in bulk, and then each climber applied them to the soles of the hiking boots by pushing them through the sole. The nails were then clipped over so that the two portions of the edge nail were just on the counter of the boot. Edge nails on the boot soles acted a bit like crampons, but unlike crampons, which were worn using bindings to fit them directly over the boots, these nails became part of the actual boot sole. Edge nails were particularly good on logs and slippery surfaces, but on the ice, they slipped.
Although Don had been wearing his new tricouni nails for a year, Phyl had remained unconvinced of their advantages. Tricounis were not easy to apply, and it was very important that they be pushed directly through the leather and not through pre-drilled holes. The prongs on the nails were so shaped that they spread when driven in and thus locked the nail securely. Only in the Rockies on the glaciers did tricounis really show an advantage. They did not slip on ice as did edge nails and could be worn equally well on rock. During this trip to Mount Robson Provincial Park Phyl came to believe that Don’s boots gave him a big advantage, and she was finally convinced of the merits of tricouni nails. She decided then that she should also switch over, a decision she never regretted.
When Phyl married Don, she did what women of her age and time did, ceased to work and became a housewife. To keep herself occupied she threw herself into Guiding. The Company was now so large and doing so well that Phyl thought she should organize a ladies’ committee to introduce other women, especially mothers of Guide-age girls, to the Guiding movement in a formal way by providing information and training as a means to encourage the creation of more companies. Dominion Headquarters appointed Mrs. TP. Lake to be the very first commissioner for the Vancouver District. Her presence gave structure to the committee, which later came to be called the officers’ council. Phyl was appointed Staff Captain for the district, and a secretary and treasurer were also named. The Guide Company split into two companies of reasonable size, each with its own leader. At the same time Phyl created the 1st Vancouver Brownie Pack, and she herself became their Brown Owl. Brownies, for girls aged seven td ten, was an offshoot of Girl Guides, introduced by Agnes Baden-Powell after much demand for a Guide-like organization suitable for younger girls. Brownies fed naturally into Guides, as did Guides into Rangers. Thus a girl could stay in the movement as she matured.
In the summer following her marriage, Phyl discovered that she would soon have her “own little Brownie.” She was pregnant. As an expectant mother she now had a new role for which social conventions of the times remained quite rigid. Physical activity was discouraged. The doctor prescribed moderate exercise such as gentle walking, but he certainly could not endorse either the vigorous “walking” associated with mountain climbing or the strain of backpacking, which he viewed as potentially harmful to the unborn child and the mother-to-be. I’m fine until the pregnancy shows, thought Phyl. Don and I will just continue as usual, perhaps with a little accommodation, we’ll stick a little closer to home, until I can’t hide my condition.
Phyl continued on with the Guides until just a short time before the birth of her child. She applied for and was granted a seven-week leave of absence from Guiding, and during this leave, gave birth to Edith on 26 March 1921. Within a very short time, Phyl was up and about, little affected physically by the nine months of pregnancy and the labour and delivery of her child. In typical Phyl fashion, she quickly incorporated Edith into her outdoors adventures. The new baby did not deter Phyl and Don from hiking and climbing for long. When she was eight weeks old they began taking Edith to the cabin on weekends, and at eleven weeks Edith travelled up Crown Mountain (elevation 1503 metres) in a cotton sling around her Daddy’s shoulder while Don steadied her head with his arm.
The Vancouver Province featured a large article complete with photos that showed the family on the summit of Crown Mountain. The Mundays and their new baby became celebrities. Vancouverites were captivated by the activities of this novel couple, who projected such a matter-of-fact outlook as they carried on as usual, seemingly little encumbered by the addition of an infant.
One day a few months after Edith’s birth and after their climb up Crown Mountain, Phyl visited her mother and explained Don’s latest invention. “Edith is growing like a weed. She is strong and she won’t be content any longer to travel in the sling. So guess what, Mum? My clever husband has made a very nice little carrier for Edith. The carrier will fit right on to his packboard over top of a small load, and that way Don will be able to pack Edith in a much safer way. She’ll like it too because it will give her a little more freedom to look around. The carrier has a wooden base with canvas on it and a big canvas band, so that when we put her into it, it holds her right around from her hips to under her armpits. It supports her firmly so that she doesn’t slide down into it, and best of all we can put her in, fully dressed, and she’ll be covered up with the canvas. That way we don’t have to worry whether it rains. She won’t get wet. Don has also made a hood to it, so that if it really rains we can pull it over her head. And then, mosquito netting. That will be ever so important in the summer.”
A few days later on the first of July the Mundays packed right through the Seymour valley and down the Stawamus valley into Squamish with Edith. On the way they camped in one of the cabins of the Britannia Mining Company. The cabins were equipped with bunks and a stove for cooking. Phyl, ever resourceful, quickly saw a practical use for one of the monstrous big bread pans that the company cook used for baking. What better bassinet for bathing my baby in the morning? One day while they were still staying at the cabin, three geologists from the mine dropped in for a visit. They were absolutely stunned when they saw a small baby in a bread pan on the oven door.
Later in the same year Phyl and Don went into the Selkirk Mountains to the BCMC camp and took Edith along. It was just shortly before the old hotel at Glacier was closed, and the people there wouldn’t believe there was a baby at camp up the valley. She was contented and seemed to enjoy being out like that, so Phyl and Don just brought Edith with them all the time. Had Phyl been less strongwilled about her love of the outdoors, and had Edith been less co-operative, the young mother would have had to give up her outdoor activities now that she had a child.
7
Rambling High on the Ridges
Phyl and Don, accompanied many times by Edith, spent the decades of the 1920s and 1930s in Phyl’s words, “rambling high on the ridges.” They were bounded by the routines of family, employment, and domestic responsibilities yet managed to set and keep as a priority this need they both shared to be in the mountains.
“My love for the mountains is terribly deep,” Phyl wrote in her diary. “They mean so much. It is impossible to explain what they do to your soul. There is nothing on earth like them.” On many weekends, and for longer opportunities in the spring and summer, the Mundays climbed in the lower mainland or the Tantalus and Britannia Ranges on the coast north of Vancouver, the Cheam Range south of the Fraser Valley, the Cariboo Mountains, and the Rockies. Before their marriage, Phyl at times had incurred the displeasure of her employer when she arrived late for work on Monday, or alternately, did not make it in until the next day. It was impossible to be sure about how long it might take for a weekend hike. Weather could change, transportation might cause delay, injury or accident was always possible. Phyl managed to convince her boss at Begg Motors that she really wasn’t dallying with the time clock.
Phyl and three-year-old Edith outside Alpine Lodge, their home
on the Grouse Mountain plateau. Phyl packs chairs for the cabin
and ferns for the table setting, 1924.
“The
