Hans Gmoser, says author Chic Scott, was so much more than the originator of the heli-skiing industry.
He was a pioneer of ground breaking rock climbs, wilderness ski traverses and high altitude first ascents in the remote wilds of Alaska and the Yukon. He was also a prolific filmmaker and driving force behind the establishment of Canada’s professional association of climbing and ski guides, the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.
But above all that, said Scott, himself no stranger to bold Himalayan climbs and extraordinary high alpine ski traverses, Gmoser’s greatest contribution to Canada was to inspire the country to nurture its own unique mountain culture.
“Hans’ biggest contribution, to me, was through his example – through his writings and films and his expeditions, and his organizational and business creations,” Scott said. “But at the heart of all that is how, through his example, he turned Canadians into a nation of mountaineers. He inspired young people all over North America to go climbing and skiing.”
Thousands of people packed theatres across North America to see his films, which showcased the magnificent wilderness of Western Canada’s mountains in what Scott suggested was the biggest way since the CPR’s splashy ad campaigns of the early 20th century. With 50 showings a year, which he narrated on stage before audiences as large as 2,500 – in Detroit, no less – Scott estimates Gmoser personally extolled the virtues of Canada’s mountains to some 15,000 people.
“Thousands of people had a personal connection to Hans,” Scott said. “He promoted adventure in Canada’s mountains.”
The example Gmoser set was a big motivator for Scott to write his biography, Deep Powder & Steep Rock: The Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser, which he self-published in 2009. Gmoser died in 2006 at the age of 73.
This fall, Rocky Mountain Books has released a paperback edition of the book. Other than a few minor editorial tweaks there are no changes from the original, Scott said, except it doesn’t come with a DVD as the hardcover did. It does however, include the same two sections of colour photos, as well as dozens of black and white images throughout its 346 pages.
Scott sold many of the 3,000 hardcover copies himself to people who personally knew Gmoser, with some sold at Bow Valley book stores and through Alpine Book Peddlers. Having the paperback version published by RMB, publisher of many of Scott’s other titles, including his best-selling backcountry skiing guidebooks, will allow for greater distribution and provide access to more people interested in learning about Gmoser’s remarkable life.
During the course of writing the book, Scott’s research included a three-month trip to Austria where he became intimately acquainted with the peaks and passes and villages of Gmoser’s formative years.
When Gmoser and his life-long friend and business partner Leo Grillmair arrived in Canada in 1951, they brought with them climbing techniques and attitudes that were far ahead of any being practiced in Canada.
In 1956, when Gmoser earned his guide’s certificate with Swiss-born and trained Walter Perren, he was the only individual in Canada eking out a living as a mountain guide; Perren was building Parks Canada’s mountain rescue service, the Swiss guides hired by the CPR to work from its hotels had retired and Bruno Engler was predominately involved in filmmaking. The next generation of Canadian mountain guides, many of whom would emigrate from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, had not yet arrived on the scene.
“Deep Powder & Steep Rock is a celebration of that whole culture that began in the 1950s, when so many German and Austrian post-war immigrants brought their mountain culture to Canada,” Scott said. “I estimate in the early 1950s, two and a half thousand immigrants from Germany and Austria came to Canada. I’ll bet all of them had hiked and skied and known what mountain culture was. And they really kickstarted the whole mountain culture scene in Canada.”
Gmoser’s death, he added, marked the end of that era of European influence.
Gmoser’s backcountry skiing and climbing business, which evolved into Canadian Mountain Holidays’ helicopter skiing and hiking operation – which launched an outdoor industry that thrives in the mountains of Western Canada today – is significant, but not the defining accomplishment of Gmoser’s life, Scott said.
“For everybody in the mountains today who is part of the outdoor industry – guides, lodge owners, heli and cat and touring operations – Hans kick-started the whole thing,” Scott said. “There were others in supporting roles, but Hans was the spirit guiding everything forward. My book does include the complete corporate history of CMH, but I wrote the book to be 20 per cent heli-skiing.
“Hans was so much bigger than heli-skiing. I wrote the book for Hans; I wrote a book I thought Hans would like.”
