The Fitzhugh - Jasper's Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper

ISSUE: JANUARY 26, 2012

University initiative links mountain passions

The pursuit of climbing mountains, says Zac Robinson, is steeped in a rich and varied connection to the physical sciences, as well as to the creative arts and some of the finest adventure writing ever produced.

“A lot of the early climbers were scientists, artists, writers, poets too,” said Robinson, an avid mountaineer who serves on the Alpine Club of Canada’s executive committee. “There is much about the mountaineering activity that is rooted in that esthetic of romanticism and literature.”

As the son of respected Manitoulin Island native artist Michael Robinson – a Métis whose aboriginal-themed works are treasured in collections at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Royal Ontario Museum – Robinson is also keenly interested in the role aboriginal peoples played in shaping Canada’s mountain history. For example, the eastern-based Iroquois’ sophisticated understanding of Canada’s mountain landscapes made them indispensable to the fur company explorers who would be ultimately credited for “discovering” many high alpine passes in the Rockies.

It’s just such historical interests, combined with his role as assistant professor in the University of Alberta’s faculty of physical education and recreation, that led Robinson to join 24 other U of A faculty members in developing an initiative than celebrates their wide-ranging mountain-related passions and fields of study.

The recently launched Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative (CMSI) brings together educators from four of the university’s faculties – agriculture, life and environmental sciences; arts; physical education and recreation; and science – with the ultimate hope of establishing the U of A as an internationally recognized centre for mountain studies.

The key, explained English and film studies professor, Stephen Slemon, a part-time Rockies resident and “recreational mountain guy,” is to create cross-faculty learning experiences for educators and students that also incorporate the general mountain community.

The world beneath the snow

NIKI WILSON - On Science
January 26, 2012
While bushwhacking with friends in east Jasper National Park over the holidays, I almost stepped on a fat little brown vole weaving its way through what was left of a series of tunnels it had built under the snow earlier in the winter. The wind and rain had scoured away the tops, but well-worn paths and some of the crusty white arches remained, evidence of a world that exists beneath the snow. I’ve always been fascinated by this hidden world. I think it comes from my childhood obsession with the movie The Secret of NIMH. I loved (and kind of feared) the rats of NIMH, with their human-like intelligence and secret, mechanized world hidden underground. Like the farmers in that movie, we would be mistaken to look over the winter snowpack and assume nothing lies beneath.
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IN BRIEF - January 26, 2012

FITZHUGH STAFF
January 26, 2012
Derailment near Hinton just one of three One Canadian National employee was hospitalized following a train derailment north of Hinton last week and the incident was followed by two subsequent derailments elsewhere in Alberta. Man killed in Hinton crash One man was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Hinton on Jan. 17, according to police. High school design approved in principle Trustees with the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division (GYPSD) have approved, in principle, the floor plan for the new high school in Jasper but the plan was not available to the Fitzhugh in time for publication in this issue. Open call for Jasper’s Got Talent Auditions are open – both online and in person – for the upcoming Jasper’s Got Talent event but you only have until Feb. 1 to show off your performance skills.
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Town mascot vandalized

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
The Jasper the Bear statue on Patricia Street was vandalized between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, with what appears to be a permanent marker. Pattie Pavlov, general manager of the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, said she tried to scrub off the writing, but it won’t budge.
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Reuse-It Centre to open in May, pending approvals

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
There are a few hurdles left to leap over before Jasper has a Reuse-It Centre, but the necessary runners and jumpers are in motion, with hopes of having it open May 1. The centre will be Jasper’s second second-hand store, with the other being located in the United Church basement.
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Housing corporation looks to partner with business on new units

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
The housing corporation is looking to remedy the staff accommodation shortage in Jasper by developing more units, with funds provided by local businesses, developers and organizations. The corporation’s idea is to collect contributions of $15,000 per accommodation unit from businesses who are in need of more staff housing. That money would then be used as equity to purchase land and develop housing units.
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Let the snowballs fly

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
Don’t miss the first annual Canadian Rockies Snow Battle this weekend, taking place at Centennial Park. The tournament will have participants throwing and dodging snowballs while attempting to capture the opposing teams’ flag on Friday and Saturday.
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National Park News January 26

PARKS CANADA
January 26, 2012
Elk behaviour project A University of Alberta project will study elk in Jasper this winter. The project will document how the behaviour of individual elk varies within elk herds, and the management implications of that variation. This study will increase our understanding of elk that become habituated to humans and present a risk to public safety and thus will focus on elk in the Three Valley Confluence, the area of highest potential for human-elk conflict. This project is the first comprehensive study of personality in any wild ungulate, and so may yield information useful for the management and conservation of other ungulates such as deer and caribou.
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Major McBride project coming closer to fruition

ROBSON FLETCHER, EDITOR
January 26, 2012
A proposed aquaculture and power generation facility near McBride is now several steps closer to reality and the company proposing the project expects to begin construction in the spring if an electricity-purchasing agreement with BC Hydro comes through. “If that happens, then everything else is financeable,” said Colin Hall, CEO of ecoTECH Energy Group.
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Caribou Joe & the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific - Episode 17 - The Last Whiskey Run

LEONARD FRAZER - Special to the Fitzhugh
January 26, 2012
Joe arrived back at Mile 49 on Christmas Eve. He unloaded his cargo of 73 bottles of moonshine at the first drop point, explaining to the bootlegger that this would be his last delivery. The man never bothered to ask Joe the reason for his retirement. He seemed pre-occupied with the large amount of “joy-juice” delivered right at the best time of the year.
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Lost dog finds her way home to Hinton

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
Loki, the cairn terrier found at the Hinton landfill before Christmas, has been returned to her rightful owner. Bianca Hannula, of Hinton, was alerted by a friend that her missing dog, Toto, was on the front page of the Jan. 12 edition of the Fitzhugh last week, nearly a month after Toto went missing.
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Shane Philip brings ‘Island soul’ to Jasper

NICOLE VEERMAN, REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER
January 26, 2012
Although he wasn’t born on Vancouver Island, multi-instrumentalist Shane Philip is an Island boy through and through. So much so, that when he returns to Ontario, where he was born and raised, everyone assumes he hails from the west coast. Philip made the move out west 20 years ago in search of a place where the mountains met the ocean.
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