Mountain Culture
The ACC Aspects blog is a hub for stories, news, and insights related to mountain culture, outdoor adventures, and the climbing community in Canada. It features articles on alpine expeditions, environmental conservation, club events, and personal experiences from members. The blog also highlights ACC initiatives, hut updates, and safety tips for backcountry exploration. It’s a great resource for climbers, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts looking to stay connected with the ACC community and gain inspiration for their next adventure.
For older blog stories, please visit our archived site.
2026 Annual General Meeting
Thank you for joining us for our Annual General Meeting May 14, at 5pm MT.
We appreciate you taking the time to connect with the ACC community, reflect on the past year, and help shape the future of the club. Your engagement, questions, and continued support are an important part of what keeps our community strong.
ACC Gazette Section Stories: Thunder Bay
Like all ACC chapters, the Thunder Bay Section is a place where climbers connect to find partners and do some climbing. Sometimes those partnerships last a route, and sometimes they last a lifetime.
Mountain Voices: The Valley of the Wîkchemnâ Peaks
This story comes to us from the book Mountain Voices. Paired with photos from the Mountain Legacy Project, Mountain Voices is a collection of unique short essays from alpinists, activists, artists, and mountain researchers as they share their unique and fascinating perspectives.
A Life Lived Vertically: The Legacy of Wally Joyce
Wallace (Wally) Richard Joyce was born in Cranbrook, BC in 1915, and by the time his family moved to Calgary he was already making pilgrimages to Banff and Waterton with his Boy Scout troop, a young boy with a Kodak camera and an unquenchable sense of wonder. He would carry both the camera and the wonder for the next nine decades.
Twenty GMCs Later
What has kept me coming back—and what I hope will continue to draw people to
the GMC?
The General Mountaineering Camp (GMC) means many things to many people,
for a wide range of reasons. For me, it has always been about the people. Some of
those I met at my very first camp in 2003 at Snowy Pass remain close friends to
this day. That sense of connection—formed through shared challenges in remote
places, often far from the distractions of everyday life—is powerful, and it
endures.
Summit Shaker: Summer Kickoff Week
Get ready for five days of trail runs, safety workshops, climbing sessions, and community gathering designed to strengthen the bonds that make the Bow Valley special.
ACC Gazette Section Stories: Saint Boniface
St. Boniface doesn’t have many tall structures except for two towers. And rather than the site of a Middle Earth war of fantastic proportions, one of them is the site of volunteer contributions of fantastic proportions.
The ACC Comes East
On Sunday, Feb 1, 2026, seven members of the Alpine Club of Canada and their two guides checked in to the Intervale Cooperative near St. Donat, QC, excited to be part of the first ever ACC National Winter Leadership course offered in Eastern Canada. The course aimed to support members who are trip leaders or are interested in leading alpine touring section trips.
Le CAC soutient le ski de randonnée dans l’Est!
Le dimanche 1er février, 2026, sept membres du Club alpin du Canada (CAC), accompagnés de deux guides, se sont rassemblés à la coopérative Intervale, près de Saint‑Donat (QC), enthousiastes de participer au tout premier cours national de leadership hivernal offert dans l’Est du Canada par le CAC.
Running a Kitchen in the Clouds Pt. 2
Behind the scenes at The Alpine Club of Canada’s General Mountaineering Camp kitchen.
There are kitchens, and then there are kitchens in the clouds.
At the Alpine Club of Canada’s General Mountaineering Camp, the kitchen sits high in the alpine, far from roads, grocery stores, and predictable weather. Everything needed to feed up to fifty people arrives by helicopter. After that, meals rely on planning, teamwork, and a willingness to adapt.
One guarantee is that no matter what happens, storms, shortages, or stove malfunctions, meals go out.
My name is Amy Pfaff, the GMC head cook, and this is a little bit of what it takes to run a kitchen in the clouds.
Running a Kitchen in the Clouds Pt. 1
Behind the scenes at The Alpine Club of Canada’s General Mountaineering Camp kitchen.
There are kitchens, and then there are kitchens in the clouds.
At the Alpine Club of Canada’s General Mountaineering Camp, the kitchen sits high in the alpine, far from roads, grocery stores, and predictable weather. Everything needed to feed up to fifty people arrives by helicopter. After that, meals rely on planning, teamwork, and a willingness to adapt.
One guarantee is that no matter what happens, storms, shortages, or stove malfunctions, meals go out.
My name is Amy Pfaff, the GMC head cook, and this is a little bit of what it takes to run a kitchen in the clouds.
ACC Gazette Section Stories: Manitoba
Before we ever touched an ice tool or filmed a documentary, we were two people approaching 50, feeling the pull to do something different, something bold. We didn’t know it yet, but the ACC—especially the Manitoba and St. Boniface sections—would be the spark, the structure, and the community that would set our next decade in motion.
