Podcasts about selkirk mountains

Join us on a scenic drive through Glacier National Park in BC, we will guide you through everything you need for your next adventure! Glacier National Park in BC is located in the Selkirk Mountains and offers mountains, glaciers, and lush forests. If you're planning an adventure here, you're in for a real treat. Whether driving through or tackling one of the park's famous hiking trails, this drive-through will take you through must-see stops, scenic drives, and hidden gems along the Trans-Canada Highway.   Show notes: https://thefaiolas.com/134

“Snow is blissful, it's pure, it's white, it's serene, it's a siren call. But it's also very dark, it's death. The darkest white is the perfect analogy for an avalanche,” said New York Times bestselling author Eric Blehm on Episode 35 about his latest book, The Darkest White, chronicling the life and untimely passing of legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly. Widely regarded as the Michael Jordan of snowboarding, Kelly was a pioneer in this uniquely American sport, and in his book, Blehm dives deep in to Kelly's life and his pivotal role in the history of snowboarding and splitboarding. Blehm also goes into remarkable detail about the 2003 La Traviata avalanche in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, where Kelly and six other skiers lost their lives, including Truckee local Kathy Kessler. Our chat with Blehm covers a bit of the history here in Lake Tahoe, a bit about Kelly and an insightful discussion around the human factors involved in the tragic avalanche. Learn more about Blehm and purchase his award-winning non-fiction books at ericblehm.com. 2:30 – Recording from Jim and Bonnie Zellers garage in Tahoe Donner.3:50 – Introducing Eric Blehm, author of Fearless, The Only Thing Worth Dying For, The Last Season and his new book, The Darkest White, about the history of snowboarding, Craig Kelly and the La Traviata avalanche.7:20 – Kathy Kessler – a core lord in Truckee who lost her life in the La Traviata avalanche with Craig Kelly.9:10 – The roots of snowboarding were on Donner Summit – Donner Ski Ranch, Soda Springs and Boreal. 10:10 – Mind the Track Superfan #1 – Scott Kessler. Thanks for the shout out buddy!13:15 – Eric was a snowboard magazine editor at TransWorld when he met Jim and Bonnie Zellers, the original backcountry snowboarders for The North Face. 15:30 – Transitioning from being a short-form magazine editor to a long-form book author and investigative journalist.22:06 – Learning about the formation of the Mount Baker Hard Core, the lawsuit between Burton and Sims over Craig Kelly.23:00 – Tom Sims claimed to have invented the snowboard before Sherman Poppen, but it was never confirmed.25:00 – Mount Baker, Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal and Soda Springs were one of the first places to allow snowboards on chairlifts. 30:00 – Parts of Craig's story that were cut from the book – Greg Stump's film Siberia with Kelly and Scott Schmidt. 34:30 -Craig Kelly's unique riding style, his fall line style influenced a generation of riders and convinced Trail Whisperer that he should have been a snowboarder.45:00 – Craig as a pioneer in being one of the first snowboard guides in Canada, pursuing the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides certification.48:00 – Early splitboarding, Eric got a splitboard and infiltrated ski resorts that didn't allow snowboarding, riding the lift in split, then assembling it and snowboarding down as ‘The Chameleon”.1:01:10 – The Durrand Glacier avalanche on La Traviata, the human factor and group dynamics.1:10:30 – Ruedi Beglinger as a lead guide at Selkirk Mountain Experience, a strong character and the changes in the guiding industry and backcountry culture after the avalanche. 1:16:30 – Hubris and its role in the avalanche incident.1:23:00 – Craig Kelly wanted to educate the younger generation on snow safety and the dangers of the backcountry.1:28:30 – If Eric could ask Craig one question, what would it be?1:35:15 – The Darkest White – where did the name come from?1:39:30 – What does Mind the Track mean to you? 1:40:30 – Go to ericblehm.com or @ericblehmofficial on Instagram

When Craig Kelly died in 2003, the world of snowboarding was devastated. Twenty years later, New York Times best-selling author Eric Blehm returned to the site of Kelly's death, to uncover the true story of what happened in the avalanche that killed the legendary snowboarder and six backcountry skiers in British Columbia's Selkirk Mountains. Blehm's roots in snowboarding run deep. He started riding during the sport's infancy, and after college became an editor at Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. Years later, he was in a lift line when a fellow rider saw the “Craig Kelly is my Co-Pilot” sticker on his board, and asked Blehm: “Who is Craig Kelly?” He was floored by the notion that there were snowboarders out there who didn't know who Craig was. And this inspired him to write The Darkest White. Backcountry Magazine | Instagram | Facebook Buy Eric Blehm's The Darkest White Host: Adam Howard Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

What is Pickleball?According to Selkirk brand, the leader in this category, "pickleball, at its core, is a fun and exciting indoor/outdoor sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. Pickleball is played on a court the size of a badminton court, with a low net similar to tennis, and with what looks like an oversized ping pong paddle and a wiffle ball. The sport is currently the nation's fastest growing sport with over 4.8 million players in 2021 (up 14.8% over 2020) and an estimated 66 new locations to play pickleball each month."Selkirk Sport is the leading manufacturer of pickleball paddles and equipment. Brothers Mike and Rob Barnes, along with their father Jim, founded Selkirk Sport with the mission to redefine the way the world views pickleball. Since its founding in 2014, Selkirk has grown from an upstart with 10 employees to an energetic outfit with more than 100 team members. Selkirk is headquartered in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, overlooking the Selkirk Mountains from which the company derives its name.About host Kevin RutherfordKevin is a human-centric leader helping you to unlock your team's full potential by creating a dynamic and engaging work environment. Joined by other thought leaders, they will share tools they have used to create highly successful teams through culture-first leadership.Kevin Rutherford is a CEO, board member, public speaker and team culture expert who believes in the power of people. As CEO of two different companies, he shaped their company cultures resulting in recognition as one of ‘Outside Magazine's Best Places to Work' for a total of six years. Known as the Chief Eternal Optimist, he has made it his mission to create a working environment where everyone can succeed and thrive. Join Kevin on a journey to help you and your team become the very best they can be.Special thanks to our sponsor, The Running Event!We were at The Running Event 2023 in Austin, Texas in November and want to share a bit about our experience.The Running Event, also known as TRE, is an annual in-person conference and trade show for run and outdoor specialty retailers, brands, media and other industry professionals from across the US and even the globe. It's a great opportunity for those in the industry to come together, do business and make new connections. The Running Event 2023 was the largest in the show's 17-year history, welcoming more than 4,000 total visitors and featuring 314 exhibiting brands like Brooks, HOKA, On, Saucony, Balega, ASICS and New Balance.A big takeaway for us is that TRE is a lot more than a trade show. There was so much buzz and good energy at the event, and you could tell people were really making connections, doing business and talking shop—all while really having a good time. We loved our time at TRE, and if you're in the run or outdoor specialty business, we definitely recommend you check out the 2024 event.The Running Event 2024 will take place November 19-21 in Austin, TX, at the Austin Convention Center; registration is set to open mid-July. Visit TRE's website: https://www.therunningevent.comContact: Christina Henderson, Event Director, The Running Event  chenderson@divcom.com

In this episode, we catch up with thru-hiker, Calzone (Stephanie Setiz ) as she hikes through Idaho and into Washington! This section starts with a nice stay at the Feist Creek Falls Resort in northern Idaho, and includes visiting friends in Sand Point, challenging bushwhacking and scrambles in the Selkirk Mountains with spectacular views and lake swims with trail buddies. Calzone talks about finding more emotional well-being during this stretch as she heads into Washington! Stay tuned for the next episode! If you loved this episode and our thru-hiker spotlights, remember to subscribe, rate & review, and share this podcast! You can also follow Calzone's adventures using the links below: ⁠⁠Calzone's Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Calzone's YouTube⁠⁠ Calzone's Trail Journals ⁠⁠Donate to the Mooky Project⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ Connect With Us / Join The THRU-r Community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠THRU-r Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠THRU-r Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠THRU-r Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠THRU-r Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠THRU-r TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Episode Music: "Communicator" by Reed Mathis --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thru-r/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thru-r/support

Listen in as Danielle Siegrist shares about her and Gordon's time in Kenya with our missionary Family, Kelvin, and Nicole Opiyo. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Listen in as Pastor Jesse give us an overview of what Holy Week is and why we observe what we do. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as our friend Tamara Childs engages us with story time, talking about the Unfathomable Riches of Christ. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as our friend Tamara Childs engages us with story time, talking about Mercy, Grace, and Compassion Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

When we feel that all is lost, we remember that we are never alone. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Let's listen to what Richard Dodds will share on God's Protection. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

The BLBCA welcomes you back to another episode of Mountain Escapes. In this episode Brad chats with Roger Laurilla, owner/operator/guide of Battle Abbey, located in the Selkirk Mountains, SW of Golden, BC. This BLBCA member lodge is steeped in history, the founders were none other than Hans Gmoser and Bill Putnam. Roger does a wonderful job communicating how remote and spectacular Battle Abbey really is.

