Living the best adventure life, since 1958
October 3rd, 2020
~ submitted by Christine Rivers
After many comings and goings of people on the trip list, all of the waitlist people were also invited and we ended up with 5 of us on the hike. It was a beautiful, somewhat smoke hazy day. The road is a bit rough, needing high clearance and 4×4.
Continue reading “Mount Drabble”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.
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
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.
–submitted by Matthew Lettington; originally published on explorington.com
Call it our wedding anniversary, the final weekend before school, an early celebration of Octavia’s birthday, or just Labour Day; on September long weekend, I led a group of families on a traverse of Strathcona Park.
I’ve hiked the route between Raven Lodge and the Old Forbidden Plateau ski lodge on two previous occasions. Each time, I vowed to return to do it as an overnighter. Though a bit of a longer route, it meanders Forbidden Plateau with very few steep climbs; a fit group can complete it in about nine hours. In terms of a hiking route, there are very few like it on Vancouver Island. So when the question, “what to do as a family trip for our various celebrations in the face of COVID 19?” arose, I proposed doing the traverse as a family trip.
Continue reading “Paradise Meadows to Wood Mountain: A Family Traversing”
Congratulations to Phil Jackson. On Saturday, September 5th, he and Rick Marshall successfully summit Rugged Mountain marking Phi’s fifteenth peak from the club’s Lifetime Climbing Objectives.
Continue reading “Phil Jackson — Lifetime Climbing Objective –Silver”
On July 1, three set out from the TCT trailhead at Ninatti road, for a wander around Mount Hayes. The route included Camas Ridge trail, some old roads, and a few short stretches of bushwhack. The weather was cooperative, and the views were lovely.
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.
Continue reading “Beating the heat on Mt. Cokely – August 16, 2020”
The 5040 hike of July 11 took place on Aug. 15 as snow levels and visibility were still an issue on July11. This hike was appended to Matt Lettington’s hike up 5040 and 7 people came along. It was a beautiful warm day so we started early, meeting at 6:30 am with 2 people coming up from Maple Bay (a VERY early start).
The coordinator, Sherry, was sweep and the reluctant hiker, Peter, was lead. This worked well until Holly realized that Peter was waiting too long for Sherry to catch up on the way down and took the lead. One and ¼ hours got the group to Cobalt Lake and about ½ hour further got us to the cabin. It was occupied but closed for visitors. We had snacks and the 4 am starters from Maple Bay decided to enjoy views from the cabin porch while the rest of us trudged to the top. By noon, we met the other Island Mountain Rambler group led by Matt Lettington and had nice chats about flying ants, bugs in general, and how to fine tune trip participant levels.
On the way down, Holly took the lead with a good pace and we congregated at Cobalt Lake for swims, dips, and water refills. The rest was a slow but steady descent through trees, roots, and rock to the cars. All were down by 3:30, thankful that we’d gotten an early start on a very warm day.
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