After much research, here is a comprehensive list of historical events that have occurred in, on and around Mount Robson - the Monarch of the Canadian Rockies. I hope that this can be a useful tool in the study and appreciation of this beloved peak. If you feel there are any other significant details that could be added please comment below.
Geological Origins
Mount Robson is a peak in the Rainbow Range of the Rocky Mountains in eastern British Columbia. These mountains are “raised layers of sedimentary rocks formed on the floors of ancient seas” (Royal BC Museum). One geology blog describes Robson as a 12,792 foot tall layer cake with limestone and dolomite on the top, shale in the beige coloured middle and quartzite on the bottom. While the layers may seem to be horizontal they are actually part of a huge syncline (fold of stratified rock in which the strata slope upward from the axis).
From the base of Mount Robson in the Fraser River Valley to its peak there is a 3,000 metre rise over a distance of only three kilometres… “it is not far below that of Mount Everest and is unrivaled in the Canadian or U.S. Rocky Mountains” (Bill Corbett).
Pre-1800
Prior to the fur trade entering the Leather (Yellowhead) Pass, the Simpcw were the first known inhabitants of the Upper Fraser area, they were nomadic and a part of the Shuswap (Secwepemc) people. They built lodges and fish drying racks near the confluence of the Fraser and McLennan rivers (near present day Tete Jaune, BC). Their territory extended from north of McLure, BC into Jasper, Alberta and there are archaeological finds throughout this area.
The First Nations name for the mighty peak was “Yuh-hai-has-kun”, meaning The Mountain of the Spiraling Road which referred to the strata-like layers of the mountain that angle upwards to the East. (From G.M. Dawson’s Report on the Shuswap People)
1819
Pierre Hatsination (also known as Tete Jaune, a fair haired Iroquois) is sent by Colin Robertson of the Hudson’s Bay Company to trade in B.C.
Pierre probably established a cache near the confluence of the Grand Forks (now Robson) River and the Fraser River near the foot of Mount Robson. The most likely theory as to the name of Mount Robson is that Pierre named it after his boss and that it later evolved into “Robson”.
1827
George MacDougal’s journal entry for April 25, 1827 is the first written record of Mount Robson’s current name. He referred to it as “Robinson” thus showing the likely evolution of the name.
1862
The famed “Overlanders” who started from Toronto make their way to Tete Jaune Cache and see the illustrious Mount Robson. John M. Sellar makes this journal entry on August 26 referring to Robson by its nickname: “At 4pm we passed Snow or Cloud Cap Mountain Which is the highest and finest on the whole Leather Pass.”
1863
The English explorers, Dr. William Butler Cheadle and William Fitzwilliam, the Viscount of Milton, search for a Northwest passage overland within British Columbia.
On July 14, Cheadle records the sight of Mount Robson: “…immediately behind us, a giant among giants, and immeasurably supreme, rose Robson’s Peak.” Thus the evolution of the name was complete.
1876-77
The Canadian Pacific Railway sends surveyors through the Yellowhead pass to assess its viability for the new Transcontinental Railway. Despite Sir Sanford Fleming’s recommendation to build the railway through the Yellowhead pass, it is later decided to build the railway through the Kicking Horse pass further south.
1906
A.O. Wheeler and Elizabeth Parker found the Alpine Club of Canada
1907
A.O. Wheeler sends artist and geologist, A.P. Coleman, to explore Mount Robson with the hope of climbing the peak and claiming it for the new Alpine Club of Canada. Coleman is joined by his brother, Lucius, a packer named Jack Beder and a Presbyterian Minister by the name of George Kinney. They tried but failed to climb Mount Robson from the south.
On September 11th, the Coleman party reaches Kinney Lake (which had also been known as Helena Lake) and Coleman named it after the good Reverend. Coleman also names Resplendent Mountain.