Another great word from Pastor Marg. Join us as we hear from Pastor Marg on having Hope, sharing Hope and what that all means. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as Pastor Jesse leads us in a reflection on what Christmas is about and the gifts of the season. Listen in as people share their favorite stories of Christmas as we prepare for Christmas Day. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as we hear from our friend Tamara Childs share what it means to Run Free with the Lord and how we can help each other to be free. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Love - The Fruit of the Spirit Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as Pastor Marg Boyer shares an inspired word with us. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as we listen to our friend Richard Dodds share what the Armour of God is and how we use it in our lives. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Join us as our friend Anastasya Laverdiere shares about how our Father welcomes us, always, continually, where we are at. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking.

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies.

Listen in as our friend Tamara Childs shares some thoughts on God's faithfulness in our lives. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Over 2500 miles in 13 days the Tour of Idaho is not for the faint of heart. Long days and short nights, from the Malad Range of southern Idaho to the Selkirk Mountains near the Canadian border. The Tour offers up an incredible adventure for anyone who is willing to seek it out. From preparation to completion, how Spencer DeBuf, Mike Slawson and Evan Ask made it happen and completed the Tour of Idaho in 2022. Enduro Method Links: Enduro Method is an online strength and conditioning program built for those who ride by those who ride. We are Professional coaches dedicated to building the best and most revolutionary off-the-bike training for dirt bikers around. We are offering a special discount to our podcast listeners…use discount code empodcast22 for 50% off your first month of subscription. Website: https://enduromethod.com The gram: https://www.instagram.com/enduromethod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enduromethod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh-kUIDoNbuBD38rZGJUh9g Got questions? Podcast topics? Interested in training? Send us a DM on the socials or send us an email at info@enduromethod.com!

Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Listen in as Jesse shares about how each of us has something to contribute, something to share with the world around us. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his mountain biking, snowmobiling, and dirt biking hobbies. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Join us as we gather live for our Sunday Service. We look forward to gathering with your virtually and hearing your thoughts and prayers during our live chat. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

After surviving an incredible 200ft plunge from the Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia, multi-sport athlete Adam Campbell thought his mountaineering days were behind him.But, thanks in part to his wife, Dr. Laura Kosakoski, Adam was able to return to the slopes.Then, one day in 2020, he triggered an avalanche - with catastrophic consequences for both of them…As Adam explains in this emotional interview with Olly, dealing with the fallout has meant coming to terms with guilt, accepting his vulnerability, and tackling the notion of ‘high-performance grief'. Adam's blog, Muddy Socks, can be found at: muddy-socks.ghost.ioIn the Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart investigates the environmental impacts of the death care industry and the trend in Washington State for human composting, with the help of Return Home's Katey Houston.Our record of the month is ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave' from Gang of Youths: goy.ffm.to/intoylIf you can afford to, please buy us a beer using our secure form at modernmann.co.uk/beer - and who knows, you could be a MANNBASSADOR in a future episode, like lucky Dan, David, Garry and Angela today! And Philip the cat, of course. If you're a cat.This episode is supported by:• Pact, the specialty subscription coffee company. New customers get a free V60 filter kit when you sign up to a Pact plan and enter the code MANN• Betterhelp, the world's largest online therapy platform. Get 10% off your first month of affordable, private therapy• Stitch Fix, the personal styling site that sends you great clothes to try on at home. Get started today and get 20% off when you keep all five items• Manscaped, the only men's brand dedicated to below the waist grooming. Get 20% Off + Free Shipping, with the code ‘Mann'We'll be back (Alix Fox included) on April 10thCONTENT WARNING: account of extreme sports injury, moment of death, and suicidal thoughts. Zeitgeist includes description of body decomposition. UK Samaritans:116 123US National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255Australia, Lifeline 13 11 14.Other countries can be found at suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlinesPresenter: Olly Mann. Producer: Matt Hill: Contributors: Adam Campbell, Ollie Peart, Gang Of Youths. Thanks: Katey Houston. Theme Music: Django Django. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. © Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On March 4, 1910, the Rogers Pass Avalanche killed 62 men clearing a railroad line near the summit of Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. Over a century later, it remains the deadliest avalanche in Canadian history. Simplisafe Take advantage of SimpliSafe's holiday sale and get 40% off your new home security system by visiting SIMPLISAFE.com/DEADLY for 40% off your entire system. Hurry! This offer ends soon. Credits: Host: Les Stroud Producers: Ajeeth Parkal & Miklos Perlus for Storrios Supervising Producer: Robert Laughlin for Distribution 360 Inc Executive Producer:  Ron Goetz for Partners in Motion https://www.youtube.com/c/SurvivormanLesStroud https://www.storrios.com/ https://distribution360.com/ https://www.partnersinmotion.com/

Forgiving and Forgiveness: How we are truly 100% forgiven and how to work towards forgiving others. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

We would like to introduce ourselves, the members of our Site Leadership Team. Listen in as they share who they are and their values and what they would like to bring to our Church Family. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

Forgiving and Forgiveness: How we are truly 100% forgiven and how to work towards forgiving others. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Forgiving and Forgiveness: How we are truly 100% forgiven and how to work towards forgiving others. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Forgiving and Forgiveness: How we are truly 100% forgiven and how to work towards forgiving others. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Forgiving and Forgiveness: How we are truly 100% forgiven and how to work towards forgiving others. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

From the new Series: Forgiving and Forgiveness Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Ever been confused by the voice of God. You are not alone, in Acts 10, Peter was confused too. How do we discern the voice of God? We'll find out that Jesus is the key. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove...

Listen in as pastor Jesse Lerch embarks on the new series 'Peter's Puzzling Vision' based on Acts 10: 9-17 Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

The story of the Ethiopian Eunuch is a powerful little story filled with hidden gems that are often missed when reading the story casually. This is a story about God absolutely accepting those who were considered unacceptable. It's about the new work of Jesus in new kinds of people. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... To support Junction Church, click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

The story of the Ethiopian Eunuch is a powerful little story filled with hidden gems that are often missed when reading the story casually. This is a story about God absolutely accepting those who were considered unacceptable. It's about the new work of Jesus in new kinds of people. Jesse Lerch is the Lead Pastor for the Junction Church. He was born and raised in the Slocan Valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. He is humble and gentle in spirit, but not afraid to take on the intense terrain of our local mountain in his hobbies of mountain biking, snowmobiling and dirt biking. For more information on our church check out the following links Website: https://junctioncovenant.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCovenantChurch/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junctioncov... To support Junction Church, click here: https://pushpay.com/g/junctioncovenan...

On August 30, 2016, elite ultrarunner Adam Campbell was alpine running in the Selkirk Mountains, and fell. He fell over 200 feet and found himself lying face down in a pile of rocks and surrounded by blood. Incredibly, he survived, but had to battle back from a broken pelvis and spine.  On this week's episode of The Shakeout, we take you back to our conversation with Campbell, who talks about the harrowing accident and the dramatic journey of his recovery and return to racing.

