The fourth in a series of memorable mountains I'm thinking about is one I've never climbed but have sat and stared at for hours. Mount Assiniboine is a dramatic 3618 metre mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The photo above was taken on a ski tour in 1987. I found the rather battered negative of this picture a few days ago while sorting through some old photos. I coudn't find the print so I photographed the negative on my old lightbox and processed it in Lightroom.
Mount Assiniboine appears in two of my long-out of print books. I described the ski tour mentioned above in Wilderness Skiing and Winter Camping and described Assiniboine as a "magnificent soaring spire ... a classic mountain, a mountain of dreams, the perfect mountain of childhood memories".
A year after the ski tour I walked the length of the Canadian Rockies, a trip that took me past Mount Assiniboine. I wrote about this trip in High Summer: Backpacking the Canadian Rockies. The picture above is from the book. I camped with a superb view of the mountain and spent the evening watching the light change on its slopes. Unforgettable.
Have you noticed the frog like face in your picture on top this mountain ?
ReplyDeletefirst thing I saw looking at photo...
DeleteI read your book about your Canadian rockies hike after managing to find a used copy several years ago. I really enjoyed it. I've been to a lock of places in the American west (Cascades, Olympics, Sierras, Colorado rockies, Glacier in Montana, Zion, Grand Canyon) but I've still found nothing I thought was more impressive than the Canadian Rockies. I spent 10 days hiking, backpacking, and driving around Banff, Yoho, and Jasper in August several years. I still don't think I will ever find a drive that was as beautiful as that drive from Banff to Jasper.
ReplyDeleteI cycled that in 93! What's odd is it feels like I dunno. 10 years ago. Time is like a broken watch so they say
Delete