Living the best adventure life, since 1958
Living in the Comox Valley means never being far from the Beaufort Range. On a clear day, the mountains frame almost every drive through town, but one summit always captures your attention: Comox Glacier.
Long before I ever considered climbing it, I admired it from a distance.
On July 11, 2026, myself and three other ramblers set out to summit Mount Regan and Jutland Mountain in Strathcona. These are considered two 6,000ft peaks, part of the infamous Alpine Club objective of summiting all 6,000ft peaks on Vancouver Island. Our plan was to run a shuttle, using the Oyster main FSR as an access road, parking one car at the Jutland (North Ridge) trailhead and then continuing on to begin the hike at the trailhead to the North Ridge of Regan. The idea was to summit Regan and then drop down below Albert Edward and hike all the way around to summit Jutland and then descend the North ridge. We used Matthew Lettingtons previous track of Regan (Hiking Mount Regan via The Lower Route – Explorington) as a guide to descend Regan and get to the Strathcona trails leading to Jutland. It was an ambitious plan as we had to get it done within ten hours given the Oyster main gate was only open 8am-8pm (leaving an hour driving each way).
Ever since my failed attempt up Mount Septimus’ X-Gully last year I’ve been eyeing the Route 2 Variation. We were so close to the summit last year. All the technical parts of the route were complete – the gully proper, the glacier crossing, and the steep snow off the glacier. Hence, I still wanted to bag the summit, but wanted to do it via a fresh route. The standard “easy” rock route is 2V, which is rated 5.6, but requires multiple pitches and Phil Stone’s description in Island Alpine Climbing is “easy climbing but poor protection”. I was intimidated by the route, so wanted a solid partner. When Trevor, my climbing mentor from Newfoundland, asked me if he could come out in early May to do some climbing, I quickly narrowed in on 2V as our objective.
A fire on the Malahat on Friday evening delayed our South Island participant’s arrival in Nanaimo, where we had planned to transfer gear and the canoe from my vehicle to his. This also meant we picked up our third participant slightly later than hoped on Saturday morning. Fortunately, the drive from Nanaimo to Port Alberni went smoothly. We picked up the Mosaic gate key without issue and made it to the beach at Oshinow Lake in good time – though it did take all three of us to figure out how to get the key to open the gate.
Continue reading “Argus Mountain, Mount Harmston, and the Red Pillar”
We started from Raven Lodge at 8:15am. The weather was perfect: clear, sunny and no wind. Our route took us up the North side of Allan Brooks, then down to the col between AB and Elma, up Elma’s west face, then down the NE side and back via Battleship Lake. No snowshoes were needed, given the icy, firm crust. The group used a mix of microspikes and crampons, and the ice axes stayed attached to our packs. Conditions were made for efficient moving, and our total moving time was just shy of 6.5 hours. Overall, a beautiful day with unusually great conditions given the time of year.
Continue reading “Augerpoint Mountain Daytrip (Lifetime Hiking Objective)”
January 8, 2022
After a flurry of early morning communications and a change in leader, five of us headed for Mt Elma on snowshoes from Raven Lodge. Although the parking lot was full, the trails were quiet. Fortunately someone had the same destination in mind and kindly broke trail for us. Conditions were ok with the temperature around minus 4, light snow, and light wind. The snow is quite deep and loose so it took some effort to get up to the summit ridge. Visibility was almost nil, but the windrifted snow and the mantled trees made the trip worthwhile.
Mt. Elma–October 10, 2021
Jane and I set out about 8:30 from Raven Lodge, with just a few other cars in the parking lot, and made our way through Paradise Meadows, treading cautiously on the slippery boardwalk.
Beautiful ponds and colours in the meadows
–submitted by John Young; originally published on his blog
This is probably my favourite fall hike and this year didn’t disappoint! With light rain misting the foliage, the colours popped. So vibrant! And it sure made the kilometers (all 27.3 of them) melt away, and even after 9 hours the colours of Paradise Meadows slowed my mind when I looked at them.
I was glad, too, that we had two groups, with Bil’s group starting from Raven Lodge and our group starting at the old Forbidden ski area, thus eliminating the dreadful shuttle.
After about an hour, we were through the old ski resort and entered Strathcona Park
Continue reading “A Bounty of Colours on the Forbidden Plateau Traverse”