Living the best adventure life, since 1958
January 1, 2025
~ submitted by Su Castle
New Years Day 2025 promised a little rain and cloud. Our hike was planned for 8 am; it was no surprise we lost most “will attend” members when January 1st arrived.
We started off at a good clip up the Peden Lake trail up from parking lot #2 at Sooke Potholes. Misty and chilly, we were soon warmed by our efforts.
Continue reading “Sooke Hills – Emperor Loop”
December 15, 2024
~ submitted by Mary Hof
The weather was perfect on this December day. I decided to lead the New Pink Trail on Maple mountain having just done is few days before. This hike does take you through a high cliff area, with a couple of tricky parts.
We started on this route all going well until one person just did not feel she could do it. It was decided we would all head down and bush walk to find the other pink. Finding it was no problem, we then continued our route to the top and down to Darell Bench and ridge and headed to a couple cars we had place on Arbutus Drive.
A fun day and enjoyed by all.
November 11, 2024
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
The weather must’ve scared a couple of other people away, but I had a great time with Roland on the cliffs.
While it was a little bit breezy, the rain didn’t show up until our last rappels.
November 3, 2024
~ submitted by Mary Hof
It was a beautiful November day to hike to the summit of Mt. Prevost. We made the two peaks, where we could see the fresh snow to Mt. Whymper, El Capitan, Landale and Mt. Service.
We stopped at the War Memorial Cairn for 2 minutes of silence. Coming down we met a group of 4 hikers that had heavy packs, they were going to hang glide down. It was a great day, with a wonderful group of hikers.
October 6, 2024
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
While the trip was open to more people, only nine members joined us on the hike up Green Mountain (around 15 people dropped off just days before the trip). Regardless, the group was amazing!
Nahmint Mountain has been on my bucket list for a long time, but there always seem to be bigger and more important mountains to tackle than this peak. The main issue is that the trip reports I’ve read discuss how long the trip is, and it’s difficult to find people who are interested in doing exceptionally long days. I’m happy to report that we used a route that got us back to the vehicle within eight hours.
What an amazing day on Mount Klitsa! Nine of us hiked the Brooke George trail and reached the summit on this beautiful day. We drove on the rough road to the trailhead, which made returning to the vehicles even more satisfying. Many thanks to the AVOC volunteers for creating the turnaround!
Continue reading “Mount Klitsa via Brooke Geroge Trail — Lifetime Objective”
A smooth ride to Rugged Point on July 8th
Continue reading “A beaut of a Beachcomb on the Tatchu Peninsula”
July 20, 2024
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Why not many things change in the Alpine over the years, the same cannot be said for cut blocks. When I did Sadie Peak the first time, I do remember the block being a little bit of a challenge, but this time it was very bushy.
We stuck to the route I used on my first trip to this mountain 10 years earlier. The first half mostly went as expected. We followed the original route pretty closely. The navigation and bush on the first quarter of the route was made even more challenging by the very warm weather. By the time we made it halfway along the route, we discovered a well booted in game trail. It was a welcome sight because it greatly sped up those portions of the trip.
July 27, 2024
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
McKenzie peak is the High Point to the McKenzie range. On my first attempt, I reached the summit block via the climbers trail built in the 70s by Island Mountain ramblers members. For this trip we went up by the Canoe Creek micro dam. The trails been flagged and blazed quite heavily. There’s lots of evidence of the dozens of climbers that have been visiting the range over the past few years. It made for a quick travel with little need for complex navigation.
