completely different to communities in the Himalayas and the Andes. Almost every major river in the world
relies on mountains for its water and half of the world’s population relies on those same rivers to drink,grow food and create power. In Canada and the US, mountains are associated with the playground of the rich (and skiers and climbers), but in the rest of the world mountains are associated with poverty and fragile ecosystems. Both arenas share deforestation, erosion,and water qual- ity issues.However,one area is facing dimin- ished recreational opportunities (to greatly simplify the matter) while the other is strug- gling for
survival.The Year of the Mountains celebrates what mountains provide us, while looking for ways to protect mountain ecosystems and communities.
ead McCullah plays mandolin, loves mountains and was my co-trip leader on the Hess River. Every afternoon I watched him disappear into the willows emerging a few hundred feet higher at tree line. He would continue to climb until he was only a speck, and then invisible to me all together, lost on the face of the magnifi- cent mountains rising straight out of the
river.The North’s continual light guided him back down to camp; some evenings he would not return until after two, exhausted but triumphant about reaching another nameless peak.
R I on the other hand, rarely strayed from
the water. I could be found in the evenings sitting at the head of the gravel bar looking upstream, listening to the glacial silt hissing on the rocks, feeling the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the river. My question is why? Why are some peo-
ple drawn to the top of mountains while others to the river’s edge? For Read, it was perspective:“Getting up high I can really see. I can see where I’ve been and where I’m going.I look down and see the blue ribbon of the river threading the valley… there is a vastness that takes my
breath
away.To climb above it all is almost euphoric.” Many years later,my friend Morgan Hite
expanded on this idea;“I'd say I'm drawn to mountains because the constant landscape presence of the big masses re-contextual- izes my life.When I see the mountain I feel small and it feels good to be small.I remem- ber being surprised at what a peak experi- ence climbing a peak was,when I finally did it. I suspect there's no denying the sight of the world below you as a very potent image in suggesting one's domination over life's
problems.As metaphors go,it's a pretty easy one for people to grasp.” If mountains are about realizing scale
and perspective in our lives, then what of rivers? Mountains create rivers, catch and provide water and gradient, yet are worn down by that very same process. Rivers are the great equalizer of the earth, working and eroding to level everything out. Morgan again: “To me the mountain
attraction has a very egoistic quality to it— power and strength and so on—whereas the river attraction has a surrender quality to
it.They both are ultimately about peace and atonement, but they seem to me to be different paths that appeal to different types of personalities.” Go with the flow versus climb to the
top—a yin balancing
yang.Mountains create and feed rivers while rivers connect and
continue.The metaphors are endless. Like all good paddling trips we were
absorbed by the river and eventually lost track of time on the Hess. My friend Read would disappear every evening climbing and searching for his answers, and I would sit by the river,waiting for mine to come to me.
Celebrate the Year of the Mountains. —Jeff Jackson
Silverhope Creek is one of BC’s thousands of hidden moun- tain streams. Cascading from Silver Lake in Silver Lake Provincial Park toward Hope BC, Silverhope Creek is a small but lively watercourse located 150 kilometres west of Vancouver and 12 kilometres south of Hope.
photo by Doug Hamilton. fall2002 19
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