By Chic Scott
Way back in 1996 and 1997, I traveled across Canada, recording interviews with the country’s leading mountaineers. I was collecting material for my book, Pushing the Limits, the Story of Canadian Mountaineering which would be published in 2000. I videotaped 84 interviews with the men and women who were, or had been, at the forefront of the sport. The oldest person I interviewed was over 90 and the youngest was barely 30. I taped 30 interviews in B.C., 35 interviews in Alberta and 20 interviews in Ontario and Quebec.
Image 1
These interviews have been safely stored in the Archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies for 25 years now and have recently been digitized. Working with Canmore-based filmmaker, Glen Crawford, and the team from the Whyte Museum, we are making these interviews available for public viewing. There are three components to this project, which we are calling Pushing the Limits — the Legacy.
Most of the raw interviews will be available for viewing through the Whyte Museum Archives.
Eleven of the best interviews are being edited and supplemented with photographs. These enhanced interviews will be released once per month throughout 2022. The individuals in these interviews will be: Tim Auger, Sharon Wood, Hans Gmoser, Kevin Doyle, Brian Greenwood, Barry Blanchard, Leo Grillmair, Pat Morrow, Don Vockeroth, Charlie Locke and Laurie Skreslet.
Several theme-based films will be made using these interviews. The first film, Climbing Pioneers of Yamnuska was released on December 11, 2021. Other films on topics such as the early pioneers of waterfall ice climbing will be made at a later date.
Although these are not professionally recorded interviews they are very good and capture some of Canada’s finest mountaineers telling stories of their adventures. The interviews vary from 25 minutes in length to 90 minutes in length.
I am so glad to see these interviews finally being made available for public viewing. They are a real treasure and allow us to hear stories from some of the great Canadian mountaineers, some of whom are no longer with us.
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So stay tuned. The first enhanced interview with the late Tim Auger is now available for viewing on the Whyte Museum website.
This project is made possible through the generous donations of the Lake Louise Ski Resort and Dr. Bill Hanlon.
Images:
Image 1: Chic Scott promoting his book Pushing the Limits at the Whyte Museum, 2000. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Peter and Catharine Whyte Foundation fonds. V692/7/PA-1.
Image 2: Photo of Tim Auger, taken by Pat Morrow.
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