A College of the Rockies (COTR) instructor recently received one of the most prestigious awards offered by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC).

Gretchen Whetham was recognized two weeks ago for having climbed more than 50 peaks while attending ACC General Mountaineering Camps in the summer. She got her platinum pin at an ACC camp two weeks ago while climbing in Battle Brook north of the famed Bugaboo Mountains west of Brisco.

Originally from the flatlands of Ontario, Whetham has been climbing for more than 30 years ever since she moved to Cranbrook in 1980 after stops in Calgary and Rankin Inlet in the High Arctic. “I was a cook in the hotel there and after I got off work, I’d go hiking. Then when I moved to Calgary I was always in the park.” (Banff)

A Chartered Accountant as well as a business administration instructor at the college, Whetham started out as a student at COTR and did her first ascent of Mt. Fisher with friends in April 1981, climbing by skis until she reached the saddle then boot-climbing the formidable peak to the summit.

“It was either that or staying home and studying financial administration. I needed a break.”

But Whetham downplays her climbing heroics. “They’re nothing to what some people do around here.” Nevertheless the fact that she’s climbed a peak as high as Ancohuma in the Andes at 21,085 feet (6,426 meters) and is still an active climber despite having passed 60 says a lot about her stamina and dedication.

And, indeed, stamina and dedication are sorely needed just to attend an ACC summer camp because these “camps” are not exactly a walk in Stanley Park. For instance, a typical day at Battle Brook began with a 4 a.m. wakeup call followed by a brief, but hearty breakfast, at 4:30 a.m. for a prompt departure at 5 a.m. Really! Climbers often wouldn’t return to camp until 12 or 14 hours later, after scrambling up thousands of feet of boulders and loose rocks to reach a glacier or to climb a peak of 10,000 ft. or more.

What’s the reward for a regime as rigorous as this? “Incredible views and the camaraderie of fellow climbers working as a team to achieve a common goal,” says Whetham.

Some of that “camaraderie” included her own husband Bob, a Cranbrook City Councillor who spent most of his time in camp watercolour painting. But not to be outdone, he also climbed one peak at camp and got a bronze pin.

Indeed, the teamwork aspect of mountain climbing is one of the things Whetham most enjoys, she says. “I don’t do a lot of team sports and that’s one of the things about mountain climbing that really appeals to me. I like being able to cross a glacier or negotiate a steep rock face and go places off the beaten path and see the incredible views you get from there.”

The safety and the very lives of climbers depends on the degree that they practice teamwork and personal responsibility, Whetham says. But a committed climber such as her allows that there is at least one thing that’s not so great about climbing high peaks.

“Sometimes it’s not that great to be getting up at 4 a.m.”

Mountain climbing, of course, is one of the more dangerous sports and Whetham has had her share of close calls. She was once on North Star Glacier, a “pocket” (small) glacier above the Welsh Lakes in the north Purcells. “I was carrying the rope and I slipped down between the glacier and the muck beside it and that was scary.”

But when non-climbing friends ask why she indulges herself in such a potentially dangerous sport, she replies, “there’s less risk up there than walking the streets of Cranbrook.”

A slight, but lean and wiry woman, Whetham says the most difficult climb she did was on Remeillard Ridge in the Adamant Range in the Selkirks northwest of Golden. She was on a 5.7 rock face, almost the top of the scale, and decided she didn’t want to lead on such a dangerous and exposed face.

Showing loyalty to her Kootenay roots, Whetham says her mountain climbing hero is Kimberley native Pat Morrow, the second Canadian to climb Mount Everest and the first to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents. And her favourite peak is also in the Kootenays, Mount Assiniboine, a spectacular sculpted peak sometimes called “the Matterhorn of the Rockies.”

Asked about mountaineering and age, Whetham says mountain climbing might be one of the rare sports where you get better with age, at least to a point. “I think you have better endurance when you’re older. Many 16-year-olds don’t do as well as 40-year-old climbing mountains. If you want to stay in shape for climbing, it’s a matter of keeping your health and fitness year-round.”

Whetham has done most of her climbing close to home which is not surprising considering the world-class mountain terrain of the Rockies, Purcells and Selkirk Ranges right on Cranbrook’s doorstep.

Maus Creek Basin, less than two hours from downtown Cranbrook is one of her favourite local areas to hike. “I’d pick the Maus Creek area. I go there frequently to hike the tarns, Tanglefoot, the ridges, five Passes or to backcountry ski.”

But when she wants to be hiking or walking literally minutes from her house, she goes to the Cranbrook Community Forest, one of the city’s greatest assets.

Asked how many mountains she’s climbed, she replies with characteristic modesty. “No idea. I don’t keep track. But compared to my mountaineering friends, I’ve done an inch to their mile.”