Sunset Pass, Banff National Park
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The Canadian Rockies: New and
Old Trails *
by: A.P.
Coleman
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Following are quotes compiled by Ed Silver from the writings
of A.P. Coleman in 1911 pertaining to the Sunset Pass area in Banff National
Park.
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Coleman did 8 exploratory trips in the Canadian Rockies in the
period 1884-1908. Mount Coleman was named after him and he was the first white
man to cross Sunset Pass in 1893.
1. “... there is a clearness and
virginity, an exquisite loneliness, about many of the Rocky Mountain peaks and
valleys that has a peculiar charm. There is a feeling of having made a new
discovery, of having caught Nature unawares at her work of creation, as one
turns off from a scarcely beaten route into one never trodden at all by the
feet of white men; and this experience may be had in a thousand valleys among
the Rockies.” (This is a quote in the Foreword of what Coleman wrote.)
2. “On our way home (in 1902) from Brazeau Lake we followed
cataract Pass. ... The events of the way, the usual incidents of rapid mountain
travel with ponies, need not be recounted; but my brother and I looked with
interest on the peak beyond Pinto Lake, marked Mount Coleman on Collie’s
excellent map”. (Collie is J. Norman Collie – Norman Creek and Lake,
in turn, are probably named after Collie) p. 125.
3. “Not far from
its head Cataract River (editor; now known as the Cline River) forks, one
branch coming from a splendid valley to the south, where it begins in an
exquisite lake about a mile long and broad, fed by an enormous spring 40 feet
wide. Pinto Lake, as we named it, is 5,850 feet, making a wonderful
amphitheater. We spent half of a showery Sunday visiting it and climbing up the
easiest part of the wall, where a poorly marked trail leads southward up to a
tableland 1,500 feet above it and then descends as steeply to the Saskatchewan.
The mountains on either side of the lake rise to ten or eleven thousand feet,
and if it were not so far from a railway, this romantic pool among the woods
and hills should be as attractive to mountain lovers as Lake Louise” (pp.
97-98).
4. “Though he was more trouble as a pack horse than all
the others put together, we immortalised Pinto by giving his name to an
exquisite lake near the head of Cataract (ed. The Cline) River.” P. 112.
(From 126-127) If one halts by chance anywhere on a mountain pass, all sorts of
thrilling things are going on around. Lovely flowers are opening eagerly to the
sun and wind of Spring – in mid-August, with September snows just at hand,
a whole year’s work of blossom and seed to be accomplished before the 10
months winter sleep begins. Bees are tumbling over them intoxicated with honey
and the joy of life while it is summer. Even the hummingbirds, with jewels on
their breast as if straight from the tropics, are not afraid to skim up the
mountainsides, pose over a bunch of white heather and pass with a flash from
flower to flower. The marmots with aldermanic vests are whistling and
“making hay while the sun shines,” and one may see their bundles of
choice herbs spread on a flat stone to dry, while the little striped gophers
are busy too. Time enough to rest in the winter.
Everything full of
bustle and haste and of joy, what could be more inspiring than the flowery
meadows above treeline when the warm sun shines in the six weeks of summer! The
full splendour and ecstasy of a whole year’s life piled into six weeks
after the snow has thawed and before it falls again!
Higher up even the
snow itself is alive with the red snow plant and the black glacier fleas, like
the rest of the world making the most of summer; and as you take your way
across the snow to the mountaintop, what a wonderful world opens out! How
strangely the world has been built, bed after bed of limestone or slate or
quartzite, pale grey or pale green or dark red or purple, built into cathedrals
or castles, or crumpled like coloured cloths from the ragbag, squeezed together
into arches and troughs, into V’s and S's and M’s 10 miles long and 2
miles high; or else sheets of rock 20,000 feet thick have been sliced into
blocks and tilted up to play leapfrog with one another.
And then the
sculpturing that is going on! One is right in the midst of the workshop bustle
where mountains are being carved into pinnacles, magnificent cathedral doors
that never open, towers that never had a keeper – all being shaped before
one’s eyes out of the mighty beds and blocks of limestone and quartzite
that were once the sea bottom. You can watch the tools at work, the chisel and
gouge, the file and the sandpaper. All the workmen are hard at it this spring
morning in August: the quarryman Frost has been busy over night, as you hear
from the thunder of big blocks quarried from the cliffs across the valley;
there is a dazzling gleam on the moist, polished rock which craftsman Glacier
has just handed over to the daylight; and you can watch how recklessly the
waterfall is cutting its way down, slicing the great banks of rock with
canyons.
It is inspiring to visit the mountains any day in the year, but
especially so in the July or August springtime, when a fresh start is made, and
plants, animals, hustling torrents, roaring rivers, shining lakes are all hard
at work rough-hewing, or putting finishing touches on an ever new
world.
* The Canadian Rockies: New
and Old Trails, A.P. Coleman, Rocky Mountain Books, 2006 (originally
published in 2011) |
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Professor A.P.
Coleman
(1852 - 1939) Coleman was a
professor of geology from 1882 to 1922. Most of this time at the Univeristy of
Toronto. He was a charter member of the Alpine Club of Canada and President
from 1908 to 1914. Eight trips were made to the Selkirks and Rockies. All of
these trips were arduous, as few trails existed and those that did were
over-used and in horrible condition. A brother L. Coleman, a rancher near
Morley, assisted in obtaining guides and horses and accompanied him on his last
five trips.
In 1884, Prof. Coleman was the first person to climb Castle
Mountain. Sunset Pass meadows and Pinto Lake were visited in 1893. The lake was
named then. Climbing Mount Robson was the objective for 1907 and 1908, but
these plans had to be cancelled. He was the author of a book The Canadian
Rockies - Trails Old and New, telling about his trips in the Canadian
Rockies.
- Mount Wilson –
named after Tom Wilson, guide and discoverer of Lake Louise.
- Mount Amery –
named after L.S. Amery, British stateman, Secretary of India, who climbed the
peak in 1929.
- Mount Alexandra
– named in 1902 after Queen Alexandra, consort of King Edward
VII.
- Mount Saskatchewan
– named in 1899 from Cree Indian word meaning "swift current".
- Mount Coleman –
name after Prof. A.P. Coleman, who made a number of geological expeditions
studying the area between the North Saskatchewan and the Athabasca
Rivers.
- Pinto Lake –
named by A.P. Coleman after a troublesome pack horse.
- Mount Cline and
River – named after Michael Cline, an employee of the North West
Company and the Hudson Bay Company.
© From
Fifty Years of Trails and Tales (1933-1982), Skyline Hikers of the
Canadian Rockies. |
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