Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/72

Rh

The wayfaring globe-trotter who chanced to reach Field station, on the Canadian Pacific railway, on the evening of July 8th, 1906, must have wondered at the scene of excitement and activity revealed in that spacious hostelry. For undoubtedly excited the groups of fellow-travellers were, and with rare good cause, for were we not the lucky folk privileged to be present at the christening of the Alpine Club of Canada, on the occasion of its first annual camp in the Rocky mountains. Tenderfeet and old-timers alike were equally seized with a delicious fever of expectation. From England, from the United States, and from many corners of Canada the alpinists-in.embryo had thus foregathered at this appointed rendezvous under the shadow of Mt. Stephen, the grim old King of the Rockies. Some were armed with ice-axes and alpen-stocks—and umbrellas, and all were laden with impedimenta, the wonderful contents of which were not revealed till the next morning, when the actual start was made by the actual members of an actually formed Alpine Club for Canada!

No wonder we were excited! For once in our blessed lives we all saw the sun rise and flood the awesome canyon of the Kicking Horse as the dark shadows of the night were dispelled. Soon after sun-up the thin long line of amateurs, with Excelsior written on face and in eye, crossed the bridge over the Kicking-Horse and took to the road that leads through a silent forest aisle to Emerald lake. That seven-mile path through the trees, with a