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Mountain visitors increasing

Master's degree project examines mountaineering experience and growing popularity of climbing
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YOLO IN YOHO Manfred Czechak (left) and Marg Rees descend the upper slopes of 3,368-metre Mount Huber, high above Lake O'Hara in B.C.'s Yoho National Park. Photo by Lynn Martel

Like all good students, while researching a master's degree project focused on wildlife management, Mary Benjamin allowed herself to become sidetracked by a topic that captured her interest more deeply — the mountaineering experience.

"I found I was reading more about the mountaineering experience for personal pleasure than I was about my original thesis topic in an attempt to understand why I love it so much," Benjamin explained.

She began listening with a different perspective to her friends' complaints and stories about what they liked and didn't like about their climbing experiences around the world. A grad student in environmental design at the University of Calgary, she began contrasting what she was learning in class about resource management issues and the struggles of allowing visitors to enjoy their experiences while maintaining the resource and land on which they recreate, with what her climbing friends described about their experiences.

"I went back to my trip notes from past adventures in Switzerland, Scotland and Wales and realized I had unconsciously been making comparisons between these locations and the Rockies and Adirondacks," she said. "I decided this was a problem with no easy solution — to find a balance between management and visitor experience — and that it was one that I could tackle in the context of this master's."

As such, Benjamin switched her thesis to the task of identifying the critical factors that influence the mountaineering experience with an aim toward outlining potential solutions.

In recent years, the sport of mountaineering has experienced a significant change in numbers of participants, methods and equipment, as well as changes in climbers' desires and expectations, she said. Changes in climbers' motivations have altered the relationships mountaineers have with their physical environment.

"This has resulted in significant environmental, social and cultural impacts on the world's mountain ranges and peoples," she said. "Land managers now face the challenge of addressing their mandates to provide users with appropriate recreational experiences, while avoiding and managing associated impacts."

In particular, increased numbers of participants presents a growing concern for national parks mangers in their attempt to understand the user experience and related environmental impacts.

"As land managers' policies are governed by mandates that provide users with appropriate recreational experiences while mitigating against environmental, social and cultural impacts, an understanding of this experience is essential," Benjamin said. "Without recreational users, Parks Canada's dual mandate will only be semi-achieved."

In addition to reading reams of climbing accounts, plus numerous interviews in Switzerland and the U.K., Benjamin has interviewed professional mountains guides and intermediate level recreational climbers in the Banff and Canmore area. The cooperation of the Alpine Club of Canada, Parks Canada, Yamnuska Mountain Adventures and Rockies climbing writer and historian, Chic Scott, has been indispensible.

One attitude that surprised her was reluctance exhibited by some of her interview subjects toward the idea that a national park should be considering any sort of management plan related to the pursuit of mountaineering.

"(Their initial reaction was) I don't want to be managed!" she said. "It took some time to explain that this research is designed to enhance the mountaineering experience."

Having climbed in Switzerland, Scotland and the Rockies, Benjamin said her observations revealed all three areas are managed very differently, resulting in very different user experiences.

"In the Scottish Highlands, there are few trail signs and a very self-reliant approach to mountaineering," she said. The Scottish parks system, she added, promotes "responsible use," compared to Parks Canada's approach of enforcing regulations. Differences however, she argued, don't necessarily translate to enhanced experiences.

"According to my research, the desired mountaineering experience is the same — across the board — no matter where you are mountaineering," Benjamin said. "Climbers have different levels of acceptance for the management actions in each location and adjust their expectations of their trips accordingly."

In Europe, climbers appreciate the availability of uplift — gondolas and telepheriques — and the lack of external rules and restrictions, which elicit a sense of control that becomes a necessary element of the experience.

"Due to this lack of management, however, the experience can also be detracted from — allowing crowding of routes on honey-pot peaks, which affects solitude, which is another important aspect of the experience, and other subsequent detractants such as environmental degradation," she said. "Although uplift is a facilitator, it allows for easy access for many, many more people than you would find in the mountain parks. The mountain parks provide a wilderness experience, a connection with nature and solitude; the management in place provides for various other elements of the experience."

Mountaineering experiences are not solely based on the elements of technical climbing, she said, but include cultural aspects, ecological factors, temporal differences and the overall setting, leading some to believe mountaineering has evolved into an intricate combination of techniques and values that are often in conflict with each other.

While Parks expends some effort to accommodate the visitor experience of hikers and cross-country skiers, Benjamin suggests that mountaineers and climbers, because of their independent, less vocal natures, less obvious presence and fewer conflicts with other recreational users, are less of a concern at this time.

A scrambler since childhood, Benjamin progressed from gym and outdoor rock climbing to mountaineering in search of a more complex and fulfilling experience. Nine years of military service involving planning of complex operations have complemented her mountaineering, she added.

"I have always looked for an opportunity to push my fascination with mountaineering beyond its role as a personal recreational pursuit," Benjamin said. "Luckily, that opportunity presented itself during the course of my graduate research. It is a passion of mine, not only to climb, but also to solve problems like this.

"My topic is similar to climbing in a way. It's never easy — but so rewarding when you've put all the pieces together — to have to pull from a variety of competencies in order to accomplish your task."