The Jasper Local August 1, 2016

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monday, august 1, 2016 // ISSUE 78

TWIN PEAKS//JESSE MILNER ASCENDS MOUNTS CHARLTON AND UNWIN IN THE MALIGNE RANGE. THE CANOE-HIKE-CLIMB-SKI MISSION WAS AN EPIC ALL-DAY AFFAIR ON JULY 24. ALPINE CLIMBING SEASON IS SHAPING UP IN JASPER NATIONAL PARK. //EMMA FREEMAN

Second Syrian family arrives in Jasper After a long wait, Jasper is welcoming its newest family with open arms.

The Al Homosh family, refugees from war-torn Syria, arrived in the community July 25.

“I can’t tell you how happy the welcome from the people of Jasper has made us,” Omar Homosh told The Jasper Local.

initiated the process of bringing the Al Homosh family to Jasper more than eight months ago. Rod worked with Omar overseas and after learning about the devastation in his friend’s home country, wanted to help him find a more certain future in Canada.

Last year, Omar, his wife and their three children were displaced from their home country and fled to Egypt. Al Homosh was forced to find work in Iraq, then Turkey, but authorities in that country withheld his exit visa. He spent 241 days not knowing if he’d see his children again.

In January, the community was preparing to welcome the Al Homosh family and another Syrian family to Jasper.

Residents organized fundraisers and donated household items. While the Azem family arrived in the winter, the Al Homosh family were delayed by paperwork and other bureaucratic hurdles.

Jasperites Rod and Beth Tower, with the help of the Anglican Diocese, the Edmonton-based organization which is facilitating the arrival of Syrian refugees all over Alberta,

“Welcome to Canada,” Beth Tower said. “We’ve been waiting for you.” bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

Now the welcome mat is officially unrolling.

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page A2 // the jasper local // issue 78 // monday, august 1, 2016

editorial //

Local Vocal Not many people know how to seize the day quite like Ryan Titchener.

Many a late night hockey game, Titch would roll into the dressing room 10 minutes before our team had to be on the ice. Titch’s excuse? He was climbing. On countless occasions, as he was tying his skates, he’d be telling his teammates about his day putting ice screws into the Weeping Wall or skiing off Mount Athabasca. Most of us could only imagine.

As a ski patroller and avalanche technician, Titch had to roll out of bed at 5 a.m. to catch the work shuttle. That never stopped him from planning adventures as soon as he was done his shift. Even if the weather was bitter and nasty on his days off, you could count on Titch to have some kind of burly ice climb or other “type two fun” lined up. The guy doesn’t let opportunities to live life to the fullest pass him by.

It was just like Titch, then, in 2013, to seize another opportunity—a romantic one. When he saw Tereza Turecká getting onto a Marmot Basin chairlift, he used his ski patrol advantage to skip the line and hop on with her. Introducing himself and fast forwarding through the ski hill small talk, he had all of eight minutes before they unloaded at the top of the mountain to ask her out. He did. She agreed. It was the beginning of a life-changing relationship.

Dear Editor,

On June 29, mountain biker Brad Treat tore around a sharp bend on a forest trail near his Montana home.

Treat was travelling fast and silently, so that both Brad and the grizzly bear were caught by surprise during the resulting collision. Unfortunately, Brad did not survive this brief but intense On July 15, another life-changing incident happened confrontation with the bear.

to Titchener and Turecká. While training for his alpine guide exam, which he was due to take just 10 days later, a boulder dislodged from the mountain they were climbing and crushed his spine. He’s now in hospital where doctors aren’t sure if his lower legs will ever function again.

The thing is, those doctors don’t know Titch like his friends do. They don’t know the guy that learned to climb one summer and nine years later was a professional guide. They don’t know the guy that would be on an 11,000 ft summit in the afternoon and suiting up for rec hockey that night. They don’t know the guy that told his family “I’m going to take the worst thing that’s ever happened to me and turn it into the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

They’re learning though. Just like he’s done since he moved to Jasper, Titch is turning heads down in Calgary, where he’s healing. They’ll see soon enough the guy whose positivity and sense of humour can move mountains.

Next time you have an opportunity to seize the day, do it. You never know what life will throw at you.

Spread the word, spread the love: Live like Titch. bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

This is only one of many conflicts between mountain bikers and bears that has occurred over the past years in North America. Despite similar incidents in Banff park in the recent past, mountain biking is gaining in popularity and more illegal trails are being braided through bear habitat.

There is no indication that Parks Canada will curtail this sport and there is barely a sign anywhere requesting bikers to carry spray and warn them of

the potential impact their activity might have on wildlife and on themselves.

