Colonel Foster Traverse

When we were tossing out trip ideas for the weekend, I threw out the idea of Colonel Foster, and Dan seemed to gravitate to the idea of doing the summit traverse over the 5 main peaks of the mountain. The trips had always lingered in the back of my mind, but I have always been a bit intimidated about the committement involved, and the fact that it sounded harder than I could climb.

Dan was the perfect partner for the trip: he is a solid climber, and has a lot of rock experience, plus he was keen! My forte definitely isn't technical climbing, but I hoped that I could pull my weight in the "general mountaineering" aspects of the route. I think our strengths complemented each other pretty well.

Despite my attempts to provide full disclosure that I thought the route may be pretty full-on, Dan was undeterred, so we decided to give the route a go. The plan was to pack as light as possible and attempt the traverse from the south.

Day 1: We left Victoria early and drove up to the Elk River Trail. After a few hours of hiking, we made it to Landslide Lake, then picked up the trail up to Foster Lake. Near the lake we lost the trail and ended up doing some bushwacking to gain the moraine above the lake.

Above the lake we picked up the snow slope that leads up to the south col. As we entered near a pinch in the snow gully we could see that the snow had melted out in a few spot, which made the route through on the snow impassable. We hit the rocks, and scrambled our way up a wet section of slightly nasty terrain, until we hit a dead-end. The only viable option looked like going direct up a slimy waterfall on steep rock. Then Dan noticed a piton in the rock wall to our right, and it looked potentially climbable above it, so we decided to give that a go. Dan put the rock shoes on and climbed it without the pack, then I followed up behind with the packs. It felt pretty hard to me (~5.8) but Dan figured it was pretty casual (if this was "easy" I was begining to worry about how hard the route was going to be as there is supposed to be some 5.8 in it, jut not on the approach!)

Preparing to climb a steep section to gain the snow up to the south col, with Landslide Lake below.

After fooling around with the technical section we were able to get back onto the snow, and plod our way up nearly two thousand feet to the south col. We arrived at the col a little before 8pm, and set up our bivi and had dinner. The plan was to get up early the next day, and then traverse over the 5 main peaks, and descend to the north col and camp there.

We got up early the next day and were off early. Almost right away we were into the climbing, with a fairly straight forward snow gulley than worked its way up the South-East Peak. From the top of the snow, it was fun scrambling up to the peak, with some great views out to Rambler Peak and into Central and Southern Strathcona Park.

Climbing up the South-East Peak, with Rambler Peak in behind

Nearing the summit of the South-East Peak


Main Summit from the South-East Peak. It took around 10 hours to get there from the South-East Peak.

From the top of the South-East Peak the terrain gets technical, and we worked our way down steep terrain and roped through a narrow section of ridgeline. Some more roped climbing brought us up to the top of the South-West Peak.

We then dropped off the South-West Peak with some steep climbing down the ridge, then a few rappels down to the upper snowfield.

Negotiating terrain between the South-East and South-West Peaks

Terrain around the South-West Peak

From the snowfield, we booted our way over to terrain below the Main Summit. Some scambling brought us to the crux of the route. Dan graciously took the lead (5.8) up a steep finger crack and up into some steeper face climbing. I managed to grovel my way up in my boots, and was pretty happy I didn't have to do that lead!

Regaining the ridge below the Main Summit


Traversing the ridge towards the Main Summit


After some more technical climbing, we managed to get ourselves onto the Main Summit, a little after 6pm.

There was still a lot of terrain to cover to get to the north col (2 more peaks plus a lot of up and down) and I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic that we were going to make it all the way that day. In theory, we were now on the "standard" route up Colonel Foster, so reckoned that the route may get easier. That was probaby wishful thinking.

Demonstrating the "Under" summit technique. I think it still needs some work.

From the Main Summit we had a few rappels to get down to the notch between the Main and North-East Summit. We were anticipating fairly easy terrain, but it ended up being more technical ground. We pulled onto the summit of of the North-East Peak around 8:45pm, 14 hours after we had started. Not wanting to get caught in technical terrain between the peaks, we decided to call it a day, and set up a bivi on the NE Peak, and cooked up some dinner.

Rappelling off the Main Summit

Gaining the North-East Peak

Brockenspectre

Last stretch up to NE Peak

Victoria Peak in the distance

Elkhorn Mountain

Bivi on NE Peak

On Day 3 we still had to get off the NE Peak, then up the North-West Peak, and then down. Again we (foolishly) thought that since we were on the "standard" route that it would be straightforward. Wrong. The mountain has got some pretty crazy relief, and lots of big terrain. It was definitely intimidating.

