Jim has been an active alpinist for over 40 years. He has led multiple expeditions in North America, the Himalaya and the Andes. In 1986, he led the most successful Canadian expedition to Everest (Everest Light). He received a rare Award of Recognition from the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation recognizing his leadership of this historic expedition.

“No matter how far I have travelled, I have year after year been drawn back to one place: the Columbia Icefield. It is a touchstone in my life; a place in the world and in my heart to which I have been returning for 50 years! It is only now- after a lifetime in the mountains – that I have come to more fully realize the extent to which my experiences in this remarkable place have inspired not just direction, but purpose in my life. I encounter the mountain as both my mentor and my photographic subject.”

Jim’s interest in photography led him, in the early 80s to enroll in the four-year Photo Arts program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). As a documentary photographer, Jim was one of the first western photographers into China to document the lives of ordinary people. In the Icefield, each engagement is an effort to make the invisible visible: “I work to photograph mountain landscapes in an authentic intimate way so viewers are catalyzed to act, moving in their own way toward fuller engagement with the natural world.“