Welcome to episode 40 of the Mountain Nature and Culture Podcast. I'm your host, Ward Cameron, and I record this on August 16, 2017, we've finally received a bit of rain in the Canadian Rockies. Every drop is a gift at this point and hopefully it will reduce our explosive fire hazard and let us stop worrying about unplanned fires. This week, I take a look at the fire fears in Jasper as an increase in pine beetle killed pines has added vast amounts of fuel to an already tinder dry forest. I also continue the story of Major A.B. Rogers, the surveyor responsible for designing the route that the Canadian Pacific Railway follows as it traverses the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains of western Canada. Pine Beetles Wreak Havoc on Jasper's Forests I just returned from 4-days of hiking in Jasper National Park, and I was horrified by the damage being done by mountain pine beetle in the park. In a summer plagued by an almost endless drought, thousands of dead pine trees simply adds fuel to the potential for a huge fire in the park. Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a natural pest of the mountain forests of western Canada and the U.S. but historically they were only found in very low numbers in the park. The beetles create tunnels behind the bark in the layer of cells called the phloem, the thin layer of cells that transmit sugars within the plant. As they mine this layer, they may end up killing the tree, but they also carry with them a blue stain fungus. This fungus finishes the job by interrupting the ability of nutrients to move up and down the tree trunk. It also stains the wood blue, destroying any potential commercial value that it might have. If you have any doubt about the impact of a warming climate, just take a drive towards the town of Jasper. Warmer temperatures have allowed the beetles to explode in numbers and infest enormous numbers of lodgepole pine as well as western white pine. The lack of sufficiently cold winters is coupled with decades of fire suppression to provide plenty of food for them to take advantage of. The beetle is now expanding its range eastward out of the Rockies while also affecting trees at higher and higher elevation. As populations grow, the beetles disperse in one of two ways. In the first, dispersal within stands, they usually just travel a short distance, up to 30 metres or so, but when they move above the canopy into a long-distance dispersal, they can travel hundreds of kilometres. Long-distance dispersals are difficult to stop, so many of the management decisions are based on stopping dispersal within stands as the infestation spreads from tree to tree. Prior to fire suppression, many of the valleys in the mountains would have had far fewer trees as the flames would kiss the forests every 15 years or so. Today, we've created a massive monoculture of huge stands of lodgepole pine and the beetles are loving them. The simplest solution to this problem is to bring more fire, much more fire to the landscape to try to restore some of that balance. Back in episode 35, I talked about how fire is an integral part of the mountain landscape. The wildlife benefit from fire, the plant communities are refreshed and the mosaic of forest stands of different ages also helps to challenge insect pests. These regular fires, also help to protect communities like Jasper from the potential for large conflagrations like the one that the town is currently afraid could occur. Because of the huge amount of fuel that has built up over time, these fires may need to be tempered by some selective logging in areas that are too sensitive to burn. In some areas, the beetles have killed 70% of the lodgepole pine trees and the infection is spreading quickly. Experts believe that the number of infected trees could increase exponentially over the next few years, continually increasing the fire risk to communities like Jasper. Surprisingly, at a meeting in Jasper recently CAO Mark Fercho talked about his experience fighting the pine beetle when he worked in Prince George, B.C. He was quoted in the Fitzhugh newspaper as saying: “It’s the green trees that are full of beetles, not the red ones,” Each one of those live trees can infect a dozen or more additional trees. The area of infected trees has tripled since 2014 to some 21,500 ha. Back in the day, when we had proper winters, it was the cold that helped keep the beetles at bay. On average, mid-winter temperatures in the range of -37 C are sufficient to kill 50% of the beetle larvae. Earlier in the season, temperatures as low as -20 C can also be effective. Communities like Prince George were forced to cut down thousands of trees in order to reduce the fire hazard in and around the community. They followed that by a replanting program to help replace the lost trees. Standing dead trees, like those left behind by pine beetles are capable of sending sparks high into the sky allowing fires to spread. Natural fires are not quite as explosive simply because they lack the tinder dry, standing, dead wood. Jasper has a lot of work ahead of it, and the character of the place will also change. If Parks is able to combine increased prescribed burns along with selective clearing of standing dead trees, the future may not be as bleak as it seems at the moment. Across North America, fire experts are beginning to realize that the biggest challenges faced by most forests is NOT forest fires, but the lack of them. More and more fire ecologists are suggesting that fires be simply left to burn themselves out - at least those that don't threaten human lives or property. These same scientists suggest that if some of the money being spent on suppression were actually devoted to fireproofing homes in communities then these towns may actually be much safer than they currently are. With changing climates and increased beetle expansion, fires are coming. I applaud the work Parks Canada is doing in recognizing the growing challenges that our western forests are experiencing and, for Jasper, I hope that they have received some of the rainfall that finally soaked my hiking group over the past few days. I'm happy to walk in the rain, and even the snow that we had yesterday, if it helps to reduce the fire hazard that we have all been worried about in the mountain west. A.B. Roger's Line Last week I talked about Major A.B. Rogers and his quest to find a route through the Bow Valley and the Selkirk Mountains in B.C. Well, by the end of the 1882 season he'd found a route…or had he? Unfortunately for the Major, his unlikeable personality meant that he had a long line of rivals that considered him to be all bluster and no substance…and then there was the fact that he was…oh, what's that word? Oh, yah…American! Even back then, there was that inherent rivalry, although we would see more American involvement in this line before the last spike would be driven home. By the start of the 1883 season, nobody BUT Rogers had actually traversed his route through the Selkirks, the Kicking Horse Pass route was far from finished, and finally, there was the matter of some inconvenient tunnels to be corrected. All in all, it was just another frantic year of exploring, confirming, and changing the slowly coalescing line on a map that would, just a few years down the road, become the tie that binds this nation together. In addition, Rogers was acting as a pathfinder as opposed to a proper surveyor. The fact that he forced his way through some mad wilderness, that didn't mean a train could follow his trail of tobacco stains. Any potential route still needed axe men, transit men, and the levelers before a real route could be confirmed. It really needed more than that. It needed a sober investigation to prove that the route down the Bow River, through the Kicking Horse Pass, and across the Selkirks was indeed possible. Too much money and time were being invested in this commitment to risk any chance of error. Rogers had his detractors. Perhaps it was his gruff nature, or his penny-pinching way of economizing on supplies, leading many of his expeditions to retreat on the verge of starvation. One of those was Jon Egan, the western Superintendent of the railway. He was unwavering in his assessment of the route through the Selkirks: "I want to tell you positively that there is no pass in the Selkirk Range...It has to be crossed in the same manner as any other mountain. The track must go up one side and down the other." At the same time, the Governor General of Canada, the Marquis of Lorne, the husband of Princess Louise (after whom Lake Louise is named), also was concerned about the potentially steep gradients that might be involved, but he was more concerned with the time constraints. As he put it: "It would be better to have them than further delay, with the N. Pacific gaining Traffic." Any fan of TV shows like Hell on Wheels, coincidentally filmed along the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, can understand the focus on time and money. This was the biggest investment this young nation had embarked upon and, quite frankly, we couldn't afford it. Time was money and every dollar spent was not easily replaced down the road. While some may have underestimated Rogers because of his American birth, there was one American that nobody dared underestimate, the General Manager of the line, William Cornelius Van Horne. Van Horne is the star of the show, and I'll devote an entire episode to sharing his story but at this point, he pondered: "we must take no chances on this season's work because any failure to reach the desired results and have the line ready to put under contract will be serious if not disastrous. I think it important that you should take an extra engineer, who is fully competent, to take charge of a party in case of sickness or failure of any of your regular men." Van Horne was also concerned about the fact that Rogers often pushed his workers in difficult conditions with few rations. He added: "It is also exceedingly important that an ample supply of food be provided and that the quantity be beyond a possibility of a doubt. "Very serious reports have been made to the Government and in other quarters about the inadequacy of the supplies provided last year and a good many other reports have been made tending to discredit our work. The officials in Ottawa, as a consequence look upon our reports with a good deal of suspicion... "We cannot expect to get good men for that work at as low or lower rates than are paid further East and we must feed the men properly in order to get good service. It will be cheaper for the Company to pay for twice the amount of supplies actually necessary than to lose a day's work for lack of any." To understand his caution, we need to remember that the ribbon of steel that was the Canadian Pacific was winding westward day after day after day, mile after mile, creeping ever closer to this question mark on the map. Every rail cost money. Every railroad tie cost money. The further west the line progressed, the more committed they were to a route for which some still harbored doubt. Despite this dispatch, Van Horne fully trusted Rogers, he just came from a very different point of view. He defended Rogers to a businessman in New York: "There has been a good deal of feeling among some of the Canadian Engineers particularly those who have been accustomed to the Government Service against Major Rogers, partly from natural jealousy of one who is looked upon as an outsider, partly from his lively treatment of those whom he looks upon as shirkers or 'tender feet' and partly from his somewhat peculiar methods of securing economy, but more that all perhaps from his having succeeded, as is supposed, in doing what was unsuccessfully attempted by the Gov't Engineers, namely, in getting through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains by a direct line. "I believe him to be capable and I know him to be thoroughly honest. He