SURPRISE MOUNTAIN BY ARTHUR. P. COLEMAN

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

Surprise Mountain  (1,929m - 63,30ft) 

United States of America (Washington State) 

In Surprize Mountain, Showing Thalkessel, left side in shade, watercolor 

The mountain 
Surprise Mountain  (1,929m - 63,30ft) is an alpine peak nestled in the middle of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of Washington State. Perhaps appropriately, several alpine lakes are found near the mountain. The Deception Lakes are located at the south end of the mountain, and Glacier Lake and Surprise Lake are located northeast of the mountain. Views of surrounding peaks and valleys from the mountain are also far-reaching, including Mount Daniel and Glacier Peak. Surprise Mountain is located southeast of Spark Plug Mountain and southwest of Thunder Mountain.
In 1932, the U.S. Forest Service built a L-4 cab fire lookout on the summit of Surprise Mountain, due to its wide views of the Central Cascade Mountains. The U.S. Forest Service then decommissioned and destroyed the fire lookout during the 1950s. The only remnant of the lookout that remains today is a tall metallic pole at the mountain summit.

The painter 
Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist.
Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.
Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown.
 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park are named in his honor.
He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

_______________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

ACONCAGUA PAINTED BY A.P. COLEMAN

ARTHUR PHILEMON COLEMAN (1852-1939) 

Aconcagua - Peak South  (6,961m - 22, 838ft) 

Argentina

Watercolor painted in 1897 during the first ascent expedition

The mountain

Aconcagua (6,961 meters -22,838 ft) is the highest mountain outside of Asia and by extension the highest point in both the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. The origin of the name is contested; it is either from the Mapuche  "Aconca-Hue", which refers to the Aconcagua River, the Quechua "Ackon Cahuak", meaning "Sentinel of Stone", or Quechua "Anco Cahuac", meaning "White Sentinel" or the Aymara  "Janq'u Q'awa" meaning "White Ravine", "White Brook".  

Aconcagua is located in the Andes mountain range, in the Mendoza Province, Argentina, and lies 112 kilometers (70 mi) northwest of its capital, the city of Mendoza. The summit is also located about 5 kilometers from San Juan Province and 15 kilometers from the international border with Chile; its nearest higher neighbor is Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush, 16,520 kilometers (10,270 mi) away. 

Aconcagua is one of the Seven Summit, which includes the highest mountains of each of the seven  continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering  challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass.  

The 7 summits (which are obviously 8 !)... are : 

 Mt Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Vinson  Massif (4,892m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m).

Aconcagua was created by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate during the geologically recent Andean orogeny; but it is not a volcano.  It is bounded by the Valle de las Vacas to the north and east and the Valle de los Horcones Inferior to the west and south. The mountain and its surroundings are part of the Aconcagua Provincial Park. The mountain has a number of glaciers. The largest glacier is the Ventisquero Horcones Inferior at about 10 km long, which descends from the south face to about 3600 m altitude near the Confluencia camp. Two other large glacier systems are the Ventisquero de las Vacas Sur and Glaciar Este/Ventisquero Relinchos system at about 5 km long. The most well-known is the north-eastern or Polish Glacier, as it is a common route of ascent.

The routes to the peak from the south and south-west ridges are more demanding and the south face climb is considered quite difficult.

The mains routes are:

- Puente del Inca, 2,740 meters (8,990 ft): A small village on the main road, with facilities including a lodge.

- Confluencia, 3,380 meters (11,090 ft): A camp site a few hours into the national park.

- Plaza de Mulas, 4,370 meters (14,340 ft): Base camp, claimed to be the second largest in the world (after Everest). There are several meal tents, showers and internet access. There is a lodge approx. 1 km from the main campsite across the glacier. At this camp, climbers are screened by a medical team to check if they are fit enough to continue the climb.

- Camp Canadá, 5,050 meters (16,570 ft): A large ledge overlooking Plaza de Mulas.

- Camp Alaska, 5,200 meters (17,060 ft): Called 'change of slope' in Spanish, a small site as the slope from Plaza de Mulas to Nido de Cóndores lessens. Not commonly used.

- Nido de Cóndores, 5,570 meters (18,270 ft): A large plateau with beautiful views. There is usually a park ranger camped here.

