Conrad Kain (10 August 1883, Nasswald – 2 February 1934, Cranbrook, British Columbia) was an Austrian mountain guide who guided extensively in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand, and was responsible for the first ascents of more than 60 routes in British Columbia. He is particularly known for pioneering climbs in the Purcell Mountains and the first ascents of Mount Robson (1913), Mount Louis (1916) and Bugaboo Spire (1916).
Kain was born in poverty in a small village in Lower Austria. His father was a miner who died when Kain was 8. In his youth he worked as a goat herd in the Rax Alps and from 1898 to 1904 at stone quarryies in Veitsch and Hirschwang. His free time he spent climbing, and by 1904 he guided his first clients, becoming an officially recognized professional guide in 1906. He guided his clients not only in Austria (including the Dolomites), but also in Switzerland and France, including the Matterhorn, La Meije and several first ascents.
Dissatisfied with his life in Austria, he planned to emigrate and in 1908 he took lessons in English in Vienna for that purpose. In June 1909 he moved to Canada with the promise of employment as the Alpine Club of Canada's first professional guide. In the summer of 1910 he surveyed the Purcell Mountains and in 1911 he explored the Banff area, making a number of first ascents already. In 1912 he joined an exploration in Siberia's Altai mountains, after which he returned to Austria where he spent several months with his mother. He then traveled to New Zealand where he was a guide in the winter of 1913. He was encouraged to return to Canada again to be a guide for two mountaineering camps, one based at Lake O'Hara camp and another at Robson Pass. The next three years he would guide respective summers in both Canada and New Zealand, completing many first ascents in both countries.
Conrad Kain is credited with over 60 first ascents but his most notable first ascent was in July 1913 of Mount Robson, with de:Albert MacCarthy and William Wasbrough Foster, famously telling his clients at the top "Gentlemen, that’s so far as I can take you.". There is evidence to suggest, however, that Kain didn't believe that his ascent of Mount Robson was the first ascent. The pre-Kain ascent remains a matter of debate between Kain/Mt. Robson scholars.
Conrad wrote an autobiography titled Where the Clouds Can Go where he describes his tough years while growing up in Austria as well as his 25 years working variously as a guide for The Alpine Club of Canada, a hunter outfitter, and an assistant to W.O Wheeler for the Geographic Survey of Canada.
Conrad Kain climbed Mount Louis for the last time on his 50th birthday. He fell ill in October of that year in Wilmer, British Columbia, and died six months later of encephalitis in a hospital in Cranbrook. The marker on his grave in Cranbrook reads "A guide of great spirit."
In 1934, J. Monroe Thorington named Mount Kain in Conrad's honor. The Alpine Club of Canada maintains an alpine hut (the Conrad Kain hut) in the Bugaboos where Kain also made a number of first ascents, including Bugaboo Spire, the most difficult alpine climb in Canada until the 1940s.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kain's arrival in Canada, the Conrad Kain Centennial Society was formed in the upper Columbia Valley in 2007 to celebrate his achievements and to develop legacy projects in his memory.
Famous quotes containing the word conrad:
“Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration, losing the exact notion of sincerity, and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his purposeas, in fact, not good enough for his insistent emotion. From laughter and tears the descent is easy to snivelling and giggles.”
—Joseph Conrad (18571924)