Dozens of a Banff-based historian's interviews with the best climbers of the 1990s will soon reach a new audience as the Whyte Museum Archives takes steps toward sharing them online.
Chic Scott videotaped 84 interviews in 1996 and 1997 ahead of the release of his book Pushing the Limits.
He spoke with some of the leading climbers at locations across the country about their climbing experiences in Canada and abroad.
"Those days, you just had the rope tied around your waist, you didn't fall off," said Scott. "You only had a few pitons to protect yourself to anchor yourself to the mountain, nowadays there's so much gear, everybody has helmets and harnesses and all these modern technical gimmicks that anchor you to the mountain but yeah, it was exciting, dangerous but it was just wonderful the passion that the climbers had in those days."
The first film features Yamnuska Mountain and the men who used it to train for bigger challenges, like Urs Kallen. In 1959, he and his friends would gather at the base of the mountain where there were only one or two cars parked.
"And we didn't train, we did not do weights, we drank a little bit less beer in the bar on Wednesday night because we had to get up early and Yamnuska was so close," he said.
Kallen says there were not many climbers back then and even fewer places to find climbing gear, so they made their own.
"My wife chopped the legs off on the blue jeans so they were short and then we add the long socks you know like knickers, we had those socks," said Kallen.
Yamnuska isn't a high mountain but the south face is technical. Kallen and what he called his 'misfit' friends would try to find new, challenging routes to climb.
"We were going for the places that look unclimbable," said Kallen. "But nowadays when you have clipped (your safety rope into carabiners) that's cheating, that's just how we progress, you got to remember that gear we had was simple, it was a narrow selection and the ropes were short, we only had 30-metre ropes."
The film is called Climbing Pioneers of Yamnuska and tells the stories of Leo Grillmair, Hans Gmoser, Franz Dopf, Brian Greenwood, Don Vockeroth, Dick Lofthouse and Urs Kallen along with their adventures.
The videos had been stored at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff for nearly 25 years until a decision was made to digitize and revitalize them.
The efforts of the Whyte Museums Archive staff will see the digitized interviews included in Pushing the Limits: The Legacy, a multimedia project that's expected to be released in phases over the coming years.
Donna Livingstone is the CEO at the Whyte Museum and says Scott has become a fixture in the archives at the museum and is the go-to person for climbing history in the mountain parks. She says the films are a new way to show off the museum's collection.
"I think it's phenomenal and I think it's a wonderful passing on of knowledge and expertise," said Livingstone. "But it's the climbers and it's also people like me who don't climb aggressively just to see it, just to have that connection and that wonder that they must have felt."
Scott climbed with many of the people featured in the videos and hopes young climbers today appreciate the work done by these legends who paved the way for them and their sport in the mountain parks.
"As a friend of mine once told me said, you know back in the 50s and 60s, climbing was a blood sport, it was really dangerous, there was almost no way to protect yourself, so that if you fell off, you wouldn't go all the way to the bottom," said Scott.
Museum officials confirm Canmore filmmaker Glen Crawford will help select the best interviews and edit them with archival footage.
The enhanced versions will be available online.