- Camp Berlín, 5,940 meters (19,490 ft): The classic high camp, offering reasonable wind protection.

- Camp Colera, 6,000 meters (19,690 ft): A larger, while slightly more exposed, camp situated directly at the north ridge near Camp Berlín, with growing popularity. In January 2011, a shelter was opened in Camp Colera for exclusive use in cases of emergency. The shelter is named Elena after Italian climber Elena Senin, who died in January 2009 shortly after reaching the summit, and whose family donated the shelter.

- Several sites possible for camping or bivouac, including Piedras Blancas (~6100 m) and Independencia (~6350 m), are located above Colera; however, they are seldom used and offer little protection.

Summit attempts are usually made from a high camp at either Berlín or Colera, or from the lower camp at Nido de Cóndores. All camps are used frequently, namely Plaza de Mulas and Nido de Cóndores.

Reference  

- Aconcagua in Andeshandbook

The artist 

Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist. 

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.

Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown. 

From 1901 to 1922, he was a Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its President in 1921. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park is named in his honor.  He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

He planned to climb "hi" mountain, "Mount Coleman"'in the Albertan Rockies, and had also prepared a trip to British Guiana, but death intervened.

He was author of:

- Reports on the Economic Geology of Ontario (1903)

- Lake Ojibway; Last of the Great Glacial Lakes (1909) 

- The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails (1911)

- Ice Ages, Recent and Ancient (1926), and was co-author of Elementary Geology (1922).

- The Last Million Years (1941) edited by George F. Kay

Reference :

Biography on A. P. Coleman's page of the Victoria  University Library 

THE HALF DOME PAINTED BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)  

United States of America (California) 

The mountain

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)   is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there.

As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.

Today, Half Dome may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from the valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of granite stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted braided steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919.

Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face. Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free soloed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder.

The artist 

Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist. 

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.

Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown. 

From 1901 to 1922, he was a Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its President in 1921. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park are named in his honor. 

 He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

He planned to climb "hi" mountain, "Mount Coleman"'in the Albertan Rockies, and had also prepared a trip to British Guiana, but death intervened.

ATITLAN & TOLIMAN VOLCANOS BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

  Atitlбn (3,535 m -11,598ft) & Tolimбn  (3,158 m -10,361ft) 

Guatemala 

In Atitlan and Tolimon seen from Lake Atitlan, 1937, watercolor, 

The mountains

Atitlбn volcano  (3,535 m - 11,598 ft)  is a large, conical, active stratovolcano adjacent to the caldera of Lake Atitlбn in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas range. It is within the Sololб Department, northern Guatemala. The volcano has been quite active historically, with more than a dozen eruptions recorded between 1469 and 1853, the date of its most recent eruption. Atitlбn is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc. The arc is a chain of volcanoes stretching along Central America formed by subduction of the Cocos Plate underneath the Caribbean Plate. This volcano is part of the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean. Atitlбn is home to two particularly rare and beautiful birds that are endemic to the cloud forests of this region. The horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus) is a Pleistocene relic of the Cracidae family that persists today only in small fragments of its previous range. Its habitat is limited to cloud forests above approximately 1,650 metres (5,410 ft). This bird is the size of a turkey and the adult male has a one-inch scarlet-colored "horn" projecting straight up from the top of its head. The Cabanis's or azure-rumped tanager (Tangara cabanisi) is probably the most restricted-range species in the region. It occurs only at mid-elevations within the Sierra Madre del Sur of Chiapas, Mexico and western Guatemala. Atitlбn lies on the southern rim of the caldera, while Volcano San Pedro and Volcano Tolimбn lie within the caldera. San Pedro is the oldest of the three and seems to have stopped erupting about 40,000 years ago. Tolimбn began growing after San Pedro stopped erupting, and probably remains active, although it has not erupted in historic times. Atitlбn has developed almost entirely in the last 10,000 years and remains active, with its most recent eruption having occurred in 1853.




Tolimбn volcano  (3,158 m -10,361 ft) is located on the southern shores of Lago de Atitlбn. The volcano  was formed near the southern margin of the Pleistocene Atitlбn III caldera. The top of the volcano has a shallow crater and its flanks are covered with the thick remains of ancient lava flows that emerged from vents in the volcano's flanks. A parasitic lava dome, known as Cerro de Oro, was formed on the volcano's northern flank, which may have erupted a few thousand years ago.




