Diane Mitchell notices details in her environment others likely miss, such as the type of rock that makes up the waist-high slabs that surround the Squamish Adventure Centre.
“Basalt columns,” she explained, while hoisting her daughter Iona up onto a column one afternoon last week. “Formed from lava flows that cooled quickly, such as against a glacier.”
Mitchell is the author and main photographer of the recently published book In Love with Earth in Squamish and Whistler. The self-published book, which is dedicated to five-year-old Iona, is part love letter to nature in the corridor, part textbook and part guidebook.
“For me the goal is to help people understand [their surroundings] better so the next time they are out, it just opens it up a bit more,” said Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science in geology and petroleum geology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and is the curator at the Britannia Mine Museum.
The book is full of facts that many would be surprised to read – for example, that at 70 metres, Brandywine Falls is higher than Niagara Falls.
“It is so easy here to lose your sense of scale,” she said. “The trees are so big, everything is so big, and when you are standing up at Brandywine looking down, the trees are really tall, but they just don’t look it.”
Other interesting facts in the book include that there are local lizards in Squamish – Mitchell saw one herself at Shannon Falls – and while many refer to the Stawamus Chief as a granite monolith, that is only partially true, Mitchell said.
“When you get technical, it is a granodiorite, which is a similar rock, it is just a variation,” she said. “So, you get a family of rocks that are granitic, and granodirite is one of them.”
The book also offers suggestions of places to visit locally and how to get there. Corridor flora, fauna and wildlife are also chronicled.
A native of Scotland, Mitchell said she took a strong interest in mountains and nature when she was in her teens. “A couple of family holidays to Europe, to the Alps – I just loved it there. I have always loved the landscape and geology and nature,” she said.
A resident of Squamish for the past nine years, Mitchell said it is interesting how accessible wonders of nature are to residents’ doorsteps, yet many don’t know the details, such as that Mount Garibaldi is a volcano. “They go in and they soak up the forest and they soak up the ambiance and they soak up the atmosphere, and they don’t think of the science behind it,” she said. “Well, hey, not everyone is into science. Where I am coming from is to give the information and give that story because, for me, you can appreciate it a bit more if you understand a bit more.”
In Love with Earth in Squamish and Whistler can be found at the Squamish Public Library, the Squamish Adventure Centre, the Quest University Library, Britannia Mine Museum and some other local shops.
