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Page 8 WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICALSOCIETY March 1994 By: Anne Vernon FEATURE PRESENTATION REPORT The Search For Mystery Mountain Phyllis and Don Monday and Their Quest for Mount Waddington Our speaker, Professor Emeritus Angus Gunn, has lived in West Vancouver for 30 years. A Scot and graduate of the University of London, he came to Canada in 1957. He has been a member ofUBC faculty and deeply involved in High School education programmes in Canada and the U.S. Edith Wickam, the Munday’s daughter, and several family friends were also present. Angus has known Phyl and Edith for a number of years and has had access to many personal papers. He wrote the foreword to the new edition of Don Munday’s book which has just recently been published. A Video Tape of this Presentation is available on loan through the Society Office. In the 1920’s and 30’s very little was known about the Coast Mountains. Indeed, it was thought by most engineers and geologists of the time that this area consisted of mountains of much lower altitudes than those present in the Rockies (12,000 - 13,000 feet) and the Selkirks (11,000 -12,000 feet). All of that w as s oon to change - due to the efforts of two outstandingly gifted and determined people - Don and Phyllis Munday. The Search for Mystery Mountain - the title of Angus Gunn’s talk - was begun and carried out mainly by the Munday s under conditions which were reminiscent of the 1850’s. Not for them the luxuries of present day climbers -roads leading to a base camp, micro weight tents, sleeping bags and clothing, nylon ropes, high energy dried foods, compact cooking equipment, radios to keep in touch and ask for help if needed! Their equipment, much of it homemade, was in the main heavy and cumbersome and all had to be backpacked for many miles and cached safely from predators. Although Phyl dried as much food as possible in an effort to keep weight down, their loads were very heavy and they toiled under them while breaking (for the mostpart) entirely new trails. Canvas tents, heavy sleeping bags, loads of heavy socks and spare clothing as well as food supplies had to be packed carefiilly and transported over very rough country, but they did it again and again and always, it seems, with joy and humour and determination. Money was always a bit of a problem in those days, but friends helped out occasionally and Woodwards were also generous with supplies. For interest we include pait of their supply requirements. “Gmb List” - 500 lbs offood which was to supply 6 people for 6 weeks!! 50 Cadbury Chocolate bars - $2.00; 40 lbs Butter - $8.00; 50 lbs Bacon - $17.00; 30 lbs Cheese - $9.00. When all was finally purchased the total was $100.00. While climbing on Mount Arrow smith in June 1925, and during a short break in the cloud cover, Phyllis saw through binoculars a towering mountain peak which seemed to be about 150 miles to the East of Bute Inlet: she passed them to Don and from that moment, although nothing was spoken, they both dedicated themselves to finding and climbing this “Mystery Mountain” although it took them many years before they finally got there. The peak was eventually named “Mount Waddington” - it is 13,260 feet high. Don’s left arm had been badly damaged in World War I so he was very dependentuponPhyl ’ s support when they climbed. She was much more than his aide - indeed she often carried packs which were more than half of her body weight - a feat indeed, especially in the 20’s and 30’s when women were not supposed to be proficient! Don always gave her credit although newspaper coverage tended to ignore her massive contributions to their explorations - Angus paid great tribute to Phyl in his talk, deliberately making amends for this. Phyl outlived her husband by many years and was involved in other pursuits - not least of which was the continuance of her interest and leadership in the Guiding movement. (More about this in an article by May Loudon in ournextissue). She was elated when, at the age of 87, she was given a trip to Mount Waddington and there is a lovely photograph of her standing with her original ice axe in hand obviously enjoying every moment - a lovely, lively lady. Phyllis Munday with her daughter, Edith, on the winter slopes of Grouse Mountain in the early 1920's. This pack could be considered typical as Phyllis often carried packs more than half her body weight!