Red Pillar: Discovering the Mountains of Vancouver Island
I thought there were no glaciers on Vancouver Island. Perhaps our last trip on the Island, to Mt. Albert Edward, should be blamed: we arrived to the summit in thick fog, and could barely see each other, not to mention peaks and glaciers. Like many others, from then on I assumed Vancouver Island was mostly trees, with perhaps a few pieces of rock sticking out here and there above the treetops. This time the weather called for sun, and a close look at a map of Strathcona Provincial Park revealed many large glaciers close by. We packed our backpacks on Friday and took an evening ferry to Vancouver Island. We…
Webb and MacDonald: Two Mountains in One Gorgeous Weekend
Two weekends ago we drove out to Chilliwack Lake campground and starting hiking along the trail to Radium Lake. The trail follows Chilliwack River for about 2km, and then heads uphill along Radium Creek. There are annoying km signs on the trees which made the trail drag on. We had lunch somewhere in the trees and arrived to the nondescript Radium Lake, which seemed a bit swampy. There were two teenagers there, probably boy scouts, one of them wielding a long machete. We filled up about 3 liters each here, since we weren’t sure we’d be able to find water higher up. We continued uphill, finally breaking out of the…
Mt. Sloan: Another Stormy Labour Day Weekend
On the September long weekend we set out in the direction of Mt. Sloan, despite a weather forecast that caused the plans for the traditional VOC Mountaineering Camp to go to the wind. Faced with a forecast like that, after so much sun, perhaps we wouldn’t have gone hiking either, but we had made plans in advance to go hiking with our friends Jan and Warrick Whitehead and my brother Tal (visiting). We woke up early, and drove past Pemberton and onto the Hurley River FSR which was rockier than usual. We marvelled at Maya’s talent at sleeping on bumpy logging roads. At the turnoff to the Ault Creek FSR…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Garibaldi Neve Traverse: Just Jump! (A Summer Crossing)
Last weekend we went on a two day trip with the Varsity Outdoor Club, organized by Christian Veenstra, the head of the club. The plan was to cross the Garibaldi Glacier, making a horseshoe traverse around Mt. Garibaldi. This trip is usually done in winter, when the crevasses are covered by huge amounts of snow, making route finding much easier. In summer, finding a route through the maze of ice falls and gaping crevasses is not guaranteed. More about this below. We met up at the Diamond Head parking lot, waited for a few straddlers, and started hiking up the wide trail to Elfin Lakes. We stopped at Red Heather…
Coquihalla Mtn: and Jim Kelly Peak Too
Two weekends ago we drove up the Coquihalla highway, past the old toll booth (deactivated last year), and up a wide and good gravel road (Tulameen FSR). At the junction with Illal FSR I for some reason thought to try and drive the last 3km despite the cross ditches. After going about 300m and maybe 5 ditches we decided this wasn’t the best idea, but there was no room to turn around. I managed to drive in reverse a bit to a place where I could just barely turn the car around. On the way out we heard a loud psssstt sound and I thought we had a puncture, but…
