Charles Yonge atop Ha Ling Peak.Courtesy of the Yonge Family
Dr. Charles James Yonge, a legendary climber and caver who completed more than 40 major cave expeditions and mentored younger explorers, has died at the age of 74.
The son of a British Wing Commander and a father of triplets, he researched caves around the world and established climbing routes in Canada. He was recognized for his contribution to caving with a medal for exploration by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) in 2019.
On Jan. 20, Dr. Yonge, known as Chas by his Canadian family and friends, died of cancer in Canmore, Alta.
As recently as October, despite suffering from the disease, the outdoorsman who loathed being idle and always preferred to be outdoors, visited the White Cliffs of Dover “enjoying the experience as if there was nothing wrong,” said his brother, Mark Yonge, who lives in England.
“To me, this was his final epitaph.”
Charles James Yonge was born in Chesterfield, England, on Sept. 8, 1945, shortly after the Second World War ended. He was one of four children born to John and Enid Yonge. The family lived in a nearby village to escape bombing raids that had taken place in industrial areas. His father was a bomber pilot who later air-delivered food supplies to the starving population in Berlin and was a witness at the Nuremberg war crime trials.
The Yonge family later settled in South East England, where Chas went to Sutton Valence School. He later attended Surrey University near London and then onto Sheffield University, where he earned a Master’s degree in physics, with a focus on the radiometric dating of rocks that included moon rocks from the Apollo missions.
It was around this time that he discovered his passion for caving, otherwise known as “potholing” in the Pennines, a mountain range in Yorkshire.
Thinking back to his first caving experience, Dr. Yonge said: “I was a bit worried about how I’d cope with these tight spaces. But they say knowledge conquers fear. And fortune favours the brave,” on the website of Canmore Cave Tours, a business he ran for 25 years.
Brother Mark Yonge said he was nearly killed twice in caves.
“Once [was] when he and his friends were trapped in a cave which was almost completely flooded to the roof because of a freak thunderstorm,” he said.
“Friends, media, police and medical personnel stood around for 45 hours fearing the worst. When he finally emerged looking tired and irritable said, ‘I’ve got to go back tomorrow and get my kit.'"
His second scare came when he got stuck and was unable to reverse while exploring a narrow cave. His only option was to continue forward and, fortunately, found a small opening near an underground stream where he was able to turn around and return.
“He privately admitted to me that, yes, he was extremely scared on that occasion. But these episodes did not diminish his passion,” Mark Yonge said.
In 1977, while in his early 30s, he moved to Canada and attended McMaster University in Hamilton, where he graduated with a PhD in geochemistry and paleoclimatology. It was here that he met and married Pamela (née Burns) in 1981, and the following year the couple moved to Edmonton, where Dr. Yonge did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, and then moved in 1984 for another postdoctoral fellowship, this time at the University of Calgary. It was while in Calgary, in 1985, that he and a friend formed Canmore Caverns Ltd., which now goes by Canmore Cave Tours and offers tours and team building in Rat’s Nest Cave.
Dr. Yonge explored, mapped and helped preserve Rat’s Nest Cave near Canmore. He “steadfastly” refused to allow it to be commercialized with lights, ladders or walkways in order not to disturb the indigenous mammals living there, “thereby ensuring this gem was protected in perpetuity,” Mark Yonge said.
“By doing so, Chas ensured that the site remained natural even though the economics of increased accessibility would have been quite favourable,” the RCGS said.
As a result, the Alberta government designated it a provincial historic resource in 1987.
The couple’s triplets were born in 1990 and in 1993, the family of five moved to Canmore, Alta., to live in what Dr. Yonge called the “real mountains.”
Dr. Yonge was often found there clearing detritus for the benefit of other cavers and climbers. He built many sport climbs in the Canmore area that now appear in local guidebooks.
With young triplets in tow, the family moved to Indonesia, where Dr. Yonge worked as a project manager from 1995 until 1997, before returning to the Canadian Rockies.
“My life has been greatly enriched by knowing him and living with him and all this adventure,” Pamela Yonge said.
“When we got back, tourism had changed. That’s where he got the idea of these wild cave tours.”
On the heels of the then-budding adventure tourism industry, Dr. Yonge started taking people on wild cave tours at Rat’s Nest Cave in 1998. “The cave is renowned as one of the most highly decorated caves in the Rockies and the ‘bone bed’ [is] a treasure trove of paleontological specimens,” the RCGS said on its website.
Over the years, this natural explorer took part in research projects not only in Canada and the United States, but also in Cuba, Barbados, Belize, Mexico, Norway, Indonesia, Australia, China, Bhutan, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Spain, Turkey and Papua New Guinea. In these far-flung places he discovered, explored and mapped numerous significant caves with much of this work being published.
“We dropped supplies from a light aircraft and hiked in – it took three days to reach the gear and make a camp,” the Canmore Cave Tours website states, quoting Dr. Yonge as he recalled a six-month exploration in Papua New Guinea in 1975.
“We spent six months collecting samples, writing expedition reports and discovering exciting terrain. I was hooked.”
In 2019, he received the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration for his significant contributions in Canada and internationally as a climber, cave explorer, scientist, entrepreneur and author for more than 40 years.
“His achievements have added to our knowledge of the world and have influenced countless Canadians in adventure and scientific discovery,” the RCGS stated.
Dr. Yonge leaves his wife, Pamela; triplets, Emma, Carolyn and Alexander; his older sister, Charlotte Leadbeater, in Wales; younger sister, Jane Macmillan, in Canada; and brother, Mark Yonge, in England.
“We will miss him deeply,” Mark Yonge said.