We dropped off the NE Peak, and had worked our way through convoluted terrain with several rappels. From the notch below, we then worked our way up loose terrain to gain the North-West Peak.

Dropping off the NE Peak with the NW Peak on the left, and North Tower on the right
Route up North-West Peak

From the top of the North-West Peak,we had to work our way down to the notch between the peak and the North Tower. We started on established rappel anchors, but then lost those, and started following our own rappel line. The last rappel was just a few feet short of reaching the notch, and I ended up having to fashion an anchor and lower myself on my prussick for the last few feet.

Once again we (foolishly) thought we were home-free as we just needed to get down a snow gully (Evacuation Gully) to get to the north col. All was going well until we realized that the snow was not continuous in the gully, and there was a massive moat/bergshrund which blocked the way down the gully. To get around these was fairly tricky, and it took an hour or so of fooling around on the rocks to negotiate a couple of burly rappels to get back down to the gully below the moats.

Heading down Evacuation Gully

Looking up Evacuation Gully with bergshrunds

From the bottom of the gully we were able to boot ski down and then hike around to the shoulder of the North Tower. From there it was easy terrain down to the north col, and finally we were off the "technical" part of the route. It took about 10 hours or so to get to the North Col from the North-East Peak.

After a little bit of faffing around and bushwacking, we made our way back down to Foster Lake. Dan did the heroics and hiked back up the hill to grab our hiking poles that we stashed on the way in. After losing the trail back to Landslide Lake we finally got back on track and still had another 10 km to the car. The last half of the trail we used headlamps, and arrived at the car a little after 11pm. Knackered, we took 1 hour spells for the drive back to Victoria, and pulled into town at 4am.

Overall, an outstanding trip. A little more committing than either of us were expecting, and the route really made you work for everything. No freebies on this one. Great adventure.

Rambler Peak


Kings Peak (Left) and Elkhorn (Right)

Rainy-Day Urban Bike Adventure

With the combination of work in the morning, and bad weather forecast for the weekend, I thought sticking close to town would be a good way to spend the weekend. Over the past few weeks I have been messing around trying to fix a flat tire on my old road bike. Fixing a tire really shouldn't be that difficult, but for some reason (well really because the tire is so tight it is tricky to get on and off) it took me a several weeks, multiple attempts, 2 broken tire irons, 1 broken valve, and 2 tubes before I finally was able to fix and replace the tube. The next day the tire was flat again, and I was near giving up on the process. Well I guess I did give up. I found a great used Kona mountain bike with road slicks for sale at the consignment store across from my work for $50, and although it needed a bit of work, it looked like a great all-round bike, and a whole lot more functional than what I am riding,so I picked it up.

So armed with a new-to-me bike, an urban bike adventure seemed appropriate. The first stop was Recyclistas, a DIY bike repair place along the Galloping Goose where you can use their workshop and get bike maintainance advice from gurus. After some fooling around with a rusty spring on the front brake, I was able to get the front brakes functioning again (unfortunately I failed to tighten the nut on the back brakes enough when I adjusted them, so I gained front brakes, and lostmy back ones. A picture is starting to emerge here....I am not a very good bike mechanic!)

Recyclistas. Great place to fix a bike!
The new wheels

After the bike shop, I cruised over to the community garden to check on my plot. The raspberries are in full swing, and I managed to harvest a bunch of them, as well as some blueberries.

The community garden

Can you spot the corn in amongst the weeds?

The fruits of my labour

After the garden I headed down to Selkirk for "The Bike Ride"- a bike-accessed theatre performance festival which takes place along the Lochside Trail. I figured that this would be a fun event, and it lived up to expectations for me. The premise is that groups of about 10 or so cyclists tour around on their bikes to "venues" set up along the trail, and are then treated to short performances ranging from recitals, improv, poetry, and plays. Biking around was definitely a neat way to experience the performances. The shows were mixed. My personal favorites were the "Headless Cyclist of the Lochside Trail" rendition of Ichabod Crane and a dramatic performance of a poem about the fear of rope swings, complete with background accompanyment from a drum, ukulele, acordian, and haunting vocals. I was actually fearing for the actress as she perched in an arbutus tree and looked like she was going to jump onto this flimsy-looking rope-swing. Gripping.

Beat-box pop rendition on a cat-theme

"The Hub". Groups met here and then headed out for a 3-show "tour" of performances via bicycle. Once the tour was finished you could come back for another round. Overall there were 12 different performances over 4 tours.