The opposite is true. A new bike trail is proposed from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields. The road-sides are lined with bear foods for both black and grizzly bears throughout spring, summer and fall.

During my initial years in Banff, I used to ride trails. I stopped because it became clear to me what my impact on bears and other wildlife was. I also understood that I would be able to dramatically reduce my risk of such a high stress encounter with a bear.

Fact is, bears and bikes don’t mix. It is my hope that Parks Canada will not prioritize luxurious recreational human activities such as biking over the daily struggle for survival of the threatened Alberta grizzly bear in our treasured national parks.

- Reno Sommerhalder, Banff

The Jasper Local //

Jasper’s independent alternative newspaper 780.852.9474 • thejasperlocal.com • po box 2046, jasper ab, t0e 1e0

Published on the 1st and 15th of each month Editor / Publisher

Bob Covey.................................................................................... bob@thejasperlocal.com Art Director

Nicole Gaboury.................................................................. nicole@thejasperlocal.com Advertising + sales

sydnee makowichuk...................................................... sydnee@thejasperlocal.com cartoonist

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Local environment //

monday, august 1, 2016 // issue 78 // the jasper local// page A3

New book impels appreciation, protection for Columbia Icefield’s sophisticated beauty When Bob Sandford was 20 years old, he plunged right into glaciology.

Quite literally.

Sandford, now one of Canada’s most respected mountain historians and experts on water, was a chemistry student who wanted to be a mountaineer. He was at the tail end of his first ever expedition when, exhausted after two days of traversing the Columbia Icefield, he tried to shortcut across a meltwater stream that was gushing down the Saskatchewan Glacier.

The torrent of water picked him up off his feet and washed him into a crevasse.

“The water cascaded down a millwell and over a series of ice steps,” he recalled. “It was total darkness. I was in the interior plumbing of the glacier.”

Miraculously, instead of succumbing to an icy death, Sandford was spit out at the toe of the glacier. With that accident, his life had changed forever.

“It had a transformative effect on my life,” he said. “I realized much later how important that experience was.”

Like the Saskatchewan glacier itself, Sandford’s career path took an imperceptible turn that, when analyzed with the benefit of time, is remarkable for not only its scope, but for its downstream effects. The author of more than 20 books, Sandford is the Chair for Water and Climate Security at the United Nations Institute for Water. He has been called one of Alberta’s most influential people. Through speaking engagements, writing, and by translating hard science into language that the public and policy makers can understand, Sandford has been leading the discussion on the importance and uniqueness of Canada’s rich water resources.

Now, with the release of the most recent edition of The Columbia Icefield, Sandford is once again imploring people to see the

sophisticated beauty of the most accessible ice age feature in the world.

“Visitors should know the absolute glory of what exists now before us,” he said.

As an introduction to one of the earth’s most incredible, and threatened, mountain environments, the 143page book incorporates the latest research on climate change, glacier loss and what scientists have learned about the ever-shifting hydrological cycle: namely, that’s it all related.

“Everything’s connected—the oceans, the atmosphere, our mountains, our rivers,” Sandford said. “And you can see the earth’s system functioning in its most magnificent way at the Columbia Icefield.”

Sandford specializes in making this science accessible. He said people living in the Rockies have a unique responsibility to share what they see with the rest of the world.

“We’re at the front lines of what’s happening in terms of glacial change and what implications that has for larger earth system changes, but we’re also at the headwaters in terms of attitude toward what this means to the future,” he said.

Most visitors to the Columbia Icefield are shocked that such a place even exists.

Sandford believes Jasper National Park should be leveraging that interest and leading the charge in creating a new water ethic in the world.

“We still have these icefields which can be the baseline of understanding for what’s happening elsewhere in the world,” he said.

At the very least, he hopes readers of The Columbia Icefield will make an effort to learn not only where their own water is from, but how it’s used.

“Water is going to be more precious than people can imagine in the future,” he said. “We need to act accordingly.” bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

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page B1 // the jasper local // issue 78 // monday, august 1, 2016

Local inspiration //

Injured climber’s positivity moving mountains Eleven years ago, Ryan Titchener’s friend gave him a box of climbing gear.

Titchener, who had moved to Jasper from Ontario and was just starting to get into sport climbing, picked up a small hammer from the assortment of tools and wondered aloud what it was for.

His friend pointed to Mount Colin, a prominent peak east of Jasper, and told him it was for hammering pitons all the way up the face of the mountain. It was a watershed moment for a 21-year-old Titchener.

“I saw there was some sort of life that I didn’t realize existed,” he said.

