Alpine Club of Canada members rose in a standing ovation at the recent Mountain Guides Ball fundraising event in honour and thanks for long-time member Richard Guy's contribution toward bringing the club's newest backcountry hut a step closer to cons
Alpine Club of Canada members rose in a standing ovation at the recent Mountain Guides Ball fundraising event in honour and thanks for long-time member Richard Guy's contribution toward bringing the club's newest backcountry hut a step closer to construction.
Guy, a 98-year-old mathematician who still goes to work every day at the University of Calgary where he is professor emeritus in the math department, recently made a generous financial donation to the club toward construction of the hut that will be located at Mont des Poilus midway between the ACC's Bow and Stanley Mitchell huts.
The new hut, which will provide a welcome and key shelter for skiers and mountaineers embarking on the popular 20-kilometre remote glacier traverse, is slated for construction beginning in summer of 2015.
And, in recognition and gratitude for Guy's donation, ACC directors unanimously decided that the new hut be named the Richard & Louise Guy Hut at des Poilus, in honour of Guy and his wife of 70 years, Louise, who died in 2010 at the age of 92.
“It could not be more fitting that Club directors unanimously decided the name will be the Richard & Louise Guy Hut, as they are two of the dearest and most positive role models in the long history of the ACC, ” said Nancy Hansen, interim executive director of the ACC.
Having joined the ACC with Louise more than 40 years ago, Richard Guy said learning that the hut would be named for him and his wife was a huge honour.
“I feel very honoured, ” Guy said. “It's really for Louise, whose cheerful support over 70 years has meant that I have been able to achieve the little I have. Louise so clearly deserves it. I am incredibly lucky to have had the care and guidance of the finest person in the world. ”
Being an active member of the not-for-profit, volunteer-run ACC for nearly half a century, Guy added, afforded him and Louise many memorable and valuable opportunities.
“We met so many like-minded people, ” he said. “Being a part of the ACC provided companionship in the mountains and enabled us to go to many places that we couldn't have got to on our own. ”
In return, the Guys' contributions of volunteer time and effort has been equally appreciated. Over the decades, between them the Guys attended some 60 annual mountaineering camps. From early in their involvement they began volunteering, serving on numerous committees, organizing adventures and sharing their skills with new members.
In the mid-1980s, when the ACC was experiencing financial difficulties and the annual General Mountaineering Camp was in peril of being discontinued, Louise enthusiastically wrote personal letters to other club members encouraging them to attend the camp. The GMC continued and today thrives as a cornerstone of the club, as it was at its inception in 1906.
While the pair continued to hike and ski and climb easy mountains through their 80s - Louise was still rock climbing at the age of 82 - the Guys are perhaps most widely known for their participation in the Alberta Wilderness Association's annual fundraising climb of the Calgary Tower. They began the tradition in their early 80s, when they could manage seven ascents in a day. Louise climbed the 802-step structure right to the age of 92. Last April, at 97, Richard made the climb again with a smile, raising money for the AWA in the process.
With a fundraising goal set at $500,000 to build the new two-story, 18-person capacity hut, Hansen said Guy's donation (the amount of which he prefers not to disclose) serves as a solid step toward that goal. The hut is being designed as a model for green technologies for a backcountry structure, with state-of-the-art systems for managing energy, water and wastewater ensuring visitors leave as small as possible a footprint in the remote alpine environment.
And why make the donation?
“It would be good to have a half-way house between the Bow and Stanley Mitchell huts, where the traverse currently can take well over 12 hours, ” Guy said. “And because I'd like to give something back to the ACC, which has given so much to me and Louise over the years. ”