San Pedro volcano  (3,020m -9,908 ft) (also named Las Yeguas) represented in the foggy background of in the Coleman painting, is the third stratovolcano on the shores of Lago de Atitlбn, in the Solol Department of northern Guatemala. At its base is the village of San Pedro La Laguna.




The first volcanic activity in the region occurred about 11 million years ago, and since then the region has seen four separate episodes of volcanic growth and caldera collapse, the most recent of which began about 1.8 million years ago and culminated in the formation of the present caldera. The lake now fills a large part of the caldera, reaching depths of up to 600 metres.

The caldera-forming eruption is known as Los Chocoyos eruption and ejected up to 300 km3 (72 cu mi) of tephra. The enormous eruption dispersed ash over an area of some 6 million kmІ: it has been detected from Florida to Ecuador, and can be used as a stratigraphic marker in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (known as Y-8 ash in marine deposits). A chocoyo is a type of bird which is often found nesting in the relatively soft ash layer.

On February 4, 1976, a massive earthquake (magnitude 7.5) struck Guatemala, killing more than 26,000 people. The earthquake fractured the lake bed and caused subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month

The artist 

Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist. 

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.

Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown. 

From 1901 to 1922, he was a Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its President in 1921. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park is named in his honor.  He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

He planned to climb "hi" mountain, "Mount Coleman"'in the Albertan Rockies, and had also prepared a trip to British Guiana, but death intervened.

He was author of:

- Reports on the Economic Geology of Ontario (1903)

- Lake Ojibway; Last of the Great Glacial Lakes (1909) 

- The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails (1911)

- Ice Ages, Recent and Ancient (1926), and was co-author of Elementary Geology (1922).

- The Last Million Years (1941) edited by George F. Kay

ROCHE MIETTE PAINTED BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

 Roche Miette (2,316m - 7,600 ft) 

Canada

The mountain 

Roche Miette mountain  (2,316m - 7,600 ft) is part Miette Range (in the Canadian Rockies) located in the Athabasca River Valley southwest of Mountain Creek and northeast of Rocky River.  Roche Miette dominates the entrance to the Canadian Rockies. Ben Gadd, author of “Handbook of the Canadian Rockies” feels that the name "Miette" is derived from the Cree word "Myat," which means "bighorn sheep." He thinks that this makes a lot of sense, considering that sheep frequented the lower slopes of the mountain. According to Don Beers, author of “Jasper-Robson –A Taste of Heaven” the name was first recorded as Roche Miette in a journal written by Gabriel Franchere. However Don feels that the mountain was likely named after a voyageur named Baptiste Millette, who worked in the fur trade in the Athabasca River area during 1812 and 1813.  "Roche" is the French word for "rock"  and "Miette" means "crumb". Roche Miette is the official name but an other name is  often given : Millet's Rock. 

In their book, "The Northwest Passage by Land" (1865) William Fitzwilliam (Viscount Milton) and Walter Cheadle describe the northern cliffs of the mountain as they approached from the east as, "a cleft in the range, cut clean as with a knife" and that showed, "what we supposed to be the opening of the gorge through which we were to pass."

When James Hector visited the area in 1859 he wrote that, "Miette's Rock is a bold object, bounding the valley of the Athabasca to the south, and resembling the "Devil's Head which lies to the north of the Bow River". He tried to climb the mountain with Moberly, reaching a sharp peak high above any vegetation but the great cubical block still towered above them and they could go no higher.

In his book, "The Glittering Mountains of Canada" J. Monroe Thorington mentions that Dr. Hector (James Hector of the Palliser Expedition who travelled up the Athabasca Valley during the winter in early 1859) always enjoyed a mountain-scramble and wrote, "I started with Moberly to ascend the Roche Miette... After a long and steep climb, we reached a sharp peak far above any vegetation, and which, as measured by the aneroid, is 3500 feet above the valley. The great cubical block which forms the top of this mountain, still towered above us for 2000 feet, and is quite inaccessible from this side, and is said to have been only once ascended from the south side by a hunter named Miette, after whom it was named."

