Category: Activity

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Tzouhalem — Another Day of the Weathers

November 1, 2025

~ submitted by Matthew Lettington

While we didn’t have all the weather, we definitely experienced multiple seasons. We went up in the fall and came down in the spring!

Driving to the trailhead, I could barely get my vehicle up to the speed limit — it was hydroplaning so badly. Fortunately, by the time we regrouped at the trailhead, the deluge had settled into a steady drizzle.

The three of us took our time gaining the ridge, pausing often to enjoy the misty views and admire the towering trees.

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Argus Mountain, Mount Harmston, and the Red Pillar

–sbumitted by Jain Alcock-White

A fire on the Malahat on Friday evening delayed our South Island participant’s arrival in Nanaimo, where we had planned to transfer gear and the canoe from my vehicle to his. This also meant we picked up our third participant slightly later than hoped on Saturday morning. Fortunately, the drive from Nanaimo to Port Alberni went smoothly. We picked up the Mosaic gate key without issue and made it to the beach at Oshinow Lake in good time – though it did take all three of us to figure out how to get the key to open the gate.

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Forbidden Plateau Exploration

August 16 – 19, 2025

~ submitted by Wendy L & Julianna W

Plan A was Augerpoint Traverse over 4 days, but when the forecast changed to rain and at least one -2C night, 3 of our 6 dropped out.  Our original plan was no longer viable, as the shuttle cost would be too high for 3 people. Julianna reached out to see if anyone still wanted to go into Strathcona for a few days so 3 of us headed in.  Plan B morphed slightly into Plan C to avoid potential heavier rain on the last day.

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Stowe Mountain, Mount H’kusam, Springer Peak Trifecta

July 18, 2025

~ submitted by Sarah Duncan

This trip was out plan B trip as our original trip to  Flower and Shepherds ridge was cancelled due to weather. 

Two of the four of us decided to check out these three mountains instead. 

We met in Nanaimo and drove up to Sayward Friday morning. I had been up Stowe last year but wasn’t able to summit due to weather so was excited to go back and to tap on Springer and Hkusam as well. 

We started up the logging road from the Hwy just south of Sayward gas station (which has great ice cream by the way) and started the ascent. I knew there was logging that was coming in the area and was hoping that it had not started yet… to our surprise, no logging (I heard that who ever is working in there is on strike right now) but the road which had previously ended 8.4 ish Km up from the hwy leaving just under 3KM to walk on an old grown in road before entering into the Beautiful Stowe valley now is punched through right to (and past) the trailhead buffing off almost an hour of walking. 

We were on the col between Stowe and Hkusam in no time, having also discovered the trail split off towards Hkusam for the next day (or so we thought was going to be our way up). 

We summited Stowe with a wee scramble to amazing views up there of the water and islands between van isl and mainland… 

Then back down to the col and the short (112M) decent to the lake where we set camp and had dinner and a swim before heading up the easy and fun scramble to Springer Peak. Also providing beautiful views of Victoria and Warden peak (and surrounding peaks) as well as open views of Sayward village, the dynamic water ways, islands and mainland. 

After spending some time up there admiring and chatting about other climbs we would like to do, we headed back down to one of the quietest sleeping spots I have ever experienced.  I have named the lake spot Silent Lake due to the lack of sound there. It was amazing. One lone thrush in the morning, that was it. 

We packed up and left Silent lake around 830 to ascend back to the col. The previous day we had decided to head up Hkusam Via Lyles trail instead of the bowl which we had originally planned (smart as the snow gully would not have been possible to go up due to the snow conditions)

This is a wonderful way to the top with some great scrambling, a wee bit of slight exposure spots where you wouldn’t want to slip and stunning views of the island mountain ranges. 

We summited and read through the summit book (neither Stowe nor Springer had summit books that we could find). It was fun to see so many familiar names. 

We descended the same way returning to the col where we had left our overnight stuff in about 4 hours and we rambled back down the Stowe Creek trail and drove out. Had a great cool down dip in the Salmon River, grabbed a very generous ice cream at the gas station and headed back down island. 

You could summit these three beauties in a day but it sure was nice to stay up there and take our time. 

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Klitsa Mountain

July 13, 2025

~ submitted by Evan Martin

My wife and son left Saturday to visit their family, so I was looking to get out of the house for the weekend.  With so many mountains on the island, I sometimes run into decision paralysis in trying to decide where to go. This is when I often turn to lists like the Lifetime Climbing Objectives for inspiration. Although most of these objectives are larger objectives that take a bit of planning, Klitsa Mountain seemed like a bit of an outlier and a low hanging fruit.  Noting that there were no other day hikes happening, I made a last minute decision to add it to the schedule.

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Nine Peaks

June 21, 2025

~ submitted by Matthew Lettington

The Trip: Nine Peaks

I’ve been to Nine Peaks before. It’s a relatively straightforward third-class scramble — if you’re on route and the environment cooperates. But when I picked this location months ago, I had no idea what conditions we’d face. I chose the longest day of the year and planned a four-day itinerary to give everyone a fair shot at summiting. In the days leading up to departure, I nervously checked four different forecast models twice a day, trying to build a reliable picture of what we’d face. Even as we departed, I was still holding my breath.

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Mount Joan, Squarehead Mountain, Mount Curran Loop

June 29, 2025

~ submitted by Evan Martin

I was a little disappointed when I failed to bag Mount Joan this winter.  My first attempt was in March this year.  We turned around after 5 hours prior to making the ridge.  I was expecting this to be a big day, and was waiting for an opportunity to give it another attempt.  So when a free weekend came up early this summer, it became an obvious objective.  

I posted the trip with little expectations.  Although not officially a long weekend, I figured many people would be taking the Monday off and taking summer trips.  However, I ended up with two Ramblers joining me.  

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