Voices

For the Want of a Down Jacket

Martin and Esther Kafer

The Kafers packed two essential items when they came to Vancouver – energy and a thirst for adventure. In the 1960s, float planes and helicopters were making remote mountain areas newly accessible. Swiss-born, technically accomplished mountaineers, Martin and Esther loved this freedom to go bushwhack and explore. One expedition to the Mount Monarch area took them over rock and ice to sweet days of an unforgettable climb, returning ready for the next.