Gibson Evelyn Reginald

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Biografie:
Evelyn Reginald Gibson (1892-1957)
A Steep, snow-covered ice gully on Mt. Howson in the northern Coast Range of British Columbia was the scene of an accident on August 18, 1957, which resulted in fatal injuries to' Rex 'Gibson, President of the Alpine Club of Canada. His two companions, though severely injured, were miraculously spared. Rex had joined the Alpine Club in 1950, and was also a member of the American Alpine Club.
He was born and had his schooling in England. From the age of sixteen he had worked in banks, except for the First World War, in which he served with distinction in France. In 1926 he went to Canada and engaged in wheat-farming, twenty miles west of Edmonton, until the Second World War. The lighter periods of the farmer's year enabled him both to ski in winter and have several weeks for climbing between seeding and harvesting in the summer. In 1930 he joined the Alpine Club of Canada, and in a few years became recognised as probably the leading climber in his adopted country.
His record in the mountains was an impressive one, including something over two hundred ascents, of which at least forty were firsts, and also numerous winter ascents both on and without skis. Even more important was his introduction of many boys and young men to appreciation and love of life in the mountains and sound climbing techniques. As a Scout leader in Edmonton, and at the annual Camps of the A. C. C. in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, he took great pleasure in helping people to get a proper orientation in the mountains. Before or after the camps he would go off with friends on back-packing expeditions to the more remote spots.
In 1942 he was the Canadian Army representative on the United States Army's Mt. McKinley equipment testing expedition, in 1943 an instructor at the Little Yoho Military Camp, and in the winter of 1943-4 he was chief instructor at the Lovat Scouts' winter training programme in the Columbia Icefields area. From one peak on a clear winter day they could see the six highest peaks in the Canadian Rockies, five of which he had climbed. Among his more ambitious seasons were 1936, when he back-packed into the Mt. Clemenceau area, the Twins and Columbia; 1939, in the Coast Range of British Columbia, where firsts of Mts. Tiedemann (12,900 ft.), Geddes, Hickson, and Whitesaddle were made ; and 1947, when, with a party including Smythe and Odell, the remote Lloyd George Mountains in the extreme northern Canadian Rockies were climbed for the first time .
Besides mountaineering, Rex sailed, fished, was good at carpentry, and an expert axeman. He could identify many of the heavenly bodies in the sky at night.. He was a man of deep religious feeling, as all who had been present when he conducted the Sunday services at the A. C. C. Camps and had heard his sermons were well aware.
In 1948, in Victoria, he married Ethne Gale, who loved the mountains as he did, and they attended several subsequent A. C. C. skiing and summer climbing camps together. His wife and a young daughter survive him.
The mountains were the ruling passion in Rex Gibson's life. His place in Canadian mountaineering will not soon be filled.
H. s. Hall, JR .
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 63. Nr. 296, 1958, Seite 106-107


Geboren am:
1892
Gestorben am:
18.08.1957