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

Chilliwack Valley Mountains in Winter

I lucked out with a gorgeous day for flying around the Chilliwack Valley. I grew up hiking and climbing in the Chilliwack Valley, but haven't been there for a while. Forgot how rugged the mountains are around there. Was neat to see some of the classics in full winter condition.

Mount Hozameen peaks. The main peak is pretty high on my 'to-do' list

Ross Lake and the North Cascades

Mount Redoubt

Mount Baker with Shuksan on the left

Mount Rexford

Mount Slesse

Canadian and American Border Peaks


Cheam Range

My nemesis-Welch Peak. I've tried to climb it 6 times with no luck.

Pipers Lagoon Scrambling

Piper's Lagoon is undoubtably one of the best assets of Nanaimo. With some time to spare on a beautifull sunny Sunday I decided to head to the Lagoon for a bit of "urban" scrambling. The outer rim of the lagoon is lined with bluffs which make for some great sea-side rockclimbing. There are even a few bolted routes and I've seen at least one group using the area as a top-rope practice spot.

Views out across the Salish Sea

Lighthouse outside of Departure Bay and Newcastle Island. If you look hard you can see Mt Baker

The "crux" section of the traverse. It was cold enough that this north-facing stuff had some icy bits on it.

Beautiful arete climb. I was about half-way up it when I noticed that is was actually a bolted climb. There is a pretty classic ridge traverse from here to the top of the main cliffs. Felt like being in the mountains!

Shack Island

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?