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The Yukon Alpine Centennial Expedition was a mass outdoor adventure to celebrate Canada's Centennial in 1967. Organized by the Alpine Club of Canada, it mobilized unifying narratives of federal nationhood through athletic exploits and sporting bodies. Funded by federal, provincial, and territorial governments, three prongs of this major expedition involved more than three hundred mountaineers and resulted in thirty-three climbs in the St Elias Range, including twenty-seven first ascents. The expedition named many geographic features and left imprints on the cultural landscape. Although the expedition officially commemorated nationhood, climbers nonetheless challenged common assumptions through their ways of knowing mountain landscapes. Looking back to the 1925 first ascent of Mt Logan and forward to the declaration of Kluane National Park in 1972, YACE represented Canadian federalist nationalism in northern mountain landscapes, situated amid the Southern Tutchone homelands. Imagining peaks in the St Elias Range as the domain of Canada's national alpine club contributed to imagining Canada's northern national parks established in the 1970s. This study considers how encounters and stories associated with the expedition might be read to place the study of commemoration and mountaineering history within discussions of local knowledge, cultural landscapes, and environmental philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a reading of published writings and a series of private letters and medical records, this article explores the life and career of the mountaineer Sir James Outram (1864–1925) in order to argue for a new, more psychologically oriented conceptualisation of the relationship between empire, masculinity and male sexuality. At its core is an attempt to understand both the sexual transgressions that forced Outram to flee Britain for Canada in 1900 and the impact that his travels across the Atlantic and his physical activities in the Rocky Mountains had on his gender and sexual subjectivities. As an intervention into the history of same-sex desire and behaviour in Britain and the Empire, this piece explores Outram's complicated relationship to the predominant sexual categories of the day and the masculine ideals that held considerable sway in the late imperial period. It also documents the Outram family's interactions with members of the emerging psychiatric profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Avalanches are a significant cause of winter recreational fatalities in mountain regions. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contributions of trauma and asphyxia to avalanche deaths. Methods: We reviewed all avalanche fatalities between 1984 and 2005 that had been investigated by the offices of the British Columbia Coroners Service and the Chief Medical Examiner of Alberta. In addition, we searched the database of the Canadian Avalanche Centre for fatal avalanche details. We calculated injury severity scores for all victims who underwent autopsy. Results: There were 204 avalanche fatalities with mortality information over the 21-year study period. Of these, 117 victims underwent autopsy, and 87 underwent forensic external examination. Asphyxia caused 154 (75%) deaths. Trauma caused 48 (24%) deaths, with the rate of death from trauma ranging from 9% (4/44) for snowmobilers to 42% (5/12) for ice climbers. In addition, 13% (12/92) of the asphyxia victims who underwent autopsy bad major trauma, defined as an injury severity score of greater than 15. Only 48% (23/48) of victims for whom trauma was the primary cause of death bad been completely buried. Interpretation: Asphyxia and severe trauma caused most avalanche fatalities in western Canada. The relative rates differed between snowmobilers and those engaged in other mountain activities. Our findings should guide recommendations for safety devices, safety measures and resuscitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relates the experiences of Canadian mountaineer Phyllis Munday on climbing the Mount Waddington in British Columbia. Conflict over her position as a mother; Suspicion surrounding Phyl's climbing abilities; Effect of gender on mountaineering.

Focuses on modernity, manhood and mountaineering in postwar British Columbia. Origin of the early nationalism of climbing; Ideas about modern manhood; Mountaineering's relation to middle-class masculinity; Changes in the natural environment of Vancouver mountaineers in the postwar years.

Explains the juxtaposition of the self defined elitism held within some mountaineering circles to the debate surrounding the failed renaming of Mount Logan. Consideration of the male homosocial desire; Demonstration of how society cannot consider masculinity in Canadian leisure habits and politics without examining gender, race and sexuality.

This study examines the life history of Margaret Fleming (1901-1999) — a Canadian mountaineer, editor, school teacher and single woman who lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fleming, a lifetime member of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC), was introduced to her first mountaineering camp in 1929 by Elizabeth Parker. Through the ACC, Fleming climbed in the Rockies, participated in early ski-mountaineering explorations into the Yoho National Park backcountry, served as the first woman editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal (1942-1952) and cultivated long-lasting friendships with other climbers. As a professional woman who juggled the responsibilities of work, family and leisure, Fleming's mountaineering life was shaped by the gendering of physical and social culture. Fleming integrated her pursuits as a genteel mountain woman and literary editor, within the context of an ongoing process of negotiations over women's place in mountain leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on weather conditions in Canada in May 2005. Average temperatures in the southern region; Impact of series of storms on fields in Nova Scotia; Effects of extreme weather on the rescue of mountaineers stranded at Mount Logan in the Yukon Territories.