El Capital Winter Ascent
March 18, 2023
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
On March 18th, I led 7 Island Mountain Ramblers on a club trip to El Capitan Mountain. The weather more than cooperated, giving us crisp cool air, blue skies and so much sun!
Continue reading “El Capital Winter Ascent”Mount Menzies Endless Plateau of Fun!
February 11th, 2023
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
We called this hike after the name of the feature and what we hoped we would find: an endless plateau of fun! Well, maps lie. I suppose it’s not that they lie as much as contour lines can hide a lot of terrain.
Continue reading “Mount Menzies Endless Plateau of Fun!”Mount Elma Snowshoe
December 11, 2022
~ submitted by Brian Fleming
Mount Elma – 12.8km, 367m elevation gain.
Total time 6h 45m.
I had thought we could get both Mount Elma and Mount Allan Brooks as one big loop but with all the fresh snow in the last few days, we would have to settle for Mount Elma.


Blackjack Ridge (Ridge Ramblers Challenge)
December 3, 2022
~ submitted by Brian Fleming
First winter hike of the year!
A group of seven Island Mountain Ramblers made our way up to one of the ridges in the Nanaimo First and Second Lake area.

Beaufort Range Snowshoe trip to Mount Irwin over Mount Hal
–text by Brian Fleming
–images by Brian, Jes Garceau and Matthew Lettington
What a day. This one kicked my butt a bit. I went on this trip with the Island Mountain Ramblers. A few of the people from my first club trip were here again, so it was nice to have some familiar faces.
Continue reading “Beaufort Range Snowshoe trip to Mount Irwin over Mount Hal”
Springtime in Tahsis: A snowshoe near Malaspina Peak
–submitted by Matthew Lettington; originally published on Explorington.com
Continue reading “Springtime in Tahsis: A snowshoe near Malaspina Peak”
Springer Peak
April 30, 2022
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington, photos by Jes Garceau
What a day in the mountains! The Prince of Wales range never ceases to offer top-notch hikes and scrambles!
This was my third trip to the summit. I hosted it because members tell us that they are interested in learning mountaineering skills. This peak offers some great opportunities to practice various skills while providing relative safety.
Continue reading “Springer Peak”Strata Mountain Snowshoe
February 26, 2022
~ submitted by Brian Flemming, photos by Brian Flemming and Matthew Lettington
I joined the Island Mountain Ramblers recently to branch out a bit, meet some new people, learn some new things and participate in some safe group activities and hopefully summit a few mountains I wouldn’t be able to do alone.
Today’s snowshoe was a good example of a hike that I wouldn’t have done alone because of the weather.
Continue reading “Strata Mountain Snowshoe”Mt Elma Snowshoe
–Submitted by Ken Warren
January 8, 2022
After a flurry of early morning communications and a change in leader, five of us headed for Mt Elma on snowshoes from Raven Lodge. Although the parking lot was full, the trails were quiet. Fortunately someone had the same destination in mind and kindly broke trail for us. Conditions were ok with the temperature around minus 4, light snow, and light wind. The snow is quite deep and loose so it took some effort to get up to the summit ridge. Visibility was almost nil, but the windrifted snow and the mantled trees made the trip worthwhile.