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The Adventure Zone

Past stories The Calgary Stampede Moraine for Life Adventure Relay Monarch Redux Rockies Bird Festival Arctic Winter Games Bolivia's Acotango Mount Kilimanjaro The Drambuie Pursuit Canadian Aboriginal Festival Mountain Mania Adventure racing Manitoulin Island Star Party Celebration of Light Algonquin Park Ottawa Race Weekend Maple syrup festival Cain's Quest Have Snowshoes, Will Travel Quebec Ice Hotel In the Eye of the Storm Arctic Aurora Borealis Canada's 'Deep South' Agawa Canyon Ablaze Mahone Bay Boat Festival Vancouver Island's rocky trail Wild Women Expeditions Eco-Endurance Summiting Canada Gourmet getaway Yukon Arctic Ultra Canadian Wind Riders Winnipeg's urban pathways Canoeist/artist Bill Mason Take a hike Whitewater kayaking The 2005 Sea Cavalcade Moonstruck - Adventure racers Delta Marsh Birding Festival Climb for conservation The Eagle has Landed Gold Rush Trail Whistler Film Festival Fit to ski Whyte Museum of the Rockies Cheakamus Challenge "Super Dave" Norona Ontario's French River region Cabot Trail Relay Race Point Pelee Festival of Birds Canmore Ice Climbing Festival Winterlude Yeti Mountain Snowshoe Series Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club Banff Mountain Book Festival Haliburton Highlands Sand Sculpture Championships BC Mobility Society Bathtub Race Championship Bike Month Running off the road Birds of a Feather Grand Plans in Grand Cache Le Festival du Voyageur Raid Ukatak Around the World Alone November culinary adventure Mountains in Miniature In the Belly of the Dragon Raid the North Extreme!! Making a splash! Volunteer for nature Cycling for sustainability Working for Wildlife Whale of a time Canadian Death Race Mont Tremblant Skiing Nanook of the North Eco-challenge Climate Change Caravan Royal Regatta Unleash the hounds World Cup mountain bike race Yukon River Quest On top of the world Canada's World-Class Heritage Gliding across the silver screen Marathon Madness National Ski and Snowboard Week Christmas Bird Count Banff Festival Adventure racing Coast-to-coast trek Whitewater rodeos In praise of parks Watching Canada's wildlife Canada's Highest Peak Alaska Adventure Racer

Photo courtesy Pat and Baiba Morrow

Photo courtesy Pat Bates

At 11:30 on the morning of October 7, 1982, Pat Morrow linked arms with Sherpas Lhakpa Tshering and Pema Dorje and stepped onto the summit of Mount Everest. “The hammering in my head stopped and was replaced by an overwhelming sense of well-being, far greater than any previous summit jubilation I had experienced,” he recalls. Exhausted but euphoric, Morrow looked around at the pristine snow and did what came naturally: he raised his camera and started taking photographs.

For most of his adult life, Pat, now 55, has been on the business end of a camera, gaining recognition first as a still photographer and, for the past dozen years, as a videographer. It’s a vocation that as taken Pat and his life partner photojournalist Baiba, all over the planet, from the steamy jungles of New Guinea and the landlocked Kingdom of Bhutan to the fiery volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia, and the icy Andean peaks. If travel and the challenge of committing it to film are involved, the Morrows are ready to go. When mountains are the subject, so much the better.

For the dynamic Morrows, there is no greater crime against nature than to ignore it. As a youth growing up in B.C.’s East Kootenay region, Pat spent his days clambering through the Purcell Mountains. By the time he was a teenager, he was hooked on climbing — and photography — and when he left home to attend school in Calgary in 1970, he eagerly joined the storied Calgary Mountain Club. At 31, he was grabbing headlines as the second Canadian to summit Mount Everest, while also earning a reputation as an accomplished adventure and landscape photographer. In 1986, Pat’s achievements were recognized around the world when he became the first climber in history to summit the seven highest mountains on Earth. What followed was his best-selling book, Beyond Everest: Quest for the Seven Summits (Camden House, 1986), a visual feast of his historic climbing odyssey. Pat was recognized with the Order of Canada, and his skills as a photojournalist were widely in demand.

Pat’s partner through much of his mountaineering grand slam was Baiba Auders, an outdoors-loving Montréaler whom he met when she relocated to the West in 1979 after graduating from university. Trained as an occupational therapist, Baiba was quickly drawn to the unpredictable lifestyle of the adventurer. She became an accomplished climber and, picking up both camera and pen, started to develop her own skills as a photojournalist. Pat’s earlier pledge to live by the camera between climbs quickly became their shared blueprint for a career.

Photos courtesy Pat and Baiba Morrow

“It was a timely transition to film,” says Baiba, noting that royalty-free digital images have eroded the living of many photographers. “Shooting video lets you tune into other dimensions, like sound, which is a huge part of the joy and challenge of depicting an experience.” Filmmaking has fuelled the Morrows ongoing tour of the world, with assignments in Afghanistan, Baltistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Australia and Argentina, as well as backyard gigs in Alberta and B.C. Their 2005 award-winning documentary, The Magic Mountain, tells the story of Cynthia Hunt, an unconventional educator who has spent more than 15 years working to empower women in the remote mountain community of Ladakh, India. The film, which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2005 Banff Mountain Film Festival, speaks directly to the Morrows’ passion for “any place Himalayan” and their deep respect for indigenous cultures.

After living in Canmore, Alberta, for 20 years, the Morrows have recently relocated to Wilmer, B.C., a quiet little hamlet just up the road from Pat’s childhood stomping grounds. Their home overlooks the Columbia River Wetlands, and overhead is the Pacific Avian Flyway. It’s a regrouping moment: there’s no question they’ve left behind much-loved friends and favourite haunts. But on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Pat’s Everest summit, the soaring heights of the Purcell and Rocky Mountains are a reassuring constant in their own backyard. “We couldn’t live anywhere else but in the mountains,” says Baiba. “They form our spiritual core.”

For more information, please visit www.patmorrow.com/index.html