Mike Mortimer | |
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Born | Manchester, England | 15 October 1950
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation | Business |
Known for | Mountaineering, climbing, UIAA President |
Mike Mortimer (born 15 October 1950) is a Canadian alpinist. He was president of the Alpine Club of Canada and the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA).
Michael Kenneth Mortimer grew up with his older brother Tony in Manchester. When he was six years old he went to the Potterspury Lodge boarding school, a Waldorf School that placed great emphasis on camping, hiking and other outdoor activities. Here he got to know the mountains. Mike's mother joined a hiking club and took her two boys with her. In the late 1950s the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where Mike went secretly climbing with other young people and in nail-shoes on the 200-meter cliffs of the Table Mountain. He became a member of the Mountain Club of South Africa. [1]
From 1971 to 1974 he travelled around the world and financed himself with odd jobs: he was a dishwasher in the mountaineering hotel The Hermitage at the Aoraki/Mount Cook (New Zealand), he camped at the foot of the Eiger in 1973 and climbed surrounding mountains (Schreckhorn, Mönch, Jungfrau, Eiger etc.). In Canada he met the teacher Heather Roddick, whom he married in 1974 and who became his rope partner. The Mortimers traveled the world together until 1977 when they settled in Calgary because of the nearby mountains and studied at the university there, where he graduated in Economics in 1982. They became members of the Calgary section of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) and began to expand the club activities there: they organized social events and volunteered to renovate shelters. [1]
In 1980 Mike became president of the Calgary Section. A tragic mountain accident led him to professionalize mountaineering. From 1982, he organized conferences on accident prevention, route planning, avalanche protection, etc. In 1982, Mike was the founding president of the Calgary Area Outdoor Council (CAOC). [1]
In the same year he became manager of the Hostel Shop of the Southern Alberta Hostelling Association, which was the starting point for many of his initiatives and activities, such as events with international elite mountaineers. For many years he was Master of Ceremonies at the Banff Mountain Film Festival (BMFF) which he initiated. [2] In 1983 he became general agent of Ortovox (Avalanche transceivers). [1]
1984 he joined the hut committee of the Alpine Club of Canada, later became its president and laid the foundation for the modern Canadian hut system (financing, renovation, expansion and operation of the ACC huts: Bow Hut, Lawrence Grassi Hut, Lloyd MacKay Hut, Abbot Pass Hut, R.J. Ritchie Hut, Wapta Icefield Huts, etc.)
From 1994 to 2001 he was President of the Alpine Club of Canada. He resumed the historic partnership with the Canadian Mountain Guides Association and the American Alpine Club (AAC). In 1997 he represented the ACC in Japan during the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Alberta by the Japanese Maki Yūkō and dined with the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister. [1]
As the first ACC Director of External Relations, he represented North America at the UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation). [3] From 2005 to 2011 he was UIAA President [4]
On 30 January 2024 the Alpine Club reported that Mike has died following an accident in Murta (Spain). Probably not true. The death relates to UK e3disent Mike Mortimer who was a member of the British Alpine Club. [5]
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.
The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme, was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France when 20 mountaineering associations met for an alpine congress. Count Charles Egmond d'Arcis, from Switzerland, was chosen as the first president and it was decided by the founding members that the UIAA would be an international federation which would be in charge of the "study and solution of all problems regarding mountaineering". The UIAA Safety Label was created in 1960 and was internationally approved in 1965 and currently (2015) has a global presence on five continents with 86 member associations in 62 countries representing over 3 million people.
Mount Assiniboine, also known as Assiniboine Mountain, is a pyramidal peak mountain on the Great Divide, on the British Columbia/Alberta border in Canada.
Mount Temple is a mountain in Banff National Park of the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada.
A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization dedicated to hiking or mountain recreation. They are known by many names, including alpine hut, mountain shelter, mountain refuge, mountain lodge, and mountain hostel. It may also be called a refuge hut, although these occur in lowland areas too.
The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) is an amateur athletic association with its national office in Canmore, Alberta that has been a focal point for Canadian mountaineering since its founding in 1906. The club was co-founded by Arthur Oliver Wheeler, who served as its first president, and Elizabeth Parker, a journalist for the Manitoba Free Press. Byron Harmon, whose 6500+ photographs of the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century provide the best glimpse of the area at that time, was official photographer to the club at its founding. The club is the leading organization in Canada devoted to climbing, mountain culture, and issues related to alpine pursuits and ecology. It is also the Canadian regulatory organization for climbing competition, sanctioning local, regional and national events, and assembling, coaching and supporting the national team.
Johann Wolfgang "Hans" Gmoser, CM was a founder of modern mountaineering in Canada. Born in Austria in 1932, he came to Canada in 1951, and was a major driving force behind the growing popularity of climbing, skiing and guiding.
