June 11 – September, 1909

In 1909 George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961] had planned to return to Mount Robson with his companions of 1907 Coleman – Laggan to Robson and 1908 Coleman – Edmonton to Robson. But in May, Kinney learned that a team composed of Arnold Louis Mumm [1859–1927], Geoffrey Hastings [1860–1941], Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery [1873–1955], and Moritz Inderbinen [1856–1926] (a Swiss guide) were going to attempt Mount Robson that summer.

Dr. Coleman had already arranged to try the ascent for the third time the year following, but was forstalled by the Rev. George B. Kinney, who had been a member of his party the two previous years, and who, it was understood, would also be a member of his party on this third attempt. Kinney, accompanied by a young Ontario river driver named Donald Phillips, a lad who had never climbed a mountain before, succeeded in reaching the summit, the ascent being made by the northwest and west faces. [Wheeler, Arthur. ACC/1911 expedition, 1911. CAJ, Vol 4]

On Friday, June 11th,” Kinney wrote in the report of his climb published in the Canadian Alpine Journal [Kinney and Phillips 1910], “with only two dollars and eighty-five cents in my pocket, but with three good horses packed with three months’ provisions, I started off alone (from Edmonton) for Mt. Robson, hoping to pick up someone on the trail to share fortune with me.”

July 31 – September 11, 1908

After failing to climb Mount Robson in 1907, Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] mounted another expedition in 1908:

On July 31, 1908, Mr. Kinney, my brother, and myself were in Edmonton once more, buying supplies, comparing aneroids and boiling-point apparatus at the meteorological observatory, and getting waterproof dunnage-bags to preserve our special treasures from unlucky spills in the rivers. On August 4th we were at the Hobo ranch, a few miles west of Lac Ste. Anne, John Yates’s headquarters, getting an obstreperous set of ponies saddled and packed [1].

From Edmonton the group followed the new tote road prepared to haul in supplies for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway [1914–1919].

On Adolphus Moberly’s recommendation they ascended the Moose River valley to Moose Pass, descended Calumet Creek to the Smoky River, and followed the Smoky up to the foot of the Robson Glacier.

The party was already more than a week behind schedule when it gained the foot of Robson Glacier on August 29. They made a couple of climbs but left dejected, planning to try again in 1909.

August 2 – September, 1907

At the inaugural meeting of the Alpine Club of Canada in 1906, club president Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] had encouraged Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] to make an attempt on Mount Robson, “much sought after by mountaineers as a prize” [1].

The next year Coleman enlisted his brother Lucius and fellow Alpine Club of Canada member George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961] for an expedition that started at Laggan (now Lake Louise) on August 2 and followed a route close to that of the current Icefields Parkway.
The group ran into Mary T. S. Schäffer Warren [1861–1939] in a blizzard at Wilcox Pass. At Jasper they ascended the Miette River and followed the Fraser River west of Yellowhead Pass.

It took 41 days to reach the “Grand Fork”of the Fraser River. It was September when they first sighted Mount Robson.

The group attempted a climb above Kinney Lake, but “in the morning more than a foot of snow had fallen. Our last glimpse of Robson showed clouds driving past a vast cone of white, broken in the lower parts by bands of nearly horizontal cliff; and then we turned up the Fraser valley and saw no more of the fascinating peak that had cost us so much toil.” They had intended to return to Laggan the way they came, but it was too late in the season, so at Jasper they took the trail for Edmonton, 160 km longer, “but through more or less civilised country” [2].

The Colemans and Kinney had another discouraging outcome in 1908, and in 1909 Kinney returned to Mount Robson without the Colemans.

1805

In 1805 Simon Fraser [1776–1862] of the North West Company [1779–1821] followed the same route Mackenzie took in 1793 across the Continental Divide. Fraser established several fur-trading posts in north-central British Columbia, an area he named “New Caledonia.”

June 12, 1793

The second expedition of Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] in search of a route to the Pacific Ocean travelled from Fork Fort upstream on the Peace River, took the fork up the Parsnip River, and on 12 June 12 1793 crossed the Continental Divide through an an unnamed pass.

West of the pass, they entered the drainage of the Fraser River via a creek that Mackenzie called Bad River which led to what we now call the McGregor River and so to the Fraser and the Pacific Ocean. Mackenzie did not reach the mouth of the Fraser, but turned west across the coast mountains and arrived at the ocean near Bella Coola.

It was not a feasible route for the purposes of the fur trade.

October 1792

Undaunted by his failure to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1789, Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] planned a second expedition, moving north-west from Fort Chipewyan to the newly-established Fork Fort on the Peace River in October 1792. He wintered there until May 1793, when he began the historic trek across the Continental Divide to the Pacific.

July 14, 1789

On June 3, 1789, Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] set out from Fort Chipewyan on behalf of the North West Company, hoping to find a route to the Pacific Ocean for the fur trade. In early July the group reached the delta of the river that now bears his name, the Mackenzie River, flowing into the Arctic Ocean.

Fur trader Peter Pond [1793–1807], a founding member of the North West Company, was in charge of the Athabasca department until the spring of 1788 when Mackenzie took charge.

He was to succeed Pond as explorer as well as trader, and was soon preparing to descend the large river (now the Mackenzie) that flows out of Great Slave Lake.

Mackenzie had been in charge of the Athabasca Department since the previous year, and he soon made preparations to descent the large river that flows out of Great Slave Lake.

Mackenzie’s headquarters in Athabasca had been at what became known as the “old establishment,” founded by Pond in 1778 some 40 miles up the Athabasca River. In 1788 he sent his cousin Roderick, now serving with him, to build the first Fort Chipewyan, on the south shore of Lake Athabasca, where he joined him shortly before Christmas. It was from this new post that Mackenzie set out on his first voyage of discovery on 3 June 1789. His party consisted of four French Canadian voyageurs, a young German, whose presence is unexplained, a Chipewyan Indian known as English Chief*, and sundry native wives and retainers.

Mackenzie wrote in his journal on 10 July, when only two days distant from the sea, “being certain that my going further in this Direction will not answer the Purpose of which the Voyage was intended, as it is evident these Waters must empty themselves into the Northern Ocean [1].

Jasper from top of coal chutes
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Special Train for Sir A. Conan Doyle to Mount Robson
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Crossing Athabasca river, Sir A. Conan Doyle and party on horseback
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Press Excursion Party at Summit [Yellowhead Pass]
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Leaving Donald Phillips’s Camp near Robson Railway Station
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Pack train at Donald Phillips’s camp
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

June 11 – 19, 1914

In the spring of 1914, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [1859–1930] (of Sherlock Holmes fame) was invited to travel on the newly opened Grand Trunk Pacific Railway from Montreal to Jasper National Park. Conan Doyle accepted the invitation, and he and his wife, Jean Leckie, conducted the trip between May and July, 1914. The point of the expedition was to promote the Canadian West and its newly minted national park.

The official photographer for the journey was the celebrated William James Topley [1845–1930]. Topley’s son-in-law, Robert Chamberlain Westover Lett [1870–1957], was travelling passenger and olonization agent for the Grand Trunk Pacific, and persuaded Topley to photograph Conan Doyle’s travels.

On June 11, Conan Doyle and his wife travelled to the town of Jasper. A special train was organized to take the Doyle party to visit the area near Mount Robson [1] [2].

March 1906

When the Alpine Club of Canada was organized in 1906, president Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] suggested to Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] that Coleman arrange an attempt to climb Mount Robson [1]. Coleman organized parties in 1907 and 1908 but failed to climb the mountain. His associate George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961] claimed to have climbed the mountain in 1909, a claim not generally recognized .