Nine years after that realization, Titchener was waking up in the Mount Colin alpine hut, preparing to ascend the classic route. Noticing he had a single bar of cell service, he checked his email on his phone. He had one new message.

“Congratulations Ryan, you’ve passed your Apprentice Alpine Exam,” it began.

Moments later, he was embracing his climbing partner in celebration. Soon after, they were approaching the base of the route.

“Nine years earlier I couldn’t imagine chipping pitons into Mount Colin, now here I was doing it as a professional,” he said.

Ryan Titchener, or Titch, as he’s known to all his friends, has done a lot of climbing in the last decade or so. Besides Mount Colin and other Rockies classics, Titch has been on crags and peaks all over the world including the Alps, eastern Europe, Thailand, China, Utah, Squamish and the famous El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park. From his first summer of sport climbing— where he’d race around the Mountain Park Lodges properties with a lawnmower, trying to get his work done as quickly as possible so he could zip out to the Boulder Gardens—to bringing clients up Jasper’s most famous peaks as a guide with Rockaboo Mountain Adventures, Titch has always enjoyed getting on the most interesting, most aesthetic routes.

“I don’t always try to climb things that are really hard,” he said. “I try to climb things that are really beautiful.”

On July 15, Titchener and his girlfriend, Tereza Turecká, were practicing that very ethic, short roping up what’s been rated as one of the top 50 classic routes in North America—Pigeon Spire in B.C.’s Bugaboo Mountains—when the unthinkable happened. A 400 kg boulder, a rock which hadn’t budged since the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age, broke loose from the bedrock. After 11,000 years of inertia and countless climbers performing the same move as they went by it—30 people on the previous day, in fact—the slightest pressure from Titchener’s weight caused the boulder to roll over top of him, crushing the 32-year-old’s ribcage and breaking his back.

“I could tell my spine was snapped because I lost all feeling in my lower body,” he said. “I could feel my thighs a bit but below my knees was complete jello.”

Turecká, who had been watching her partner’s progress from a secure position 12 metres below, screamed as she witnessed her boyfriend get run over by a granite boulder the size of a washing machine.

“I started yelling ‘Ryan, Ryan, are you OK?’” He wasn’t. Although fully conscious, Titchener was unable to move. His boot was snagged in a

crack and the rope was hooked on a horn, leaving him in an awkward, painful, upside-down position.

Turecká knew she had to get his head above his feet incase he had a brain injury but maneuvering him on the sloped terrain while trying not to further aggravate his injuries was difficult. It was also starting to hail and snow.

“I tried to set him up as comfortably as I could but it was hard to position him so he’d stop sliding,” she said.

With nasty weather coming in fast, Turecká retrieved the radio from Titchener’s pack. It was a

information to the rescue party. Approximately two hours after the accident, taking advantage of the most minuscule of weather windows, Golden and District Search and Rescue technicians flew into the area. Turecká assisted them in packaging Titchener onto a vacuum mattress, whereafter they long-lined him off the mountain and eventually to hospital.

“Tereza saved my life that day,” Titchener said.

“She went above and beyond.”

Two weeks after the accident, it’s Titchener who’s going above and beyond, surpassing his nurses’

// ON JULY 15, JASPER’S RYAN TITCHENER BROKE HIS BACK WHILE CLIMBING. DESPITE HIS UNCERTAIN PROGNOSIS, THE MOUNTAIN GUIDE IS SURPRISING MEDICAL STAFF IN CALGARY AND INSPIRING FRIENDS AND FAMILY WITH HIS POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND DETERMINATION. TITCHENER’S PASSION FOR THE MOUNTAINS IS SHINING THROUGH DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME. // BOB COVEY

miracle that it hadn’t been smashed in the accident, but it was even luckier that the couple had decided to bring it in the first place. Two days earlier, as they exited their Jasper apartment to head to the Bugaboos, Titchener had almost left it behind. The last time he’d climbed in the area, he couldn’t find an active channel. “”I said ‘let’s take it anyway,’” Turecká said.

That decision likely saved Titchener’s life. As her boyfriend’s lung filled with blood, Turecká assembled the radio and began to put out a distress call. Eventually, the device indicated their alert had reached a repeater tower.

“I thought ‘oh my God it might actually work,’” she recalled.

The next battle was against the weather. The storm was full fledged by now, with thunder and lightning cracking through the clouds. Turecká knew it was important for Titchener to stay awake. She tried to keep his attention by asking him questions.

“I asked him ‘What’s your favourite colour?’” she said. His answer: ‘The colour of your eyes.’”

She had to laugh.

