Jenkins has continued to climb every week - with the Outdoors Club, which she helped to start in the '70's, when in Vernon, and with the Kootenay Mountaineering Club during the years when she lived at Christina Lake. If the group has stopped at a certain point on a climb saying, "we can't go any further," she has sometimes returned to do it alone. This was the case with Mt. Temple in Banff. "No-one had wanted to go to the top before so in the end I had to do it by myself," she said. To get to the top of Mt. Begbie she put an ad in the local paper to find someone else wanting to climb it. Other conquests in the Pacific Northwest include Mt. Baker, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Bolan, The Lions (seen from Vancouver), Mt. Fisher near Cranbrook and Mt. Loki north of Nelson.

In the Purcells she was helicoptered in for a week of hiking around the meadows once. In the Bugaboos she climbed Pidgeon Spire with no gloves and was forced to stop because there were shards in the rock and blood was running down her arms.

Many of these climbs and others abroad were shared with her husband Dennis before his climbing days ended with a heart attack at Bird Lake near Jasper in 1997. "It happens to some runners," she said. "He couldn't climb anymore." Prior to that the two had a friendly competition over the height of their climbs. Her record had been 19,500 feet at El Misti in Peru and he wanted to beat that at Chukkung Rei during a trip to Nepal. "The rest of the party turned back because of altitude sickness at 19,000 feet," she said. "You become slow. Everything you do is extra effort. You brace yourself and do it because it's there. And to get photographs." On that trip she had a picture taken with Edmund Hillary at Namche Bazaar. She was impressed by the prayer flags at the top of the mountains and the rhododendrons in bloom in April.

In 1998 Jenkins had an accident herself, falling 50 feet over a cliff in the Purcells. "I was exploring a ridge I thought I could get to. You always have three secure holds. You don't move a hand or a foot until the others are secure. But a foothold and the handholds let go and I wasn't on a rope," she said. After nearly dying, it took a year to recover, but she did.

Jenkins returned to climbing, but made a rule for herself to stay on the trail or where someone else has been. "I'm a little more careful now," she said. Her most recent local expeditions as of April were a trip to see Glacier Lilies in the mountains of Niskonlith Reserve near Chase and a weekend to Vaseaux Lake in the South Okanagan. The group didn't climb Mt. Keogan this time, but walked around White Lake and visited Mahony Lake, Spotted Lake and Blue Lake. "We saw lots of Phlox, Oregon Grape in bloom and Mountain Bluebirds. I was distressed to see how all the orchards have been replaced by vineyards there," she said.

In the winter she toured New Zealand and Australia, staying at bed and breakfasts, which was luxurious compared to her usual backpacking and camping. In three busy weeks she fit in caves with glow worms, a flight around Mt. Cook, museums and botanical gardens at Christchurch, snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, a crocodile meat and kangaroo dinner at Ayers Rock, a camel ride and, of course, many hikes.

Returning home to BC was a pleasure for Jenkins, who loves her province. At home she paints some of the mountains she has seen, writes about the hikes and shares her photographs. She also enjoys reading, tennis and swimming in the lakes. Future destinations in the province include Mt. Garibaldi in Squamish and Mt. Elizabeth near Kitimat. As for distant destinations, she said, "I have no more trips planned at the moment, but lots of brochures. I never know what I'll do next. I had to get to Australia because I didn't know about it. I'd like to go to Chile. There's some mountains there I'd like to see."

June 07, Lynn Dewing