By Lindsay Chung
Heinrich Harrer, one of the first people to successfully climb the north face of the Eiger in the Alps, once said: “One cannot defeat or conquer mountains, one can only climb them.”
Centretown resident and avid climber Calvin Klatt couldn’t agree more.
“A lot of people think climbing is conquering a mountain, but you are conquering yourself,” he said.
Klatt has been climbing for about 17 years. He joined the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) Toronto Section in 1989 after seeing a flyer describing the club’s trip to Nepal. Planning to travel the world, Klatt added the trip to his plans. He returned to Nepal twice as a leader.
“Now, I’m old and lazy and just go rock and ice climbing around here,” he laughed.
Klatt joined the Ottawa Section, which boasts about 300 members, many from Centretown, when he moved here about six years ago. He’s held various positions on the executive and his house, Casa Flora to those in the know, is used to store the club’s climbing gear.
“It’s like climbing central here,” he said of his house, which is filled with signs of his passion for climbing.
Before joining the ACC, Klatt “was obsessed, but I couldn’t find climbing partners,” he said.
“I’ve learned a lot of skills with the club, like how to lead a climb and how to ice climb.”
Klatt says the ACC has helped him meet other people with the same passion.
“Here’s my favourite quote: ‘Climbing’s not a sport, it’s a cult,’” he laughed. “People who are into climbing are very into climbing.”
Steve Stackpole is a member of this cult.
Stackpole, who has been ice climbing for four years, took a group climbing in the Adirondack Mountains near Lake Placid, N.Y., on Jan. 25.
“Climbing is the only thing that ever spoke to me,” said the Dunrobin firefighter. “It evens things out. It demands respect, trust, discipline. It forces you to be honest with yourself and with your partner.”
Chemistry between partners is crucial. Climbers have to have faith in each other and be able to survive long car rides of singing along to the radio and laughing together.
“When you have good climbing partners, it’s fun,” said climbing addict Marc-André Charbonneau.
Charbonneau’s favourite thing about climbing is the ice formations and how a route can have different ice each day, enhancing the adventure.
“One of the coolest things about climbing is the different places you discover, places you’d never know unless you are going to climb,” he said.
Ice climbing is definitely addictive for ACC members. It becomes an exhilarating battle between the physical and the mental. Trembling muscles and frozen eyebrows are a small price to pay for the sense of accomplishment you get.
There’s nothing like making it to a point 24 metres above ground, heart pounding and lungs bursting, to see the sun slowly descending behind the mountains.
Klatt believes this is part of what keeps members coming back for more.
“It pushes people outside of their normal envelope,” he said. “People who sit at a desk all day and lead climbs in the summer, they’ve been in situations where they could die.
“It gives them moments of intensity that they don’t otherwise experience.”
Klatt says the ACC “brings a lot to the community of Ottawa. It provides people with opportunities for adventure and informs them about environmental issues to some degree.”
A change in ACC membership requirements about 30 years ago, switching from a focus on previous climbing experience to membership fees, opened up the club to new activities and a broader membership base.
The club now offers many other exciting winter activities, such as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, winter camping and telemark skiing. It also offers many summer adventures and organizes social activities, including pub nights, often held in Centretown.
“Mainly it’s to share the passion,” Klatt said.