Memorial Ledge Photos

[changlama]

Here's a few photos that were recently sent to me by Hamish Mutch
One is of Jim Baldwin and the others are Dick Culbert and Mave McCuaig installing the plaque at the memorial.

Thanks Hamish!

[Pete L.]

Very cool.

[XXXX]

What's all that stuff that looks like a cactus stuck to Mavis' head in the second photo?

[Cloudraker]

What's all that stuff that looks like a cactus stuck to Mavis' head in the second photo?

I have no freaking idea.........

[dakine]

looks like a tree / shrub in the background

[Brendan]

great pics, and a piece of history!

[Aaron]

What's all that stuff that looks like a cactus stuck to Mavis' head in the second photo?

I have no freaking idea.........

If memory serves, the ground bellow Memorial Ledge is a gully that has eroded out more and more over the 13 years that I've been climbing in Squamish. I'm sure that Hamish and company would agree that all manor of tree and shrub grew in that same gully at the time of this photo.

[Cloudraker]

Ya it looks like the top of a shrubby pine..... or a stuffed animal that she has pasted to her left shoulder.

[Anders Ourom]

Thanks, Ivan. Very nice photos. I've always found it a peaceful place, and the Baldwin plaque a modest, tasteful memorial to a man who had a significant role in the evolution of Canadian and Squamish climbing.

There were quite a lot of trees and shrubs in the gully below the Baldwin Plaque in the 1970s. (Maybe even some on the ledge itself.) I first went up it in 1973, with Eric Weinstein, and it was then full of greenery. So that probably explains the 'growths' on Mavis' head.

(Some say that it isn't a Squamish route unless the climb depends for progress or anchors on at least one tree or shrub.)

Broadway used to be quite bushy, except for a narrow trail. There was quite a lot of salal. Some has got trampled, some actually removed by well-meaning but perhaps short-sighted people. It made good holds, especially on the scrambly bits, and stabilized everything. Oh well, still lots of trees, and easy to provide a belay and protection for the inexperienced and timid.

The usage "Memorial Ledge" is relatively recent. In the 1970s and 1980s it was simply known as the "Baldwin Plaque" - meaning the ledge and area at the north end of Broadway. Jim Campbell's guide (1985) calls it "Baldwin Memorial", and the 1992 guide (McLane) noted plaques to Baldwin and to Andy Burnham, at "a balcony with a grand view". "Memorial Ledge" seems to have popped up in the 1999 guide.

We chose not to add plaques to the area in memory of Leif Patterson (died 1976) or Eric Weinstein (died 1984), although both had major roles in Canadian and Squamish climbing. The friends and family of Jim Baldwin might have agreed to the addition, but we didn't ask.

B.C. Parks policy now prohibits addition of such plaques anywhere in the park, including in the area of the Baldwin plaque.