Category: mountaineering

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Pogo Mountain: A blast in the bush

–submitted by Matthew Lettington on explorington.com
–additional photo contributions by Jes Garceau

Pogo Mountain falls inside the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks. When hiking in these tribal parks, consider making a donation to the Tribal Park Guardians as we did.

The Island’s backcountry isn’t immune to the sways of social media. It seems like every summer there’s a new fevered interest in some area or other. A while back, everyone and their dog wants to reach Century Sam, and this year’s flavour seems to be 5040. It’s not difficult to point to the cofactors that drive people to these places: FOMO, Moral Panic, and various social media play their role. But how does one place become “the place” in any given region/year? And, what I want to know is why hasn’t Pogo Mountain become one of those destinations?

descending from the the upper ridge on Pogo Mountain

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Mount Leiner and Phil’s beguiling smile

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

Mount Leiner is a surprisingly spectacular mountain. The most common approach begins on the outer edge of Tahsis, climbs Leiner’s southwest ridge and meanders several kilometres through the bush toward the summit. Considering its relatively low elevation, it holds a surprisingly high alpine character once you get beyond the shrubs.

The cirque south of Mount Leiner’s sub-peak, the lake is situated just above 1200 metres elevation

Leiner was a peak that we kept pushing off until “later”. But with an ever-shortening list of mountains remaining on our Island Alpine Quest, we’ve been faced with the reality that “later” is now. In Leiner’s case, we pushed it off because it’s located in Tahsis, making it too long a drive, and we had too many questions about a longer route to make it doable in a day. Heck! After we posted the trip to the Island Mountian Rambler’s schedule, Tahsis’ mayor reached out to warn us that he took three days to reach the summit and back. Obviously not a good omen, but along with his warning, we got a hot tip: A nearby logging road cuts as much as 5 km into the Leiner River valley – food for thought?

Mount Leiner Route

Total Distance: 8 km
Starting Elevation: 686 m 
Maximum Elevation: 1468 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1086 m
Total Time: 7 hours

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Hapush Mountain

–submitted by Matthew Lettington; originally published on explorington.com
–aditional photography by Jes Garceau

There are times when a mountain doesn’t quite measure up to one’s expectations. I’d pushed off an attempt on Hapush Mountain to the backburner in favour of other peaks on our list for several years. When Phil and Rick first did the Hapush, they recited nightmarish stories of bush and down climbs. Stories that were repeated whenever Hapush came up in conversation. It wasn’t one that I was rushing into.

Mount Cain Ski Lodge

But in July, when another friend successfully summited the peak and came back with a much better version of the story, I figured it was time to try her route to the summit – a route described by Tak O and Sandy B. I’m sure glad we did! I posted a trip to attract members who want to some more challenging terrain without the commitment of a huge day. It didn’t work out but we still had a great day!

Total Distance: 10 KM
Starting Elevation: 1140 m
Maximum Elevation: 1757 m
Total Elevation Gain: 800 m
Total Time: 4h 30 m

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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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Margaret Symon — Lifetime Climbing Objective –Bronze

We are thrilled to present Margaret Symon with her recognition of achieving the Bronze level of the Lifetime Climbing Objective –10 of the 20 peaks on the list.

Margaret Symon, a then young and enthusiastic IMR member from 1973 to 1984 (part of which time she served as Secretary) is notably credited as the co-leader of the first party to summit a then-unnamed peak in Strathcona Park. The name MS Mountain was granted the massif in 1980 in recognition of the leaders of that trip. The peak remains a very seldom summit feature of Strathcona Park.

