Canadian Alpine Journal/Volume 1/Number 1/The Ascent of Mt. Assiniboine
We—that is, Christian and Hans Kaufmann (Swiss guides) and myself—left Laggan at 9 a.m. on August 1st and travelled on No. 96 as far as Banff, where Bill Peyto, who was outfitting our party, met us and escorted us up to his house, to wait while the final arrangements were being completed. About noon the cavalcade started, our party consisting of Christian, Hans and myself, Jimmy Wood and Jesse Trot, packers, and seven horses—Jimmy riding on Pet, Peyto's beautiful mare, who was accompanied by her little foal Baby; Jesse on Toby; Grey, for my use; the guides taking it in turns to ride Wilcox, while Cree, Pinto and Buckskin carried the packs. I walked for the first four or five miles, much to Jimmy's astonishment, and he kept inquiring about every half mile if I was not tired, but at last I was obliged to mount, to cross a creek. Soon after four o'clock, we reached the place where our first camp was to be, and which is generally known as Porcupine camp, though that name might apply equally well to any other place where I have camped in the Rockies, as porcupines abound everywhere. Christian and Hans put up the tents and cut boughs for our beds, while Jimmy unsaddled and hobbled the horses, and Jesse made a fire and fetched water in preparation for our evening meal. This over, and everything washed and tidied up, we sat and rested for a while before retiring to bed, the men enjoying their pipes, while I knitted. We fastened the tents well down, all round, with logs and stones, to prevent the porcupines coming in. It was a good thing we did so, as I heard them walking round several times during the night, their quills scratching against the canvas. They and the gophers are very destructive, especially to leather, and we had always to be very careful to leave nothing out at night where they could get at it. The next morning we were up at five o'clock, as breaking up camp, fetching and packing the horses, etc., usually takes some time, to say nothing of cooking and eating breakfast, and it was generally eight o'clock before we got started on our day's march. The first part of our second day's journey was through pine forests, where, however, there was a good trail, though somewhat steep in places. We climbed up to Simpson's pass, and about eleven o'clock reached a wide, grassy plateau surrounded by hills with patches of snow here and there. About mid-day we made a short halt for lunch, but did not stop to unsaddle the horses, as we wanted to reach the camping-place at the foot of Burnt Timber hill, that night if possible. Our luncheon place was in a garden of purple asters and other mountain flowers, which added beauty to the scene, but we did not stay longer than was necessary, and soon continued our journey over the summit of the pass to Burnt Timber hill. This hill, as its name implies, is covered with the remains of trees all charred and dead by some long-ago fire, many of them fallen to the ground, often several one on another, while others are so unsteady that it would not need much to make them fall also; so that, in addition to the hill being very steep, it is very bad going, especially for the horses. However, we all arrived at the bottom, without any mishap, and were soon busy fixing our camp for the night. After supper, Jimmy amused himself by catching a gopher, with a noose of string which he placed outside its hole, and then when it put its head out, he drew the string and the gopher was caught. After we had kept it a little while I let it go, and it ran down its hole, dragging the whole length of string with it, and then there was a great commotion in gopher-land—such squeaking, while I suppose he was telling his adventures to his family. The next day's march was varied by the behavior of Pinto, one of the pack horses. When we came out of the forest into the open, he took it into his head to roll, and this loosened his pack and sent it to one side, so he set to work to kick it off, and we saw our things flying in all directions. Fortunately the boxes of provisions, which he had carried the previous day, had been put on Cree, or else everything would have been smashed; but, as it was, nothing was damaged, as he was only carrying tents and bedding. When he had got rid of his pack, he bolted, and both Jimmy and Jesse had a long chase before they could catch him, and they began to fear they had lost him. Although we had seen Mt. Assiniboine in the distance from Simpson's pass, it did not come into view again till we were nearly through our last day's march, and then we saw it in all its grandeur and beauty. It stands on an undulating, grassy upland, dotted here and there with groups of pine-trees, with a beautiful lake lying at its foot, while the lower peaks around seem to add to the height and majesty. We made our camp as near to the base as possible, so as to shorten our climb the next day, and then set to work to prepare dinner, for which we were all ready. The weather, scenery and everything were delightful, but the mosquitoes and bull-dogs were very much the reverse. I suppose they do not get many visitors, so they make the most of those who do come. During the daytime the bull-dogs (very large horse flies) came around in hundreds. The poor horses were bitten by them till the blood flowed. Jimmy made a "smudge," around which the horses crowded to try and get a little relief from their tormentors, but it takes a good deal to keep off a bull-dog, and when he is once settled nothing short of a hard hit will move him.
