Vivien Lougheed started her life of exploration around the outskirts of Winnipeg when, in 1952, she got her first bicycle. She expanded these adventures in 1960 when she left her bookkeeping job at A.B. Dick and jumped on a Greyhound heading to Jasper, where she became totally enamoured with the mountains. She moved to Prince George and met her husband John who encouraged her to follow her passion and explore both the mountains and the world and then to write about it all. She’s trekked many times in each of the Rockies, Andes, Himalayas, Alps, Pyrenees, and Coast Mountains, and once in the Simiens in Ethiopia. In the course of these treks she discovered the St. Elias mountains of Kluane Park, about which she wrote a hiking guide that expanded through four editions. She also wrote From the Chilcotin to the Chilkoot (2005), a guide to short hikes in Northern BC aimed mostly at tourists wanting to discover more of the remoter areas from their cars. Her international hiking first took her to China in 1983, the first year the Chinese allowed independent travel, and in subsequent years to Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Tibet and Latin America, which resulted in her first guidebook, Central America by Chickenbus. It appeared in 1986, and was reprinted and expanded into three editions between 1988 and 2003. With the encouragement and editorial assistance of Doug Marten, the editor of the Prince George Citizen’s Plus Magazine, she wrote a weekly column from 1991 – 1996 after which she contributed to the Prince George Free Press for three years. This led to her becoming the Latin Correspondent for the American firm, Hunter Publishing for which she wrote fat, comprehensive guides to Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico’s Pacific West Coast, and the Yucatan. All of these tomes were divided into specialized, regional guides and reprinted. Vivien writes at her home in Prince George, in between trips and treks.
The grande dame of English language travel writers heads out of bounds on almost every trip shes ever taken the world over, and in Nahanni Then And Now she takes the reader well past the mechanics of hiking through one of the worlds great far-north landscapes. -- Frank Peebles, Writer-Performer-Critic She had walked the Great Wall of China and the Inca trail in Peru, and had climbed to lofty mountain villages in Tibet. In a column she wrote weekly for the Prince George Citizen, Vivien extolled the virtues of strapping on a pair of boots and taking to the great outdoors. -- Wayne Rostad, From 'On the Road Again' TV Series Vivien Lougheed knows the North from first-hand experience scrambling over alpine passes, crossing raging mountain streams and venturing far beyond the beaten trail. Her lively descriptions and personal accounts of these incredible adventures brings out the spirit of exploring the unknown. Indeed Vivs personality is a perfect match to her writings, a walk on the wild side of life! Her latest book, Nahanni, Then and Now sheds light on the fascinating history of this renowned land of legends. A great insight into Canadas Northwest! -- Brent Liddle, Guide & Park Interpreter, Kluane National Park & Reserve