Tales from the Canadian Rockies

edited by Brian Patton

$21.95

Brian Patton is renowned in the Canadian Rockies for being one half of the team responsible for the encyclopeadic trail guide for these mountains. Patton’s ability to describe a winding trail is a matter of public record — thousands of happy hikers have followed his instructions and found their own piece of paradise. But what of his capacity to select a poignant anecdote or humourous story? 

Tales from the Canadian Rockies is the evidence, and in this reader’s judgement, Patton’s skill as an editor proves to be more in line with a muddy horse trail than a panoramic ridge walk.  

The problem does not lie with the stories themselves, all of which possess their own merits. Not all tales are created with equal proportions of importance and entertainment, and neither are story-tellers. Thus, it’s inevitable that for every dramatic retelling of an early expedition through Jasper and the Yellowhead Pass area, a collection like Patton’s will include a dry journal entry from born dullard like James Carnegie (the famous Earl of Southesk may have been a skilled hunter, but his prose leaves much to be desired). The role of the compiler when faced with a group of stories diverse in both context and quality is to organize them in the most edifying way possible. 

Faced with this challenging task, Patton resorts to a fairly uninspired approach. He fails to group the stories in a way that builds momentum or creates a strong set of themes, to the extent that it’s possible for a series of non-fiction accounts to achieve this latter end.  

Contributing to the snooze-inducing tenor of Tales is the almost visceral sense of mustiness about the book. Perhaps it’s the lack of colour in the layout, or maybe the pale yellow tint of the pages, even when the copy is brand new. Then there is the fact that the Tales are all superannuated, something that could be easily remedied with a revised edition that could incorporate some interesting stories from more modern times.  

Certainly the act of editing and revising is not new to Patton. His trail guide has been updated on multiple occasions, and while some of the stories in Tales of the Canadian Rockies are charming, what this collection really needs is a thorough revision.

If he ever decides to take on such a project, Patton would do well to consult the superior work recently produced by Calgary author Brian Brennan. Brennan’s book “Romancing the Rockies” is well-organized, concise and engrossing. While both works are designed to be digested piecemeal, the reader will find it difficult to put Romancing down, while it’s only too easy to set Tales aside. As a vastly experienced hiker, Patton should be well aware that an excellent journey depends on many things coming together. In guiding his readers on a trip through the history of the Rockies, a little trail improvement from Patton would go a long way.