is something of an enthusiast and is disposed to undertake himself and put upon his men more severe duties than most engineers are accustomed to and I have reason to believe that in his anxiety to economize in every possible way he has gone too far in some cases and that a good deal of unnecessary discomfort, although no suffering, has resulted from it." The route was to be scrutinized from east to west, beginning with the area closest to the westward moving rails, the Bow Valley, beginning at Fort Calgary and extending westward. Charles Shaw was asked by James Ross, the western division manager to look at Rogers line covering the first 60 miles to the west of Calgary. He was unimpressed. He stated: "It's a nightmare to me and I'm afraid it will hold us back a year." Shaw felt he could improve on the line when Roger's who was present at the time leaped to his feet and blurted: "That's the best line that can be got through the country. Who in hell are you, anyway?" Undeterred, Shaw claimed that if he could not only find a better line, but: "If I don't save at least half a million dollars over the estimated cost of construction, I won't ask for pay for my season's work." There was another tunnel to the west, around a mountain in Banff. Van Horne knew it would delay work so Van Horne demanded: "Look at that," the general manager exclaimed. "Some infernal idiot has put a tunnel in there. I want you to go up and take it out." He was talking to his locating engineer J.H.A. Secretan, never a fan of Rogers, yet Secretan responded: "Mr. Van Horne, those mountains are in the way, and the rivers don't all run right for us. While we are at it we might as well fix them, too" In the end, Roger's nemesis Shaw, found a way to just go around the mountain which still bears the name 'Tunnel Mountain" in Banff although the tunnel was never actually built. Shaw was very critical for Rogers because he missed this option. He stated: "Roger's location here was the most extraordinary blunder I have ever known in the way of engineering" To make matters worse, Shaw was now sent to examine Rogers route through the Selkirks. This was easier said than done. To get to the Selkirks, you first needed to cross the Kicking Horse…and it held its own special brand of challenges. One did not just stroll, down the Kicking Horse, no more than Albert Rogers strolled, er crawled up. To traverse the Kicking Horse, you had to survive the Golden Staircase. Essentially, you had to survive a two-foot wide trail carved into the cliffs several hundred feet above the raging waters of the Kicking Horse River. The surveyors that plied these mountains were some of the toughest men these mountains have ever seen, but some were so terrified by the Golden Staircase that they would literally shut their eyes and hold on to the tail of their horse for guidance. As Shaw descended, he encountered a packer with a single horse ascending the staircase while he had an entire packtrain. As they mentally went through the arithmetic, one horse, several horses, one horse, several horses. In the end, they had no other option than to push the one horse off the cliff to its death. You simply can't turn a horse around on a 24 inch ledge. To attempt it risked spooking the entire pack train and risking much more dire consequences. So Shaw gets to the bottom and he bumps into the old man. I know, what are the odds. An entire mountain range and…oops, what brings you here. Rogers, in his usual congenial manner offered up a pleasant greeting that went something like: "Who the hell are you, and where the hell do you think you're going?" Thankfully, Shaw was a more reasonable man…or maybe not. The exchange continued. "It's none of your damned business to either question. Who the hell are you, anyway?" "I am Major Rogers." "My name is Shaw. I've been sent by Van Horne to examine and report on the pass through the Selkirks." That was a name that Rogers knew. Rogers was not a man to forgive a slight and he virtually exploded: "You're the…Prairie Gopher that has come into the mountains and ruined my reputation as an Engineer" Shaw was a big man, a much bigger man than Rogers and so he wasted no time jumping off his horse and grabbed Rogers  by the throat, shaking him and threatening? "Another word out of you and I'll throw you in the river and drown you" Rogers, not a big fan of water since his incident in Bath Creek in last week's episode, decided to back down. He claimed that he had been let down by an engineer and agreed to show him the route through the Selkirks. Rogers dragged Shaw up the Beaver River to the divide and then down to the Illecillewaet River. Shaw constantly criticized the route. At every turn, Shaw was there to dismiss Rogers and demean his progress. Simple things could add fuel to the fire…even former fires. As the story goes, Rogers gestured to the great Illecillewaet Glacier and exclaimed: "Shaw, I was the first white man to ever set eyes on this pass and this panorama." Shortly after this happened, Shaw found the remains of a campfire along with some rotted tent poles and asked Rogers where they had come from. The hatred continued in the exchange. Rogers replied: "How strange! I never noticed those things before. I wonder who could have camped here." To which Shaw countered: "These things were left here years ago by Moberly when he found this pass!" This was a world of egos and it usually seemed that one surveyor could never praise commend or support the work of another. Rogers was an easy man to hate and it brought him great grief. Stories like this sowed doubt in the Canadian Pacific and this pass had to be carefully scrutinized before the line could continue. After Shaw departed Rogers, heading eastward towards the Kicking Horse Pass, they encountered a second party dispatched to check up on Roger's route, led by none other than Sandford Fleming himself. Fleming had been dispatched by George Stephen, one of the two main financiers of the railroad; and if Stephen suggested an outing, you kitted up and headed for the hills. Shaw enjoyed telling Fleming that the route was impassable and that Rogers was a charlatan. As it turned out, Fleming ignored most of Shaw's stories because he had just descended the Kicking Horse and it had been the most horrifying experience of his many years in the wilderness. Nothing could possibly be worse…or could it? Descending the 'golden staircase, he later stated that he could not look down. If you did: "gives one an uncontrollable dizziness, to make the head swim and the view unsteady, even with men of tried nerve. I do not think that I can ever forget that terrible walk; it was the greatest trial I ever experienced." It was also a scorching hot summer, much like this one, and he added:  "I, myself, felt as if I had been dragged through a brook, for I was without a dry shred on me," Now let's back this up a little. All this happened before they met Rogers. As they continued on, Shaw's allegations faded and they began to recover from the terror of the Kicking Horse Pass. After connecting with Rogers, he dragged them up to the pass and Fleming, happy to see a way over the ramparts pulled out a box of cigars and toasted Rogers accomplishments and proposed that a Canadian Alpine Club be formed. Fleming was immediately voted in as president. The concept did not really take shape though until 1906 when former railroad surveyor A.O. Wheeler and reporter Elizabeth Parker took this spark and created the Alpine Club of Canada on March 27, 1906. Of course, this is a story for another episode. Things took a turn for the worse when they began the descent down the western side, into the dense interior rainforest of the Columbia Mountains. Along with Fleming was his former Minister George Grant and the experience was so harrowing that Grant would never return to such a wilderness again. As he described it: "It rained almost every day. Every night the thunder rattled over the hills with terrific reverberations, and fierce flashes lit up weirdly [sic] tall trees covered with wreaths of moss, and the forms of tired men sleeping by smoldering camp fires." In the following 5 days, they travelled only 27 km. How bad could it be? According to Grant, they pushed their way: "through acres of densest underbrush where you cannot see a yard ahead, wading through swamps and beaver dams, getting scratched from eyes to ankles with prickly thorns, scaling precipices, falling over moss- covered rocks into pitfalls, your packs almost strangling you, losing the rest of the party while you halt to feel all over whether any bones are broken, and then experiencing in your inmost soul the unutterable loneliness of savage mountains." Essentially, a good time was had by all. In this time of catered tourism with 5 million visitors a year swarming over routes that caused terror, hardship, privation, and death. It's important at times to stop, step back and wonder…if these forbearers could see what we have done with their legacy what would they think? As they see the landscape trampled and the wildlife sequestered, what would people like Rogers and Fleming say? They saw the landscape in its rawest form when even the idea of a national railway was simply a fanciful idea. Today, we don't have room for a single grizzly. We think it's more important for our dog to pee than it is for black and grizzly bears to be able to feed on the single food that allows them to exist on the landscape. Rogers was a miserable curmudgeon. He loved neither man nor beast, but he loved one thing…wilderness. As a guide, I spend a great deal of time relating the stories of those that came before. At the same time, I've written three books on the trails of western Canada and designed a 7-day mountain bike race that both Bike Magazine and Mountain Bike Magazine called 'North America's Toughest Race'. This meant that I had to explore thousands of kilometres alone in the wilderness. During this time, I often reflected on the experiences of these explorers and pioneers…the men that came before. To them, the wilderness was not something to be appreciated, it was something to be conquered…or was it? People often ask me about these men. I reply that" "Lots of people want to know what these men thought when they tore through that last tangle of wilderness and encountered an emerald green lake that had a glacier capped peak at the far end. To the left was a sheer vertical wall, and to the right was a matching vertical wall. What did they really think? Damn, another dead end!" These mountains were not something to be appreciated, they were something to be survived. Yet today, we see them with an eye of entitlement. The journals of these explorers describe a landscape of hardship and terror, but also one full of wonder and opportunity. As I look at the decisions being made just on local levels when it comes to preserving these landscapes and the ecosystems and animals that call them home. I fear that I may be one of the storytellers writing the last chapter… chroniclers of the end of our local wilderness and the animals that define it.  And with that said, it's time to wrap this episode up. I want to thank you for sharing your time with me and if you like the stories, please share the episodes with your friends. Stories are always best when shared. At Ward Cameron Enterprises, we sell wow! As a tour operator for the last 30 years, we can make sure your visit to the mountain west is one that you'll never forget. We specialize in hiking and step-on guides as well as speaking programs, nature and culture workshops and guide training. Drop us a line at info@wardcameron.com if you'd like to book your mountain experience. Today I took clients up to Mirror Lake and along the Highline Trail in Lake Louise. It's a classic trail that offers the option to crest the Big Beehive and offer panoramic views for miles. I'll post a picture in the show notes at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep040.

