Jasper National Park lost one of its pioneers last month.
Toni Klettl, born Anton Klettl July 3, 1927, was a long-time Jasperite and park warden, who passed away July 12, after suffering with Parkinson’s disease for a number of years.
Toni, who was one the last wardens to raise his family deep in JNP’s backcountry, leaves behind a lasting mark on the park and the town.
His wildlife carvings can still be found in numerous homes, offices and businesses. The Upper Path of the Glacier trail that he paved against the wishes of the powers that be still stands strong today and is getting extra use this year, as the lower path was washed out by the fall of Ghost Glacier last summer. The campgrounds and registration kiosk system he proposed for the Tonquin Valley are still in use. And the avalanche control and public safety programs he helped create in the 50s and 60s are the basis of the programs in place today.
“He and the other guys from that era, they set the platforms for all the things that happen now,” said Toni’s daughter, Loni Klettl. “Dad was a pioneer, because he was a climber and a skier and at the time there were no rescuers, they didn’t even know how to rescue people off mountains. So they had to figure it out. They had to teach the cowboys how to mountain climb.”
So the wardens of the day created belay systems, slings, and ways of pulling people up mountain faces on stretchers and they also designed ways of triggering avalanches with explosives, to ensure the Icefields Parkway and Marmot Basin were safe for travellers and skiers.
Toni was born in Austria, so alpine travel was a passion well before he arrived in Canada.
He immigrated in 1952 after fighting in the Second World War, as a part of the sixth mountain division, a commando-style unit involved in battles on the eastern front.
Toni never spoke of the war, except to his wife, who compiled a history and family tree for the Klettl family.
“She documented all of that and then got all of the war stories out of Dad, which was extremely difficult for him,” said Loni. “He saw many horrors. We don’t know how he became a forgiving man, a compassionate man, a kind man after his upbringing.
“But Canada and his home here, it gave him an opportunity to have a whole other life and he thrived.”
“He came to Jasper, he found home and he fell in love,” said Mike Eder, a visitor safety specialist with Jasper National Park and a long-time friend of Toni’s.
Toni met his wife, Shirley Doige, shortly after moving to his new Rocky Mountain home. The couple married in 1954 and had four children together: Howie, Linda, Robbie and Loni. Shirley, who was the love of Toni’s life, passed away in 2000, while the couple was living in Valemount, where they retired in 1985.
“He was a devoted husband to Shirley,” said Eder. “They had a relationship that was very admirable.”
Toni and Shirley raised their family in warden cabins in JNP’s backcountry. Toni wasn’t home much. He would spend all but a few days a month travelling through his district with his beloved horse King. He repaired telephone lines, brought in packhorses with supplies and tools to mend trails, checked fishing licenses and helped lost hikers find their way.
“Toni was an all around warden. He liked the climbing aspect, but he also liked the backcountry, horse work and he was quite interested in wildlife,” said Gord Anderson, a retired warden who worked with Toni and became good friends with him after retirement.
The best days of the month for the Klettl family were the ones when Toni was home, said Loni.
“Mom would always make fresh bread, fresh beautiful homemade bread, and we had all of our special food and it was just ... Dad was home.
“For me it was the smell of him. I still smell
that smell. It’s horse, it’s juniper, it’s spruce, it’s trail travel. It’s the smell of a working man that’s been out for a long time. When he would come in, he would just bring this smell, it was so encompassing. I loved it because that meant that Dad was safe, he was home and he brought all of his adventures with him, with that smell.”
And the adventures were plenty. He always had stories of wildlife, of storms rolling in over the mountains, of rescues, of avalanches and of hikers getting in over their heads.
“He was always relaying some sort of trail tale. Something always happened out there,” said Loni.
As well as working in the park, Toni took his artistic inspiration from it. While living in Blue Creek Station, about 80 kms from Jasper on the north boundary trail, he began whittling pieces of spruce into wildlife figurines.
“That was a big part of his life, the carving,” said Anderson. “That probably brought him more fame than being a warden.”
Many of his carvings were commissioned for retirement gifts for Parks Canada employees and RCMP officers in Jasper. Some were even sent to Hakone, Japan—Jasper’s sister city. In the early years, the sale of each carving brought in a bit of extra income for his family, allowing his kids the opportunity to participate in skiing.
“His wage was really poor—wages were poor in those days—so if we needed another pair of skis, he would sit down and whittle another pair,” recalled Loni, who went on to compete in the 1980 Winter Olympics. “That’s what got us through skiing. He’d carve and that would be money for skis.”
Despite the poor wages and minimal days off, Toni loved his life as a backcountry warden. He even said his 30 years with Parks Canada were the best of his life.
“Dad and the people who were wardens in the 50s, they caught it at such an incredible time,” said Loni. “The 50s, 60s and 70s were the best decades to be a warden. There was opportunity. There was innocence. Use was just starting to happen. And that uniform and that badge and that Stetson, when you put that on, you were a part of a force and a family”—a force and family that Toni loved immensely.
“He was proud of being who and what he was—a warden,” said Eder. “He loved what he did very dearly and he loved this park.”
A celebration of Toni’s life will be held in October.
Nicole Veerman
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