Join us for a 3 Course Italian Meal - Choose from the 4 options on our dinner menu. There will be a vegetarian option. Gluten-free pasta will be available.
Cash Bar
Cost:
Pre-registration and pre-payment required.
ACC Ottawa Social Committee
Alpine Club of Canada Ottawa Section
The St. Elias: Canada’s Greatest Mountain Range
“Toronto Innocents in This Wonderland”
Join us for an evening of good friends, great food and the chance to hear about some fascinating mountain advenutres. Roger Wallis, our guest speaker, will regale us with stories about Toronto Section expeditions to The St Elias.
The St. Elias mountain range in Klune National Park, Yukon is the third largest glaciated area on the planet and has the 2nd, 4th and 14th of the highest mountains in North America. Mt. St. Elias, at 5,489m, is the highest mountain rising directly from an ocean. The St. Elias has the longest glacier and longest continuous glacial surface outside the Arctic and Antarctic – the Hubbard Glacier is more than 150km long and the Seward/Columbus/Bagley Glaciers total more than 350km in length.
The Toronto Section has run more than 10 camps in the St. Elias range over 20+ years with more than 35 different people participating. Roger participated in 7 trips between 1990 and 2006. He says “There isn’t a real guidebook – so it’s all up to you. What more could any aspiring mountaineer need as an inducement? We were ‘more than naïve’ at the beginning but, over time, we evolved to be reasonably competent. The learning curve was fun!
We made the first ascent of 3 peaks higher than 4,000m, each successively being the highest unclimbed peak in North America. We made more than 30 mountain first ascents and numerous new routes. Over the years, we’ve had a couple of ‘incidents’, but there wasn’t a single injury. It was all ‘fun in the sun’!”
Come and hear about Roger's adventures in the St. Elias - find out about that 'fun' learning curve. See and hear about the challenges the Toronto Section undertook and about their accomplishments in the St. Elias Range. Find out why Jim Elzinga, world-renowned high-altitude mountaineer, says "The St. Elias is more Himalyan than the Himalyas".
Roger Wallis has been a member of the Toronto Section since 1970 and has been climbing for more than 60 years. He has made more the 60 first ascents of mountains in South and East Greenland, in Spitzbergen and in Canada’s Rockies, Purcells, Selkirks, Monashees, Premiers, Cariboos, Coast Range and St Elias. He has the Silver Rope and Distinguished Service Awards for the Alpine Club of Canada and, in 2012, he was made an Honorary Member of the Club.
ADVANCE ON-LINE REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT REQUIRED. Click below to register.