The Bears Bite Back I hate it when the inevitable happens! We've been talking for weeks about people entering closed areas during the most critical time of the year for black and grizzly bears to put on fat for the winter months. I've witnessed numerous people violating the closures and have called for a wildlife ambassador program for Canmore, similar in some ways to the Wildlife Guardians program that has been pioneered by Banff National Park. If you might be interested in getting involved in such a program, drop me a line at info@wardcameron.com or leave a comment in the show notes for this episode. This week, this all came to a head. This week an 18 year old Canmore woman decided to violate the closure in order to take her dog for a walk. Keep in mind that any time there is a close encounter with a bear and you have a dog, there is a chance that the encounter will escalate simply because a snarling dog can be perceived as a threat by a bear. She was walking the trail that runs beside the Rundle Forebay when the attack occurred. She met what is believed to have been a black bear, and the bear made contact resulting in some superficial injuries. She was treated at hospital and released…for now! For the sake of a walk to let her dog pee, she now faces both enormous fines and jail time. Her family and friends dispute the contention that she was in a closed area, stating that it was an open area connecting the Highline far connector along the reservoir. Alberta Environment and Parks insist however she was indeed in a closed area. The entire Rundle Forebay area is closed and it is well publicized within the local area. According to a story in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, Sherene Kaw, assistant director of communications for Alberta Justice and the Solicitor General indicated that the woman did NOT have bear spray and that, while the dog was on leash, she released the leash when the attack occurred. While it can't be definitively determined if the bear was a black or grizzly, no grizzlies were known to be feeding in the area, at least based upon trail camera evidence. This incident really showcases the need for a Wildlife Ambassador program in Canmore. In most years, it may only last for 6-8 weeks. The buffaloberries only last until the first frost, and then they all fall from the bush. Programs like this must operate in conjunction with programs focused on reducing attractants within the townsite. In 2015, when the buffaloberry crop failed, the town saw a huge influx of bears attracted to our flowering fruit trees. Since then, Banff, Jasper and Canmore have developed various programs designed to help reduce the problem. Buffaloberries are no different than any other crop. They need the right conditions at the right time, and if we don't get them, we get a failure in the crop. This year and last were bumper crops, but 2015 was an utter failure. This young woman is being publicly vilified. Her identity is currently being protected and I support that. The tendency of internet vigilantism has no role in this story. Her life is changing by the moment. It is NOT confirmed at this point, whether she is guilty, but let's set that aside for the moment. I truly believe that her point of view has shifted dramatically in the last 48 hours. Instead of vilifiying her, why not bring her into the conversation? It's easy to pour on hate but let's put this into perspective. She's a kid who, as the story currently stands, did a dumb thing. I personally would like to spend some time simply talking with her to understand her point of view at the time, and how it may have changed since that encounter. Protecting corridors is not going well. Social media is composed of adversarial groups unable to see any other viewpoint. I understand that completely. I find it difficult to comprehend the decisions that many people make when their actions do not match their stated beliefs. So let's talk. If found guilty, she faces the potential for large fines and even jail time. The fact that the spokesman for the Alberta government is in the Solicitor General's office indicates that there may be plans to make an example of her in the courts. So many of us that are expelling comments on social media are, well how do I say it, more experienced. How do we reach that younger generation which is far more likely to violate closures simply from a feeling of invincibility and entitlement? Maybe we just talk to them. I would love to talk with you. Please reach out. If you know her, please have her contact me. I will protect your privacy 100% because I think you have something to add to the conversation. Let's put away the pitchforks and look at this as another chance to build a bridge to a community that is an important part of the conversation. Just sayin' And if we're keeping score, this is not a new story. A colleague of mine that is interested in helping coordinate the wildlife guardian program pointed me to a Calgary Sun article from 2014 that looked into the same issue in Canmore. In this story, there was an aggressive bear was known to be in the area. It had, in a similar situation, had a minor infraction where it bit the finger of a Danish tourist. It was a minor encounter, but bears sell newspapers and the story was all over the media and airwaves. Just like this year, yellow flagging tape and signs indicated that the same areas were closed to access. And in case you're wondering, the same closures will happen next year, and the next, and the next. However in this case, Fish and Wildlife officers placed automated cameras at the main access points to the closed area. What did they find? In just 8 days they photographed some 60 people completely ignoring the closure and entering the restricted area. In one case, an entire family with Mom, Dad, one kid on a bike and a burley in tow went under the flagging tape closing a trail and continued on their merry way. This is the world we live in. it's time we embrace the conversation, create a visible wildlife guardian program, provide eyes and provide ears for Conservation Officers. We can help remove the potential for people to 'anonymously' enter closed areas. Guardians would be there for education and outreach. The goal would be to help Parks keep both people AND bears safe. We may find other areas where we can assist in keeping people and wildlife safe down the road. I'm a believer in dialogue and collaboration. I don't know how this will eventually manifest itself, but I'm willing to do what I can do help reduce the challenges we are experiencing this year in the future. Maybe Bear 148 will be one of the last to be removed from the landscape on our watch. Please remember, any time that Parks has to make a decision like the one they did with 148, it's a gut wrenching one. Nothing moves forward without their help and support. Let's build bridges towards viable corridors. Next up…Hells Bells Rogers. Hells Bells Rogers Last week I talked about railroad surveyor Walter Moberly. He was a pivotal figure in the early days of the Canadian Pacific construction. Another surveyor of note was American Major A.B. Rogers. Railroad surveyors were an independently minded lot. Each would select one route for the railroad - their route - and they would defend that to the death. "Nobody could possibly have a better route than the one I selected" However there were a few things that the surveyors agreed upon. One was that the Selkirk Mountains in the interior of British Columbia were impossible to put a train through. Even Walter Moberly planned to go around the Selkirks rather than through them. Well clearly we needed to find someone with an open mind - and we found that in Major A.B. Rogers. Rogers had earned his reputation as an Indian fighter during a Sioux uprising in 1862 during which he rose to the rank of Major. Later, while working as a surveyor for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, he earned a reputation as a man that could find the best route for a new rail line. He was not a well-loved man. He was described by the CPR's locating engineer, J.H.E. Secretan as: "A short, sharp, snappy little chap with long Dundreary whiskers. He was a master of picturesque profanity, who continually chewed tobacco and was an artist of expectoration. He wore overalls with pockets behind, and had a plug of tobacco in one pocket and a sea biscuit in the other, which was his idea of a season's provisions for an engineer." He also had a reputation for heading out a little short on supplies, if not faculties, and many of his expeditions returned on the verge of starvation. At one point, the general manager of the railroad, William Cornelius Van Horne tried to urge him to bring more supplies. The exchange apparently went as follows: Van Horne stated: "Look here, Major, I hear your men won't stay with you, they say you starve them." The Major replied with: "Tain't so, Van." Van Horne continued: "Well, I'm told you feed 'em on soup made out of hot water flavoured with old ham canvas covers." To this, Rogers replied: "Tain't so, Van. I didn't never have no hams!" James Jerome Hill, more well known as the builder of the Great Northern Railroad in the U.S. was also a part of the Canadian Pacific project and he hired Rogers to find a shorter route between Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Savona's Ferry in British Columbia. The only way to do that would be to go straight through the impenetrable Selkirks as well as through the southern Rockies. While the Rockies had seen more exploration both as part of the Railroad project, but also earlier as part of the fur trade, Rogers would need to link one of these passes with a route through the Selkirks. Jim Hill offered Rogers a bonus of $5,000 and his name on the pass if he could find a route through the Selkirks. Rogers scoured the journals of explorers and surveyors like Walter Moberly to look for some hint of where he might begin to explore for a potential pass. In Moberly's journal, it looked like there might be a possibility by following the Illecillewaet River. Rogers took note of a particular passage in Moberly's journal from 1865: "Friday, July 13th--Rained hard most of the day. Perry returned from his trip up the east fork of the Ille-cille-waut River. He did not reach the divide, but reported a low, wide valley as far as he went. His exploration has not settled the point whether it would be possible to get through the mountains by this valley but I fear not. He ought to have got on the divide, and his failure is a great disappointment to me. He reports a most difficult country to travel through, owing to fallen timber and underbrush of very thick growth..." In the spring of 1881, the Major, along with his favourite nephew Albert Rogers, and 10 Indians headed out towards the Selkirks. While Albert was his given name, the Major generally just referred to him as that Damn Little Cuss. It took them 22 days to reach Kamloops, and from there, the 'Gold Ranges', today known as the Monashees also had to be crossed before they even arrived at the start of the Selkirks. That ate up another 14 days. After spending another 22 days on a raft on the Columbia River, they finally reached the mouth of the Illecillewaet River where the real work began. Each man hoisted a 45-kg pack and they slowly tried to make their way upwards. They went through mile after mile of the most horrific plant to ever grace the planet Earth - Devil's club. If you've never had the pleasure of Devil's club, imagine a six to seven foot woody shrub with huge maple-style leaves and everything from the leaves to the trunk is armed with razor sharp thorns that can easily tear through a pair of canvas pants. So terrible was Devil's club that entire stretches of the railroad were rerouted to go around the worst patches. You couldn't even hack through with a machete. As they made their way through swamp and up vertical rock faces. Albert Rogers later stated that: "many a time I wished myself dead," and added that "the Indians were sicker then we, a good deal." The going never got easier. On numerous occassions, they had to cross bridges of snow suspeded 50 metres above the foaming water of the Illecillewaet River. By this time, their supplies were also beginning to run low, and the cold nights sent a chill right through their thin blankets. They clung to the lower slopes of a mountain that would later be named Mount Sir Donald after Donald Smith, one of the two chief financiers of the railway. "Being gaunt as greyhounds, with lungs and muscles of the best, we soon reached the timber-line, where the climbing became very difficult. We crawled along the ledges, getting toe-hold here and a finger hold there, keeping in the shade as much as possible and kicking toe-holes in the snow crust. When several hundred feet above the timber line, we followed a narrow ledge around a point that was exposed to the sun. (Here four Indians fell over the ledge.) It was in the evening when we reached the summit, very much exhausted. Crawling along this ridge, we came to a small ledge protected from the wind by a great perpendicular rock. Here we decided to wait until the crust again formed on the snow and the morning light enabled us to travel. At ten o'clock, it was still twilight, on the peaks, but the valleys below were filled with the deepest gloom. We wrapped ourselves in our blankets and nibbled at our dry meat and bannock, stamping our feet in the snow to keep them from freezing, and taking turns whipping each other with our pack straps to keep up circulation." Now doesn't that sound like a good time? In the end, they found a stream which split into two channels, with one branch heading west and the other east. It looked like they might have found a pass through the Selkirks, but a shortage of supplies once again forced them to retreat without exploring the western side of the divide. Rogers also realized that the survey crews were rapidly approaching the Bow River valley and he had still not explored the Kicking Horse Pass yet. One of the other things that most of the surveyors agreed upon was that the Bow River valley was the worst possible route to put a train. Not only did it force the line to traverse the Selkirks, but it also meant that they had to go through a horrible pass to the west of present-day Lake Louise, Alberta called the Kicking Horse. Despite these difficulties, this was the route finally chosen and that's a decision we've dissected for more than a century. The long and short of it was that this was the shortest route surveyed and the promoters hoped it would be the cheapest, but that turned out to be completely wrong. We also have to remember that this was a sovereign tool and this route was also the most southerly. They hoped that it would be far enough south to discourage American spur lines from moving into what was Canadian territory. At least in this case it proved true. With the rush towards the Kicking Horse Pass, Rogers party rerouted towards the Bow River valley. Now Rogers, was more of a pathfinder at this point and most of the proper surveyors, the men with the actual instruments necessary to lay out the line, were waiting at about the point visitors to the Rockies would enter the mountains as they drove west from Calgary. The Major came from the south and west and met up with them, and he sent that Damn Little Cuss to come up the Kicking Horse River from the west. He didn't think twice about sending Albert, a 21-year old greenhorn that had never before even been to the Rockies to attempt a task that had never before been accomplished by a non-native. Even the local natives avoided the dreary valley of the Kicking Horse because there was very little in the way of game to hunt - and therefore no real reason to hang about. Needless to say, Albert never showed. The Major paced like a caged animal. He said: "If anything happens to that Damn Little Cuss, I'll never show my face in St. Paul again." He sent out search parties in all directions with orders to fire a volley of shots in the air when they found him. One of those search parties descended the Kicking Horse Pass from the west and finally, they stumbled upon Albert Rogers…literally. Barely moving, and on the verge of starvation, his progress had slowed to a crawl. The only thing he had eaten in the previous 2 days was a porcupine that he had clubbed to death and picked clean right down to the quills. They picked up this pitiful sight, put him on a horse, made their way to the summit of the pass and fired a volley of shots in the air. Apparently the Major road in on his big white horse and as Wilson later recalled: "He plainly choked with emotion, then, as his face hardened again he took an extra-vicious tobacco juice shot at the nearest tree and almost snarled...'Well, you did get here did you, you damn little cuss?' There followed a second juice eruption and then, as he swung on his heel, the Major shot back over his shoulder; 'You're alright, are you, you damn little cuss?'" And with that Albert's face apparently exploded into a grin. He knew the old man better than anyone else and knew that he could never let his real emotions be seen. But the say the double-speed eruptions of tobacco juice from between his big sideburns said more about his emotional state than any words ever could have and nothing more was ever said about the matter. One of the men waiting for the Major was a young punk named Tom Wilson. Wilson was one of those characters that seemed to have the incredible knack of timing. He had the ability to be in the right places at the right time in history. He had begun his career as a Northwest Mounted Policeman and had joined the great march west of the mounties in 1875. He then resigned to join the first survey crews through the Rockies. He described Rogers as he arrived to meet the survey party: "His condition--dirty doesn't begin to describe it. His voluminous sideburns waved like flags in a breeze; his piercing eyes seemed to look and see through everything at once...Every few moments a stream of tobacco juice erupted from between the side-burns. I'll bet there were not many trees alongside the trail that had escaped that deadly tobacco juice aim." Rogers was a typical workaholic, and always had to accomplish more in a day then was practical. The season was getting late and so he pushed the survey crews to move faster. He then declared that he was going to ride out ahead to explore the route and asked for a volunteer. As Wilson again put it: "every man present had learned, in three days, to hate the Major with real hatred. He had no mercy on horses or men--he had none on himself. The labourers hated him for the way he drove them and the packers for that and the way he abused the horses--never gave their needs a thought." Wilson, in the end, agreed to accompany him. Eventually, they came to a river which was swollen and muddy with the spring runoff. Generally, during the summer season, river levels can rise dramatically during the daytime due to the increased pace of snowmelt during the sunny days. At night the water levels usually dropped as the cooler evening reduced the rate of melt. Tom suggested they wait for morning to cross and the old man laughed at him: "Afraid of it are you? Want the old man to show you how to ford it?" The Major spurred his horse into the river at which point the horse was pulled out from under him and he disappeared beneath the raging water. All Tom could do was grab a branch, stick it in the water where the old man had disappeared, go fishing and hope for the best. He was rewarded with a welcome tug and when the Major pulled himself onto the shoreline, all he could say was: "Blue Jesus! Light a fire and then get that damned horse. Blue Jesus, it's cold!" From that point on, when the river would be dirty and muddy with the spring runoff, the surveyors would joke that it was dirty because the old man must be having another bath. In fact to this day it's still known as Bath Creek on maps. Wilson left the survey early this year, swearing never to come back to these God forsaken hills. Rogers laughed at him saying: "You may think you're not coming back but you'll be here next year and I'll be looking for you," All that winter, Tom tried to fight something that just seemed to be tugging at him. Have you ever noticed how sometimes you choose life, and sometimes life chooses you. Before Tom knew what had happened, he found himself back in Fort Benton signing up for one more year on the survey. Tom was hired to pack supplies from present-day Canmore, to the summit of the Kicking Horse Pass. In August of that year, Tom was camped near to present-day village of Lake Louise. He had been hearing the sound of thunder under a clear blue sky. When he met some Stoney Natives he asked them what the sound was: On individual by the name of Gold-seeker told him that it was avalanches off of Snow Mountain high above the Lake of Little Fishes. The next day Tom had the native take him up to the lake and as he became the first non-native to lay eyes on what we now call Lake Louise, he wrote in his journal: "As God is my judge, I never in all my explorations saw such a matchless scene." Tom called the lake Emerald Lake because of its beautiful colour, but the railroad promptly changed the name to Lake Louise after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. This also gives you an idea of where Alberta takes its name as well. She was married to the Governor General of Canada. The very next day, Tom bumped into the Major for the very first time that year and the old man let out a guffaw: "Blue Jesus! I knew you'd be back. I knew you'd be back. You'll never leave these mountains again as long as you live. They've got you now." He was right. Tom was on hand for the hammering of the last spike. You can see his stetson and mustache peering above the crowd from the back in the most iconic photograph of the event. He then went on to start the first guiding operation in the Canadian Rockies and gave many of the areas other enduring guides their start. He lived into the 1930s and is buried in the little cemetery in the town of Banff. Also this summer, Rogers route through the Selkirks was confirmed, and for breaching the final barrier for the Canadian Pacific Railway, he received his bonus of $5,000. He never cashed the cheque. When the general manager of the railroad, William Cornelius Van Horne cornered him to find out why he hadn't cashed it, he blurted out: "What! Cash the cheque? I wouldn't take a hundred thousand dollars for it. It is framed and hangs in my brother's house in Waterville, Minnesota, where my nephews and nieces can see it. I'm not in this for the money." Rogers more than most, really embodied what drove these surveyors. It was not money, it was immortality, and he got that in the naming of Rogers Pass. Next week, I'll look at the challenges in confirming his route as well as the difficulties that the Kicking Horse Pass would present to the railroad.

