Expedition Yukon 1967: Centennial and the Politics of Mountaineering in Kluane

Abstract

Abstract: The Yukon Alpine Centennial Expedition was a mass outdoor adventure to celebrate Canada's Centennial in 1967. Organized by the Alpine Club of Canada, it mobilized unifying narratives of federal nationhood through athletic exploits and sporting bodies. Funded by federal, provincial, and territorial governments, three prongs of this major expedition involved more than three hundred mountaineers and resulted in thirty-three climbs in the St Elias Range, including twenty-seven first ascents. The expedition named many geographic features and left imprints on the cultural landscape. Although the expedition officially commemorated nationhood, climbers nonetheless challenged common assumptions through their ways of knowing mountain landscapes. Looking back to the 1925 first ascent of Mt Logan and forward to the declaration of Kluane National Park in 1972, yace represented Canadian federalist nationalism in northern mountain landscapes, situated amid the Southern Tutchone homelands. Imagining peaks in the St Elias Range as the domain of Canada's national alpine club contributed to imagining Canada's northern national parks established in the 1970s. This study considers how encounters and stories associated with the expedition might be read to place the study of commemoration and mountaineering history within discussions of local knowledge, cultural landscapes, and environmental philosophy.