Titch’s positivity allowed Turecká, who is trained in first aid and experienced in emergency response as a result of working as a ski patroller at Marmot Basin, to keep her own spirits up. She diligently checked Titchener’s vital signs while keeping him as warm as possible and providing critical

expectations and inspiring all those who surround him. Although he continues to be in excruciating pain as his 14 broken ribs heal, Titchener says he is determined to make a full recovery. Among other damages, the boulder crushed his L3 vertebrae, causing the bone fragments to push up against the nerves which connect to his spinal cord.

Doctors removed those fragments and used a series of pins to surgically fuse three of his lumbar together, but because the post-op swelling is so severe, Titchener’s diagnosis as to whether he’ll have full use of his lower extremities will be uncertain for at least a month.

In the meantime, he is surpassing every strength test nurses can throw at him. On July 27 he was bearing weight on his feet between parallel bars. It was a significant mental victory, he said.

“Touching those bars was like touching the Stanley Cup,” he said. “I remember thinking ‘it’s me versus this right now.”

Titchener said he’s been overwhelmed by the support he’s received. Fundraisers in Jasper and in Ontario are ongoing. On August 8, Rockaboo Mountain Adventures will host a silent auction and fundraiser. See Facebook/Fundraiser for Ryan and Tereza for details.

Titchener would love to be there, but right now, he’s focused on healing. His strength comes from his friends and his family, he said.

“Every time I hear another friend’s voice I’m just so glad I’m alive,” he said. “I’m climbing a different mountain right now.”

“Tereza saved my life that day, she went above and beyond.”

bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

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monday, august 1, 2016 // issue 78 // the jasper local// page B2

Local healthcare//

In lieu of accessible midwives, Jasper doulas offer expecting mothers care and support Nicole Gaboury remembers when her doctor at Hinton Healthcare Centre told her to stop pushing her baby.

labour and recommended reading and videos. She focuses on supporting women and their partners to allow the transition to parenthood to be

She had been in labour for four days, and all she wanted to do was push. Her dream of having a natural birth was so close to being realized. However, her unborn child was facing upwards, instead of down, and the stress of the situation caused her baby’s heart rate to drop. Doctors made the medical decision to perform an emergency caesarean section.

“It’s scary and you feel alone,” said Gaboury. She said she wishes she had been able to access midwifery care for her pregnancy and birth.

“There would have been more flexibility and understanding. More of an emotional forgiveness that I didn’t get in the hospital,” said Gaboury. If she had worked with a midwife, Gaboury would have explored the option of having a water birth and labouring in a birthing centre.

“I wanted to have a relaxed pregnancy and not drive white knuckled in the middle of winter to see my midwife,” said Gaboury.

Despite choosing not to access midwifery care, Gaboury still wanted support outside of traditional physician care. She heard about Jenna McGrath’s doula services through other women in Jasper who had worked with her and said they “loved the support.”

McGrath provides support to women and their partners preparing for the birth and carrying out their birth plan.

She is also present during labour, providing emotional and physical support.

“You become another person in labour, almost like an animal. Jenna got all that, she gave me whatever I needed,” said Gaboury. “She was there with me until the bitter end.”

McGrath has been working as a doula since 2010 and said one of the main challenges for mothers in Jasper is “that they don’t know what their options are when it comes to resources.”

McGrath spends time with her clients talking about stages and phases of

Sharp explains that funding is also a challenge. In April, the Alberta

Despite the lack of midwifery care in Jasper, women can still access alternative care and resources.

McGrath and four other women offer birth doula services in Jasper and Hinton. AHS offers prenatal classes three times a year where they cover topics such as when to go to Hinton, comfort measures and breastfeeding. Community Outreach Services in Jasper also provides support to pregnant women and new parents.

McGrath and Gaboury said in the future they’d like to have a birthing centre established NICOLE GABOURY AND BABY CORA WITH JENNA MCGRATH, A DOULA IN JASPER. MANY MOTHERS IN RURAL between Jasper and Hinton ALBERTA EMPLOY DOULA SERVICES IN LIEU OF AVAILABLE MIDWIFE CARE. // EMILY RENDELL-WATSON where midwives could practice.

Both women agree every mother as supportive as possible. After the government announced an increase deserves to have the option. baby is born, McGrath can provide of $11-million dollars in funding for postnatal in-home support, including “The dream would be to have access to midwifery services over the next three breastfeeding assistance, answering the care of a midwife,” said Gaboury. years. However, not all midwives in questions and light housework.

