The best general map that I can discover of this part of the C.P.R. district is the southern sheet of a map of “The Rocky Mountains between lat. 51° and lat. 53°,” published by the Department of the Interior. Unfortunately, it comes to an end four or five miles short of Mount Assiniboine. The part of it which is material for present purposes is given in a pamphlet issued by the C.P.R. Company, entitled The Challenge of the Mountains. The scale is 4 miles to an inch. The large-scale maps accompanying the Report mentioned on p. [572] show the mountains actually forming the watershed (and this includes the Assiniboine group) southward from Vulture Col and Mount Gordon in the Waputik Range.
Coming now to the Selkirks, Glacier House (about 90 miles by rail beyond Field and 3 miles beyond Rogers Pass, where the line crosses the crest of the range), is probably the best of the centres of the C.P.R. district, in so far that the largest number of expeditions can be carried out from the hotel itself, or with only one night out. In this respect Glacier House has very few rivals even in Switzerland. Baedeker gives a short summary of these expeditions and an excellent little map of the mountains, which literally surround the hotel.
The Selkirks.
But much more than Baedeker is available. Besides Mr. Palmer’s exhaustive book (of which more presently), no visitor to the Selkirks should omit to secure a copy of Mr. A. O. Wheeler’s Selkirk Range and the accompanying map in four large sheets, which covers a large portion of the range on a scale of practically 1 mile to an inch. The topographical information secured by Mr. Wheeler during his survey is embodied in the form of a Climbers’ Guide in chapter ii. of The Selkirk Mountains, a Guide for Mountain Pilgrims and Climbers, where very full particulars are given as to the number of days and nights required for each expedition, whether pack-horses are available, etc. Huts or cabins are mentioned at Rogers Pass and the Caves of Cheops. There seem to be no huts or summer camps south of the railway, and it must be borne in mind that pack-horses cannot be taken southward into the mountains direct from Glacier House.[43]
The limits in the Selkirks of the C.P.R. district can be easily grasped by examining together the map in Baedeker and that in the Climbers’ Guide (difficult to read, but useful as showing at a glance the area comprised in Mr. Wheeler’s large maps). It will be seen at once that the latter covers a wider area, and in particular has a large extension to the west and south-west, reaching even beyond the Columbia River to the Gold Range—a quite independent group. This extension seems to come well within the C.P.R. district: one or two of the expeditions in it can be taken from Glacier House; the remainder are treated in chapter vi. of the Guide in connection with Revelstoke, which accordingly must be added to the list of C.P.R. centres. Since the publication of the Guide fine climbing has been accomplished on Mount Moloch and other peaks reached by the north branch of the Illecillewaet River.[44] The extension of Mr. Wheeler’s map to the north is unimportant; the notices in the Guide of Mountain Creek and Mount Pearce are not encouraging, and, so far as Glacier House is concerned, the crest of the Hermit Range forms the limit of ordinary mountaineering in this direction. To the south, on the other hand, both maps extend to regions which can only be reached by a journey of some days, and several of the expeditions described in the Guide clearly lie outside the category now under consideration. No hard-and-fast line can be drawn, and the traveller must use his own judgment; only, if he is at all tied as to time, let him bear in mind that estimates of a journey’s length by little-trodden trails are necessarily very rough, and that what is called a week’s trip may easily turn out to require two or three days less or more.
Guides and Equipment.
Swiss guides, to the number of six or eight, are imported every summer by the C.P.R. Company, and endeavours are being made to induce some of them to settle permanently at Edelweiss, near Golden, on the Columbia. They are distributed during the season among the four or five centres which have been mentioned. Anyone desiring their services, the charge for which is (or used to be) $5 per day, should communicate as early as possible with the hotel from which he intends to climb. A mountaineer arriving in the C.P.R. district with his ordinary Swiss outfit could thus enjoy plenty of climbing without any special preparations. Even ropes and ice-axes are supplied at Glacier House, and, probably, at the other centres also. The Hudson Bay Company’s excellent blankets can be procured at Banff, and for a single odd night out bedding could probably be borrowed.
There is also plenty of scope for guideless climbing. Some of the expeditions are undoubtedly difficult, and only suitable for an exceptionally strong unguided party; but three reasonably experienced amateurs could accomplish a great deal. As compared with the main chain, the Selkirks offer more snow and ice work and less rock work, and there seem to be more climbs of only moderate difficulty than in the Rockies on the south side of the railway. (For a general comparison of the Selkirks with the Rockies, see Palmer, op. cit. pp. 3-10.)
The Northern Selkirks.
Turning now to remoter and less known ground in the Selkirks, to the north of the railway, beyond the Hermit and Clach na Cooden Ranges, a very considerable mountain area is enclosed in the Great Bend of the Columbia River. Pack-horses cannot be used in it effectively, and the conditions of travel are exceptional and extremely difficult; but a large part of it, probably the most interesting part, was explored with extraordinary perseverance by Mr. Howard Palmer’s party from 1908 to 1912. Only in the latter year, on their fifth visit, did they succeed in attaining the summit of Mount Sir Sandford, the monarch of the region. For further information the reader is referred to part iii. of Mr. Palmer’s Mountaineering and Exploration in the Selkirks. Part ii. of this fascinating book is equally valuable as a guide to the mountains immediately south of Glacier House, which have already been noticed. Beyond these a still more extensive region remains to be dealt with.