By Kendra Runnalls
Community Librarian
The Revelstoke Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library was honoured recently with the generous donation of a full set of Canadian Alpine Journals. The journals have been published by the Alpine Club of Canada since 1907 and been issued yearly or bi-yearly since then.
The donor, Alpine Club member Bill Walker of Harvey Heights, which is just outside Canmore, had stipulated that the Alpine Club “offer them to a regional library or other worthy organization.” Executive Director Lawrence White said that, “given our ties to Revelstoke and Glacier Park in particular, I can think of no better recipient (than the Revelstoke Library).”
The Revelstoke Library is grateful to Alice Weber a Parks Canada Education Outreach Officer for approaching the library with the suggestion that the journals be kept here. Thanks also to Cathy English, Revelstoke Museum & Archives curator for her suggestions pertaining to the display, storage, and viewing of the collection. The journals are valuable and a set in its entirety is almost irreplaceable; it was therefore requested by the Alpine Club that the books not be loaned out.
The library invites customers to view the journals in the reference section. The volumes from 1958 to 2015 are on display with some climbing equipment generously on loan from Alan Dennis along with some photographs taken from the 1907 journal. The 1907 issue includes fold-out maps and many wonderful photographs of climbers, mountains, glaciers (as they were 109 years ago!), and wildlife. The 1932 issue includes a very amusing account of an energetic backcountry skier who enjoys a day’s skiing on Mount Begbie. Please come and peruse these fascinating accounts of life in the mountains. Journals published earlier than 1957 must be asked for from the front desk.
Kendra Runnalls is the Okanagan Regional Library’s Community Librarian in Revelstoke
