Local climbers and Jasper history buffs are gearing up for an exciting tribute to one of the 20th Century’s most significant alpine accomplishments.

The Jasper/Hinton section of the Alpine Club of Canada, in conjunction with the Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society, are hosting a panel discussion on the history of mountaineering on Mount Alberta. 

What’s sure to be a gripping talk takes place Friday, February 23 at 7 p.m. at the Jasper museum. 

“With the 100th anniversary of the mountain’s first ascent coming up, we wanted to gauge local interest in a centennial celebration,” said the ACC’s Doug Olthof, who helped organize Friday’s presentation.

Guest speakers include Jasper climbing icons Peter Amann and Matt Reynolds, ACMG-certified guides who have both stood on Mount Alberta’s summit. The University of Alberta’s Zac Robinson—no slouch in the mountaineering sphere, himself—will lead a conversation on the vaunted place Mount Alberta holds in Rockies climbing lore. And JYHS president Warren Waxer will help showcase the museum’s role in preserving one of the continent’s most alluring alpine stories.

When the 1925 Japanese team found a way up the daunting objective—one of the last great peaks on the Continental Divide to be climbed—it stunned the mountaineering community, Robinson said. 

“It was a very difficult mountain to get up, and it was not for lack of trying that people hadn’t done so,” he said. 

In 1924, famed Austrian mountain guide Conrad Kain’s attempt was foiled by forest fires, and it wasn’t until the following July that a six-person Japanese team, led by three Swiss guides stationed at the Jasper Park Lodge, capitalized on good weather and the prowess of their accomplished leader, Yuko Maki. 

“Everybody knew of Mount Alberta’s significance,’” Robinson said. “Not only was it inaccessible, but the peak itself was hard to climb.”

However, Maki’s incredible accomplishment was barely recognized by documenters of the day, a fact that historians now attribute not to the unique fashion in which the Japanese scaled the unforgiving monolith, but to North Americans’ unwillingness to bestow accolades on a foreign team. 

“Racism likely had more to do with it than anything else,” Robinson said. 

Despite that initial muted reception, the story of the first ascent of Mount Alberta now represents a focal point of different communities and different cultures coming together in celebration of mountains. The chronicle of the silver ice axe, which reportedly came from the Emperor of Japan himself and was left by Maki in a summit cairn, spun decades-worth of lore and legend between alpine communities. When the story’s pieces were finally put together, the pages of history it wove together were no less remarkable than the original myth. 

“It’s such an important story of the power that mountains have to bring people together,” Robinson said.

And now Robinson, the ACC and the JYHS want to continue the story. To learn more about the planned celebrations for the centennial anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Alberta, get in touch with the Jasper/Hinton section of the ACC or sign up to the section’s mailing list at Friday’s presentation. 

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com