10+1 peaks climbed


Mt. Arrowsmith, Judges Route – first climbed Sept 1973
Bob Tustin leader. Other trip members: Bruce McInnes, D. Tarmowski

Mt. Arrowsmith via Mt. Cokely- climbed May 1974
Bob Tustin leader. Other trip members incl. Kim Hourston

Mt. Klitsa – climbed June 1980 (mostly a snow climb) via Taylor River Main.
Trip leader Mike Taylor

Elkhorn – climbed July 1974
Trip leader R. Hutchison (of Rafe’s way)

Filberg – climbed July 1974.
Trip leader B. Tustin

Golden Hinde – climbed August 1974 via Elk River Trail (multi-day trip)
Trip leader B. Tustin. Trip members included: J. Fraser, J. Symon, D. Coombes, B. Johnson, V. Humphries, A. Harrison

Kings Peak – climbed July 1974.
Trip leader R. Hutchison

Mt. McBride – climbed August 1974
Trip leader B. Tustin

Mt. Matchlee – climbed May 1975
Trip leader A. Harrison. Trip members included: D. Kanachowski, D. Coombes, B. Johnson

Rambler – climbed August 1974 via (Elk River valley)
Trip leader B. Tustin. Trip members included J. Symon, J. Fraser, D. Coombes, V. Humphries, A. Harrison.

Maitland Range – Pogo Peak climbed August 1974
Trip leader Bill Perry. Trip members included B. Tustin. M. Taylor. B. Johnson, T. DeGroot.

Mt. Maitland – climbed May 1975. Trip leader Bill Perry.

Also – did the first ascent of Ms Mountain May 1975. Trip leader: M. Symon. Trip members included: A. Harrison, D. Kanachowski, B. Johnson, D. Coombes

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Beating the heat on Mt. Cokely – August 16, 2020

–SUBMITTED BY JOHN YOUNG; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JOHN’S BLOG

As the temperatures soared to 30 degrees in the valley below, the strong wind on Mt. Cokely kept us cool, for the most part. The views, the flowers, the rock scrambling, and the wonderful company made for another great outing in the mountains of Vancouver

Island. We started off about 9 a.m. with a short walk up the old road.

And then through the trees

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Sutton Peak via the West Ridge

–SUBMITTED BY MATTHEW LETTINGTON; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON EXPLORINGTON.COM

Sutton Peak is one of Vancouver Island’s illustrious 6000 footers. It’s a destination that I frequently poke Phil about doing; since he first summited – without me—back in 2016. Aside from its height, this route’s sparkling feature is the long west ridge that leads mountaineers to seek this summit.

No GPS Track Available

Total Distance: 15 km
Starting Elevation: 1094 m
Maximum Elevation: 1870 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1511 m
Total Duration: 8 h 30 min

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The Golden Hinde(less) Traverse – July 18-24, 2020

Why the Hinde(less) you ask? Because we didn’t summit the Golden Hinde, which, for most people, would be the primary objective of this trek. For me, and for most of my group, it wasn’t a big disappointment, because for us it was about the journey, not just about bagging the highest peak on Vancouver Island.

 

We were two groups of four, with the other group canoeing over Buttle Lake before traversing across Marble Meadows and then to the Hinde, attempting it on the 21st. Aftrer coming within 200 meters of the top, they turned back due to hazardous snow conditions. My group hiked up the Elk River Trail to Elk Pass and then across to the Golden Hinde, making it to the South Tarn at the base of the mountain on July 21. Our hopes of a summit attempt on the 22nd, however, were dashed when we heard from the other group (via our inReach satellite communication) of their aborted attempt. To be honest, though, I’m not disappointed. I was tired, and climbing the mountain (which I had bagged in 1998) and then having an arduous 3-day hike to Buttle Lake before the short canoe back to my truck wasn’t appealing. And frankly, I don’t have the confidence on steep pitches, especially snow, that I once had.

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What a blast on the Augerpoint Traverse!

–SUBMITTED BY JOHN YOUNG; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JOHN’S BLOG

What a difference a year makes! Last year when we hiked this trail, we saw nary a soul past Mount Albert Edward, but this year we met more than 20 others. One big group of about 20, a group of 3, a solo man and his dog, and two runners completing it in a day. The trail is also much better defined than it was just last year – a well-worn tread with many cairns leads the way. Although it is popular and pleasant, it’s far from a “walk in the park,” as over it’s 30 km it gains 2150 m and loses 3000 m. Lots of ups and downs! Since we started from Mt. Washington’s Raven Lodge with an elevation of 1100 m., we had an overall elevation loss of 850 m.

We started off with a stroll through Paradise Meadows

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