Edward Feuz Jr.

Edward Feuz Jr. was the most prolific and enduring of the Swiss guides who shaped Canadian alpinism. The eldest son of Eduard Feuz Sr., who arrived with Christian Haesler Sr. in 1899, Feuz Jr. came to Canada in 1903 at 18 as a porter and stayed for 50 years. He was head guide at the Chateau Lake Louise and the primary visionary behind Abbot Pass Hut and the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.

Lineage and career. Feuz Jr. trained under his father, passed his Swiss guide examination in 1908, married Martha Heimann in 1909, and settled permanently in Canada when the CPR built Edelweiss Village in Golden (1911–12). He guided for the Canadian Pacific Railway through the “50 Switzerlands in One” era. The CPR marketed the guides as interchangeable scenery; Feuz Jr. remained a legend chiefly within the climbing community, though he held authority at the Chateau and monitored younger guides with a critical eye. He believed guiding required a “genuine love of the mountains” to avoid becoming “plain hard work.”

Technical record. Over 50 years Feuz Jr. led 102 new climbing routes and made 78 first ascents. He was never involved in a fatal accident; an unmatched record in an era of hemp ropes, hobnail boots, and basic pitons. He climbed Mount Temple at 81 and Mount Victoria for the last time at 85. Clients included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Howard Palmer; on Mount Sir Sandford, he and Rudolf Aemmer reportedly manhandled a fearful Palmer over a narrow arête, speaking Swiss-German so the client wouldn’t understand.

Architectural legacy. Feuz Jr. and Rudolf Aemmer drafted Abbot Pass Hut (2,925 m, between Mt. Victoria and Mt. Lefroy). Materials were portaged by horse over the Victoria Glacier and on the guides’ backs to the pass; stones were gathered on site. Completed in 1923, it was Canada’s highest permanent building for 50 years (decommissioned 2022). Feuz Jr. persuaded the CPR to build the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House (1924) as a staging point and social hub; his wife Martha and their children ran it for decades. It was sold in 1959 to Joy Kimball; her descendants still operate it.

Alpine Club of Canada. Feuz Jr. guided at the inaugural Alpine Club of Canada camp at Summit Lake, Yoho (1906), and helped “graduate” the club’s first members; shifting mountaineering from a European elite pastime to a Canadian one.

Later years. He closed his Führerbuch in 1949 but continued guiding private parties until 1953. He remained a fixture at Lake Louise, recounting tales of the pioneers, and mentored the next generation. He lived to see successors like Walter Perren professionalize mountain rescue. Edward Peak, Walter Peak, and Ernest Peak in the Selkirks honour the Feuz family. The Whyte Museum holds the Edward Feuz fonds.