Legend has it that Bonhomme Miette was a French-Canadian voyageur who made the first ascent, climbing it from its south side. He became a well-known figure in French Canadian folklore and was said to have been a gifted fiddler and storyteller. When he reached the top, the story goes, he sat down, dangling his feet over the precipice, smoked his pipe, and as Miette himself put it "I been have de nice smoke up dere wit St. Peter on de gate." During the 1830's it is known that a man named Miette did live in the Athabasca Valley where he was a "company servant" who hauled coal from the area of Roche Miette to Jasper House as well as to Henry House at the mouth of the Miette River. Ben Gadd believes that Bonhomme Miette was a “legendary” voyageur as no one by that name worked for either the Hudson Bay Company or the Northwest Company during the years prior to 1814. 

Many early travelers wrote of Roche Miette with admiration but their enthusiasm was tempered by the barrier it presented. Roche Miette slopes steeply into the Athabasca and posed a serious obstacle to those travelling up the south bank of the river. Steep, downward sloping slabs of slippery rock often sent horses sliding down into the river at what became known as "Disaster Point." Early travelers attempted to negotiate a dangerous trail that climbed some 395 metres above the river. One referred to, "a very narrow pathway, with a perpendicular wall of rock on one side, and a steep declivity down to the edge of a precipice several hundred feel high on the other." The dangerous "nose" of Roche Miette remained an obstacle until it was blasted away by the railway builders in the early 1900's.

Arthur Coleman (painting above) exited the Canadian Rockies via the Athabasca Valley in 1907, describing Roche Miette as, "The most impressive bit of architecture along the Athabasca, pushing its bold front out into the valley like a commanding fort with unscalable walls three thousand feet high, and a flat top somewhat parapeted and loop-holed."

Climbing

North Face IV 5.8 A3

This climb takes on the impressive N face. An alpine rock route that starts off at a moderate standard (5.6-5.8) and ends up with some A3 thrown in near the end for a complete Rockies rock experience. The rock is excellent throughout, belays are good and the pitches are generally full 50 m affairs. Originally climbed with a bivi but this no doubt was a result of a 4 pm alpine start! It could be climbed in a day, though you will have to be slick to complete a round trip road to road in this time. 

The painter 

Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist. 

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.

Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown. 

From 1901 to 1922, he was a Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its President in 1921. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park is named in his honor.  He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

He planned to climb "hi" mountain, "Mount Coleman"'in the Albertan Rockies, and had also prepared a trip to British Guiana, but death intervened.

He was author of:

- Reports on the Economic Geology of Ontario (1903)

- Lake Ojibway; Last of the Great Glacial Lakes (1909) 

- The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails (1911)

- Ice Ages, Recent and Ancient (1926), and was co-author of Elementary Geology (1922).

- The Last Million Years (1941) edited by George F. Kay

PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

 LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970), 

Porcupine mountains or Porkies  (441 m-1,447 ft)

Canada 

In Above Lake Superior, c. 1922, oil on canvas 121.9 x 152.4 cm, 

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. 

The mountain
The Porcupine Mountains or Porkies (441 m -1,447 ft) are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior. The Porcupine Mountains were named by the native Ojibwa people, supposedly because their silhouette had the shape of a crouching porcupine.  They are home to the most extensive stand of old growth northern hardwood forest in North America west of the Adirondack Mountains, spanning at least 31,000 acres (13,000 ha). In these virgin forests, sugar maple, American basswood, eastern hemlock, and yellow birch are the most abundant tree species.  The area is part of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park established since 1972.  This act gave the park the new designation of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

The painter 

Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)

In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

_______________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

ESPLANADE RANGE PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN HARRIS (1885-1970)
Esplanade Range   (2,301 m - 7,549 ft)

Canada

In Athabaska at Jasper, oil on canvas, 1924
 

The mountains
Esplanade Range includes, from right to left, in the painting above :  Gargoyle mountain, Esplanade mountain, Chetamin, The Palisades. 
Esplanade Mountain (2,301 m - 7,549 ft)  is a mountain summit located in Jasper National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. The peak is situated 20 kilometres north of the municipality of Jasper, in the Athabasca Valley and is visible from Highway 16 and the Canadian. Its nearest higher peak is Cliff Mountain, 5.0 km (3.1 mi) to the west. Esplanade Mountain was named in 1916 by Morrison P. Bridgland for its long, flat top resembling an esplanade. Bridgland (1878-1948) was a Dominion Land Surveyor who named many peaks in Jasper Park and the Canadian Rockies. The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1956 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.

