Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor

Cairn for Kain

• Posted on August 22, 2008 at 4:16 PM
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An early picture of Conrad Kain guiding climbers in Canada.

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Anyone who has done any climbing in Canada has probably heard of the lengendary mountaineer Conrad Kain. Many of the impressive rock and snow routes he put up are still classics and his long list of first ascents is remarkable. That's why the Conrad Kain Memorial Society is planning to build a memorial cairn in Wilmer, B.C. with rocks from the mountains he climbed. The society is looking for your help to gather the rocks. So if you're headed up a peak in B.C. or Alberta this year, or just looking for an excuse to, read on:

When Conrad Kain came to Canada to become the first Alpine Club of
Canada mountain guide in 1909, no one could have guessed that he would
be the finest climber the country had ever seen. His impressive list
of first ascents includes Mt. Robson, Mt. Louis, Bugaboo Spire and
Howser Spire, just to name a few. He was so far ahead of his time that
many of these routes have become timeless classics. The Conrad Kain
Memorial Society is planning to construct a memorial cairn in Wilmer,
B.C., where Conrad lived for much of his life. The cairn will be
constructed with rocks from the summits that Kain did the first ascent
of. If you are planning to climb one of these peaks this summer,
please consider bringing a rock from near the summit to add to the
cairn. To find out more, including a list of Kain's first ascents in
Canada, click here

Take Only Photos...And A Rock!

The Conrad Kain Memorial Society plans to build a commemorative cairn
in Wilmer, B.C., where Kain resided for the last 17 years of his life,
with the assistance of the ACC and Parks Canada. A concrete plinth has
been built at the site of newly renamed Conrad Kain Park, on which
eulogy plaques from the ACC, the American Alpine Club, the Association
of Canadian Mountain Guides, the New Zealand Mountain Guides
Association and the Austrian Alpine Club will be mounted. A cairn will
be built atop the plinth, and will be made up of rocks collected from
the mountains Kain made first ascents of. If you plan to climb some of
them this summer, we'd much appreciate it if you were to bring back
one rock, from as close to the summit as possible.

In order to avoid duplication, please check in with Sandy Walker at
the ACC office (swalker@alpineclubofcanada.ca or phone 403-678-3200,
ext. 109) in Canmore ahead of time to see if anyone has already
collected a rock from the peak you intend to climb. Parks Canada has
granted us a "limited" collecting permit on this special occasion for
peaks that fall within the national parks, so please don't include
fossils in the collection.

Identify each rock with the peak, date and climbing party info on it,
(masking tape on the rock, or put inside a bag with notes on paper)
and ship, or hand deliver the rocks to Sandy Walker at the ACC head
office in Canmore. For those who collect rocks from the Purcells, or
for whom it is inconvenient to drop the rocks at the ACC Canmore
office, please call CKCS chairman Hermann Mauthner in Wilmer (near
Invermere), at 250 342 6237, or Pat Morrow, 250 341 3554 and arrange
to drop them there.

We already have a rock each from Jumbo, Karnak and Commander in the
Purcells, Mt Louis in Banff, a peak near Kain's hometown of Nasswald,
Austria, and one is on its way from the summit of Mt Conrad in New
Zealand. Cutoff date is Oct 30/08.

Also, the CKMS is in the process of constructing an interactive
website, www.conradkain.com and welcomes contributions of climbing
photos as well as portraits of these peaks, and short (one or two
paragraph) anecdotes written with the legacy of Kain in mind. We have
no way of putting them on the site at the moment, but by summer's end
should have a workable system in place. Stay tuned to the NewsNet for
more information.

Here is a list of Kain's first ascents in Canada.

Purcells: Farnham (1914), Farnham Tower (1914), Ethelbert (1915),
Birthday (1915), Jumbo (1915), Jumbo winter ascent (1919), solo, on snowshoes, Commander (1915), Spearhead (1915), Peter (1915), McCoubrey (1915),
Bugaboo Spire (1916), Howser Spire (1916), Howser Peak (1916), Black Diamond (1916), Karnak (1916) Redtop (1916), Blockhead (1916), Cauldron (1916), Truce (1916), Monument (1916) Cleaver (1922), Earl Grey (1928), Pharaoh (1928), Marmolata (1930), Findlay (1930) Conrad (1933), Crescent Spire (1933)

Rockies: The Colonel (1911), Resplendent (1911), Gendarme (1911),
Whitehorn (1911), Nasswald (1913), Monarch (1913), Wonder (1913), Robson (1913), Terrapin (1915), Louis (1916), Terrace (1923), Saskatchewan (1923),
North Twin (1923), King Edward (1924), Oates (1924), Hooker (1924), Simon
(1924), Peyto (1933), Mistaya (1933), Trapper (1933), Barbette (1933)