Alberta are working to full capacity DISCLOSURE: Nicole Gaboury is the art which is 40 courses of care per year McGrath can’t director of The Jasper Local and partner to (every client a midwife works with is replace a midwife publisher/editor Bob Covey equivalent to one course of care). AHS or doctor because Emily Rendell-Watson// has committed to funding up to 400 she doesn’t have info@thejasperlocal.com the same in-depth medical training.

However, she is trained as a doula through DONA Birth Doula training. Many doulas work alongside midwives to provide additional support.

“It can be difficult to access a midwife in Alberta so my clients often think a doula is the next best option”

Although she could have gone on the waitlist for a midwife in Edmonton, Gaboury didn’t feel like the stress of going back and forth from Jasper to Edmonton and being on the road for four hours at a time was worth it.

more courses of care in 2016-17 for a total of 3,174 midwife-supported births.

Although there is alternative support to midwifery care for new parents in Jasper, McGrath acknowledges that not all of the support is accessible for everyone.

McGrath charges $900 for her doula services while midwifery care is publically funded by the government of Alberta.

“The hardest part was I didn’t get any sympathy,” said Gaboury. “Being in that clinical setting, they try to regulate you. The doctors don’t tap into the emotional side of things.”

As a first-time mom, Gaboury didn’t know very much about giving birth or pregnancy, and found her biggest challenge to be the unexpected.

because they already have established practices taking on midwives.

McGrath explains she believes in “the importance of having the choice between a physician or a midwife.”

She said many women from Jasper and Hinton who use her services may initially want a midwife.

“It can be difficult to access a midwife in Alberta so my clients often think a doula is the next best option,” said McGrath.

There are currently approximately 98 midwives who have midwifery staff appointments with Alberta Health Services (AHS). These midwives assist with 4.1 per cent of pregnancies and 3.5 per cent of deliveries in Alberta. This compares to midwives assisting with more than 16 per cent of pregnancies and births in British Columbia.

Danica Sharp is the director of Provincial Midwifery Services for AHS. She said the province is working to get midwifes into communities in rural Alberta but “it’s a long process.”

“It’s not easy to just take a midwife and put them into a community. They have to have hospital privileges, they have to be sustainable and they have to have funding,” said Sharp. Midwives also have to work for one year in an established practice before they are fully certified. Currently Calgary and Edmonton have the most growth

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page b3+B4 // the jasper local // issue 78 // monday, august 1, 2016

LOCAL FEATURE // STORY BY MIKE DONNELLY // PHOTOS COURTESY

LIGHTS, CAM

Remembering the cinem love affair with the

River of No Return takes you into God’s country where the Devil wears six guns… Through Cree ambush and Thunder Gorge… Plunges you into the swirling waters of the Maligne, Bow, and Snake Indian Rivers…

As Monroe and Mitchum set a wilderness aflame!

The tagline on the 1954 movie poster certainly painted a dramatic picture, but during the filming of the Hollywood production River of No Return, there was plenty of drama off camera, too.

As the Calgary Herald noted on August 14, 1953, ‘Marilyn Monroe Nearly Drowned.’ Wearing high rubber waders to protect her costume, Monroe had slipped and fallen in the Maligne River, the waders quickly filling with water. Although she was pulled to safety by her co-star Robert Mitchum, Monroe suffered a badly sprained ankle. Several other cast and crew were sidelined at times due to exposure to the icy waters, and of four identical, 3,500 pound wooden rafts that had been constructed for the film, three were wrecked by rocks and rapids.

When Monroe pulled into Jasper on July 25 for the filming of 20th Century Fox’s blockbuster western, she caused quite a stir. Two thousand people were on hand to greet her train when it arrived from Vancouver. Two weeks later, another celebrity would arrive for a visit: newly retired, star Yankee outfielder Joe DiMaggio, with whom Marilyn would eventually elope. While Marilyn was busy on set, DiMaggio was resigned to spending his days fishing the local rivers and lakes.

Arriving on location at Devona Flats, 30 km east of town, River of No Return director Otto Preminger decided that he would be hard pressed to shoot a bad reel of film.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter where I point the camera,” he said. “We are absolutely surrounded by scenery.”

It wasn’t Hollywood’s first foray into using the Rockies as a cinematic backdrop. Filmmakers had a love affair with the Canadian Mountain Parks that dated back to the 1920s. Prior to the filming of River of No Return, 18 feature films had been made in the Rockies, beginning in 1921 with Snowblind, filmed in Jasper, and Canadian Ernest Shipman’s Cameron of the Royal Mounted, filmed in Banff.