By this time three different routes had been surveyed by three different railway companies through the Yellowhead Pass. The CPR had done so decades earlier and now the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern were competing to construct the first railway there.
1908
On July 31st, A.P. Coleman left Edmonton to begin his second expedition to Mount Robson. Along with Lucius and George Kinney he added packer John Yates and guide Adolphus Moberly. This time they attempted to climb Mount Robson from the north but time and weather prevented them.
The group named one lake after their guide Adolphus and the other they named Berg Lake because of the large glacier (formerly Blue Glacier, now known as Berg Glacier) that flowed into it and dropped great chunks of ice into it. They also came across for the first time geographical features now famously known as Extinguisher Tower and The Dome.
Coleman names The Helmut because of its resemblance to a Roman soldier’s headpiece.
In August, Mary Schaffer and Mollie Adams make the trek from the Athabasca to Tete Jaune with the intent of seeing Mount Robson. Many of Mary’s lantern slides of the area remain in museums to this day.
1909
Upon hearing that a group of foreigners were going to attempt the peak of Robson in the summer, George Kinney hastily makes plans to climb it on his own in June (Coleman was still teaching at University).
After meeting a young outfitter named Donald “Curly” Phillips, Kinney asks him to accompany him to the summit. In an extraordinary feat of human endurance and determination, they scaled the mountain on the West Face and Kinney claims they reached the peak on Friday, August 13. It appears that at first the Alpine Club of Canada accepted this as fact.
Kinney discovers “The Gargoyles”, “…fantastic masses of crystal, forming huge cornices all along the crest of the peak.”
British climber, Arnold L. Mumm and his Swiss guide Moritz Inderbinen (the “foreigners” that Kinney was afraid of) attempt another climb of Robson’s Peak but fail. Mumm would try again in 1910 and 1911 without success.
1910
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is built through the Yellowhead Pass
1911
A.O. Wheeler and the Alpine Club of Canada mount another expedition to Robson in an attempt to explore and produce a topographical survey. The information gathered on this trip will eventually help inspire the British Columbian government to make the area around Mount Robson a provincial park.
The party discovers Arctomys Cave near Robson. The cave is 1608 feet deep and for a long time was the deepest known cave in Canada.
Wheeler names the majestic falls with the massive mists “Emperor Falls”
Conrad Kain, an Austrian, is the first man to summit Whitehorn Mountain
After completing his survey of the Robson area, A.O. Wheeler plants a wooden post with an inscription marking the border between B.C. and Alberta.
1912
The Grand Trunk Pacific hires Francis Rattenbury (who also designed the Empress Hotel) to design a Chateau Mt. Robson. Unfortunately the chateau never came to fruition as the GTP went out of business.
1913
The Provincial Government hires Curly Phillips to build a trail to Berg Lake including his famous “flying” trestles.
On March 11, Mount Robson Provincial Park is officially founded – the second oldest provincial park in B.C.
The Alpine Club of Canada holds their annual camp at Mount Robson, July 28- August 9.
On July 31, 5:30pm, Conrad Kain, William W Foster and Albert H. MacCarthy ascend the summit of Mount Robson via what is now known as “Kain’s Face”.
The next night Curly Phillips stuns the celebrating crowd at the ACC camp by telling them that he and George Kinney did not reach the summit of Mount Robson in 1909. Kain is credited with the first summit. Kinney continued to claim that he had reached the peak in 1909 but Phillip’s statement broke his heart.
The Canadian Northern Railway is built through the Yellowhead Pass
1914
A.Y. Jackson (a future member of the famed Canadian painting association, “The Group of Seven”) and William Beatty (another important Canadian artist) are hired by the Canadian Northern to paint scenes along their railway. They make multiple paintings of Mount Robson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the famed detective Sherlock Holmes, visits the Canadian West with his wife. A special train is procured to take them to Mount Robson. Doyle later wrote a poem about his adventures entitled “The Athabasca Trail”.