Ode to Grizzly 148 This has been a heartbreaking week as bear 148, the beloved daughter of Banff's most famous bear 66, was translocated far away from her home territory of Banff and Canmore all the way north to Kakwa Provincial Park, located to the west of Grand Cache. It was a difficult decision for officials with Alberta Environment and Parks, but 148 was getting increasingly closer to people and in the end they felt that the risk of an escalation in behaviour left them with few options other than to move her out of the area. This is the second time she has been moved. Earlier in July she was captured and returned to an area west of the Town of Banff but she returned to Canmore to feed on buffaloberries. In past episodes, I've talked at length about the importance of buffaloberries to bears and how they will always be attracted to low elevation valleys in order to take advantage of these critical calories. One message that doesn't seem to be getting out is that the bears have little choice but to be in communities like Canmore and Banff at this time of year. Buffaloberries need sunlight to grow. Sunlight requires openings in the forest canopy, and this is provided by developers cutting down trees, urban parks, trails and roads…all things that are prevalent in townsites. Essentially, townsites create great conditions for buffaloberry to thrive, even more so than the undeveloped areas between Canmore and Banff where openings are created more sparingly by falling trees or old fires. When you put it all together, there will likely be more berries in Canmore than there will be in an undeveloped forest area. Powerline right of ways become habitat patches for a few months of the year. Every new trail we build allows sunlight to percolate down to the forest floor and creates good conditions for buffaloberries to grow. The story of buffaloberries is about much more than corridors. Wildlife movement corridors are about allowing animals connectivity with adjacent patches of good habitat. Animals will often use the corridors to simply traverse between places like Banff and Kananaskis, through Canmore. However at this time of year, corridors become habitat patches as the openings create buffaloberry buffets. Bears are attracted from many miles to take advantage of these critical foods. It's for this reason that the story of 148 is particularly poignant. She was the canary in the coal mine. If we couldn't create a situation where she could take advantage of the berry crop, then what is the hope for the other 7 or 8 bears currently feeding in the valley? Closures are an important strategy at this time of year, but a closure that is ignored is no closure. If people violating closures get injured by bears, it's always the bears that pay the ultimate price. We need to think beyond 148. Her chances of survival are very slim, but how many other bears do we need to lose in a similar fashion. If we don't create a workable solution then so much of our current battles for corridors will be for nothing. Alberta Parks simply doesn't have the resources to constantly patrol the many entrance and exit points on some of these closures - and neither does Parks Canada. I was impressed to hear about Canmore Bylaw Officers charging people trying to shortcut between the Peaks of Grassi and Quarry Lake over the weekend as well. Maybe it's time for a new approach. I know from my posts on the Bow Valley Community Connection Facebook page that we have a very engaged local population. Maybe we need to set up volunteer systems where people are trained in bear safety and ecology who simply wait at key entry points to try to encourage people to obey the closures. This could NOT be a vigilante force. It would a group of educators, helping people to understand the importance of the closures and how important it is that the bears are allowed to feed unimpeded during the brief berry season. This would help keep both people and bears safe. The volunteers could coordinate with the various enforcement agencies, but their role would simply be one of awareness. Recent studies on wildlife corridors showed astounding use by people and dogs, both on and off leash. The study showed that in the designated wildlife corridors around Canmore, people accounted for 94% of traffic. Of that, 56% of the incidents included people with dogs - and 60% of the dogs were off leash! We need to have a visible presence during closures and maybe a Friends of Wildlife patrol could work similarly to the Wildlife Guardians in the national park that patrol bear jams and try to educate visitors on safe ways to view wildlife responsibly. They also set up stations at popular viewpoints with the sole purpose of providing education and outreach. Our wildlife patrol could fulfil a similar role, educating and informing, while also adding additional sets of eyes to help enforcement officials when the need arises. Next up. Walter Moberly's western surveys The Canadian Pacific Railway Part 2 - Walter Moberly I can't tell the story of the building of the Railway without mentioning Walter Moberly. He was a pivotal personality in the history of British Columbia and a huge proponent of a transcontinental railway. Born in Oxfordshire, England in 1832, his family moved to Upper Canada when he was just 2 years old. As he grew into a man, he became a logger and worked several timber holdings in the Muskoka area before he headed west to British Columbia. He began to do some survey work for the community of New Westminster, and between 1961 and 64 he worked on a number of road building projects. He helped Edgar Dewdney build the Dewdney trail from Hope to the Okanagan. He also built a section of the road to the Caribou gold fields. This experience led him to be named the Assistant Surveyor General of British Columbia in 1865, and he was assigned to search for new travel routes through the mountains landscape of the province. It was this year that Moberly made his most important discovery - Eagle Pass which enabled him to travel through the Gold Range from Shuswap Lake in the Okanagan to join the Columbia River at Revelstoke. As Moberly told the story of the discovery, he shot an arrow at an eagle nest and watched the eagle as it flew up the valley. Since the birds were unlikely to fly up a valley blocked by mountains, he decided to follow them and discovered Eagle Pass. At this time, there was NO talk about a transcontinental railway, but Moberly always believed that it as an unavoidable eventuality. He claimed to have blazed a tree and carved "This is the Pass of the Overland Railway". Eventually, some 20 years later, the railroad would follow this portion of his imagined route. It didn't take Moberly long to hear about the agreement to build the railway in 1972 and so he set about to position himself as just the man to get the job done. By coincidence, as a child, he had gone to school with a girl named Susan Agnes Bernard. She was now the wife of Prime Minister John A Macdonald, and so he managed to talk his way into a dinner invitation with them at their home in Ottawa. Never a shy man, Moberly told Macdonald that he knew exactly where the train should go and that he was the man to do it. In fact he could begin construction within 6 weeks of his return to British Columbia. The boast came with a caveat: "I don't know how many millions you have, but it is going to cost you money to get through those canyons" Moberly had an ego bigger than the mountains and there was only one possible route - his route! He returned to B.C. as District Engineer in charge of the region between Shuswap Lake and the foothills of the Rockies. Moberly was as tough as nails and one of the best axemen in the country, but it would take more than muscles and axes to crack the mountain barrier. Between Shuswap Lake and the foothills sat the impenetrable Selkirk Mountains. Even the Columbia River couldn't penetrate these ramparts. It's forced to flow north for 200 hundred kilometres to go around the northern extent of the Selkirks before turning south towards the U.S. If the mightiest river on the Pacific couldn't crack the mountain rampart, than how could the railway? In fact, Moberly had this all figured out as well. He planned on going around the Selkirks by crossing an old fur trader route over Howse Pass. This would take it through Eagle Pass, around the Selkirks to the north and enter Alberta to the west of the current day Saskatchewan River Crossing and David Thompson Highway. Moberly spent the next 8 months exploring the territory of his proposed line. He also explored the Selkirks to see if there was any possible pass through. After being almost buried by an avalanche, he spent New Year's day of 1872 all alone in a trappers cabin. He wrote in his diary: "I think it...one of the most wretched and dreary places I ever saw...this was the most wretched New Year's Day I ever spent." but as for the Selkirks he continued "I found there was not any practicable pass through the Selkirk Range." He reported his finding to the Chief Surveyor Sandford Fleming. Now did I mention that he had an ego? The thought that Fleming would not agree with his routing never crossed his mind and so he decided to start the work of surveying the Howse Pass right away. After all, better to apologize than ask permission…right? Fleming did agree to a quick trial line through the pass, but Moberly planned for a detailed location survey. He instantly took Fleming's approval to mean that his route was confirmed. As he put it, he read the telegram: "which led me to infer that the line I had taken so many years to explore and discover, and which I was quite confident would be the best to adopt for the proposed transcontinental railroad, would be adopted" After hiring men, hiring pack trains and buying thousands of dollars on supplies, much of which had already been dispatched to places like Eagle Pass, he received a telegram from Fleming telling him that the Yellowhead Pass to the west of Jasper had been chosen instead of Howse Pass. The telegram arrived just 4 hours before his party headed into the wilderness. He was ordered to head north through the Athabasca Pass and to conduct a survey of the Yellowhead Pass, which is the route the Canadian National Railway takes today. Moberly was crushed and actually tried to buy his way out of his contracts, but alas, it was too late. Moberly met with Fleming in the Yellowhead and Fleming was extremely displeased with his excessive spending. Moberly thought Fleming unpatriotic for not using his route. Clearly these two men were not going to get along. Before long, Fleming sent a message taking control of the survey away from Moberly and giving it to someone else. Moberly simply ignored the message and continued working. As he put it: "the instructions conveyed in the letter were too childish to be followed" He would obey orders: "when I could see they were sensible but not otherwise...I went on the survey for business, not to be made a fool of" When Marcus Smith was officially placed in charge of the British Columbia surveys, Moberly left the service. Ironically, some 20 years later, the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway would be hammered in Eagle Pass, right where he predicted so many years ago. One of the great things about much of our western history is that the first-hand journals of many explorers have survived to help keep their stories alive. But we also have to keep in mind that many of these journals were written for their boss. They weren't going to enter: "I saw a grizzly bear and wet my pants". Instead they'll say: "I saw a grizzly and I dropped it from 200 yards with one shot from my Henry rifle". However occasionally we find a journal that was written for more personal reasons. Such is the case of Robert M. Rylatt. Rylatt was one of the surveyors that Moberly had dispatched to Howse Pass. He had a sickly wife and felt that the money from the survey work would help get her the level of care that she needed. His journal was written for his mother and he constantly states that if he ever thought it would be published, he would drop his pen immediately. Rylatt was in charge of the pack trains on the expedition. He signed up for a one year contract, but there was an option to extend it to 2 years - at the railroad's discretion. When he left home in July of 1871, little did he know that he would not return home until June of 1873. Once dispatched, there really was no way to quit. The wilderness was too remote for a lone individual to walk out without the support of the pack trains. Along with Rylatt, Engineer E.C. Gillette was in charge and the party also included 4 surveyors, sixteen axemen, 8 native and Mexican packers and a hunter. Every day Rylatt had to supervise the loading and unloading of 45 pack animals carrying almost 7 tonnes of supplies. About the pack animals Rylatt wrote: "How worried would be any member of the Humane society, could he see the treatment animals in a Pack Train receive, where the animals themselves are only a secondary consideration, the open sores on their backs, from hard and incessant packing, angry and running with humour, over which the Packer, too often, if not closely watched, without washing throws the heavy apparajos, or Pack Saddle, and as the sinch [sic] is tightened the poor beast groans, rears and plunges and not unfrequently sinks down under the pain, only to be whipped again into position." The work was backbreaking. The axemen led the way, hacking through endless numbers of both standing and prostrate trees. Only then would the pack trains continue on. When they met the junction of the Columbia and Blaeberry Rivers, the real work began to cut their way towards Howse Pass. It was about this time that Rylatt first began to feel lonely: "Your sense of being alone in the heart of a city, or even in a village, or within easy distance of fellow beings...gives you no claim to use the term 'alone'. You may have the feeling peculiar to being alone--that is all. Listen sometime when you think you are alone...Can you hear a footfall; a door slam in the distance; a carriage go by? Or the rumble of one...? Can you hear a dog bark? Hare you a cricket on the hearth or even the ticking of a clock...? They reached the pass on October 26, 1871 and the snows of winter quickly signaled that they would need to settle in and wait for spring. Once the snows landed, there would be no mail, pay or new supplies until the next spring. By New Year's Day, tempers were flaring and Rylatt found himself in a standoff with several of the crew that were trying to raid the supplies, and accused Rylatt of hiding the sugar that had ago run out. As they rushed the pantry, he took an axe and cut off three of the fingers of the ring leader. When they returned an hour later, all armed with axes, Rylatt held them off with his Henry rifle. As he wrote: "the roughs of the party are in open mutiny. Growling at their food, cursing me for being out of sugar, all this I care little for...but my pent up feelings have found vent today, and the leader of the roughs will carry my mark to his grave. I have passed through a somewhat exciting scene and don't care to have it repeated" As spring arrived, so did mail, but nothing for Rylatt who was distraught at not knowing if his wife was alive or dead. "We were informed that the white man who undertook to carry down the mail from Wild Horse Creek to Hope last fall, did not reach; and that this spring his body was found somewhere on the lonely route, the mailbag beside him" The mosquitoes were unrelenting as well: "I have smothered my face with mosquito muslin, smeared my hands with bacon grease, but bah! nothing keeps them off, and the heat only melts the grease and sends it beneath my clothing" On May 15, they received word that the Howse Pass route was to be abandoned and that they were to head north. Rylatt also received a long awaited letter when Moberly arrived in camp. In the letter, his bedridden wife begged for him to return but Moberly would not release him from his contract. By August of 1872, the mosquitoes were unrelenting and Rylatt was also beginning to suffer from the effects of scurvy. "My teeth have a feeling of looseness, and my gums are so sore, to touch them with my tongue gives me acute pain; am wondering if it is a touch of Scurvy; it is not very comforting to be sick in the mountains, but to be sick and all alone makes the chills creep down my back. These mountains are inhospitable enough for a man in full vigor." In September, he received three more letters, the last saying: "Oh! Bob, come home, I can't bear it". He was overcome with grief as there was no way he could make his way home to his beloved wife. By October, they were camped at the base of Mounts Hooker and Brown near to Athabasca Pass in present day Jasper National Park. It was here on Oct 19 that Rylatt received a message that simply stated: "Dear Rylatt--The papers state your wife has passed beyond the stream of time. Don't be too cut up, dear old fellow" Three days later, his dog Nip broke through the ice and Rylatt was unable to help as the dog vainly struggled to get out of his icy trap. As he disappeared beneath the ice, Rylatt dropped to his knees and screamed: "Oh God! Must everything be taken from me?" By April, Scurvy was taking its toll on Rylatt: "My mouth is in a dreadful state, the gums being black, the teeth loose, and when pressed against any substance they prick at the roots like needles. At times the gums swell, almost covering the teeth. To chew food is out of the question and so have to bolt it without mastication. My legs also becoming black below the knee...My breath is somewhat offensive and I am troubled with a dry cough. In fact I feel like an old man" With his poor health, he was finally allowed to leave the surveys and return home to an empty house. He left on May 13, 1873. Rylatt's ordeal showed us the things we don't often see in the journals of surveyors and explorers…the hardship, the horror, the loneliness and, in Rylatt's case, the heartbreak. Rylatt's journals are still available for purchase on Amazon.ca. I'll leave a link in the show notes for those that may like to buy a copy. Of all the books I've read on the survey, this one is my favourite because of its brutal honesty. Next week, we'll begin to look at the surveyor that ended up cracking the barrier of the Selkirk Mountains, Major A.B. Rogers. Next up - bird eating deer…say what? Bird-eating Deer While this is a story that comes out of states like South Dakota and Pennsylvania, it's just so unexpected that I thought it might be of interest to listeners of this podcast. It may also be happening right under our noses, but simply not been observed. So often we categorize our wildlife as either carnivore or herbivore depending on what they eat. Deer eat plants and Cougars eat deer. Some animals, like bears and humans get the special title of omnivore or eater of everything. Well it looks like those labels may have been too limiting as scientists have recently discovered that deer are a major predator of songbirds…yes you heard that right, white-tail deer eat birds, in particular ground nesting birds like eastern meadowlarks, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and others. You can go onto Youtube and find some a number of videos of deer munching on a bird or two but researcher Les Murray placed cameras on 25 different nests in Valley Forge National Historic Park in Pennsylvania. Eight of the 25 nests was beset upon by predators and, as it turned out, the number-one predator was white-tailed deer. White-tails ate all 5 eggs from an eastern meadowlark nest, all but one egg from a field sparrow nest and four 5-day old nestlings from another field sparrow nest. Ok, so deer at a few eggs and nestlings - well they accounted for 38% of the recorded predation events as compared to 25% for fox, and 13% for both raccoons and weasels. Studies had shown that deer do occasionally eat an egg or nestling, but nobody expected that they were such an avid fan of birds. It may have something to do with sheer numbers of deer as opposed to the numbers of fox or raccoons. As songbird populations are shrinking in many areas, this is the first study to indicate that deer may actually play a role in the drop in population. States like Delaware have population densities of 45 deer/square km. That's potentially a lot of deer to hoover up eggs. The first time a bird was discovered in the gut of a deer was in 1970. It was later discovered that birds netted for population studies in Michigan were also being gobbled down by white-tails. Maybe it's time to redefine the word herbivore? Next up solar eclipse time Solar Eclipse coming next month On August 21, parts of North America will get the chance to experience a total solar eclipse. For many sky watchers, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Few people ever get to see a total solar eclipse simply because they are very rare. They take place when the moon lines up perfectly between the Earth and the sun and blocks out all of its light, casting the moons shadow on the Earth. For those of us in the mountain west, we won't get the full-meal-deal, but we should be able to see about an 85% coverage of the sun by the shadow of the moon. This eclipse is unique in that it will travel right across the U.S. from coast to coast - and that hasn't happened since 1918. Globally, partial solar eclipses happen between 2 and 5 times each year, but total eclipses only happen every 12-18 months. While we won't get to see the total eclipse, it will still be a special event. Want to see the TOTAL eclipse, well then it's time for a road show…'shotgun'. Head south to Oregon, Idaho or Montana. The total eclipse will last for just a few minutes and within a 110 kilometre wide band stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. You'll also need to be ready at between 10 am and 12:30 pm Mountain Daylights Savings Time. For those of us that can't do a road trip, it will begin at 10:18 am, hit its maximum at 11:31 am and be finished at 12:48 pm. If you want to learn about the timing where you are, I'll leave a link in the show notes at mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep038 to make sure you don't miss the show (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2017-august-21) Now don't you be looking directly at it though as you can quickly damage your eyesight. You can buy special eclipse glasses for a few dollars or build a pinhole projector to help you watch it without risking vision damage. I'll have a link to this as well (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/box-pinhole-projector.html) While we haven't had a many cloudy days this summer, should you just not have luck, you can watch it live on NASA's site by clicking the following link: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-live-stream And with that it's time to wrap this episode up. For links mentioned in this story simply visit www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep038 for show notes and links to additional stories.