The Fox Film Corporation’s first project in the mountain parks was in 1926 with the silent film The Country Beyond, starring the raven-haired beauty, Olive Borden. Jasper outfitter Major Fred Brewster, along with a pack train of 98 horses, was on hand at the train station to meet the cast and crew. It was a two day trip up to Maligne Lake where filming was to take place. Much earlier in

the project, while looking for a location to film, a silver-embossed booklet advertising Jasper National Park had caught the eye of the assistant director as he passed the Los Angeles office of Canadian National Railways. It was serendipitous because The Country Beyond’s writer, American adventure author Oliver James Curwood, had based many of his tales on his experiences in the Jasper area with the Otto Brothers (Jack, Closson, and Bruce).

Following the Depression and the Second World War, the 1940s brought Hollywood back to Jasper.

A lederhosen-clad Bing Crosby was on hand for three weeks in the summer of 1946 filming The Emperor Waltz. Paramount Pictures had invested $3 million into the Technicolor film, with the stunning Jasper landscapes standing in for the Austrian Alps. The main ballroom and grounds of the Lodge were used for rehearsals and came alive with the sounds of yodellers and scenes of colourful alpine dances. It’s safe to say that Bing was as enamoured with the townspeople of Jasper as they were of him. He organized a ball game between the Paramount crew and locals, performed for the Lodge staff in their recreation hall, and was elected Honorary President of the Maligne River Anglers Association for his prowess at catching trout with a fly rod. He would even return the following summer, entering in // FILMING RIVER OF NO RETURN NEAR DEV EAST JASPER NATIONAL PARK // JYMA PA 58 and winning the amateur Totem Pole Golf Tournament at the Jasper Park Lodge golf course. Crosby also donated money towards the construction of the new Legion hall in town and was on hand in 1949, seated in a large bulldozer, to ceremonially turn the first sod.

Many of Jasper’s famous vistas caught the notice of Hollywood cameras. MGM filmed parts of their remake of the 1936 Rose Marie on the Maligne River, and Universal filmed The Far Country, which saw Jimmy Stewart and Walter Brennan leading a cattle train of steers over the Athabasca Glacier to the gold fields of the “Klondike.” Parts of the movie were also filmed at Moberly Flats and near Mount Edith Cavell.

By 1953, Jasper, in particular, had become one of the favoured film locations in North America,

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feature //

JASPER YELLOWHEAD MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES

MERA, JASPER

matic glory of Hollywood’s e Canadian Rockies but by the 1960s, it seemed that the golden age of Hollywood features filmed in the parks had come to pass. There were higher production costs due to fewer government incentives, the distances to travel were great, stricter national park regulations had come into place, and it seemed that audiences were growing weary of mountain scenery. The National Film Board of Canada, however, made a short film in 1964 featuring Buster Keaton, the legendary Vaudeville comedian and pre-eminent star of the silent screen. He passed through Jasper in the fall of that year on a yellow railway speeder car wearing a baggy suit, a pork pie hat and his trademark deadpan expression. The film was a comedic travelogue paying homage to the silent film era of the 1920s.

Artist and filmmaker Wendy Wacko runs Mountain Galleries out of the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

During the 1970s and 80s, however, Wacko was heavily involved in the film industry, producing seven features, three of which were filmed in the Rockies and the Jasper area: Challenge: The Canadian Rockies (1981); Striker’s Mountain (1985)

Columbia Icefields and the lesser-known Hong Kong production, Shanghai Express, used Marmot Basin as a snowy Siberian backdrop for the film’s opening scenes. Longtime locals will remember the giant styrofoam snowball that found its way into Marmot’s end-of-season celebrations. The Dummy Downhill prop shows up in the first five minutes of the spaghetti-western-meets-kung-fu flick.

When River of No Return was released in April of 1954, it was an immediate box office sensation. In those days a movie cost 75 cents,

Even Marilyn Monroe found it difficult to compete with the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies.

// OLIVE BORDEN STARRED IN 1926’S THE COUNTRY BEYOND, WHICH WAS FILMED AT MALIGNE LAKE//JYMA PA 42-6

VONA, 8-10

// JASPER TOTEM EDITOR NORA FINDLAY WITH LEGENDARY VAUDEVILLE COMEDIAN BUSTER KEATON // JYMA PA 34-35

// MARILYN MONROE IN JASPER, ON THE SET OF RIVER OF NO RETURN, 1953 // RAY O’NEILL VIA KEITH ALLEN COLLECTION

starring Leslie Nielson; and The Climb (1986).