1916
In a dark part of B.C.’s history, the Simpcw People are forcibly, and without warning, relocated from their settlement at Tete Jaune to Chu Chua – nearly 300 Kilometres away (south of Little Fort, BC). Despite a railway existing along this corridor, the Simpcw were made to walk. Today there are nearly 700 members of the Simpcw First Nation who still live, work and continue their cultural heritage in Chu Chua.
1919
The Grand Trunk Pacific merges with the Canadian Northern to become the nationalized “Canadian National Railway”.
c. 1920
A.O. Wheeler lowers his earlier measurement of the height of Robson from 13,068 feet to 12,972 feet which is the official height still used today.
1921
The Hargreaves brothers (George, Frank, Roy, Jack and Dick) establish The Hargreaves Brothers Outfitting Company near Mount Robson. They are hired by the CNR to build cabins in the Robson Pass which Roy operated for several years.
1922
The very first automobile trip through the Yellowhead Pass is conducted by C.W. Neimeyer and Frank Silverthorne. They started in Edmonton and ended in Victoria. The “road” consisted of abandoned railway beds and actual railway line.
The Hargreaves adopt two orphan black bear cubs which they often take to the Robson train station for travellers to see. They are immortalized in an iconic photo.
1924
Phyllis Munday becomes the first women to climb Mount Robson. Conrad Kain was her guide.
Lawren Harris, also a future member of The Group of Seven” paints alongside Jackson on another trip to Robson.
1927
Roy Hargreaves builds the Berg Lake Chalet by Berg Lake and hosts many guests there.
1930
American climber Newman D. Waffl becomes the first known person to die attempting to scale Mount Robson. His body was never found and a mountain was later named after him. Sophia Hargeaves (wife of Roy) had the difficult task of writing Mrs. Newman to inform her of her husband’s tragic death.
1937
Film maker, Hamilton Jones, shoots an award-winning Western movie in the Mount Robson area called “Western Holiday”.
1938
Celebrated guide, Hans Fuhrer, leads a party up the north ridge of Robson. It is now called the Fuhrer Ridge in his honour.
1939
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stop at Mount Robson on their Canadian tour.
B.C. Provincial Police officer, Wilfred Hovey Olts, begins his stay at Red Pass and Mount Robson (The RCMP were not yet in B.C.). He accompanies the Royals as the police presence on the train and must have been impressed with them as he later named his daughter Elizabeth.
1946
Famed pioneer of the Robson Valley, Ishbel Hargreaves (daughter of Roy and Sophia), marries Murray Cochrane (a guide working for Roy).
1959
American climber, Leo Slaggie, finds the bottle that George Kinney had planted on that controversial “first” summit. He found it just below Emperor Ridge and in it were names and a Canadian Flag.
Roy Hargreaves retires and sells his ranch to American marine biologist, Alice Wright. She names it “Mount Robson Ranch”.
1954
Noreen Carr and her husband purchase 160 acres where the current Mount Robson Provincial Park Visitor Centre is now located. She goes on to become an accomplished artist of the Robson Valley.
1962
In March, the valley was named after the mountain by the Dunster Farmer’s Institute who held a contest to see what they would call it. The valley that lays at the foot of Mount Robson is approximately 150 miles long and extends from the Yellowhead Pass to Dome Creek, BC.
Hans Schwarz makes his first of 12 successful attempts to summit Mount Robson. The “Schwarz Ledges” near the top of Robson came to be named in his honour.
1969
The Ralph Forster Hut is built to house climbers using the South Face of the mountain (an avalanche had wiped out its forerunner building).
1970
Premier W.A.C. Bennet officially opens up the new Yellowhead Highway through the Yellowhead Pass.
The Carrs are forced to sell some of their land but use the opportunity to open a coffee shop and gas station at Mount Robson.
1977
The famous “Grizzly Group” including photographer and artist Glen Boles, summits Mount Robson.
