The climbers took the Union Steamship from Vancouver up Howe Sound to the dock at Squamish, and then caught the train. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway line, built in 1914, left from Squamish and stopped at Alta Lake, thus reducing the time for overland travel. Once off the train, the climbers rented pack horses to carry their supplies and food the remainder of the way into camp. The two-week camp allowed the Mundays (accompanied by Edith, aged two years), to make several excursions in the vicinity as they explored their favourite Garibaldi Park. They made first ascents of Mount Blackcomb (elevation 2440 metres) on the western end of the Spearman Range and Overlord Mountain (2625 metres) in the Fitzsimmons Range.
Later in the month, after the camp was over, Phyl and Don, again accompanied by Edith, travelled by train to the small town of Hope, which lies at the foot of the Coast Mountains, up the Fraser Valley from Vancouver. From Hope they went by automobile to Laidlaw, where they had arranged to hire pack and saddle horses for the ride through the timber into the Cheam Range of mountains near Jones Lake (now known as Wahleach Lake). There, at the north end of the lake, was a small B.C. Electric Railway cabin beside the hydroelectric dam. Mr. Barr, the operator, gave the Mundays a royal welcome and it was from here that they set up their base camp. They reconnoitred the “Lucky Four” group, so named for the Lucky Four Mine by Arthur Williamson, the mine superintendent. Three of these peaks bore the names of the principals of Foley, Welch and Stewart, a railway construction company that at one time was the largest in North America. This company built the Fraser Canyon section of the Canadian Northern Railway and many other rail lines.
The fourth peak, also named by the mine superintendent, received its name only after the Munday visit to the area. He named it Baby Munday Peak in honour of Ediths mountaineering experience. Another mountain nearby he named Lady Peak in Phyl’s honour. The Geographic Board of Canada adopted Baby Munday Peak as an official name in 1946. On this 1923 trip the Mundays explored the area with an eye to a return trip and during a thirteen-hour climb, made a first ascent of Mount Stewart, reputed to be the most difficult mountain in the range. On the club trip the following July they returned to the area for a successful ascent of Mount Foley.
Phyl and Don had extraordinary and finely tuned abilities to navigate in the bush and to climb in areas where few ventured to go. Their reputation gave Mr. Williamson, the mining superintendent, an idea. He invited the Mundays to put their mountaineering skills into use for the mining industry, and told them of his hopes to relocate the first producing silver mine in the province, the Eureka-Victoria mine, which had not operated for almost half a century. Although its specific location had been lost, the mine site was generally believed to be high on a mountain some thirteen kilometres from Hope. In July, right after their climb in the Cheam area, the Mundays headed to Hope and to this search.
Phyl took photos as Don swung precariously on a rope over a cliff edge outside the entrance to an overgrown mine tunnel. The rocks of the cliff edge showed that the tunnel had been cut right into an open vein of ore. As Don dangled, he used his ice axe to break off samples of rock around the entrance, which he then brought down the mountain with them. The samples that Don collected were assayed and discovered to be a silver-gold ore. The miners acted quickly and within a week or so commenced mining operations. The revival of the mine signalled an economic boon for Hope and the vicinity, and the story of its discovery added to the popular lore about the Mundays.
Climbing with a young daughter took a certain fortitude and patience, although Edith was never much trouble. She had accompanied her parents from an early age, and being on climbs was just a natural part of her life. The rhythm of the climb, of Don’s stride and arm swings as he carried her, lulled her and kept her content for several hours at a time. She would hum with the rhythm of his walking. For her mother, this humming was a soothing and sweet sound of absolute contentment, and Phyl never tired of hearing it. Edith knew and accepted the routine of the outdoors. As she grew, Don adapted his method of transporting her. The sling over his shoulder that held her as an infant had soon developed into the specialized backpack, then a larger one, and finally, once she was walking, Edith began to climb on her own. A little at a time in areas free of dense underbrush and on wide trails, Edith and her parents worked on finding the right combination of carrying and putting down. Eventually Edith had her own pair of hiking boots with tricouni nails and also snowshoes for winter walking.
On many of the climbs, going in to Garibaldi, the Selkirks, and the Rockies, the Mundays, like other climbers, used pack horses to carry their provisions. Edith loved horses and as a toddler pretended she had her own. Phyl told an interviewer who asked about hiking with Edith: “She always has an imaginary pack train, she will talk to these horses and pick up a stone every now and again, and throw it ahead of her and call out her horse’s name, and tell him to get going.” It was this contentment that charmed many in the Munday circle and created a legendary quality to the remembrances of Edith on the trail and at camp.
Phyl and Don began branching out. They were now members of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) and through this organization broadened their web of social contacts with other climbers. Unlike the locally based BCMC, the ACC membership reflected a geographically disparate group whose common interest in mountain climbing brought them physically together each year at club camps held in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Before long the Mundays were not only attending the annual camps but had attained their Climbing Badges for special types of climbs. Phyl later went on to earn the Silver Rope Award, signifying her as a qualified leader on climbs chiefly in snow and ice. Later, with Don, she also edited the Alpine Journal for several years and acted on the executive.
Somehow she and Don managed to balance activities with both organizations until 1930 when they broke with the BCMC, because they found it impossible to contribute fairly in two clubs at once. They were never just joiners, but busy and active club participants. For the Mundays, the ACC held the most promise for serious and committed climbers who wished to explore beyond the immediate vicinity of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver area.
Phyl was always conscious of pulling her own weight. As she was often the only woman on the more daring climbs or the more isolated ones, it was important to her that she not be a burden to anyone. She knew that for many men, the mention of a woman climbing with them would be met with grumbling and resentment. Just before the famous Mount Robson climb in 1924, Phyl saw, to her horror, one of the male climbers open the pack of a female companion and take some of the supplies out and place them in his own pack. This deliberate and surreptitious act conveyed to Phyl so clearly the attitude of many male climbers who had little confidence in the ability of their female companions to carry a fair load. Perhaps the man thought he was being kind by lightening the load of another and thus assuming a greater load for himself, but to Phyl this was unacceptable. She carefully guarded her own pack and continued her resolve to prove her abilities. Consequently she outdid herself over and over, and much to the amazement of the men, often carried (without grumbling) a pack much heavier than their own. Phyl was “a strong woman, as strong as any man,” asserted renowned Rocky Mountain guide Edward Feuz Junior.
At Alpine Lodge – home to the Mundays for three years – Phyl served lunches and drinks to weary hikers,
and in the winter, Don rented toboggans. Don and Edith pose with Phyl’s sister Betty,
her mother Beatrice; and (possibly) her brother Richard, ca 1925.
8
Living in the Mountains
Weekends were for hiking and climbing. Don’s cabin on Dam Mountain served as a weekend retreat, but it wasn’t long until they contrived to live in the mountains.
