Guardians of the Peaks: Mountain Rescue in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains.

Ann Turner is Financial and Budget Manager at the University of British
Columbia Library.

Mountain rescue for travellers dates back over a thousand years to St. Bernard in the Alps. The development of modern mountain rescue services is much more recent, coinciding with the rise in popularity of mountaineering as a recreational pursuit. In Canada that occurred within the last century, and particularly over the last 50 years. A fatality near Lake Louise in 1896 led the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to bring over Swiss guides to assist its wealthy clients and perform rescue and recovery work when necessary. As interest in climbing as a popular sport for the middle classes grew after the Second World War, participants opted increasingly to climb without the aid or expense of professional guides. Accidents occurred more frequently. Ad hoc rescue teams of local outdoorsmen and park wardens, led by the Swiss guides, dealt with them as best they could, but two serious falls with fatalities in 1954–55 convinced the federal government to establish and train permanent professional mountain rescue teams through the Park Warden Service. Guardians of the Peaks looks at how the Service developed.  Packed with breathtakingly graphic descriptions of actual accidents and rescues, it focuses on the courageous, strong-minded individuals who built and carried out Canadian mountain rescue services over the years, the changing technologies available to them, and the political and cultural environments in which they worked. The glossary of mountaineering terms is a helpful resource for the uninitiated.