Canadian Pacific was building what would eventually become the Chateau Lake Louise that people know today: first as a cabin sleeping two, then a chalet sleeping 15. Swiss Guides became part of the experience, leading novice and skilled climbers on excursions.In 1922, the guides and the CPR undertook the construction of a stone hut shelter.Along the way, climbers left their mark, a record of their trips jotted into a register in a stone-built refuge known as Abbot Hut.These drawings, songs and scribbles are personal — proof that thousands of people made it to the same slice of the Rockies. But these entries provide more than just cultural and historical value. They’ve helped complete a picture of how the mountains surrounding Lake Louise are transforming in a warming climate.
New research from the University of Calgary examined the two most common approaches to Abbot Pass, and how a warming climate has changed access and safety. The paper relies on data from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s weather station at Banff and is complemented by 100 years of summit register entries. Mountaineers documented their trips and choices on the Swiss Guide route, more commonly known today as the “Death Trap” and Lake O’Hara Gully. The result is a unique piece of research that centres the local experience in climate science. Kate Hanly is a PhD candidate in the U of C’s department of geography and the lead author of the research paper. She says the trend, reflected in the climate data and the summit registers of generations of climbers, is clear: “We’re seeing less glaciers, less snow, faster melting snow. “Climbers are climbing increasingly on rock or on loose scree, the material that was underlying the ice, and they're seeing more rockfall.” But these historical notes logged over time also have another story to tell: one of adaptation to the climate reality that mountaineers are facing. "It just reminds us of what we have to lose,” Hanly said. “It's so much more than a hike, Hanly spent only one night in Abbot Hut. In 2012, she made the journey with her father, guided by Albi Sole, a well-known mountaineer who taught at the University of Calgary’s Outdoor Centre. The view and the experience left an impression. +It was the first glacier we walked on together and the first kind of bigger hike for [my dad] and he was so proud of himself, as he should be,” Hanly said. At that time, Hanly was just beginning to spend more time in the mountains — and the more she visited the landscape, the more she thought about how it was changing. For those who live in the Bow Valley west of Calgary, this is a universal experience and part of daily conversations. Locals wonder if the experiences that drew them to live in the Bow Valley are in danger of becoming extinct, a loss for the next generation.......read on- stunning photos and also videos https://www.cbc.ca/