logo
  • Explore
    • Local Events
    • Local News
    • Local Organisations
  • News
    • Community
    • Local Government
    • Sports
    • Alberta Politics
    • Opinion
    • Deke
  • Peaks & Valleys
    • Wildlife
    • Snow Sports
    • Hiking and Climbing
    • Biking
    • Fishing
  • Culture
    • Jasper Arts & Culture
    • Local Dining
    • Local Literature
  • Jasper History
    • Explore
      • Local Events
      • Local News
      • Local Organisations
    • News
      • Community
      • Local Government
      • Sports
      • Alberta Politics
      • Opinion
      • Deke
    • Peaks & Valleys
      • Wildlife
      • Snow Sports
      • Hiking and Climbing
      • Biking
      • Fishing
    • Culture
      • Jasper Arts & Culture
      • Local Dining
      • Local Literature
    • Jasper History
Family of renown mountaineer donates treasury of alpine artifacts to museum
Hiking and Climbing, Jasper History, Peaks & Valleys
By Bob Covey
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Family of renown mountaineer donates treasury of alpine artifacts to museum

Cyril Geoffrey Wates (1883-1946) was a composer, choirmaster, science fiction writer and photographer. 

Cyril Geoffrey wates in 1922 // Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives

He was also an inventor, an astronomer and an engineer. Not long after he constructed what was, at the time, the largest telescope in Alberta, Wates was awarded the Chant Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for his contributions to the field. Later in life, after he went deaf, he built a hearing aide to help him communicate.

Wates was, as his great niece Jean Knopp told an audience at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives last week, “a remarkable man.” Yet despite his incredible academic resume and proclivity for the arts, it was Wates’ accomplishments as a mountaineer with the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) for which he is most well regarded.

On August 21, relatives of “The Skipper,” as he was known by his climbing friends, bequeathed an extraordinary collection of artifacts from Wates’ mountaineering career to the JYMA. Knopp, who made the trip to Jasper with 18 of her family members, presented to the museum a treasury of photo albums, trip reports, songs and poems which document Wates’ various adventures in Jasper National Park. Knopp had come into possession of the albums by way of her aunt, who’d helped Wates’ widow manage her affairs when she was in hospital. Knopp and her sister, Doreen Ralston, said they take great comfort in knowing that the memories from these albums will be safely protected.

Frank Moberley, Helen Burns/Wates;, Gwen Pickford, Cyril G Wates and Hilda Glyde // JYMA

“There’s a lot of history contained within them,” Knopp said. “We felt they should be in a place where they’d be well preserved.”

The family also brought copies of the albums to the Alpine Club of Canada’s hut on Outpost Lake, which, along with his fellow mountaineer, Evelyn Reginald “Rex” Gibson, bears Wates’ name. While not all of the family members made it to the Wates-Gibson hut, the group of 19 did march nearly 20 km to the shores of Amethyst Lake where they absorbed the history, scenery and splendour of the Tonquin Valley—just as their great uncle would have, nearly a century before.

“Thanks to the photographic legacy he has left behind of the climbing adventures he undertook in the Tonquin Valley, our family has gained a much better understanding of his personality and character,” Mike Knopp told those who gathered at the museum.

In 1924, Wates, along with Val Fynn and M.D. Geddes, made the first ascent on 3,298-metre Mount Geikie. His earlier attempts on the mountain are chronicled in a photo album documenting climbing activity from 1922/23, while a 1927 album documents not only the eventual successful bids on Geikie and Mount Postern, but also on Redoubt Peak. It was Wates and his partners who were able to verify that climbers F.H. Slark and F. Rutishauser did in fact gain the summit of Redoubt before perishing on the descent in 1927; Wates found their record on the top of the mountain the following summer. 

JYMA’s Karen Byers, Mike Knopp, ACMG Matt Reynolds and Jean Knopp // Supplied

Mike Knopp noted that the artifacts left behind by his uncle demonstrate how Wates embodied the values of the ACC. Moreover, he said, they document the romantic relationship which was budding between Wates and Knopp’s aunt, Helen Burns.

“I have no doubt that Helen was in Geoff’s mind when he wrote “The Climbing Girl,” he said, reading the chorus lines from Songs of Canadian Climbers, the book which Wates dedicated to the ACC:

Give me the girl who can cut a step so neatly/That the summit of the peak will soon be won/Who can climb a rotten chimney or negotiate a crag/Who never breaks a snow-bridge/Or allows the rope to drag

Wates participated in 20 summer ACC camps and climbed more than 50 peaks as part of the ACC, which he joined in 1916. He was Chairman of the Edmonton Section in 1925 and from 1932-1935 he served as Western Vice-President. He then served as President of the ACC from 1938 to 1941. 

His friend and colleague from the University of Alberta, J.W. Campell, memorialized Wates by recalling what the mountains meant to him.

“He was in succession impressed by the mountains for their mystery, their friendliness, their aloofness, their beauty, their grimness, their difficulty, their sweetness, and then in the course of his mountaineering experience by the companionship, the sharing and the fun which they engendered,” Campell wrote. “This joy of sharing was so characteristic of his life.”

Now, a century later, his family is ensuring Wates’ joy of sharing continues.

“He was a remarkable mountaineering gentleman, and our family is so very pleased that his legacy can now be shared with others,” Mike Knopp said.


Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com

Articles You May LIke ›
Most Read ›
Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent
News
Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent
Bob Covey 
Friday, May 5, 2023
Jasper National Park Superintendent Alan Fehr has declined a private offer to rebuild a washed-out bridge at Simon Creek, a structure which would allo...
this is a test
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Local Government
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Bob Covey 
Monday, May 15, 2023
West Yellowhead’s NDP candidate Fred Kreiner has elected not to participate in Jasper’s scheduled all-candidates forum. “I’ve decided and the NDP part...
this is a test
Helicopter sustains “incredible” damage after accident on Columbia Icefields
Community
Helicopter sustains “incredible” damage after accident on Columbia Icefields
Bob Covey 
Monday, April 24, 2023
A helicopter transporting Natural Resources Canada glacier surveyors had a hard landing on an icefield in Banff National Park April 14. The accident l...
this is a test
Letter: Keep up the public pressure to make Jasper’s backcountry safe
Opinion
Letter: Keep up the public pressure to make Jasper’s backcountry safe
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Re: Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper's superintendent (May 5, 2023) Dear Editor, This is an excellent article in The Jasper Local. I am...
this is a test
Latest ›
Letter: Maintaining the Athabasca Pass Heritage Trail
Opinion
Letter: Maintaining the Athabasca Pass Heritage Trail
Thursday, May 18, 2023
re: Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent (May 5, 2023)  Dear Editor, The Athabasca Pass Heritage Trail is a Canadian icon ...
this is a test
Store manager leaving a legacy of customer care
Store manager leaving a legacy of customer care
Bob Covey 
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Rick Lagace has stocked his last shelf. The store manager at TGP Your Jasper Grocer is retiring. Over hotdogs and pop in the TGP parking lot, Lagace s...
this is a test
Forty and fabulous: Mountain Air an OG of Jasper retail
Business
Forty and fabulous: Mountain Air an OG of Jasper retail
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Mountain Air stands as one of Jasper’s most unique, well-established shopping locations. Having celebrated the store’s 40th anniversary recently, the ...
this is a test
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Local Government
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Bob Covey 
Monday, May 15, 2023
West Yellowhead’s NDP candidate Fred Kreiner has elected not to participate in Jasper’s scheduled all-candidates forum. “I’ve decided and the NDP part...
this is a test

NEXT ARTICLE

Ancient alpine ice unlocking secrets of Jasper’s past

Jasper History, News, Peaks & Valleys

Most Read ›
Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent
News
Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper’s superintendent
Bob Covey 
Friday, May 5, 2023
Jasper National Park Superintendent Alan Fehr has declined a private offer to rebuild a washed-out bridge at Simon Creek, a structure which would allo...
this is a test
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Local Government
NDP’s Kreiner withdraws from all-candidates forum
Bob Covey 
Monday, May 15, 2023
West Yellowhead’s NDP candidate Fred Kreiner has elected not to participate in Jasper’s scheduled all-candidates forum. “I’ve decided and the NDP part...
this is a test
Helicopter sustains “incredible” damage after accident on Columbia Icefields
Community
Helicopter sustains “incredible” damage after accident on Columbia Icefields
Bob Covey 
Monday, April 24, 2023
A helicopter transporting Natural Resources Canada glacier surveyors had a hard landing on an icefield in Banff National Park April 14. The accident l...
this is a test
Letter: Keep up the public pressure to make Jasper’s backcountry safe
Opinion
Letter: Keep up the public pressure to make Jasper’s backcountry safe
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Re: Fully funded bridge proposal rebuffed by Jasper's superintendent (May 5, 2023) Dear Editor, This is an excellent article in The Jasper Local. I am...
this is a test
Latest ›
Perfect pitch: Jasper golfer an ambassador for women and deaf athletes
News
Perfect pitch: Jasper golfer an ambassador for women and deaf athletes
Women’s Golf Day at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club is June 6
Bob Covey 
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Dressed in Sunday red, balanced perfectly on her follow-through and watching her golf ball arc above a stand of aspens on the hardest ranked hole at S...
this is a test
Team Orange has the blues: Low voter turnout in Neverland
Alberta Politics
Team Orange has the blues: Low voter turnout in Neverland
Bob Covey 
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
Despite pundits calling this election the most important in Alberta’s history, only one in four eligible Jasperites made the trip down to the Jasper A...
this is a test
Undying loyalty to political parties (and hockey teams) is bad for Alberta
Editorial
Undying loyalty to political parties (and hockey teams) is bad for Alberta
Bob Covey 
Friday, May 26, 2023
Confession time: for as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Calgary Flames fan. It’s not my fault! When you’re eight-years-old and your dad is dancing...
this is a test
GYPSD trustees question Alberta charter schools
GYPSD trustees question Alberta charter schools
Bob Covey 
Friday, May 26, 2023
Grande Yellowhead Public School Division’s board of trustees is speaking out against publicly-funded charter schools. In an opinion piece run in regio...
this is a test

Copyright © The Jasper Local

This site complies with Jasper requirements
Contact us
Privacy Policy
Advertise With Us
About The Jasper Local
Accessibility Policy
This site complies with Jasper requirements
  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertise With Us
  • About The Jasper Local
  • Accessibility Policy

Follow Us

Advertise with us

Measurable, targeted, local. Email example@thejasperlocal.com

ePaper
coogle_play
app_store

© Copyright The Jasper Local