Passion
-Conservation
A Child of the Wind
Video Transcript
Background Description: At the top of the screen is the title, “A Child of the Wind”. A dark mountain peak juts out of drifting mist against a blue sky.
Narrator speaks: Within the realm of those who travel into untouched landscapes, there are those whose hearts remain.
Background Description: A rocky mountain rises above mist against a blue sky. The mountain is lined with a bit of snow.
Narrator speaks: Perhaps it is a primeval nerve that is fired to return again and again.
Background Description: A small pond in the mountains reflects the surrounding rock and evergreen trees. The pond also reflects a twinkling light of either the early morning or evening sun.
Narrator speaks: Like the Odyssey of Homer, the story is brought back to those who will listen and learn that there is much more to our world than cities can offer.
Background Description: A male hiker with white hair and beard shades his eyes from the sun.
Narrator speaks: John Clarke was a man of wonderful enthusiasm and zest.
Background Description: A black and white photograph shows three young men standing under the wing of a small airplane, John Clarke included.
Narrator speaks: He joined the BCMC at the tender age of 17 ...
Background Description: Colour footage shows a lively gray-haired woman being interviewed at her home.
Narrator speaks: ... and was heavily influenced by numerous afternoon teas with an aging Phyllis Munday.
Background Description: A black and white photograph shows two women and five men, beneath the wing of a small airplane. The man and woman at right are holding ski poles and skis.
Narrator speaks: His earliest extended trip into the mountains was on the first exploratory ski expedition organized by the BCMC, led by Esther Kafer.
Background Description: Esther, white-haired in a red cap and sweater, is speaking. A mountain range, silhouetted on a blue sky with grey clouds, forms the backdrop behind her.
Esther Kafer speaks: John Clarke! I have always been very, very fond of him. First time I met him was when he applied to come on an expeditionary ski trip with the BCMC. I knew he had never been in the mountains. He had no idea. He hadn't, he hadn't even skied yet! And yet, I liked his enthusiasm. And I felt he was going to do, to be, just fine.
Background Description: John puts on hiking boots. He heads to the top of a peak with a red backpack on his back and a walking stick in hand.
Esther Kafer speaks: And as it turned out, I think that it was the beginning of his climbing career.
Background Description: John is hiking through snow below a rough-edged mountain ridge that continues out of view.
Narrator speaks: John Clarke immersed himself in a lifestyle that many found to be odd, and even perhaps irresponsible. Unable to find partners for his long forays into the mountains, he decided that people, or the lack thereof, would not be responsible for holding him back from his passion for the mountains.
Background Description: A blurred view of swirling orange-tinted mist. A caption reads, Excerpt from John Clarke, Child of the Wind, 1995.
Clarke speaks: After about two weeks, ten days, something like that, something happens ...
Background Description: A wide, snowy glacier landscape dwarfs John, who can be seen hiking in the distance. Dark jagged peaks line the background, with faintly visible snow-capped mountains behind.
Clarke speaks: ... and you get into that phase where you do get a sense of the landscape in a primeval kind of a way.
Background Description: John is standing silhouetted against grey sky on one of many rugged peaks across the scene. We move back, away from the scene, revealing snow-covered glaciers and more mountains.
Clarke speaks: It's almost as if you've, you've unlearned everything that you knew about your city existence and you've sort of stepped into another reality. You're completely focused on the landscape ...
Background Description: John is moving towards us over snow and ice. We move gradually closer to him.
Clarke speaks: ... and you're just floating in that landscape in kind of a dream state, I guess, ...
Background Description: John, with sunglasses, raises his hand to shield his eyes from the bright sun.
Clarke speaks: ... and you get really hooked on that.
Background Description: We are following the hiker's view scanning over a vast endless mountain range.
Clarke speaks: It takes a long time out there to, to kind of get a sense of what it might have been like for early man or for aboriginal people to live out there under the stars the way we did.
Background Description: John hikes over snow, and we back away to see the mountain beside his path.
Narrator speaks: Accomplishing at least eight hundred first ascents of coast mountain peaks and bumps, John continued a spring and summer schedule of extended forays without serious mishap.
Background Description: John is in a blue coat and glasses looking out, with his hand shading his eyes.
Narrator speaks: Until one fateful day during a 1994 ski traverse, he witnessed one of his gentle companions swept to his death by a small avalanche.
Background Description: John is walking over snow by an icy blue lake in the foreground.
Narrator speaks: The untimely death of Randy Stoltman prompted a sea change in John.
Background Description: A colour photograph shows John, smiling, with a group of happy young adults on a rocky peak.
Narrator speaks: He put aside his eccentric travels for a mission bent on educating school children about the fragility of our beautiful earth.
Background Description: A mountain range with dramatic peaks and snow-covered ground gives way to a colour photograph of John with a group of a dozen youths.
Narrator speaks: Without delay, he gathered his traveling slide show, and with Lisa Bale founded the Wilderness Education Program now known as WildED. John Clarke's last years were cheerfully given to city youth in an attempt to give back some of the value he had gleaned from his rare mountain experiences.
From: Passion for Mountains, produced by the British Columbia Mountaineering Club, directed by Bill Noble, 2007.
