Steep and imposing on all sides, Mt. Alberta, the sixth-highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, resisted several attempts and remained unclimbed until 1925. That year, a very strong team, guided by the great Conrad Kain, was turned back by poor weather conditions. Later that year a team of Japanese climbers and Swiss guides successfully climbed to the mountain’s summit, effectively ending an era of mountaineering in North America. An ice axe was left on the summit by the Japanese, spawning the rumor of a silver ice axe, a gift from the Japanese Emperor. The axe was retrieved 23 years later during the second ascent of the mountain by an American party and, although made of ordinary wood and metal, remains one of the most important symbols of the advancement of mountaineering on the continent. The Japanese Route, certainly for reasons surrounding the historical significance of the first ascent rather than the quality of the rock or the climbing, is considered a classic climb of North America, and attracts climbers from across the continent and from overseas. The axe itself, sheared off low on the shaft where it was removed from the summit ice, resided for more than 35 years in, of all places, the American Alpine Club’s office in Manhattan, N.Y. before those offices were moved to Golden, Colorado, where it remains today.

The Lloyd MacKay (Mount Alberta) Hut “One could say a great deal about Lloyd’s climbing successes – his early days forging bold new routes on Yamnuska, his travels and exploitations in the Alps, and his pioneering new routes on the Canadian Rockies’ North Faces. But although second to no one as a climber, his great strength lay in his personality. Anyone who ever climbed a mountain with Lloyd had a great time.”

Thus read the obituary for Lloyd Mackay, one of the greatest climbers of his generation, who died in 1976 at the age of 36. In his memory, his family donated funds to the Alpine Club of Canada for the construction of a high altitude shelter for mountaineers in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains.

The site chosen for the Lloyd MacKay Hut was near the Freshfield Glacier. The site was selected in 1976, but due to administrative delays with Banff Park, the hut was not built until 1984. A subsequent change in Parks philosophy, however, made preserving the Freshfield Glacier as an area without human presence a priority, and the hut was removed. At that time the ACC was very interested in developing the hut system on the Wapta Icefields and, in exchange for removing the MacKay Hut from the Freshfields, the new Balfour Hut was funded by Banff National Park. It was suggested that the new Balfour Hut bear Lloyd MacKay’s name, but the idea was rejected because it did not fit the family’s original request for a high altitude shelter for mountaineers; the Balfour Hut is more of a skiing hut than a climbing hut. In 1993 the existing Mt. Alberta Hut, the quintessential climbing hut in the Rockies, was renamed the Lloyd MacKay Hut.