Arthur Oliver Wheeler was born in Ireland and immigrated to Canada in 1876 at the age of 16. He became a land surveyor and surveyed large areas of western Canada, including photo-topographical surveys of the Selkirk Mountains and the British Columbia-Alberta boundary along the continental divide through the Canadian Rockies. In 1906, he and journalist Elizabeth Parker were the principal founders of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC). He was its first president, from 1906 to 1910, and editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal from 1907 to 1930. He remained Honorary President of the ACC from 1926 until his death in 1945. The Arthur O. Wheeler hut of the ACC is named after him.
Elizabeth Parker was a Canadian journalist in the early 1900s. She attended school in Truro, Nova Scotia, obtained her teaching certificate, married Henry John Parker at the age of 18, moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then to Winnipeg, Manitoba. She co-founded the Alpine Club of Canada in 1906 with Arthur Oliver Wheeler.
The Stanley Mitchell hut is an alpine hut located at an altitude of 2,060 metres (6,759 ft) in the Little Yoho Valley in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada. It sits in a small meadow not far from the base of a mountain called The President. It serves as a base for hiking, scrambling, ski-touring and climbing the nearby mountains. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada.
The Elk Lakes cabin is an alpine hut located between the French and Italian Military Groups in the Canadian Rockies. It resides near the Continental Divide in Elk Lakes Provincial Park, British Columbia. It is 62 km south of the Trans-Canada Highway in Kananaskis Country, Alberta and 104 km north of Sparwood, British Columbia. The area has hiking trails, and provides access to mountaineering objectives. In winter, ice climbs and skiing terrain with much powder abound. Elk Lakes terrain is similar to that near the Elizabeth Parker hut. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada.
The Arthur O. Wheeler hut is an alpine hut located four km southwest of Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, British Columbia. Although not truly a backcountry hut, this log cabin is situated conveniently close to the Trans-Canada Highway in the Selkirk Mountains, west of the Rocky Mountains. It is often used as a base for mountaineering, hiking, and ski touring into the Asulkan Range and Illecillewaet Glacier areas south of the highway, and the Hermit Range north of the highway. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC). It is the only ACC hut which can be reached by vehicle.
The Abbot Pass hut was an alpine hut located at an altitude of 2,925 metres (9,596 ft) in Abbot Pass in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. It was nestled between Mount Victoria and Mount Lefroy, straddling the Great Divide, which, in this region, defines the boundary between Banff National Park in Alberta and Yoho National Park in British Columbia. While close to the border, the hut lay entirely in Banff National Park, and was the second-highest permanently habitable structure in Canada. The hut was maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada.
The Jim Haberl Hut is an alpine hut located in the Tantalus Range near Squamish, British Columbia. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada - Vancouver Section.
The Fay hut was an alpine hut located above Prospectors Valley in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Although the higher Neil Colgan hut superseded it as a base for climbs in the Valley of the Ten Peaks area, it still served as a convenient base for hikers and skiers doing day trips in the area, and as an overnight stop for mountaineers continuing on to the Neil Colgan hut. A new hut was built in 2005 to replace the original Fay hut, which was destroyed by a forest fire in 2003. The Fay hut was maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC).
The Bill Putnam hut is an alpine hut located in the Adamant Range of the Selkirk mountains in British Columbia. It is set on a knoll at the edge of a high mountain meadow and provides access to a great array of mountaineering objectives, but is best known for its spectacular skiing terrain. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada.
The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies is located in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The museum collects, preserves, and exhibits materials related to the cultural heritage of the Rocky Mountains of Canada, making them available for education as well as research. The museum, which contains an archive and a library, was the inspiration of Banff artists Peter and Catharine Whyte. The Alpine Club of Canada has dedicated the Peter and Catharine Whyte Hut on the Peyto Glacier after the couple.
The Bow Hut is an alpine hut located at an elevation of 2,350 metres (7,710 ft) on the eastern edge of the Wapta Icefield in Banff National Park. It is the largest, best equipped, and most accessible of the four alpine huts on the Wapta Icefield, and serves as the base for a wide variety of ski tours and mountaineering ascents to half a dozen peaks on the Wapta. It is the easiest and safest starting point for the Wapta traverse; and Balfour Hut, the next hut on the traverse, can easily be reached from it in a day. It can also serve as an intermediate stop in a longer traverse which starts at the less easily accessible Peyto Hut. The hut is maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada.
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures is a mountaineering school and mountain adventure company located in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. The company was founded in 1975.
Alpine climbing is a type of mountaineering that involves using any of a broad range of advanced climbing skills, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large routes in an alpine environment. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is used to refer to climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and in Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry all of their own equipment, and do all of the climbing.