, Brown and Hooker, the party was remarkable in
that they would have been the first non-native individuals
to traverse most of the country in their search for the mountains.
A year later Coleman returned, and traveled another route
in search of the Athabasca Pass. This time they were more successful,
reaching the pass but unable to find the two mountains which
now seemed to haunt Coleman.
“What had gone wrong with these two mighty peaks that they
should shrink seven thousand feet in altitude and how could
anyone, even a botanist like Douglas, make so monumental a
blunder?" Coleman wondered. With the highest mountain
in the pass a mere 2800 meters high, Coleman worried that a
mistake had been made in the measurement of Mount Brown and
Hooker, as botanist David Douglas touted the mountains to be
at least 16,000 feet high.
With this in mind Coleman decided to search for Mount Robson,
which was claimed to rise over 3000 meters above its base.
In 1907 Coleman, with George Kinney left Lake Louise and traveled
over Pipestone Pass and Wilcox Pass, foraging his way through
the wilderness for 41 days before he reached the base of the
mountain. Unfortunately for Coleman they had reached the mountain
too late in the season and the poor weather made it impossible
to explore past the base of the peak.
While Coleman and Kinney returned the following year, they
were once again driven back by bad weather, and forced to abandon
two of their attempts to climb Mount Robson. Coleman never
did get to climb the mountain, but Kinney returned the following
year and is believed to have reached the summit of the mountain.
Both men returned to the mountain in 1913 when the Alpine
Club of Canada sent an expedition to climb to the summit. Coleman
returned to the mountains once more in his 80's as part of
the Alpine Clubs camp at Mount Fryatt.
Both Coleman and his brother have been immortalized for their
determination and courage in facing down the Rockies untamed
wilderness. Mount Coleman above Sunset Pass, as well as Coleman
Lake and Coleman Glacier are all named in honour of Coleman,
while Mount Quincy in Jasper National Park was named after
Coleman's brother, Lucius Quincy Coleman.
The Canadian Rockies, New and Old Trails," a classic
of Canadian Rockies Literature was written by Arthur Coleman,
and tells the tales of his explorations in the Rockies.
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