Group cycling between shows

The Little Mermaid meets CSI. This was definitely an entertaining and amusing show.

Back to the Future-ish

I bumped into Dan and Laura on the last tour of the day. Dan was a favorite for the "let's pick someone out of the audience to participate". The first was for a slightly-awkward tailoring-erotic-fantasy, where unfortunately Dan was unable to satisfy. He made up for it with an arousing piggy-back ride in the next show.

Selkirk Trestle. Work is just on the other side, and this is my daily coffee break walk. Not bad or the city.

Swan Lake Christmas Lake from along the Lochside Trail. This is part of my morning bike commute. The trail is a great asset in the city.

Mountain Time

It has been a slow winter and spring for time in the mountains. New job, new city, and life has been pretty busy with the move and work. So I have been itching to get into the hills, and with a bit of spare time have managed a few missions over the past few weeks.

Episode 1: Curran-Squarehead-Joan Loop

I have been wanting to do a trip into the Beaufort Range for a while. It is one of the closer groups of mountains to Nanaimo, though many on the access routes in are challenged by private forest roads on heading from the east side of the Island. I attempted a ski trip in their earlier in the year, but got turned back by too much snow on the road. Spring seemed like a great time to venture into the area (when snow still covers things) and that was definitey the way to go. The Curran-Squarehead-Joan is a great loop which takes in 3 peaks, covers a nice variety of terrain without having to retrace steps, and is a pretty casual moderate day out.

View out to Denman Island

View over to Squarehead (left) in the clouds

Nice easy rambling on the terrain over to Squarehead

Looking into the Beaver Valley (Port Alberni)

Looking back from Mount Joan over the traverse to Squarehead (left) and Mount Curran (right)

Episode 2: Mount Holmes

Mount Holmes is a bit of a bump on the ridgeline between Mount Finlayson and Jocelyn Peak in Gowland-Todd Park just outside of Victoria. Not much to write home about but a great escape after work with fantastic views over Finlayson Arm.

Episode 3: Un-judges (Arrowsmith)

As usual, no spring/early summer would be complete without a foray to Mount Arrowsmith. I still haven't run out of route which I haven't climbed. This time went with a crew up the Un-judges route. Great terrain and scrambling, and overall a pleasant day out.

"The Grande Traverse"

Approaching the upper scrambling

Along the final ridge

Final ridge to summit

Episode 4: Sutton Reconnaissance

Sutton has been on my hit list or a while. I had seen some interesting reports from the area, and it sounded like there are some neat lake in below the peak. A little look at Google Earth showed a fairly direct line to the lakes from some recent-ish logging roads so I though I would scout it out. I was working on call, but managed a recci into the lake and it was indeed a nice of an approach as I had figured. About 50 minutes hike along a logging road, then 10 minutes of nice snow boot-packing. Unfotunately I didn't have time to climb the peak.

Logging road approach (to the valley on the left)

Sutton Peak


Haihte Range

I decided to camp for the night at Schoen Lake. It was a little busy with the "Lucky Lager" crowd, complete with shooting guns, blaring music, and wolf calls to about 5 in the morning. Other than that the lake is nice.


Episode 5: Sutton Peak-Bagging

After scouting out the route into Sutton, I developed a bit of an itch around finishing off what I had started. So a week after my "recci" I returned to climb the peak from the route I had scoped out. My time into the lake was a little slower the second trip, as I stumbled across a black bear on my way along the road. After about 10 minutes of negotiations it was decided that he would stick to the road, and I would take the "low road" and dropped down into a clear-cut to do an end-run around the bear. The plan seemed to suit both of us well, but it was a little intimidating scooting pas and knowing that his position did offer him the upper hand should things go sideways.

From the lake I picked up a great low-angle gully that headed up to a col below the peak. A cornice was still lingering at the top of the gully, and required a bit of negotiating to get around. Once at the col, the weather really crapped out, and the climb up to the summit became a climb-by-brail affair. A little bit of ice near the top forced me to put the crampons on, and I managed to feel my way up to a cairned summit (the true summit?). Unfortunately there was a couple of pieces of terrain to get around, so despite nearly 3000 feet of elevation drop, it wasn't one big boot-ski. After getting around the tricky bits, it was fast though, and while it took about 3.5 or 4 hours up from the lake, it only took 25 minutes down. Great route. Would be a good place to go back to when the weather is nice!

View of Sutton Peak from the lake, with the route up the gully below the summit heading right.

Still smiles at the lake



Other peaks to explore

Cornice was a bit of a nasty affair

Not smiling now. Pretty cold and wet for July