The following articles are reproduced from the Calgary Daily Herald in 1937. They describe the rescue of Humphrey Cooper who was climbing on End Mountain when he took a fall. The accident and the rescue was the page one headline in Calgary on August 5th, 1937 and went national with articles in other papers like the Ottawa Citizen. The follow up stories add more detail.
The Calgary Daily Herald, Thursday, August 5th, 1937 Page 1
Humphrey Cooper Taken Off Ledge;
Condition Good
Austrian Guide Makes Tricky Climb To Rescue Calgary Youth; Stretcher Party Carrying Cooper Down to Camp
Trapped on Mountain Ledge 40 Hours Near Morley
Trapped for almost 40 hours on a ledge on End Mountain, 10 miles north of the Y.M.C.A Camp Chief Hector, Bowfort, Humphrey Cooper, of Calgary, was rescued this morning by Victor Kutschera, Austrian guide for the Ski Runner of the Canadian Rockies.
Kutschera left the base camp late last night and reached the boy a few hours after dawn. After a difficult descent to the ledge, he fastened a rope sling about Cooper and the Austrian mountaineer, almost single-handed, took him to the mountaintop. The boy is not expected to be down before six o’clock this evening. Kutschera said he had apparently suffered concussion of the skull and fractured ribs.
525 Feet of Rope
It took Kutschera 5 ½ hours to get the injured youth, son of Mr. And Mrs. Fred R. Cooper. 931 Sixth Avenue west, 1000 feet to the top of the mountain, and at one time he had to let out 525 feet of rope.
Waiting there was a party of rescuers, headed by Constable W. P. O. Solloway, R.C.M.P., Exshaw. With Cooper in a stretcher, they are now negotiating the difficult descent over rock and deadfall.
While weak, Copper is in surprisingly good shape, due to perfect physical condition, Kutscherea said on arriving back at the base camp. Dr. A.N. Johanson is waiting at the base to attend to the youth’s injuries.
The Austrian skier, recognized as one of the most capable mountaineers in the Rockies, was rushed from Banff last night by R.C.M.P. It was he who went into Duchess Pass in 1933 and brought out the bodies of the Dean brothers, over-whelmed by a landslide.
Young Cooper was trapped on the narrow ledge without food or shelter from the cold.
Flashlights of the rescue party, which found the boy, could be seen high up on the mountain last night, and he received food and blankets soon after dawn this morning.
So rough is the trail down from the mountain that it is thought it may be necessary to bring the boy out a large portion of the way on a stretcher. An ambulance will be six waiting six miles from the base camp, the nearest point to the accident it can possibly reach.Full effects of the boy’s grueling experience are not fully know as yet, except that, beside his major injuries he suffers from shock and cold, for he had no blankets to shelter him. He was conscious, apparently during the whole of his enforced stay on the mountain edge, for his shouts to the rescuers could be plainly heard.
At the time of the accident the injured lad was with John Kansen 35, of Regina, experienced in climbing mountains in Switzerland. Explaining the cause of the fall, Kansen stated the injured youth had not been equipped with nailed climbing boots and had slipped.
The accident took place about 7 p.m. Tuesday. Kansen and the injured lad had gone out with a party of the camp, but had separated from them while on the way up to the mountains.
Suddenly, Kansen saw his companion slip and disappear down a cut in the mountain. Immediately, Kansen climbed down to here the youth was lying on a narrow ledge, about 30 feet below, bleeding from a gash in the head. Kansen rendered first aid, stanched the flow of blood and then returned to the Y.M.C.A. camp for assistance. George Page, Y.M.C.A. physical instructor, went to Camp Chief Hector to obtain aid and arrange for rescue parties.
Expert Guide Aids
Repeated efforts at rescuing the injured lad Wednesday morning, failed, so Wednesday night, a party, including Victor Kitschier, Austrian guide and mountaineering pioneer, left Camp Chief Hector for the scene. Kutscherea had been sent from Banff at the request of Constable W.P.O. Solloway, R.C.M.P., Morley, in charge of rescue work. The party carried climbing equipment and 200 feet of new rope obtained from the store at Morley by Constable Solloway.
Frank Hall, boys’ work secretary of the Y.M.C.A. came to the camp at 4 p.m. Wednesday and went with a party of six seniors from the “Y’ to the scene of the accident. Last night hall said in had been in touch with the injured lad and heard him say, “I’m pretty good now, thanks to John.”
Well Known in City
Cooper, well known in Calgary, was a former president of the Baptist Young People’s Union, and had been in the employ of a local packing firm until recently. He left Calgary Sunday to go the Y.M.C.A. camp. His mother and elder sister have been at the scene since late Wednesday afternoon, leaving a picnic at Bowens Park after representatives of the Y.M.C.A. had informed them of the accident.
Expert mountaineers here stated the mountain where the accident occurred was not often climbed because it was not a particularly interesting climb. It was easily ascended on the north and east sides, they said, but danger lurked in the sheer faces of the other slopes.
End Mountain, where the accident occurred, is about 10 miles north of Camp Chief Hector, on Bowfort Lake in the Stony Indian reserve, 55 miles west of Calgary, just off the Banff Trail.
21-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Cooper, 931 Sixth avenue west, who was rescued today from a rocky ledge high up on End Mountain, where he lay for more than 40 hours, suffering a deep gash on the top of his head. End Mountain is ten miles north of the Y.M.C.A. camp near Bow fort, about 55 miles from Calgary. He slipped and tumbled down a 30-foot incline Tuesday evening about 7 o’clock. A rescue party led by the Austrian guide, Victor Kutschera, is bringing him back to the base camp.
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