Mountain Diaries: The Alpine Adventures of Margaret Fleming, 1929-1980 (review)

These diaries are a segment of the Margaret Fleming Life History Project undertaken by the editors who are members of the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Alberta. Although relatively unknown, Margaret Fleming was a pivotal figure in early outdoor recreation.

Born in Scotland, Fleming was raised in Winnipeg and majored in philosophy and Latin at the University of Manitoba. She became a school teacher and remained single - career choices that facilitated opportunities for travel and leisure. She first went to the Canadian Rockies in 1927 and visited the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) Club House in Banff. She joined the ACC in 1929 and attended her first summer mountaineering camp in that same year. In Winnipeg Fleming was also active in the Dolomite Club, which rock climbed in local quarries.

Fleming climbed because she loved the outdoors, the challenge presented by the mountains, and the bonds of friendship that developed between individuals who enjoyed similar interests and pursuits. She was not a 'peak bagger' determined to have her name and first ascents inscribed in guidebooks. Like many of her contemporaries Fleming was a joiner, active participant, and contributor. She served on the executive of the ACC's Winnipeg Section, was assistant editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal from 1932 to 1942 and editor from 1942 to 1952. Her service to the mountaineering fraternity was recognized by the award of life membership in the ACC, and the Winnipeg Section named its climbing wall after her.

The Fleming diaries provide accounts of ACC camps, visits to Banff, Lake O'Hara, the Arctic, Nahanni, hiking the Skyline Hike, a western car camping journey, rafting on the Chilco and Fraser Rivers, and travel to Europe, India, Nepal, and Kashmir. As a traveller, Fleming was keenly interested in the places she visited and the people she met, and she had little use for the fashionable American tourists who showed little appreciation for the great outdoors. While the trips she made were impressive, they are even more so when one considers that they were undertaken by a single woman, often accompanied by her sister, also single, as a companion.

In many respects, Fleming and her sister Hilda were avant-garde travellers. In 1945, for example, they bicycled the newly constructed gravel road between Jasper and Banff, which would become a popular route for automobiles after the Second World War. In 1963, one year after the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway, Margaret and her sister undertook a journey from Winnipeg to the Rockies by car, so that they could travel where and when they wanted. A rafting expedition on the Chilco and Fraser rivers in 1974 was the beginning of a trend to escape the more popular and overcrowded areas of the Rockies. Similarly, a 1977 trip to Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories coincided with the advent of eco-tourism. Margaret was also an innovator. Along with other members of the Dolomite Club in Winnipeg she was among the early pioneers of rock climbing at a time when the popular preference was for alpine mountaineering. To facilitate her avocation, Fleming made an arrangement with her school principal for a reduced workload in the form of job sharing.

The diaries reveal a warm, sensitive woman who enjoyed travelling, climbing, hiking, and nature in the broadest sense of the term. She enjoyed not only the mountains but also meeting new people and renewing old acquaintances. While Fleming was financially independent, she was not rich. Middle-class frugality is evident in the numerous references to expenses incurred and whether or not these expenditures met her expectations of value received. While mountaineering was relatively free of gender bias, her diaries contain references to male domination and ways she responded to masculine discourse. The diaries also provide valuable insights into social networking among female climbers and travellers. To Fleming, the activity, be it...