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SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER
| Peakfinder Updates
Thanks to photos contributed by various Peakfinder users, it is possible to study some mountains from a number of angles and vantage points. As an example, have a look at the seventeen photos of Mount Lougheed. Last month Phil Schreiner contributed a striking photo taken from Wind Mountain that shows the three summits of Mount Lougheed perfectly lined up. It is clear from this photo that the centre peak is the highest. Immediately to the right of Phil's photo, Calvin Damen's photo shows Wind Mountain and the three summits of Mount Lougheed looking at them from a ninety degree angle relative to Phil's photo. These two shots, together with the fifteen others on the page, make it easier to understand this complex peak. Using the link to Google Earth available through Peakfinder, shows an image of the area with all the peaks identified. This helps as well. There are now 3300 photos on www.peakfinder.com and sometimes errors are made in their captions. Several Peakfinder users have located mistakes and advised us so that they can be corrected. Please let us know if you find an error. If you have a favourite mountain photo or any information about the peaks of the Canadian Rockies that you would like included in Peakfinder please contact daveb at peakfinder dot com. Please note that all of the previous newsletters have been archived and are available on the site. If you're interested in esoteric lists, unusual mountain names, etcetera, browse through the earlier issues. |
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| Look who's honoured in the Canadian Rockies MERVIN VAVASOUR Lt. Henry James Warre of the 14th Regiment and Mervin Vavasour of the Royal Engineers were ordered by the Governor General to cross the Rockies disguised as private adventures and evaluate the mountain passes from a military point of view. Warre documented their journey in a journal that was later published as, "Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory." He described the trip as follows, "Our passage over the magnificent range of the lofty mountains was not accomplished without much difficulty, and a fearful sacrifice of the noble animals that aided us in the transport. We left Edmonton with sixty horses; on our arrival at Fort Colville, on the Columbia River, we had only twenty-seven, and several of these so exhausted they could not have continued many more days. The steepness of the mountain passes, the want of proper nourishment, the fearful falls that some of the animals sustained, rolling in some instances many hundred feet into the foaming torrent beneath, combined to cause this great loss. The scenery was grand in the extreme; similar in form to the Alps of Switzerland, you felt that you were in the midst of desolation: no habitations, save those of the wild Indians were within hundreds of miles; but few civilized beings had ever even viewed this. Warre's completed a series of excellent sketches along the way, one of which clearly shows a portion of Mount Rundle and Cascade Mountain. These were the first "artist's impressions" ofthe Canadian Rockies. As for the military possibilities, Warre and Vavasour concluded that, "the idea of transporting troops...with their stores, etc. through such an extent of uncultivated country and over such impractable mountins woud appear to us quite infeasible." For additional information about Mount Vavasour enter the mountain's name in the appropriate search box on the main page. |