Gerhard's West Canada Euer Wegweiser den Westen Canadas für euch zu entdecken Mount Revelstoke National Park  Begleitende Internetseite, Bilder und Kartenausschnitte www.gerhards-west-canada.de   In den bisherigen Folgen der Podcast-Serie Gerhard's West Canada hat man sich ganz British Columbia und den Südwesten der Nachbarprovinz Alberta erschlossen. Die Metropole Vancouver und die sie umgebenden Coast Mountains, auch die riesige Insel Vancouver Island hat man sich angesehen. Man ist quer durch den Süden Britisch Columbia's durch die Regionen Thompson, Okanagan, Kootenay und Cariboo Chilcotin Coast gekommen, man ist bis hinauf in den Norden Britisch Columbia's gelangt. Die atemberaubende Landschaft der Canadian Rocky Mountains Alberta's und British Columbia's hat man mit Begeisterung sich angesehen und kennengelernt. Man hat sich Gedanken gemacht über das Reisen mit dem Wohnmobil, sogar, was es bedeutet, seinen eigenen Camper in Kanada zu besitzen. Entdeckungsfahrten mit dem Kanu lassen einem die Regionen noch viel intensiver erleben. Es gibt so viele Orte in den Bergen Westkanadas mit einem berühmten Namen, der so gut wie jedem ein Begriff ist. Zu den nicht ganz so bekannten - ganz zu unrecht - gehört die Ortschaft Revelstoke, herrlich umrahmt von den Monashee und Selkirk Mountains. Auf dem Weg von oder zu den südlichen Canadian Rockies auf dem Transcanada Highway Number One, kommt man direkt an diesem Ort vorbei und praktisch gerade einmal auf der anderen Straßenseite der Mount Revelstoke National Park Viel Vergnügen beim Zuhören, der Reiseplanung und natürlich dem Wichtigsten, der Reise selbst. Herzlichen Gruß Gerhard Ibl