1978
The Berg Lake Chalet, now owned by Alice Wright, is forced to close down but later (1982) reopens as the Hargreaves Shelter where weary hikers to Berg Lake can take shelter.
Mount Robson Lodge and Robson Shadows Campground is founded in 1978 by the Cinnamon family.
1979
Don Forest (a member of the Grizzly Group) becomes the first person to climb all of the official 11,000 foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies. The Robson group of 11,000ers includes Robson, Resplendent, The Helmut and Whitehorn.
1980
Murray and Ishbel (nee Hargreaves) Cochrane take over the Mount Robson Ranch from Alice Wright.
1984
In August, American climbers Nicholas Vanderbilt (great-great grandson of American tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt) and Francis Gledhill Jr. disappear after attempting to summit the peak. Their bodies were never found.
1991
Mount Robson park ranger, Rick Blak, is tragically killed while exploring Arctomys cave. 110 people were involved in the recovery of his body.
2012
In August, climber Bradley Charles Joyce of Alberta is killed when a snow bridge collapses underneath him as he descended the mountain.
Canadian-born climber, Barry Blanchard, finishes the 2200 metre route up the Emperor Face named “Infinite Patience”.
2013
Local brothers from nearby Valemount, Andreas and Reiner Thoni, establish a new route to the Kain Face via the South Face Spur.
2016
For further reading please check out my blog:
Each mark on this timeline points to a deeper story of the mountain and its people. It is the story of creation, First Nations, pioneers, explorers, climbers, scientists, artists, poets, railway men and outfitters. It is the story of Mount Robson in point form. Geological Origins
Mount Robson is a peak in the Rainbow Range of the Rocky Mountains in eastern British Columbia. These mountains are “raised layers of sedimentary rocks formed on the floors of ancient seas” (Royal BC Museum). One geology blog describes Robson as a 12,792 foot tall layer cake with limestone and dolomite on the top, shale in the beige coloured middle and quartzite on the bottom. While the layers may seem to be horizontal they are actually part of a huge syncline (fold of stratified rock in which the strata slope upward from the axis).
From the base of Mount Robson in the Fraser River Valley to its peak there is a 3,000 metre rise over a distance of only three kilometres… “it is not far below that of Mount Everest and is unrivaled in the Canadian or U.S. Rocky Mountains” (Bill Corbett).
Prior to the fur trade entering the Leather (Yellowhead) Pass, the Simpcw were the first known inhabitants of the Upper Fraser area, they were nomadic and a part of the Shuswap (Secwepemc) people. They built lodges and fish drying racks near the confluence of the Fraser and McLennan rivers (near present day Tete Jaune, BC). Their territory extended from north of McLure, BC into Jasper, Alberta and there are archaeological finds throughout this area.
The First Nations name for the mighty peak was “Yuh-hai-has-kun”, meaning The Mountain of the Spiraling Road which referred to the strata-like layers of the mountain that angle upwards to the East. (From G.M. Dawson’s Report on the Shuswap People)
 |
| "Shuswap Indians" at Tête Jaunce Cache 1912. (Photo by F.A. Talbot, from the Simpcw First Nation Archive) |
1819
Pierre Hatsination (also known as Tete Jaune, a fair haired Iroquois) is sent by Colin Robertson of the Hudson’s Bay Company to trade in B.C.
Pierre probably established a cache near the confluence of the Grand Forks (now Robson) River and the Fraser River near the foot of Mount Robson. The most likely theory as to the name of Mount Robson is that Pierre named it after his boss and that it later evolved into “Robson”.
1827
George MacDougal’s journal entry for April 25, 1827 is the first written record of Mount Robson’s current name. He referred to it as “Robinson” thus showing the likely evolution of the name.
