Storming the Heights: Canadian Frontier Nationalism and the Making of Manhood in the Conquest of Mount Robson, 1906–13

Abstract

This article critically contextualizes the drama and controversy surrounding the first ascent of Mount Robson within its wider historical and cultural context, in order to show how larger social and historical trends have, in numerous regards, shaped the ways in which climbers engaged and elaborated mountain sport. Despite its British Victorian heritage, early mountaineering in the Canadian ranges was not merely an offshoot of older traditions, but, rather, a complex mixture of individual motivations and cultural contexts that were specific to the construction of the western Canadian frontier.