Living the best adventure life, since 1958
June 8, 2025
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Three club members gathered at Piper’s Lagoon on Saturday for a hands-on introduction to rappelling—an essential skill in the mountaineer’s toolkit.
Continue reading “Workshop: Learn to Rappel”
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.
On Saturday, four of us braved the heat to learn the basics of rappelling.
The most challenging aspect of the day turned out to be dealing with the heat! The kids had a hard time managing their temperatures, but we were happy to take breaks in the shade of the Gary oak trees as needed.
June 1st, 2019
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
On June 7th a group of four ascended to the saddle between Mount Cokely and Mount Arrowsmith to practice using crampons and mountaineering axes. Despite the sun breaking through the clouds we had good conditions for our practice.
We started with the goal of practicing essential skills of the winter mountaineer: walking with crampons, and self-arrest. Although the slope conditions in the prior week would have been ideal, a recent dump of snow worked against our plan.
Four members of the Island Mountain Ramblers headed out on a winter camping trip to Lake Helen Mackenzie. The goal of the trip was to gain experience camping in sub-zero temperatures. And sub-zero temperatures we had!
Over the past month, I’ve had conversations, and exchanged emails, with many club members about the rating system we use to classify the trips on the club’s schedule. That’s the number you see beside the trip name on the schedule, and in the level of difficulty in the trip details (e.g. B1p2, C3p3). Many members are only looking at the first number, and using that to rate the trip, but this is a mistake.
A small but eager group gathered on the second beach at Westwood Lake. Objective? Remind ourselves of what to do if we are in the unfortunate situation of needing to do a companion avalanche rescue.
Continue reading “Avalanche rescue skill refresher & beacon hunt”
–submitted by Matthew Lettington
–photographs by Shayna Bussey
The group of five met in Pipers Lagoon at 6 PM. We had warm breezes and the surrounding cloud provided an excellent backdrop for the evening’s workshop, and ideal conditions for the workshop.
–submitted by Jo Anne Potter
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