Winter on Eden

With an amazing New Year's forecast, I headed up to the north Island to meet Sandy Briggs for a jaunt up Mt. Eden. Despite being fairly close to Mt Cain, the area is not very frequently visited: we knew of one ascent in the late 1990's by Linsday Elms. So with the prospect of a 2nd ascent of the peak, and winter climb to boot, we figured it would be a good destination.

I met Sandy late on New Year's day, and we skied up several km's up logging roads to a camp near the end of the road system. The cold weather and valley cooling had produced massive hoar frost crystals 2+ inches big. It was interesting to ski on.

After a late evening soup, we packed it in for the evening. We were up early and going just before first light. We had a fairly vague route description (head up). From the end of the logging road we dove into the forest and hiked through steep old-growth and onto the north ridge of Eden.

Looking over to the backside of Mt Cain



From the top of a sub-bump, we dropped skis, and starting boot-packing down to a notch, and then up the ridge proper. From the base, it looked like the upper last section could prove challenging. Post-holing was hard work, and we swapped leading for a few hundred feet of kicking steps. At the top of the slope, we realized that there was a large notch which separated us from the main upper wall on the mountain. Unfortunately the notch was a little more technical than we were game for, so less than 200' from the top, we bailed.


The upper north ridge on Eden. We made it to the top of the bump just before the summit and the "notch" is not well visible


A quick boot-pack brought us back to the skis, then a brilliant ski down steep forest and back to camp nearing darkness. We decided to call it a trip, and had another quick soup while packing up camp, then skiing back to the cars in darkness. Great spot. Need to go back and find a better way to the top next time





Upper headwall to the summit of Mt Eden from the top of the notch

Florencia Bay

In need of some contemplative time, I took a day off to go listen to the waves crashing out at Florencia Bay. Pacific Rim National Park is a great place to visit in the winter. Other than the surfers, it is pretty quite, and I had the whole beach to myself. I had a great trip here several years ago in the autumn, and traversed all the way from Ucluelet to Tofino. This was a shorter jaunt. Great beach walk, and saw a bunch of wolf tacks in the sand

Mackenzie Peak

It's been a while since I have managed to get out into the hills. Luckily my day came, and the weather decided to co-orperate (and then some). Had an amazing day out in perfect fall conditions out to the west side of the Island to the Mackenzie Range. I have been up the trail here three times before, but still haven't had a chance to climb anything. The Mackenzie Range is made up of a number of spires, most involving some technical climbing. We decided on Mackenzie Peak, which is the easiest in the group. The climbing on Mackenzie is essentially hauling yourself up on trees and bushes. Classic west coast! Amazing views of the surrounding area, particularly out to Kennedy Lake and Pacific Rim National Park.

Looking up to Mackenzie Peak, with the route on the right from the notch.

Steamboat Mountain

Hidden Peak, Maitland Range
Bushwacking up through the cedars

Triple Peak with some of the tops of the Mackenzie Range spires visibel in the foreground (Flattop, Centaur)

Looking down onto Redwall Peak

Redwall Peak....next on the list?

ACC-North Face Leadership Training in the Selkirks

Trying to catch up on the blogosphere and haven't had a chance to post this yet.

Had a great trip this summer taking part in the North Face-Alpine Club of Canada Summer Leadership Training. This course is aimed at working on hard and soft leadership skills for trip leaders with the ACC. The local section on the Island sponsored me to go. Overall, a fantastic experience and I learned a tonne.


The course takes place as part of the ACC's General Mountaineering Camp. This year the camp was up at Battle Brook in the Purcells, just south of Glacier National Park. I had to suck up my morals a bit, and was flown in to camp by helicopter (the first time I haven't walked in to a mountain adventure!)


We alternated a bit between skills days, and then climbing days. The first day started with a bit of an overview on gear and technology (complete with a show-and-tell session about who's gear was out of date!)

While I've often mocked it in the past, we spent a fair bit of time learning how to short-rope (essentially where the leader ties in people into the rope below them and "drags" them up the mountain-don't fall!). I don't know if I am sold on this, but it seemed a useful thing to practice.

Worked on advanced anchor building, ice climbing, route planning, rock and crevasse rescue techniques, piton placements, and short-roping. I found the camp situation a little too formal and rigid for my taste, and the focus was far more on leader-client type scenarios, which also isn't so much my style of things. Despite that, it was a pretty awesome week in the mountains and met lots of great folks, and learned a lot.



Peaks to the south of the camp where we played around with crevasse rescue practice and ice climbing.



Dawson Range



Grand Mountain

Mount Wheeler

Mount Kilpatrick

Purity Mountain

Vestel Mountain (if you look close you can see a group climbing up the snow slope leading up the peak)

On top of Pristine Mountain


Purity Mountain

Victoria Peak

Victoria Peak has been on my list for a while. I had a spare day, so figure it would be a good place to go check out. Unfortunately attempts to find a partner were unsuccessful, so I found myself heading up after work on Friday by myself. The plan was to go fast and light, and pack only what was abolutely necessary. I had pretty good beta on the route, so figured I could manage with failry minimal gear, but I did bring along a 30m rope and home-made light sling harness for rapelling a crux step. I also brought along a +10deg overbag and small sil-tarp, and no stove.

The road in was in decent shape, and I could drive up to about 1000m elevation. I had to walk the last couple of kilometers of road, and then onto the trail. In less than half an hour I was up on the ridge and into the alpine, and then spent another hour or so ridge-running my way up towards the peak. I settled into camp and had a quick dinner, and enjoyed the amazing sunset.

Approach to Victoria Peak

Victoria Peak with route going right to left on the upper snowfield. My bivi site was on the ridge just above the lower snow.

What a camp spot!

Moon rise over the Elk River Valley

It was a cold, clear night (~3 degrees) and my F&L bag didn't quite cut it. I manage to sleep for about 3 hours. It was tough sleeping more than that, and I shivered for a few hours until the sun finally came up. An amazing sunrise and there was a whole ocean of low valley cloud which made for a surreal setting.

The climb went well. There are two options for getting over a step in a ledge accessing the upper snowfield. I took the first one of these, which might have been a little steeper, but was pretty ledgy and had positive holds (the other route looked less steep but more precarious, and had a bit of a hand-line on it). Overall a short (15m) stretch, 4th or easy 5th class. After getting over the crux it was an easy scramble up to the peak.

Warden Peak and a sea of clouds. The clouds make it easy to imagine what the area would have looked like during the last Ice Age.

A happy Woollen Knickers

Back down the route, and rappelled the step with my short rope. Back from a quick snack at camp and back down to the car before the heat of the day hit. What a great spot! Quick, easy access and beautiful spot.