This page contains a comprehensive list of the peaks on Vancouver Island over 4000 feet. It was compiled in several stages. The first step was to determine the location of all officially recognized peaks. This can be found in the BC Geographic Names database. The BC Geographic Names Office is at the BC Heritage Branch. This was followed by adding those mountains generally accepted by members of the Vancouver Island climbing community. The main source of this information was from the book “Island Alpine” by Philip Stone http://www.wildisle.ca/, as well as looking at and talking to the creators of the historical mountaineering website http://www.beyondnootka.com/ (Lindsay Elms) and the online hiking website http://islandhikes.com/Hikes/ (Craig ‘Quagger’ Wagnell). Using Google Earth, this information was used to create a Google Earth file (KML) and spreadsheet with all the coordinates and elevations for these mountains.
The second stage was to map previously unnamed peaks. This was done on Google Earth by dividing the Island into quadrants and going through it peak by peak. The criteria used in the determination of what constitutes a peak were any high points of land over 4000 feet that are not immediately connected to a higher peak, thus making it a satellite. Although many satellite peaks are included in this list, they are generally those that are well known by the climbing community and have been listed under their main peak on the list, not as their own individual peak. Peaks added through this method were assigned names based on their elevations in meters and marked with an asterisk to denote it is an unofficial name (Example: Peak 1554*). As these peaks are climbed, or people note that they have climbed them, names will be assigned. In addition, several peaks lower than 4000 feet have been added to this list because they are regularly climbed or have had reports written about their ascents.
Peak locations have been verified and First Ascents and First Winter Ascents have been added (where known), with the considerable assistance of Lindsay Elms. Elms has meticulously delved into the island’s history by researching at the BC Archives in Victoria, old newspapers, the early Vancouver island section of the ACC documents and the old Timberline Tales of the Island Mountain Ramblers in Nanaimo. Over the last 28 years he has talked with many climbers and family members, both young and old, to get their stories and document their climbs.We understand that not all first recorded ascents may be totally accurate as sometimes people will climb a mountain and leave no information regarding their ascent. We have done our best to research each of the mountains and to the best of our knowledge the information we have is reliable. We will update the information list if new details come to light.
This is not a complete list of all the peaks on Vancouver Island. However, it goes a long way towards acknowledging the known peaks over 4000 feet.