These mountains put you in your place
One of the advantages of living and working in a small community is the commute.
It takes me about three and a half minutes to drive to work, which about matches the time each day that I berate myself for not having walked or cycled instead.
One thing I often observe on my short drive to work, no matter the time of year, is tourists strolling the roadway as they take photographs of the surrounding mountains.
On at least one particularly chilly winter morning, I believe I even observed a tourist outside in his pajamas, so excited was he to capture the cresting pink light overtop the Rundle Range.
Just what, exactly, gets someone out of his warm bed on vacation? Why are mountains so incredibly interesting, and why do they attract not only visitors in the millions each year, but also permanent residents who never grow tired of the view?
You could say mountains are rather like the stars, in that they make us feel small by comparison. They put us in our place, and reinforce that we are only here for such a short time, by comparison.
But mountains make an even stronger impression than the stars, because they’re firmly rooted to the same ground we walk on.
It’s no wonder I can think of a dozen different people in Canmore, all accomplished climbers and mountaineers, who make a living through corporate presentations along the ‘climb-a-mountain-achieve-the-summit-of-your goals’ theme lines. We look at mountains, and we want to climb them.
Even if you’re not thinking about climbing them, even metaphorically, mountains hold an allure for us these days because any change you’ll see in them occur over millions of years. This is heartening when you find yourself stressing that you have just spent $600 on a techno-gadget that will be obsolete next Tuesday.
|
Canmore holds an attraction for visitors not only because we are providing an increasingly sophisticated level of services and variety of experiences, but also because there is no way anything will even impinge on the view of the mountains. Sure, buildings go up in different places, and human habitation can be seen in areas where it wasn’t before. But the views, the mountains, are so UP THERE, you never really lose sight of them in this valley. They seduce you at every turn, distract you when you are lost in mundane thoughts, and calm you when the world is flapping about your ears.
Even better, this town and its elected officials have placed cautious limits on where and how we build. If you say Canmore is a vastly different place than a decade ago, as it has been developed to such a large extent, you would not be wrong. But pay attention a little bit, and you will soon know that development will go only so far, and then it will slow to a stop due to its geographical limitations.
Like other mountain communities, Canmore and its citizens are vastly aware that our natural values are what attract people here in the first place, and they must be held sacred and preserved.
When I think about how important those values are to me, and to so many of the people I know who love Canmore, I reflect on the fellow in his pajamas last winter. He was so amazed at these mountains he didn’t even feel the cold.
- Shari Bishop Bowes, Editor, SolaraLife
We welcome your comments and suggestions, as well as submissions from freelance writers who have a passion for the Canadian Rockies. Contact us at contact@solaralife.com
|