1862
The famed “Overlanders” who started from Toronto make their way to Tete Jaune Cache and see the illustrious Mount Robson. John M. Sellar makes this journal entry on August 26 referring to Robson by its nickname: “At 4pm we passed Snow or Cloud Cap Mountain Which is the highest and finest on the whole Leather Pass.”
 |
| The Yellowhead Pass by William G. R. Hind of the Overlanders |
1863
The English explorers, Dr. William Butler Cheadle and William Fitzwilliam, the Viscount of Milton, search for a Northwest passage overland within British Columbia.
On July 14, Cheadle records the sight of Mount Robson: “…immediately behind us, a giant among giants, and immeasurably supreme, rose Robson’s Peak.” Thus the evolution of the name was complete.
1876-77
The Canadian Pacific Railway sends surveyors through the Yellowhead pass to assess its viability for the new Transcontinental Railway. Despite Sir Sanford Fleming’s recommendation to build the railway through the Yellowhead pass, it is later decided to build the railway through the Kicking Horse pass further south.
1906
A.O. Wheeler and Elizabeth Parker found the Alpine Club of Canada
1907
A.O. Wheeler sends artist and geologist, A.P. Coleman, to explore Mount Robson with the hope of climbing the peak and claiming it for the new Alpine Club of Canada. Coleman is joined by his brother, Lucius, a packer named Jack Beder and a Presbyterian Minister by the name of George Kinney. They tried but failed to climb Mount Robson from the south.
On September 11th, the Coleman party reaches Kinney Lake (which had also been known as Helena Lake) and Coleman named it after the good Reverend. Coleman also names Resplendent Mountain.
By this time three different routes had been surveyed by three different railway companies through the Yellowhead Pass. The CPR had done so decades earlier and now the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern were competing to construct the first railway there.
1908
On July 31st, A.P. Coleman left Edmonton to begin his second expedition to Mount Robson. Along with Lucius and George Kinney he added packer John Yates and guide Adolphus Moberly. This time they attempted to climb Mount Robson from the north but time and weather prevented them.
The group named one lake after their guide Adolphus and the other they named Berg Lake because of the large glacier (formerly Blue Glacier, now known as Berg Glacier) that flowed into it and dropped great chunks of ice into it. They also came across for the first time geographical features now famously known as Extinguisher Tower and The Dome.
Coleman names The Helmut because of its resemblance to a Roman soldier’s headpiece.
In August, Mary Schaffer and Mollie Adams make the trek from the Athabasca to Tete Jaune with the intent of seeing Mount Robson. Many of Mary’s lantern slides of the area remain in museums to this day.
 |
| Arthur Philemon Coleman: Cutting Steps, Robson Glacier / The figures depicted are Lucius Coleman, George Kinney and John Yates |
1909
Upon hearing that a group of foreigners were going to attempt the peak of Robson in the summer, George Kinney hastily makes plans to climb it on his own in June (Coleman was still teaching at University).
After meeting a young outfitter named Donald “Curly” Phillips, Kinney asks him to accompany him to the summit. In an extraordinary feat of human endurance and determination, they scaled the mountain on the West Face and Kinney claims they reached the peak on Friday, August 13. It appears that at first the Alpine Club of Canada accepted this as fact.
Kinney discovers “The Gargoyles”, “…fantastic masses of crystal, forming huge cornices all along the crest of the peak.”
British climber, Arnold L. Mumm and his Swiss guide Moritz Inderbinen (the “foreigners” that Kinney was afraid of) attempt another climb of Robson’s Peak but fail. Mumm would try again in 1910 and 1911 without success.
 |
| George Kinney |
1910
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is built through the Yellowhead Pass
1911
A.O. Wheeler and the Alpine Club of Canada mount another expedition to Robson in an attempt to explore and produce a topographical survey. The information gathered on this trip will eventually help inspire the British Columbian government to make the area around Mount Robson a provincial park.
The party discovers Arctomys Cave near Robson. The cave is 1608 feet deep and for a long time was the deepest known cave in Canada.
