Phillips, who was Maley’s dad and Maley-Bell’s grandfather, was a Jasper guide and outfitter. He and George Kinney were the first to ascend the summit ridge of Mount Robson in 1909. Phillips also built canoes and the boathouse at Maligne Lake, which still stands today.
The avid adventurer met an untimely death at the age of 52, after being caught in an avalanche while skiing on Mount Elysium in 1938.
Though Maley was young, she recalled her father fondly. Phillips came to life through her and other family members’ stories.
“I learned to ski the way she did—she put skis on me when I was eight years old and she pushed me down the mountain,” said Maley-Bell. “It’s kind of impressive that even though I never met my grandfather, I know all about him.”
One of Maley’s favourite memories was her first camping trip with Phillips when she was eight. He left her alone at the campsite with a list of chores to keep her occupied while he cleared trees to make a ski run for that winter.
“After a few hours, when her chores were done, she sat down and looked around the campsite and discovered a big pile of wood already there. She realized that her father gave her all these items to keep her busy so she wouldn’t be scared about being alone.”
Maley collected and saved all the information she could about Phillips. “I’ve got tons of newspaper articles that her dad wrote, she kept everything,” said Maley-Bell.
Save from items that Maley already donated to the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives, like Phillips’ pack saddles and some photographs and other documents, everything has been passed down to Maley-Bell. This includes items she found after her mom’s passing—things she didn’t even know existed.
“I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment because it is so much information and that’s why I want a lot of it to be kept at the archives where it can be shared and looked after better.”
The final resting place for Maley’s ashes will be in Jasper, on top of where Phillips and her mom, Grace, are buried. “Curly and Grace were wonderful people, they had a lot of love and respect—that’s one of the things I’m probably proudest about.”
Maley-Bell plans to lay her mom to rest in early autumn, which was her favourite time of year to visit Jasper.
Maley’s sister, Ivy, predeceased her, but her brother, Sam, is still alive. “It seemed like an end of an era as I went through all the photos, because at her funeral, [I realized there are only three people left from that era],” said Maley-Bell.
At her mom’s service, Maley-Bell shared one of her journal entries, to illustrate Maley’s fondness of Jasper. “Just like her dad, she only kept journals while travelling.”
Since Maley was an interior designer, her entries usually focused on décor—unless she was in Jasper.
“The drive through the Athabasca Valley today made myself so aware of how my father must have loved his first visit to the valley he entered so many years ago around 1904,” stated her Aug. 8, 1980 entry. “But the colour and clear crystal mirrored lakes and sharp green forest of pine and soft wind sculptured sand could not have changed.”
