Mountain School 2010

Time for the annual intro to mountaineering school with the Alpine Club. This year I decided to keep the course on the Island and explore some local hills. Ended up being a great spot. Was a little more physical of a trip than I was expecting, but I think everyone enjoyed it nonetheless.

We spent the first day getting to camp below Big Interior. The next day we practiced some ice axe and crevasse rescue skills, then worked our way up Big Interior Mountain, and down the backside (in a white-out). Third day up Nine Peaks, and back over Big Interior to a camp, and fourth day out. Great crew of folks.

In the cirque below Big Interior

Upper snowslopes on Big Interior, with Bedwell Lake and Tom Taylor

Final step on Big Interior

Descending Big Interior below the satellite peak - Marjorie's Load

Nine Peaks in cloud

Heading up Nine Peaks



Nine Peaks summit


Marjorie's Load

Descending the step on Big Interior

Nk'Mip, Skaha, Similkameen

Kessa is farming a piece of her dad's property this year, which means her and the kids have been heading up there a fair bit. I was able to sneak in a visit over Father's Day. My job is usually to look after the kids so Kessa can get the work done on the farm. And I get to take the kids on adventures! Fun gig.

I have been wanting to go to the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre for a bit now. The area is one of the few actual desert ecosystems in Canada. There is also a strong cultural connection to the land.




Prickly Pear Cactus in bloom


On our way home we went and checked out the recent landslide near Oliver.



Spotted Lake

We got out for a family climbing adventure out in Skaha


"The Raven and the Bear"

Nemiah cranking at Daycare



Planting corn. I still don't know what we are going to do with 2000 ears of corn.

Strawberries

Urban Farming

Most of the time our place seems like a run down shack, and our yard a bit of a garbage pile. At times though, it seems to have something of a rustic farmyard charm to it. All a matter of perspective.

The Saddle

With an evening free, I decided to head out for a quick hike up to the Saddle on Mt. Arrowsmith. Every time I come to Arrowsmith I am always surprised by how much I enjoy it. There was some pretty neat light with the sun shining through thunder clouds out in the Alberni Valley.

Looking up to the "Bumps" with the Saddle on left

The "Bumps"

Out to the Alberni Valley and Sproat Lake

The distant Mackenzie Range. Certainly one of the best kept secrets on the Island

Elkhorn Revisited

After a failed trip to Elkhorn last fall, I vowed to return with a partner and a rope. I have heard bad rumours of how loose the rock is in the west gully (a fellow on an ACC trip there last year took a pretty big block on his leg which sounded fairly serious). So we figured that it would be good to go early-season and do the climb as a snow route. My original plan was a fairly ambitious 4-day project heading over King's Peak to Elkhorn, then Elkhorn South, then heading over to do something on Colonel Foster. In the end, Tim joined me for a 3-day trip from Elkhorn back to Elkhorn South.


Elk River crossing

Rambler Peak

King's Peak

Elkhorn

Colonel Foster from camp


The West Gully on Elkhorn. Route heads up to the right of the big chockstone, and was where I got turned around last time

Working around the chockstone

Climbing in the upper gully. The weather socked in on us and it snowed. Not much visibility, but we made it up.

Heading back to camp. Afterwards we traversed around Elkhorn to the south, and set up camp below Elkhorn South (aka Colwell). Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate on the third day, so we decided to not try to climb Elkhorn South. So we headed back down to the Elk Vally, another crossing back to the Elk River Trail, and then the long hike out.

Elkhorn from our camp to the south

Crossing back over the Elk River