Bow Valley, Alberta
I’ve had the profound pleasure of climbing many mountains, but I’d have to say that my favorite (OK, one of my favorites to be sure) has to be Castle Mountain, a craggy massif of 540-million-year-old Middle-Cambrian limestone located half-way between Banff and Lake Louise at the eponymous Castle Junction. It’s the mountain that is most often in my thoughts as I drift into sleep late at night…
So, when I chanced across this 75-year-old photo today… I felt the urge to annotate: 1) The location of the “weakness” in the lower rockwall that leads to the ascent gully (low 5.?, but can be freed); 2) The climber’s bivouac hut (3 meters square in size, sleeps 6 in a pinch, cabled to a ledge on the Goat Plateau—set about 3 meters back from a 1000′ drop-off to the scree below); 3) The classic line of the 13-pitch Brewer Buttress leading to the mountain’s true summit (5.6—I first climbed it with Raphael Muñoz and [the late] Clive Ramage about 10 years ago); 4) The descent gully (multiple double-rope rappels down a water-course—look for fixed stations) leading back down to the plateau; 5) The Eisenhower Tower (I’ve been weathered off it three times over the past decade, with my high-point being the intersection of the Dragon’s Back and the headwall)—could this be the summer I finally make it to the top?
Lower photo: Yours truly short-roping German friend Silvie Engel in 2006, descending the top of the access gully (at #2).
Ottawa, Canada
The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada’s (GDC) 2006-2007 Annual Report arrived in the mail this week. The handsome and informative document (designed by Catharine Bradbury in Regina) celebrates 51 years since the organization’s formation and uses quotations and the posterized likeness of numerous GDC members across the country (yours truly included), to underline the value our national professional association offers to its constituents. I felt honoured to be asked to contribute my viewpoint…
Winnipeg, Manitoba
On Sunday, I had the chance to celebrate my Dad’s 88th birthday, along with nuclear family in these parts. As I was leaving his place, he pressed a matted and somewhat discolored photographic portrait of my mother (taken at the sweet young age of 16, shortly before he met and married her) into my hands—I had never seen this photograph of my long-departed mother (Amanda Marie Reimer) before, and I was quite moved by the very sweet gesture (thanks, Dad!). Mom… wherever you are, I still miss you more than I can say.
To my far-flung siblings and numerous relatives: I now have a high-resolution scan of the lovely Amanda that I’d be happy to make available to you as a download—contact me here if you want me to send you the link.
Winnipeg, Canada
Designer and avid cyclist Simon Farla dropped by Circle yesterday, en route from Vancouver to Toronto. His wife, indie chanteuse Coco Love Alcorn (also a keen rider) is spending the week here in the ‘Peg cutting a new album, and Simon was looking for things to do—over beers at the King’s Head he shared some of his story and passions (we were introduced by mutual friend Celes Davar of Earth Rhythms—Coco gave a house concert at their place in Riding Mountain on the weekend). Simon’s FontBike was a big hit with the lads at the studio, and I particularly like the line of silkscreened, re-purposed clothing developed as merch to sell at Coco’s concerts).
The North Atlantic…
This day goes down in history as one of Titanic hubris—in 1912 it marked the sinking of the eponymous “unsinkable” passenger-liner en route to New York (at the age of 96, Millvina Dean of Southampton is today the last living of the famous ship’s 706 survivors). Besides being my brother Jim’s birthday, 15 April was also the birthday of Leonardo daVinci (in 1452), the day that Abraham Lincoln died (in 1865), the birth-date of German poet/moralist Wilhelm Busch (in 1908—remember the cretinous Max und Moritz, Jim?), and the horrific, dark day in 1945 that British and Canadian troops discovered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Images: Willy Stöwer’s Untergang der Titanic; da Vinci’s John the Baptist (detail); and Wilhelm Busch’s Max und Moritz.
Winnipeg, Canada
Two birthdays in my nuclear family this week—my father John J. Peters turns 88, and my brother Jim Peters turns 58. Cheers, guys!
Images: Jim, along with our parents, packed and leaving for Europe in 1957 (I was three that spring, so I either took the photograph, was hiding somewhere, or am in that trunk…). Dad has always been a good looking dude… here’s a photo of him in Frankfurt 50 years ago.
Winnipeg, Canada
Good friend, phenomenal photographer, (and longtime client) Michel Grandmaison has been awarded second prize (what? not first? :-) in the Northern Lights 2007 Awards Canada competition for ‘Excellence in Travel Journalism.’ His photography was showcased in the May 2007 Travel issue of Canadian Geographic Magazine. The award is sponsored by the Canadian Tourism Commission—‘Jasper by Starlight’ can be read online as a PDF (2.4 MB) here. (See more of Mike’s phenomenal photographs here).
Keep up the great work, Mike!
Winnipeg, Canada
Yesterday evening I gave a presentation entitled Pushing the Envelope to the Winnipeg Philatelic Society—founded in 1900, it is the oldest stamp club in Western Canada. I showed developmental sketches, shared the process of designing stamps, and answered questions of the many enthusiastic participants (I’ve had the honored privilege of being involved in the design of over 20 Canadian stamps to date).
Some of the commemorative stamps we’ve designed at Circle: 1999 Pan American Games, 125th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Fishing Flies, Canadian Recording Artists.
Winnipeg, Canada
Geez magazine Issue #9 arrived today (theme: “Art,” with guest art directors Diana Thorneycroft and Michael Boss)—it includes a piece I wrote on art appreciation that grew out of a bar table talk with publisher Aiden Enns some weeks back. My take on art criticism: “…what you ‘see’ is what you ‘get’ and depends largely on where you stand.”
Geez is an award-winning, non-profit, ad-free, quarterly Christian activist magazine that aims to “untangle the narrative of faith from the fundamentalists, pious self-helpers and religio-profiteers.” Find out more about Geez here.
Cover illustration: ‘Self (Bandage)’ by Dominika Dratwa. Napkin sketch: yours truly.
Winnipeg, Canada
Well, the clocks got set forward an hour last night, the sun’s out in full force, snow is finally melting, and I’m getting antsy to head out to the crags again… it seems like an eternity since I’ve touched rock (the sporadic trips to the indoor climbing gym this winter just aren’t the same). Came across these photos of a Gooseneck trip last summer on Flickr today… now I’m pining for the crags and some trad.
Images by Adrian of MUHSASHUM: ‘Karate Kids’ Adrian Shum and James Gillespie; A is for abseiling; the old man topping out.