Wheeler names the majestic falls with the massive mists “Emperor Falls”
Conrad Kain, an Austrian, is the first man to summit Whitehorn Mountain
After completing his survey of the Robson area, A.O. Wheeler plants a wooden post with an inscription marking the border between B.C. and Alberta.
 |
| Conrad Kain |
1912
The Grand Trunk Pacific hires Francis Rattenbury (who also designed the Empress Hotel) to design a Chateau Mt. Robson. Unfortunately the chateau never came to fruition as the GTP went out of business.
1913
The Provincial Government hires Curly Phillips to build a trail to Berg Lake including his famous “flying” trestles.
On March 11, Mount Robson Provincial Park is officially founded – the second oldest provincial park in B.C.
The Alpine Club of Canada holds their annual camp at Mount Robson, July 28- August 9.
On July 31, 5:30pm, Conrad Kain, William W Foster and Albert H. MacCarthy ascend the summit of Mount Robson via what is now known as “Kain’s Face”.
The next night Curly Phillips stuns the celebrating crowd at the ACC camp by telling them that he and George Kinney did not reach the summit of Mount Robson in 1909. Kain is credited with the first summit. Kinney continued to claim that he had reached the peak in 1909 but Phillip’s statement broke his heart.
The Canadian Northern Railway is built through the Yellowhead Pass
1914
A.Y. Jackson (a future member of the famed Canadian painting association, “The Group of Seven”) and William Beatty (another important Canadian artist) are hired by the Canadian Northern to paint scenes along their railway. They make multiple paintings of Mount Robson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the famed detective Sherlock Holmes, visits the Canadian West with his wife. A special train is procured to take them to Mount Robson. Doyle later wrote a poem about his adventures entitled “The Athabasca Trail”.
 |
| By A.Y. Jackson |
1916
In a dark part of B.C.’s history, the Simpcw People are forcibly, and without warning, relocated from their settlement at Tete Jaune to Chu Chua – nearly 300 Kilometres away (south of Little Fort, BC). Despite a railway existing along this corridor, the Simpcw were made to walk. Today there are nearly 700 members of the Simpcw First Nation who still live, work and continue their cultural heritage in Chu Chua.
1919
The Grand Trunk Pacific merges with the Canadian Northern to become the nationalized “Canadian National Railway”.
c. 1920
A.O. Wheeler lowers his earlier measurement of the height of Robson from 13,068 feet to 12,972 feet which is the official height still used today.
1921
The Hargreaves brothers (George, Frank, Roy, Jack and Dick) establish The Hargreaves Brothers Outfitting Company near Mount Robson. They are hired by the CNR to build cabins in the Robson Pass which Roy operated for several years.
 |
| Some of the Hargreaves Brothers |
1922
The very first automobile trip through the Yellowhead Pass is conducted by C.W. Neimeyer and Frank Silverthorne. They started in Edmonton and ended in Victoria. The “road” consisted of abandoned railway beds and actual railway line.
The Hargreaves adopt two orphan black bear cubs which they often take to the Robson train station for travellers to see. They are immortalized in an iconic photo.
1924
Phyllis Munday becomes the first women to climb Mount Robson. Conrad Kain was her guide.
Lawren Harris, also a future member of The Group of Seven” paints alongside Jackson on another trip to Robson.
1927
Roy Hargreaves builds the Berg Lake Chalet by Berg Lake and hosts many guests there.
1930
American climber Newman D. Waffl becomes the first known person to die attempting to scale Mount Robson. His body was never found and a mountain was later named after him. Sophia Hargeaves (wife of Roy) had the difficult task of writing Mrs. Newman to inform her of her husband’s tragic death.
1937
Film maker, Hamilton Jones, shoots an award-winning Western movie in the Mount Robson area called “Western Holiday”.
1938
Celebrated guide, Hans Fuhrer, leads a party up the north ridge of Robson. It is now called the Fuhrer Ridge in his honour.
