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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

1970

By the end of the decade at the end of 1969 the Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association had matured and had reached a status pretty much like that of the present day. Because of that and the fact that the trend in "The Pack Rat" reporting was more towards general articles and less towards specific reports of club activities, the remaining 11 years of this Ramblers history will be in less detail

In the 1970's the club became very active in the conservation matters and submitted numerous briefs, especially concerning national parks policy.

The quality of trips continued high. On the Victoria Day weekend in 1970, Gunther Mueller led the spring ascent of Snow Dome on the top of the Columbia Icefields by 10 Ramblers. They backpacked up onto the icefield the first day, were driven down by a heavy snowstorm the second day, but made the ascent on the third day. In July, Jack Carter led a nine day backpack into the Brazeau Lake - Poboktan Pass area of Jasper Park, where they encountered grizzlies and saw a woodland caribou.

In March Jack Carter replaced Wally Drew as Leaders Chairman. By September the membership had soared to a record 144. The next month the following were elected to guide the growing club: President, Robin Smith; Vice-President, Roger Woodgate; Treasurer, Cathy Shires; Secretary, Pat Rosettis; Members-at-large, Judy Woodgate, John Woodhatch and Art Davis. Alastair Sinclair replaced Jack Carter as Leaders Chairman late in the year.

On the romantic side two popular Ramblers, Ray Marriner and Annemarie Sakowtiz, were married in mid-summer.

1971

With the huge growth in the club in 1970 accompanied by large attendance, sometimes in excess of 60 people, at the Wednesday evening meetings, the RMRA finally outgrew Bob's Bookstore, which had served as the club's home for so many years. In April of 1971, the club moved to larger quarters in the basement of the Lutheran Church at 7th Avenue and 9th Street, S.W. Meetings continued to be at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. The larger meeting place was obtained none too soon even though it did give an unsettled period to the club. By May there were nearly 90 people attending some meetings.

1971 was a big year for trips and parties as well as for membership, which reached a record 167. There were sometimes 30 to 40 people out on a given trip.

One type of Ramblers hike not mentioned previously in this history was the moonlight hikes led by Wally Drew, usually one per year. We would leave town on Friday evening, have a wiener-marshmallow roast near the trailhead until about midnight when the moon got high in the sky and then climb some mountain on the eastern edge of the Rockies so we could see the sunrise over the prairies from the summit before returning to Calgary Saturday morning.

75 attended the Saturday night annual banquet and dance organized by Judy Woodgate. For the third year in a row it was held in Fort Calgary House with Jim Stoner as MC. The Christmas party arranged by Linda Scarlett at Peter Gillingham's was almost as popular with 60 people squeezing in.

The following executive was elected to guide the club on into 1972: President, John Woodhatch; Vice-President, Blake Gordon; Secretary, Diane Langham; Treasurer, Art Kam; Members-at-large, Peter Gillingham, Linda Scarlett and Marianne Stanford. Alastair Sinclair continued to serve as Leaders Chairman and Blake Gordon finally replaced Sandy Vair as publisher of "The Pack Rat".