Gargoyle Mountain (2,693m - 8,835 ft)  is a mountain summit located in Jasper National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. The peak is situated 23 kilometres north of the municipality of Jasper, and is a prominent landmark in the Athabasca Valley visible from Highway 16 and the Canadian. Its nearest higher peak is Cliff Mountain, 5.5 km (3.4 mi) to the west.  Gargoyle Mountain was named in 1916 by Morrison P. Bridgland for the fact a stream heads at the mountain, like a gargoyle or spout.  Bridgland (1878-1948) was a Dominion Land Surveyor who named many peaks in Jasper Park and the Canadian Rockies.  The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1956 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.


The painter  
Lawren Stewart Harris, (1885–1970) was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.
Source:
- Lawren S. Harris biography in  National Gallery of Canada notice

PIC ISLAND PAINTED BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970) 

Pic Island (312 m- 1024 ft)

Canada (Ontario) 

 In Pic Island, lake Ontario, oil on beaverboard, 1924, National Gallery of Canada.

The hill 
Pic island ((312 m- 1024 ft) is part of the Neys Provincial Park is a Natural Environment Class provincial park on the north shore of Lake Superior, just west of Marathon, Ontario, Canada. The ghost village of Coldwell, which lies just outside the east boundary of the park, was home to an old railway and fishing community until the 1960s. All that remains of the village now are a few foundations, shipwrecks in the harbour and a cemetery. Within park boundaries is also the muse for Group of Seven member Lawren Harris (see above), who in 1924 painted the now famous image of Pic Island. Only the hardy survive here, including subarctic plants and a rare herd of woodland caribou.

The painter
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic. He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches. "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

DUNGEON PEAK PAINTED BY ROBERT GENN

ROBERT GENN (1936-2014) 

Dungeon Peak (3, 219 m - 10, 266 ft)  

Canada

The mountain 

Dungeon Peak (3, 219 m - 10, 266 ft) is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. Named in 1916, Dungeon peak is one of the 10 named peaks by the Alpine Club of Canada part of The Ramparts, such as Bastion, Parapet etc.. They form a western boundary for the Tonquin Valley. Amethyst Lake lies to the east, while the headwaters of the Fraser River bound it to the west.

The Ramparts are a mountain range in the Canadian Rockies; part of the Park Ranges, they straddle the Continental Divide and lie partly within Jasper National Park in Alberta and Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia.

The first ascent of Dungeon peak was made  in 1933 by  Rex Gibson, R.C. Hind, E.L. Woolf

The most famous cliimbing route is East Face IV 5.7, another of the prominent east-facing rib routes. Not quite as aesthetic as the E Face of Oubliette (2 days climbing route) but still a very worthwhile outing. Mostly a rock route but take ice gear for both the ascent and descent. 

The painter 

Robert Douglas Genn  was a Canadian artist, who has gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting.  His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank Of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, Glenbow Museum and Government of Belgium.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Genn has often been compared with  members of  the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven.  In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." Genn said this was "valuable advice", which enabled him "to control the gradation, and work up into the trees in a more abstract manner."

He ran the Painter's Keys web site, a worldwide artists' community, with his staff and volunteers. The web site sends out an erudite free twice-weekly newsletter, which is sent to 135,000 artists in over 100 countries, and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted. 

In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website, arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally, without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the African embassy in Ottawa, Genn used his web site to enlist subscribers' support to email objections to the arch-world, resulting within days in over 1,000 online complaints from artists, dealers and politicians to the company and governments. This stimulated a diplomatic protest letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Trading and Law Department from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Genn credited the campaign with the subsequent removal of images by 800 Canadian artists from arch-world, although many works were reinstated on arch-world soon after.

Genn has been a member of the Board of Directors at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.

Genn announced in his Twice-Weekly Letter of 25 October 2013 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He died at his Surrey, British Columbia home on 27 May 2014.

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2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau