MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter / Spring 2018

WINTER/SPRING 2018 MLCM 99 words :: Cassidy Randall Mystery Mountain. It’s a story of the ultimate adventure: the allure of the unknown, and of testing the limits of physical skill and mental capacity in pursuit of exploration. It’s the story of an arcing trajectory of destiny connected by an idea taking hold in two minds a century apart. In 1925 on her honeymoon on Vancouver Island, explorer and mountaineer Phyllis Munday caught her first glimpse of the mountain that would become her obsession. It towered above the rest of the formidable coast range in a pillar of remote ruggedness. She named it “Mystery Mountain.” That glimpse sparked a lifelong love affair for exploring the Coast Mountains with the deep-seated peak as the prize, and it secured for Munday a legacy as one of Canada’s most badass adventurers. But while she summited neighbouring Mount Munday and the northwest peak of Mystery Mountain, she never reached the true summit tower of the peak that defined so much of her life. Generations later in 2016, BC ski mountaineer Christina Lustenberger, already a legend in her own right, would follow the path blazed by Munday for an attempt at the peak that had eluded her predecessor. This modern mission was the brain child of Justin Sweeny, Arc’teryx North American Athlete Manager. In this era of helicopter access, Google Earth, and disappearing frontiers, Sweeny had been searching for the next true coastal adventure. His quest brought him to the book The Unknown Mountain , the story of the Munday’s “relentless pursuit of a particular objective,” according to Sweeny. The idea of re-creating that pursuit to pay homage to the explorers who set the bar for coastal RETURN TOMYST ERY MOUNTAIN TRAIL BLAZING Consolation Prize. Christina Lusti getting some turns on Mount Munday, first ascent 1930. JIMMY MARTINELLO Phyllis Munday and her husband Don set the standard for Coast Mountain exploration. Almost a century later, another driven lady of the mountains leads a team to retrace the Munday’s steps towards their most sought after peak.