IAN STIRLING - MEMORIES FROM THE 1960s - GARIBALDI

I was saddened to hear that a chap I knew at university has died. He was one of the people we looked up to in the Varsity Outdoor Club at UBC [University of British Columbia, Canada] when I was there in the 60s. He was a couple of years older than me and was very much a highly respected member of the Club.  I have many memories of him as a fun-loving fellow who had a good head on his shoulders.  * Memorial service information below.

He studied Zoology and I got to know him a bit more as he and my friend Dave King (with whom I am still in touch) shared an office when they were studying blue grouse. Dave went on to spend his life in Wildlife Managment in northern BC; Iain devoted his life to the study of polar bears.

Throughout my life I have had occasions where I have been very grateful to someone who 'made a difference' to me in some way or another.  Mostly it was in relation to people e.g. teachers, old boyfriends, people in my social circle).  I have never had to be rescued in any dramatic way but there was one occasion at university when I had to be helped out of a difficult situation and it involved Ian!

VOC had planned at trip into Garibaldi Park in the Easter Holidays in 1965. (Garibaldi Provincial Park is near Whistler ski area. Needless to say, there was no Whistler ski area in the 60s!) It was a ski-mountaineering trip and the lodge (Diamond Head?) was booked for VOC use. The route in was by a 9 km trail from (Rubble Creek area) up the road from Squamish.  However the day I was due to hike in there was the offer of a lift in a helicopter which was taking in supplies at the beginning of the holiday.  I took up that place and so was spared the day long, very uphill, hike in, on skis, with a back-pack.

After several days there I was faced with skiing out. Well... it was a huge undertaking and I simply had no idea what was ahead of me! Deep powder, pack on my back, miles of snow through trees.  Ian came to my rescue ... a perfect gentleman.... he simply led me out, snow-plowing all the way down... miles and miles of it! Such a decent fellow!  I will never forget how bad I felt having ruined his great ski out!

What should have been this...

was more like this...

* * * * * * * * FROM THE ARCHIVES * * * * * * * 

A year later...

I found this photo of Iain and I (with Erling X? on the left and Bob Cuthbert on the right) which would be the winter of 1966, just a few months after Iain had arrived in Vancouver.  And, oddly enough, this is Garibaldi Lake. We four hiked in and camped for one night near the lodge at Diamond Head.  

(The only reason I remember where we camped is because we visited the couple who lived in the lodge. Wedged in behind a conduit pipe at the back of the stove in their kitchen was a very large hand-carved wooden spoon.  Bob made me a similar one and gave it to me that Christmas!)

This photo was also in the mid-sixties but taken in Larch Hills near Salmon Arm where they had made a ski-touring trail.

Finally this is one of a  solitary ski-mountaineering figure was taken either by Dick Culbert or possibly Alice: 'Waddington in Winter from Bravo Col'.

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Garibaldi photos credit:  Josy A. 'A Walk and a Lark' website (2018)

https://www.awalkandalark.com/garibaldi-lake-trail-whistler-hikes/

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* From email of May 23 from Darlene of VOC:

A memorial service will be held Thursday, June 6, starting at 2 p.m., at Connelly-McKinley Funeral Home, 10011 114th St. N.W., Edmonton. To live-stream the service, find the link under Ian Stirling's event information at connelly-mckinley.com