Today, Becca Cahall brings us All These Things – a story about getting older and skiing faster.  We’re headed for British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains – an incredible range of open alpine faces, perfect tree skiing and tight chutes that every backcountry skier dreams of visiting. 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cambrian period when there was an explosion of life on Earth. In the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia in Canada, there is an outcrop of limestone shot through with a seam of fine dark shale. A sudden mudslide into shallow water some 550 million years ago means that a startling array of wonderful organisms has been preserved within it. Wide eyed creatures with tentacles below and spines on their backs, things like flattened rolls of carpet with a set of teeth at one end, squids with big lobster-like arms. There are thousands of them and they seem to testify to a time when evolution took a leap and life on this planet suddenly went from being small, simple and fairly rare to being large, complex, numerous and dizzyingly diverse. It happened in the Cambrian Period and it's known as the Cambrian Explosion.But if this is the great crucible of life on Earth, what could have caused it? How do the strange creatures relate to life as we see it now? And what does the Cambrian Explosion tell us about the nature of evolution?With Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Cambridge University; Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, Open University; Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cambrian period when there was an explosion of life on Earth. In the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia in Canada, there is an outcrop of limestone shot through with a seam of fine dark shale. A sudden mudslide into shallow water some 550 million years ago means that a startling array of wonderful organisms has been preserved within it. Wide eyed creatures with tentacles below and spines on their backs, things like flattened rolls of carpet with a set of teeth at one end, squids with big lobster-like arms. There are thousands of them and they seem to testify to a time when evolution took a leap and life on this planet suddenly went from being small, simple and fairly rare to being large, complex, numerous and dizzyingly diverse. It happened in the Cambrian Period and it's known as the Cambrian Explosion.But if this is the great crucible of life on Earth, what could have caused it? How do the strange creatures relate to life as we see it now? And what does the Cambrian Explosion tell us about the nature of evolution?With Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Cambridge University; Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, Open University; Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds.