Elizabeth Parker

“ But there comes to the mountaineer of pure mind and willing spirit the sense of which Wordsworth tells, of the presence interfused in Nature; the presence that dwells among the sheer peaks and in the living air and the blue sky and in the mind of man; the motion and the spirit that rolls through all things. ”

“ A reliable guide-book, too which will include instruction on the details of mountaineering, will be published for the
benefit of any who come to climb in the Canadian Alps. There is nothing quixotic about the Alpine Club of Canada: it is a sane, sober institution, organized by sane, sober men. As indicated, its mission is manifold. The education of Canadians to an appreciation of their alpine heritage, is of itself a raison d'etre. The Canadian Rocky Mountain system, with its unnumbered and unknown natural sanctuaries for generations yet unborn, is a national asset. ”

“ It is quite true that every climber has not, nor may not acquire the philosophic mind that is curious regarding the divine interpretation of Nature; but traversing the sources of the great ice-rivers and breathing the virgin air above their mute snows is conducive to that philosophic mind. And whether or no, if that high exercise and that environment fail to arouse a sense of Nature malignant and Nature benignant, his case is hopeless as one who stands among men at the making of the nation. ”

“ By virtue of its constitution, the Alpine Club is a national trust for the defence of our mountain solitudes against the intrusion of steam and electricity and all the vandalisms of this luxurious, utilitarian age; for the keeping free from the grind of commerce, the wooded passes and valleys and alplands of the wilderness. ”

“ No sport is so likely to cure a fool of his foolishness as the steady pull, with a peril or two of another sort attending, of a season's mountain climbing in one of those "thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice" in the wild alpine playground of Canada. The ethical value of mountaineering is a subject upon which our statesmen would do well to ponder; and there is a considerable Canadian Alpine literature from which they may gather data. ”

“ It is the people's right to have primitive access to the remote places of safest retreat from the fever and the fret of the market place and the beaten tracts of life. We are devoutly grateful, as we ought to be, that the Canadian Pacific Railway Company has shown itself wise in a national sense, by refusing to follow in the wake of the cog-railways of the Rigi and Pike's peak. ”

“ As soon as prudence will warrant, huts will be built in remote strategic situations for the convenience of the members, and persons put in charge for the season; bivouacs will be established on the long trails at distances of a day's journey, and the Club will cooperate, where possible, with the Railway and the Government, in making new trails, giving comfortable access to all the places already known or yet to be discovered. And it is the Club's business to support all measures towards preservation for all time of the fauna and flora in their wild habitat. ”

“ Any young man of latent intellectual and moral force, who comes to close grips with the waiting, challenging mountains, and puts one summit after another beneath the soles of his feet, has gained immensely in the Spartan virtues. ”

“ And though much snow may fall upon the mountains and much water run in torrents from the glaciers ere it achieves its predestined high place in alpine and glacial science, its progress towards that consummation is in safe guidance. The President will look to that. He is keen for progress, and has withal, an appalling capacity for dogged hard work—and for making other people work. ”

“ This is the composite human material out of which mountaineers are made. But the peril is, that men become satiated with wheat, and there follows that effeteness which is worse than the effeteness of an unbalanced culture. ”