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…
Downton Creek: Hot Weekend and Fires Close By
On the August long weekend (yes, three weeks ago!) we went to the Downton Creek area for three days. We were there at the end of August last year and got chased down by a freak snow storm and very low temperatures. This time it was sunny with blue skies until we got into the alpine and it started pouring with no warning. We thought – this place is cursed! We found a boulder to hide under for half an hour, during which it rained and even hailed for a bit. Finally the sun came back out and we hiked up to a small lake, right below Linus and Faulty…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Cycling & Cycle Touring, Hiking & Scrambling, Hot Springs, Rockies & Kootenays, Trip Reports
West Kootenays: Adventures in the Kootenays
About two weeks ago we returned from three weeks in the Kootenays. The days before we left were a flurry of activity – we subletted our apartment, so we had to tidy and clean up, dehydrate food for the trip, pack and tie up all sorts of loose ends (such as doing our taxes three months late…). Finally we managed to leave in the early afternoon, and drove east through the Okanagan. We stopped near Osoyoos to pick purple and sweet cherries, and bright red apricots. A wonderful rainbow greeted us next, followed by lots of rain into Grand Forks where we spent the night. The next two days were…
Tricouni: A Great Day Trip
Two weeks ago we had planned to go to Tricouni, but the drizzle and grey clouds on the way made us change destinations last minute, and we ended up on Mt. Gardner on Bowen Island – we figured it would be good to keep Tricouni for a nice day. Last Sunday we drove up to Squamish and on to the Squamish valley FSR, and then up High Falls Creek FSR, steep and loose in places, but still driveable with 2WD. The last part had shallow cross ditches and we scraped a few times until we were stopped by a particularly deep one. We hiked up the logging road to the…
Mt. Albert Edward: Thanksgiving in the Mountains
On the long Thanksgiving weekend we headed to Vancouver Island to visit our friends Jan and Warrick. We took the ferry on Friday evening which left with a healthy delay which kept our friends waiting at the terminal. They live just outside of Duncan, about an hour away from the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. The next day we took a short morning tour of their 20 acre property, which has mostly lush forest on it and is adjacent to the river. They just finished building a tiny and basic cabin right on the water which they plan on sleeping in sometimes. After some deliberation, we decided on a three day…
Place Glacier and Mt. Gardiner: Steep Trail and a Snowy Ridge
The hike up to Place Glacier was very steep with little respite for most of the 1340m elevation gain. There was a nice waterfall on the way up and some limited views backwards. Close to the end of the day we had to scramble up some slabs which would have be tricky and perhaps dangerous when wet. We set up camp near a lake, at the foot of the Place Glacier, with our objective for the next day, Mt. Gardiner looming above. There were also two glaciology huts nearby which we took a look at but they weren’t too interesting. We had an early dinner and watched the mountains in…
