The Call of the Rockies

When I can, I try to take advantage of the warm weather to spend some time in the country generally west of Calgary. From my office window, the mountains stand like silent sentinels, always there (if not visible), but always changing, and their attraction is almost physical. I like to think of them as some of the spirits of this place, part of the spiritual landscape of Calgary. To the casual observer, they form an undifferentiated wall, though a couple, like the pyramidal Mount Glasgow (after a battleship), and the black silhouette of Devil’s Head (a.k.a. Devil’s Thumb), are easily identifiable. Changing lighting and weather conditions from morning to morning will bring out their 3D quality, concealing some and revealing others. Alas, due to some combination of heat, humidity, and cloudiness, they’ve been hiding behind the veil lately, but they will return. Two useful resources I’ve come across to identify them are Dave Birrell’s Peakfinder website at http://www.peakfinder.com, and Birrell’s book (with art by Ron Ellis), Calgary’s Mountain Panorama, available at MapTown.