Letter to the Editor: Keep it wild

I am writing in support of protecting Mount Waddington, the Whitemantle Range and Homathko Icefield as a non-motorized area, preferably with the formation of a provincial or national park.

Mount Waddington is B.C.’s highest peak, with a long and storied mountaineering history. It deserves to remain wild for future generations, protected from motorized access. Preserving this range also furthers Canada and B.C.’s goals to avert the climate crisis.

I stand in calling for this protection alongside B.C.’s mountaineering clubs and environmental organizations, including guidebook-author and ski-mountaineer John Baldwin.

As a life-long backcountry skier, mountaineer, and backpacker, born in B.C., and having spent some 25 years travelling in the backcountry, I fully support the call for protecting the Waddington zone, Whitemantle Range, and Homathko Icefield—not only for its environmental value, but as a historical site, home to much Indigenous knowledge and many settler adventure stories.

It is a part of who we all are, and deserves recognition as an ecosphere, kept wild in its full integrity, free from resource development and motorized incursions.

tobias c. van Veen // Squamish