During week 4 of the ACC’s General Mountaineering Camp, I had the opportunity to climb a stunning mountain on a perfectly clear day. My memories of the experience are recounted below.
The first noted use of the word ‘Serendipity’ was by Horace Walpole, the son of the first British Prime Minister, on 28 January 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a lost painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were ‘always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of’; The name comes from Serendip, an old Persian name for Sri Lanka.
Since then, the term ‘serendipity’ has been applied to inventions made by chance rather than intent, a famous example being the Post It Note.
It is also the name of a stunning peak (Serendipity Spire) of the Remillard Group in the Selkirks mountains in British Columbia, the site of the ACC’s 2024 GMC.
With an elevation of 2,857 metres, Serendipity provides an excellent climbing outing and provides stunning views over the Northern Selkirks and beyond, into the Rockies.
Serendipity Spire also happened to be my 100th summit climbed at ACC GMCs since I climbed White Rose Mountain at the Mt. Alexandra GMC in 2007.
We began the day early as a team of seven camp participants and three guides/leaders. Unfortunately, after going up the steep meadows, Dave, Josée and Benji decided to head back to camp, led by Neil. Our remaining group of John, Catherine, Ron, and myself, led by Christian and Luca continued the climb.
After a steep ascent to the Echo-Tango Col, we first summited Tango Peak (2,790m). From below, we had seen a mountain goat on this ridge and when we summited, we were very impressed by the sight of its tracks going down the north face of the glacier. Scary!
There is a wonderful ACC tradition that recognizes a person’s 100th GMC summit with the presentation of a commemorative pin, along with informally renaming the peak. I was honoured to have Trango Peak renamed Thierry’s Tower for the remainder of the camp.
After passing Thierry’s Tower, we progressed along the main glacier to reach the ridge of Serendipity Spire. We did a full ridge ascent, which was not technically difficult but it was pretty exposed, and reached the summit.
The views from the spire were incredible and I could see several other mountains that I had climbed during past GMCs including Mt. Sir Sandford (2012 GMC, together with Josée) as well as the Neptune Group and Escarpment Peak (2009 GMC).
Our day was perfectly clear so I have a lot of sympathy for the group who climbed Serendipity the day before as they were in the clouds without views. Each day in the mountains is different and you’re never certain what you’re going to get.
When it was time to go down, we reversed our steps, climbing “Thierry’s Tower” a second time before descending towards the col and then the steep meadows below.
When we returned, I had the amazing surprise to get a warm welcome from everyone in camp in celebration of my 100th GMC summit.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to the entire GMC team for this special day, and to everyone who I’ve shared these amazing times in the mountains with over the years.
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