Challenge was a documentary of outdoor pursuits but soon after filming wrapped, park regulations clamped down. Many of the alpine shots for Striker’s Mountain were shot west of the park in Valemount, and scenes for The Climb were filmed in the Himalaya. Wacko suggests that the days of feature length films being shot inside the national parks are long gone.

and a matinee $0.50. Marilyn was fondly remembered by the townspeople of Jasper as being very accommodating, always taking time for autographs and pictures. It was no secret, however, that there were issues between the studio and Preminger, the allegedly autocratic director.

Monroe would later remark in an interview that she felt she should have got a better deal than what she got in River of No Return.

“Parks Canada is very protective of any kind of unusual activity that might disrupt wildlife or landscapes,” she said.

She figured she deserved better “…than a grade-Z cowboy movie in which the acting finished second to the scenery.”

Throughout the 70s and 80s, the mountain parks continued to be showcased in films, but never to the extent as before. Still, blockbusters such as 1978’s Superman showcased scenes from the

Apparently, even Marilyn Monroe had found it difficult to compete with the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies. mike donnelly // info@thejasperlocal.com

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page B5 // the jasper local // issue 78 // monday, august 1, 2016

Local community //

BURN OUT: A mighty crescendo of grief I recently attended a memorial of a family member in Hinton, Alberta.

What made this service so incredibly tough was that Brady Doige (my cousin’s son) was only 20-yearsold. Brady was a gentle giant, a skilled operator, a fun lovin’ dirt bike rider who was tragically robbed of his life by the most indiscriminate and cruel demon of all: cancer.

The theme of Brady’s memorial service was his all-consuming love and passion for riding his dirt bike. The majority of his fairly innocent but rowdy, throttle-turning youth was spent in dirt bike rippin’ bliss, alongside his buddies. The Hinton community rallied for one of their own, and over the last few years much was donated to assist the family with all the extra costs associated with cancer treatment.

and their choice of recreational toys are typical of many Albertans. My brothers are both geologists, have owned their own oil and gas exploration companies and fracked their way into a decent life and retirement. Linda, my sister, once homesteaded outside of Whitehorse in the Yukon, ate moose meat and scrounged berries. She drove a Harley, a quad and many snowmobiles.

It was an odd form of the apocalypse; the air was blue white. The revving and screaming of two and four stroke engines was strangely mesmerizing, uniquely comforting and slightly catastrophic. I

As the emotional service was winding down in the packed, grief-stricken Hinton arena, I peered

I felt like I entered a dirt bike nirvana. Perhaps there is a heaven for robbed youth.

I have lived in JNP my entire life, which translates to a very sheltered understanding about Motorheads, since there are no quads, dirt bikes or personal snowmobiles allowed. My family out in the province tease me about my preferred wheels of choice, which I propel with lungs and energy, or my skis, with which I wax and silently glide through quiet, FRIENDS OF HINTON’S BRADY DOIGE GAVE A UNIQUE TRIBUTE TO HIS LIFE. THE 20-YEAR-OLD open meadows and up LOST HIS BATTLE TO CANCER.// MADISON BANCROFT mountain passes. Friendly family members rib me: “You’re crazy, you pedalled a bike up there? What, through the black curtains behind Brady’s memorial you hiked to the top? Run? Why?” alter to see many dirt bikes lined up, mounted riders Most of my extended family live and work where they can build logging and seismic roads, pipelines, and operate heavy duty machinery. This lifestyle

same flat bed truck, doing the 21-bike salute.

at the ready. Then something remarkable took place.

I turned to see a man in blue jeans point to the row of bikes. A bike engine started. Like a philharmonic conductor of music, he pointed, and a bike started. Then he pointed to another, which also started up. Then another.

All sizes of engines— 250s, 350s and 450s— were going through the notes. Eventually, in a combined roar, the motors united in a mighty crescendo. It was eerie. It was strangely beautiful. And then… silence. I sat back on my seat, stunned, my brain trying to process all of these foreign engine sounds. However, this was just the warm up.

Nothing could prepare me for what happened next.

“Brady would like to invite you outside for a Burn Out,” the MC told us.

In my Motorhead ignorance I was thinking “what’s a Burn Out?” I imagined we’d all hang around outside, visit and look at bikes. Stripped raw, emotionally drained, the crowd filed out of the arena. There in the parking lot we could see Brady’s friends on their dirt bikes, each one chained down on the

IMPLEMENTS OF THE 21-BIKE SALUTE. // MADISON BANCROFT

smelled the acrid sting of burnt rubber. As Brady’s friends performed the Burn Out it clung, surrounded and consumed the air. I felt like I entered a dirt bike nirvana. Perhaps there is a heaven for robbed youth.

