History
Before climbing became a popular sport it was an elusive pastime reserved for those who were fortunate to be introduced to it or had the means to seek it out. As more people began climbing, alpine clubs were initiated. The first climbing clubs were in Europe; in 1857 England’s Alpine Club was founded, during the Golden Age of alpinism. Clubs offered route information, mountain notes, partners and instructions on how to use gear, maps and rope systems. Many of history’s great climbers tied their first knot with a club.
Born in Kilkenny County, Ireland, Wheeler immigrated to Canada in 1876, at 16. In 1885 he was appointed a technical officer of the Topographical Surveys Branch of the Department of the Interior. In 1901, the Surveyor-General of Canada, Dr. Edouard Deville, assigned Wheeler the task of surveying the Rogers Pass area of the Selkirk Range in British Columbia. On the train to Rogers Pass, Wheeler met Edward Whymper, who had made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 and who was in Canada as a guest of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Wheeler made a number of first ascents over the following years, including Mount Wheeler.
After the American Alpine Club was founded in 1902, its first president, Charles Fay, whom Wheeler had met at Glacier House in Rogers Pass, suggested that a Canadian chapter of the club be formed. Wheeler’s continuous pursuit of creating the club led him to write letters seeking support, which eventually ended up in the hands of columnist Elizabeth Parker. A native of Winnipeg, Parker was an avid nationalist and an environmental enthusiast. Conscious of the benefit of mountains, she took her children to Banff in the summer of 1904. She spent 18 months there and began writing newspaper and magazine articles about the mountains. Even if her health did not allow her to be a climber she thought that mountaineering could help women become stronger and more confident. After reading her articles, an editor of the Manitoba Free Press referred her to Wheeler’s letters. Writing an article in response to his letter, Parker advocated the establishment of an Alpine Club. However, she believed that it should be solely Canadian to encourage the development of national identity and reaffirm Canadian independence. Together they combined their efforts to create the Alpine Club of Canada.
One important mission in the acc is the value given to gender issues: it is known as the world’s first national mountaineering club to welcome women. As a matter of fact, most Alpine Clubs were fashioned after the Alpine Club in England that did not welcome women and had separate organizations reserved for ladies. Because Elizabeth Parker was one of the two founders of the Alpine Club of Canada, the question of excluding women from the club’s activities and active participation was not addressed. Indeed, at the end of the first camp in 1906, 15 women (out of 44 members) graduated and became active members of the acc. Women’s participation alongside men became evident in the Club activities and summer camps and those events were frequently used to promote women as legitimate members. On a regular basis, women were perceived in the acc as able as men. They were encouraged and helped, and after the acc’s first camp it was decided that the dress-code for women would be the same as for men (which was very unusual in the early twentieth-century society.)