Backpackerz BUZZ: Issue 60

Life at HI-Mount Edith Cavell

It’s 4 degrees Celsius outside; a week ago it was -38—cold enough to get minor frostbite on my way to the outhouse. I’ve spent the last two winters nestled in the mountains of Jasper National Park, keeping an eye on one of Hostelling International’s very special hostels. It is impossible to tire of the view…subalpine forest with a backdrop of Mt. Edith Cavell (3,363 m), Ghost Glacier, and the left wing of Angel Glacier. I really lucked out in nabbing this job at HI-Mount Edith Cavell Hostel – it’s pretty close to paradise. So, on a cloudy March day, with 30 centimetres of fresh wet snow, I sit in the cabin and ponder tomorrow.

Although there is the occasional sound of a snowmobile taking in supplies to the backcountry lodges, there is no car traffic in winter and it’s amazingly quiet. All guests travel the 12-kilometre trail by ski or snowshoe and either stay a few nights or use the hostel as a stopping point before embarking on the more arduous trip into the Tonquin Valley. The Alpine Club of Canada has a hut (Wates-Gibson) 16 kilometres further into the Tonquin Valley, and there are two backcountry lodges along the shores of Amethyst Lake. Most of the people I meet have planned their trip to the National Park around their visit to this area. I recently met a man from Japan who has spent the last five winters walking, skiing and hiking some 3,000 kilometres of Canada’s roadways and trails. He’s been to the hostel three times in the last month, and on into the Tonquin Valley. I’d have to say this quiet man is one of my favourite guests; he leaves the hostel in better shape than he found it!

All guests are reminded that even if they are the only guest at the hostel, they are by no means alone in the woods. The forest is alive with wildlife, big and small. I’ve seen five caribou 100 feet from my door lapping water off an ice flow. Deer can be seen quickly bounding out of sight, and there are two moose that hang out between the hostel and the viewpoint two kilometres down the road. I’ve heard wolves howling in the afternoon, fallen asleep to the lullaby of the Boreal Owl and woken to the eerie sounds of coyotes in the night. Everywhere you look, there are snowshoe hare tracks, evidence of martins on the roof, ravens, Clark’s nutcrackers, and squirrels, squirrels, squirrels.

I’ve learned a lot about the history of the area, from the advance of the glaciers to the very names of the mountains. There is a lichen found on the quartz rocks that tells the tale of the advance and retreat of the glaciers over the last few hundred years. The “map lichen” is known to live 9,600 years in the Arctic, and in the Rocky Mountains, geologists have been able to learn more about climate changes by studying the diameters of the lichen found in the glacier moraines.

The mountain itself hasn’t always been known as Mount Edith Cavell, named after a First World War British nurse executed for helping allied prisoners of war to escape from Belgium. The early voyageurs knew it by the name “La Montagne de la Grande Traverse” (the mountain of the great crossing).

Every name has a story, every day is a different spin on “beautiful,” and every sound is something to take and store in my memory bank. I may not have electricity or running water, but I have everything I need outside my window…and that’s a lot! As I prepare for the night, I stop pondering tomorrow and reflect on the day I’ve had…and I think I’ll enjoy the now because now is the best time of my life.
— Kelly Manweiler

HI-Mount Edith Cavell is located about 23 km south of the Jasper townsite. There is road access in the summer, but the 12-km road is only accessible by snowshoes or skis in the winter. You won’t find electricity or running water here, but there is purified drinking water and propane power for lights and stoves.

Reserve by calling 1-877-852-0781 or get more information at www.hihostels.ca/edithcavell.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 12:31 am and is filed under Hostelling International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.