1939
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stop at Mount Robson on their Canadian tour.
B.C. Provincial Police officer, Wilfred Hovey Olts, begins his stay at Red Pass and Mount Robson (The RCMP were not yet in B.C.). He accompanies the Royals as the police presence on the train and must have been impressed with them as he later named his daughter Elizabeth.
1946
Famed pioneer of the Robson Valley, Ishbel Hargreaves (daughter of Roy and Sophia), marries Murray Cochrane (a guide working for Roy).
1959
American climber, Leo Slaggie, finds the bottle that George Kinney had planted on that controversial “first” summit. He found it just below Emperor Ridge and in it were names and a Canadian Flag.
Roy Hargreaves retires and sells his ranch to American marine biologist, Alice Wright. She names it “Mount Robson Ranch”.
1954
Noreen Carr and her husband purchase 160 acres where the current Mount Robson Provincial Park Visitor Centre is now located. She goes on to become an accomplished artist of the Robson Valley.
1962
In March, the valley was named after the mountain by the Dunster Farmer’s Institute who held a contest to see what they would call it. The valley that lays at the foot of Mount Robson is approximately 150 miles long and extends from the Yellowhead Pass to Dome Creek, BC.
Hans Schwarz makes his first of 12 successful attempts to summit Mount Robson. The “Schwarz Ledges” near the top of Robson came to be named in his honour.
1969
The Ralph Forster Hut is built to house climbers using the South Face of the mountain (an avalanche had wiped out its forerunner building).
1970
Premier W.A.C. Bennet officially opens up the new Yellowhead Highway through the Yellowhead Pass.
The Carrs are forced to sell some of their land but use the opportunity to open a coffee shop and gas station at Mount Robson.
 |
| Berg Lake Chalet (now Hargreaves Shelter) |
1977
The famous “Grizzly Group” including photographer and artist Glen Boles, summits Mount Robson.
1978
The Berg Lake Chalet, now owned by Alice Wright, is forced to close down but later (1982) reopens as the Hargreaves Shelter where weary hikers to Berg Lake can take shelter.
Mount Robson Lodge and Robson Shadows Campground is founded in 1978 by the Cinnamon family.
1979
Don Forest (a member of the Grizzly Group) becomes the first person to climb all of the official 11,000 foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies. The Robson group of 11,000ers includes Robson, Resplendent, The Helmut and Whitehorn.
1980
Murray and Ishbel (nee Hargreaves) Cochrane take over the Mount Robson Ranch from Alice Wright.
1984
In August, American climbers Nicholas Vanderbilt (great-great grandson of American tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt) and Francis Gledhill Jr. disappear after attempting to summit the peak. Their bodies were never found.
1991
Mount Robson park ranger, Rick Blak, is tragically killed while exploring Arctomys cave. 110 people were involved in the recovery of his body.
2012
In August, climber Bradley Charles Joyce of Alberta is killed when a snow bridge collapses underneath him as he descended the mountain.
Canadian-born climber, Barry Blanchard, finishes the 2200 metre route up the Emperor Face named “Infinite Patience”.
2013
Local brothers from nearby Valemount, Andreas and Reiner Thoni, establish a new route to the Kain Face via the South Face Spur.
2016
The late mountain climber, Marc Andre Leclerc, achieves the first solo ascent of Mount Robson’s Emperor’s Face. He is the subject of the documentary “The Alpinist”.
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Psalm 90:2
Mount Robson: Spiral Road of Art / Jane Lytton Gooch / Copyright 2013
The Yellowhead Pass and Its People / Valemount Historic Society / Copyright 1984
The Robson Valley Story / Marilyn Wheeler / Copyright 1979
The 11,000ERS of the Canadian Rockies / Bill Corbett / Copyright 2016
Simpcw First Nation website
Memoirs of an Outfitter’s Daughter / Valemount Historic Society / Copyright 2008
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