The bull-dogs struck work during the afternoon, but almost before they had left, the mosquitoes began, and I think they were worse, for they kept on during the night.
At three o'clock next morning, Christian called me and I got up, but we had not brought any candles with us, and dressing in a tent in the dark is a somewhat difficult operation. However, after groping and feeling round, I found all my necessary things, and then went out to breakfast by firelight, the moon being in the last quarter did not give us much light. At four o'clock we three started. We went up a very steep snow-slope, which required some step-cutting, as the snow was so hard, and near the top there was a good deal of danger from falling stones. After we had reached the glacier, we had a fairly level stretch around the base of the peak to the ridge on the right hand, which we crossed and descended into a snow-basin on the other side. We then traversed a snow-slope and loose stones and rock till we were right round the farther side of the mountain and could find a practicable ridge by which to reach the summit. Some of the rocks were covered with ice, which made climbing very difficult, but on our descent the sun had turned the ice to water, and we got several shower-baths. The rocks were very rotten and interspersed with patches of snow and ice; and, when coming down, the snow was in such bad condition that we dared not trust it; so, accordingly, had to come by a different route to that by which we had gone up. When nearing the top, we thought possibly the other side of the ridge might be an easier way of ascent. Our present route lay chiefly along steep slabs of rock covered with loose stones, and here and there patches of ice which necessitated step-cutting. Accordingly, we worked our way to where there was a narrow cleft between two high rocks, but when we could look over, we saw the other side was a sheer precipice, with no hand-hold or foot-hold possible, so we had to retrace our steps and continue the traverse over the stones and ice. When near the ridge, we found the remains of a mountain-rat or some small animal, with teeth and claws and fur still good, which had evidently been dropped by some large bird, as no animal could have lived up there. We reached the summit at two p.m. but though the day was cloudless there was too much smoke from forest-fires, in the horizon, to get a very distant view. The summit was much corniced, so we gave it a wide berth, and after a short stay began the descent.
Having no lantern with us, we hurried on, as we did not want to be benighted on the mountain, but the loose stones made care necessary and we did not reach our camp till 8 145 p.m., just as night was setting in. Jimmy and Jesse were on the lookout, and fired their gun when they saw us on the snow-slope, and when we arrived in camp we found a nice hot supper all ready.
Editorial Note.
Miss Gertrude E. Benham's modest and unassuming account of her ascent of Mt. Assiniboine would not lead the reader to suppose that she was the first and only lady to set foot upon its summit, 11,860 feet above the sea.
Although several attempts had been made, the summit was not reached until 1901, when the Rev. James Outram, accompanied by the Swiss guides, Christian Hasler and Christian Bohren made the first ascent (see "In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies," by the Rev. James Outram, published by MacMillan & Co., New York). But one other party made the ascent between that by Mr. Outram in 1901 and by Miss Benham in 1904.
Presumably, Miss Benham's wonderful record of mountains climbed in the European Alps, in New Zealand and in Japan, the first including among one hundred and sixty climbs, Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa the Weisshorn and the Jungfrau, has lead her to regard but lightly her ascent of Mt. Assiniboine.
 Photo, Francklyn MOUNT ASSINIBOINE, SHOWING NORTH AND EAST FACES |
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