Tag: Strathcona Provincial Park

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Septimus

–A personal trip report submitted by Evan Martin

Ever since my failed attempt up Mount Septimus’ X-Gully last year I’ve been eyeing the Route 2 Variation. We were so close to the summit last year. All the technical parts of the route were complete – the gully proper, the glacier crossing, and the steep snow off the glacier. Hence, I still wanted to bag the summit, but wanted to do it via a fresh route. The standard “easy” rock route is 2V, which is rated 5.6, but requires multiple pitches and Phil Stone’s description in Island Alpine Climbing is “easy climbing but poor protection”. I was intimidated by the route, so wanted a solid partner. When Trevor, my climbing mentor from Newfoundland, asked me if he could come out in early May to do some climbing, I quickly narrowed in on 2V as our objective.

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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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Mt Allan Brooks and Mt Elma

–submitted by Pete Hrkac

We started from Raven Lodge at 8:15am. The weather was perfect: clear, sunny and no wind. Our route took us up the North side of Allan Brooks, then down to the col between AB and Elma, up Elma’s west face, then down the NE side and back via Battleship Lake. No snowshoes were needed, given the icy, firm crust. The group used a mix of microspikes and crampons, and the ice axes stayed attached to our packs. Conditions were made for efficient moving, and our total moving time was just shy of 6.5 hours. Overall, a beautiful day with unusually great conditions given the time of year.

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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.

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A Bounty of Colours on the Forbidden Plateau Traverse

–submitted by John Young; originally published on his blog

This is probably my favourite fall hike and this year didn’t disappoint! With light rain misting the foliage, the colours popped. So vibrant! And it sure made the kilometers (all 27.3 of them) melt away, and even after 9 hours the colours of Paradise Meadows slowed my mind when I looked at them.

I was glad, too, that we had two groups, with Bil’s group starting from Raven Lodge and our group starting at the old Forbidden ski area, thus eliminating the dreadful shuttle.

After about an hour, we were through the old ski resort and entered Strathcona Park

Untitled photo
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Volcano Peak – Unfinished Business

–submitted by Matthew Lettington; originally published on explorington.com

And so it was that on July 4, three adventuresome souls faced stifling heat and humidity, flies and bush, all in the name of tending to unfinished business: A successful summit of Volcano Peak.

A few patches of shrubs to wade through

Back before the year that never was, before anyone had heard the word COVID-19, Matthew, Phil and Karl completed a traverse of Wolf and Puzzle Mountains. On that trip, they wisely left Volcano for another day due to impending inclement weather. (Read More Here ). Since that day in June 2019, the three mused about what it would take to return and tackle the the one we left unsummited.

Approach to the summit massif

Distance: 23.5 km
Starting Elevation: 262 m
Maximum Elevation:  1672 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1700 m
Total Time: 12 h

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Magical Mushrooms!

An Island Mountain Ramblers hike from Mt. Washington to Wood MountainSept. 26, 2020In order to avoid the dreaded car shuttle that involves an extra 2 hours of driving, we swapped vehicles at the meet-up point on Piercy Road. My group of four then drove up to Mt. Washington’s Raven Lodge, and the other three drove to the old Forbidden Plateau Ski Area. When we finished the hike, our vehicles were waiting for us. 

Our Route – 26.5 km

Although the previous days had been rainy, the sun beckoned us forward through Paradise Meadows

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