The newspaper crowed: ‘The young women who strut about the street and dine in the hotels dressed in riding togs, should be soundly spanked and sent to bed’
An article in the Banff Crag and Canyon from 1920 said, “The young women who strut about the street and dine in the hotels dressed in riding togs, should be soundly spanked and sent to bed.”
It continued: “Pants are made for men and not for women. Women are made for men and not for pants.”
Georgia Engelhard was not the first woman to wear pants climbing (Evelyn Berens summit Mount Sir Donald in 1901 wearing pants) but she was one of the most notorious – particularly due to her prowess as a mountaineer. The Swiss guides who led her up the mountains struggled to keep up and Engelhard wasn’t about to let a billowing Victorian skirt slow her down.
Hence the new exhibit by Parks Canada artist Rob Buchanan, Breeches of Misconduct, which allows tourists to pose in an over-sized replica of her pants with Mount Tupper as the backdrop.
“I wanted a really neat photo opportunity but I also wanted a spot where public art met interpretive story telling,” said Buchanan about the work. Rather than something like the photo replica at site of the Last Spike in Craigellachie, his aim was to make the new exhibit “more sculptural, more special and unique.”
Engelhard, who was named after her aunt, the famous artist Georgia O’Keefe, certainly was unique in her time. In 1931 she reached 24 summits in the Selkirk Mountains in only three weeks. The Swiss guides joked about putting rocks in her pants to slow her down.
Engelhard had a fear of heights at a young age but she eventually came to love the mountains, though she regarded mountain climbing as “a perfectly idiotic sport.”
Still, she obviously loved doing it, describing one climb as an “unforgettable experience.”
In 1926, when she was 20, she completed a one-day ascent near Mt. Rainier in only half a day. Three years later, she climbed nine peaks in nine days on a trip to Lake Louise and Lake O’Hara. That same year, she travelled to the Selkirks and climbed Avalanche Mountain, Mt. Uto and Mount Sir Donald. On her days off she climbed “low and unimportant” peaks under 2,500 metres.
“When she starts uphill she goes like a rocket,” said guide Edward Feuz, one of several guides that struggled to keep up.
Engelhard was described as very athletic and boyish and frequently mistaken for a young man. She took up painting with her famous aunt but ended up taking up photography instead.
Eventually she moved to Switzerland with her husband Tony and took up ski touring there. At age 75 she was still walking eight kilometres per day.
The Breeches of Misconduct pays tribute to Engelhard by allowing tourists to pose for a photo in a steel replica of her pants, with towering Mount Tupper as the backdrop.
The pants were created by artist Rob Buchanan and his frequent partner, metal worker Rob Maraun.
As Buchanan tells it, he went to Maraun with a mock-up made out of tinfoil and asked if it could be done.
“He said, ‘If we suspend common sense, I don’t see why we can’t pull this off,’” said Buchanan.
The pants were hammered out a 3/8”-thick steel, based on a pattern derived by local seamstress Wendy Lucas.
Maraun and Buchanan laid out the steel, traced the pattern, cut it with a plasma cutter and then heated it up with propane torches, hammered the steel into a pair of pants, which was then coated with copper paint. You can view photos of the pants’ construction in the slideshow above.
The completed work was debuted at the Canada Day parade in Revelstoke and officially unveiled in Rogers Pass with an interpretive play on Parks Day on July 16.
Though Engelhard was quite tall, the pants are huge even for her. They were designed to fit a wide variety of body types, said Buchanan.
Other new exhibits
Buchanan also created two other exhibits for Glacier National Park’s 125th anniversary. The first is a short video called Climbing Mount Tupper of two people being led up Mount Tupper by Swiss guide Edward Feuz. The video was created by Buchanan, Frank Desrosiers, Megan Long and Elsie Fuoco using archival footage from the 1920s.
It’s a short video that can be viewed through a mutoscope that will be set up at Rogers Pass. You can also view it online at www.revelstoketimesreview.com.
“It’s to tell people about the role of Rogers Pass and Glacier National Park in mountaineering history,” said Buchanan.
The final exhibit is set of four posters of different scenes in Glacier National Park that reflect back on the posters created by Canadian Pacific in the early 20th century.
The posters are of a yellow sky with mountaineers on Abbott Ridge, a train passing by Glacier House, an artillery piece commemorating the legacy of avalanche control and of people climbing Mount Tupper that accompanies the mutoscope film. View the video below.