From out of the smoke, the ear piercing cacophony, I could hear a cry, a cry filled with the anguish of a friend expressing his intense loss. “F**k the carbon tax,” he yelled. The riders each lifted an arm, a final salute for Brady.

We all stood stunned. It was brutal, raw, infectious grief. It was powerful. It was exhilarating. It was bloody amazing. We saw a grand Motorhead release of emotion, heartache and loss. What a way to let it go…we all felt it. An understanding smile tweaked the corners of my mouth.

As the engines turned off, riders dismounted but the blue white smoke lingered and someone flicked a black speck off my cheek. Was it mascara from my many tears, or shreds of black rubber-confetti? I didn’t care, it felt like Brady was present.

After all that, I was still confused. What is a Burn Out? Slightly embarrassed and feeling national park ignorant, I cornered my cousin Jodi.

“It’s when you hold the brake, yet still apply full throttle and burn out your back tire,” she said. Off I went to inspect all the rear tires of the 21 bike salute and sure enough, the black knobs on the rear tires had been literally burnt off. There were deep burnt skids in the flatbed. Black confetti was still steaming.

In the remaining “dash” I have left, I will “grip it and rip it” on self-propelled wheels, legs and skis and I’ll “burn out” myself from a long ski tour, hike or bike ride.

Brady was cancer-cheated of a life, but from what I witnessed at Brady’s memorial, I’d have to speculate that it’s all eventually going to be okay, if friends, family and the Hinton community have anything to do with it.

To all my extended Motorhead family out in the province, it doesn’t matter what kind of bike is in the back of the truck.

The important thing is the person who rides it.

Loni klettl// info@thejasperlocal.com

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monday, august 1, 2016 // issue 78 // the jasper local// page B6

Local history //

Curly Phillips: An enduring Jasper legacy In the early years of Alberta settlement, a good number of colourful characters arrived.

Curly Phillips was one of them. In 1908, when still in his 20s, Curly was living in the wooded regions of northern Ontario. He was a skilled trapper, hunter and guide who longed for the western lands and the Rocky Mountains. With that internal compass drawing him, Curly said goodbye to all he knew, pointed himself westward, and commenced travelling.

In no time at all, Curly became a key individual in terms of opening the Jasper/Yellowhead region for outfitting and guiding services. In those early years he worked with mountain climbers, hunters, and trailriders. He was one of a small number of individuals who early on facilitated tourism in our region.

Curly was also a mountain climber. In 1909, Curly and George Kinney decided to tackle Mount Robson, one of the great peaks of the Canadian Rockies. With scant equipment, the men made multiple attempts to scale that icy precipice. (The pole Curly used on his ascent is a prized possession of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies).

According to Kinney’s written record, they made it. It was a long, steep climb that required them to spend considerable time above the 10,000-ft level, where oxygen is scant. Kinney recorded that it was a delight for the men to stand “on the crown of Mount Robson.”

Curly and Kinney never received credit for that first ascent on the mountain. In fact, to this day one

LEGENDARY OUTFITTER AND PIONEER CURLY PHILLIPS HELPED OPEN JASPER TO TOURISM//JYMA PA 38-8

of the great controversies in the field of Canadian mountain climbing is who first ascended Mount Robson. Some say it was Curly and Kinney. Others say it occurred in 1913 when a group organized by the Alpine Club of Canada made the climb.

Regardless, Curly is the only recorded trail guide and outfitter to have led roped ascents of major

peaks in the Canadian Rockies.

In the ensuing years, Curly cemented his place in the Jasper community. He negotiated a lease for boat operations on Maligne Lake, and carried on business there for years. A good number of people today likely know that Curly built the boathouse that still stands at the lake.

As Curly started to age, rather than seeking a rocking chair, he took up backcountry skiing. He found an area a few miles northwest of Maligne Lake, between Big Shovel and Little Shovel Passes, that he absolutely loved. It’s the region called Snowbowl. He built the Shangri-La cabin that still stands there today with a couple of Jeffery brothers. He also built the first version of the trail from the Robson River past Kinney Lake and the flying trestle stairs and walkways in Mount Robson Provincial Park.

Regrettably, a mountain avalanche brought an early end to Curly’s career, and to his life. It happened on a ski trip with a couple of young brothers, Reg and Alan Pugh. The three men were making their way through Elysium Pass when an avalanche came sliding down the mountain. Curly and young Reg were killed. Curly was in his early 50s. Reg was a teenager. After the remains were recovered, Curly was buried in the Jasper cemetery near his father. Curly left behind his wife, Grace, and three young children.

Mount Phillips, which is known to many people in the region today, was named after Curly.

Stuart Taylor // info@thejasperlocal.com