Living the best adventure life, since 1958
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.
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!
June 27, 2024
~ submitted by Ken Warren
Well the weather was better than forecast for our mountain adventure. Five of us headed up Benson from Morrell at a respectable speed.
By the time we got to the viewpoints the fog obscured our views. We ground on with only a few wrong turns and made the summit by noon. We sat around as the fog got thicker and the temperature dropped. Our wildlife sightings were limited to frogs and grey jays.
We made good time on the descent and arrived at the parking lot tired, stiff, and quite happy.
Thanks all for your company.
We left from Hwy 4 up the logging road to the TH and made our way up to the lookout. Did the out and back route. Stunning water falls at the bridge, views as we made our way up. When we reached the summit, we were treated to the most beautiful sunny views and enjoyed the inverted cloud views with little to no wind. Being greeted and dive-bombed by whiskey jacks was a highlight as we fed them, and they took it upon themselves to steal what they could of our lunches. The CPR trail is one of my favourites for sure!!
June 25th, 2023
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Two members joined me for a half day of hanging out on the rope.
We all learned to tie a few knots, and put themself onto the rappel device. By day’s end each of us was able to get on rappel, set the backup Prussic and rappel down the 30 foot cliff safely.
May 13, 2023
~ submitted by Ken Warren
The weather was gorgeous, if a little warmer than expected. Trail conditions were excellent with no snow on the trail, solid footing, and improvements on the lower section.
March 11, 2023
~ submitted by Dorothy Benneke
4 of us met at Top Bridge Park while Arrowsmith Search and Rescue were setting up for some training exercises. They joked that they were close by if we needed them. One of the members quizzed me……did I have the 10 essentials? (yes) and did I leave a trip plan? (yes). Hope never to contact SAR, but grateful for all that they do.
Continue reading “Little Mountain from Top Bridge Park”
December 3, 2022
~ submitted by Brian Fleming
First winter hike of the year!
A group of seven Island Mountain Ramblers made our way up to one of the ridges in the Nanaimo First and Second Lake area.
Continue reading “Wesley Ridge Traverse including Mt Wesley/Mt Horne ”
—submitted by Greg Deabler
In spite of an excellent forecast, we were once again reminded of the vagaries of mountain weather (August 18, 2022). The gate at the Cameron Connector was opened at 8:00 am and we were heading up the trail toward the Arrowsmith Cokely saddle by 8:45. The morning fog/cloud persisted, and finally settled in to a dense layer with little visibility by the time we gained the bumps. There was still enough snow on the steeps to the first bump to warrant our ice-axes, but once the top was attained, we put away the axes and proceeded in close to zero visibility to the base of the Nose. We got a bit off route on the forth bump, and instead of bypassing the bump summit on the right we ended up on top of the bump. We couldn’t see the Nose nor col in the grey void, and even though we were within meters of our gpx track, everything looked different with no background landmarks to orient to.
We backed up on our route until we were able to correct our direction. On the col, we stopped to put on harnesses and made the decision to drag the rope up both pitches since it was a first ascent for Graham and Geoff and would give them the option to follow using the rope. Although the first pitch is 4th class, there are a couple of exposed moves near the top of the pitch. It is a nice clean route with solid holds and we arrived at the end of the technical section in one piece and enjoyed a quiet summit, though we weren’t the first for the day on the summit. A mature marmot was enjoying the day on the far side of the helicopter pad! A few pics, a bit of lunch and we headed back to the top of the nose to rapel down.
We had just finished our rapels when the heavy cloud cover let loose with a fine rain which lasted across the bumps and most of the way down the saddle trail. A fine day in spite of a lack of views made better by the fine company. Thanks to Geoff and Graham for driving up from Victoria and joining me for this timeless classic!