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Alpine Club of Canada hosts Canmore writer
The tale of a couple who hiked alongside a caribou herd for five-and-a-half months across the Yukon is the one that stands out for author Lynn Martel, who wrote about it in her recently published Expedition to the Edge: Stories of Worldwide Adventure.
“Because of the dedication involved to do that trip, it’s just a stunning story,” Martel said at the Alpine Club of Canada’s fall meeting on Dec. 3.
Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison completed the trip in 2003, and carried camera gear to share their powerful experience with others. “They had visions, they moved into another dimension because they connected with the natural world.”
After writing this story and others like it for publications such as the Rocky Mountain Outlook, when the Canmore resident realized she had written 100 adventure stories told by other people, she decided she would compile the tales in one volume.
“Like Jasper, Canmore is a small town, and when you live in a small town and you’re a writer and people get to know you, there’s a lot of tugging at your arm in the grocery store, people saying ‘write about this’,” she said. “That’s how this book got started.”
A desire to give people a chance to share in exciting experiences is what drove Martel. “I write about other people’s adventures, not my own, because a lot of these people will never write their own book.”
Martel, who makes a living as a full-time freelance writer, calls herself a very serious recreationist when it comes to outdoor adventuring.
It’s a big change from her life before the Rockies, as she grew up in Montreal. “My wardrobe was my life,” she said. Martel has lived in the mountains for more than 20 years, after visiting her sister who had been living in Banff.
Expedition to the Edge is praised as a collection of 60 compelling stories that capture the exploits, the hardships, the fears and personal insights of a virtual who’s who of contemporary adventurers as they explore remote landscapes from the Rockies to Pakistan to Antarctica. |
