Summer 2007 - The Alpine Club of Canada

It’s Blow Me Down, Bye
BY CHRIS WEIDNER
On the morning of September 12,
2006, seagulls played in the
breeze above the glassy waters
of Devil’s Bay, while Justen Sjong,
Celin Serbo and I savored a second cup
of coff ee. We had no idea that within
20 hours winds surpassing 100 mph
would rip across the south coast of
Newfoundland, wreaking devastation
in their path. Obliviously, we donned
harnesses, shook off fatigue from the
previous three days of climbing, and
sluggishly prepared for another sunny
day of work on the tallest sea cliff on
the Atlantic seaboard. Early Spanish
cod fi shermen referred to this towering
wall as “Diablo”, but over the centuries
it was bastardized to “Jabo”. Today, it’s
on the maps as “Blow-Me-Down.”
Th rusting skyward 400 metres above the
North Atlantic, and accessible only by
boat, Blow-Me-Down adds a vertical
dimension to an otherwise fl at world
dominated by water and an ethereal
horizon.
Glacier Circle Cabin
PHOTO BY ERIC DEFOE, PARKS CANADA
During the 2006 summer, 27
volunteers from the Alpine
Club of Canada, Friends
of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier
National Park and Parks Canada, put
in three weeks’ worth of eff ort, sweat,
love and laughter into restoring Glacier
Circle Cabin in BC’s GNP. Originally
built in the 1920s, with a new roof and
solidly supported fl oor, the restored
cabin is now worthy of its Federal
Heritage Building designation.
22 Alpine Club of Canada ● Gazette ● SUMMER 2007
I heard a shout from near the placid
water — it was Charles Courtney, who
had anchored his dinghy, walking up the
granite slabs toward our camp. He and
his wife Kim had ferried us from the tiny
outport community of Francois (locals
say “Fransway”) to Devil’s Bay four days
earlier. His barely intelligible Newfi e
dialect left us scratching our heads: a
mixture of Canadian vowels, Irish Rs,
extra Ss, missing Hs, and a muffl ed
mumble that essentially twists English
into a foreign tongue. (Newfi es often
interject “bye” at the end of sentences,
instead of the “eh” associated with most
Canadians.) We heard him shout again,
only closer this time, “Oi! ’Urricane’sa-comin’!”
Th e bespectacled man in his
forties staggered closer and said with
a smirk, “You byes ’ad better cum wid
me.”...
To follow the “byes” on their adventure,
order your copy of the 2007 Canadian
Alpine Journal today – the second longest
running publication in Canada.
Visit www.alpineclubofcanada.ca/store
or call (403) 678-3200 ext. 1.
Would you like to know more about BC’s Greg Hill, who skinned up
1,000,000 vertical feet last winter? ACC NewsNet subscribers read about him.
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