Timberline Tales

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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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Magical Mushrooms!

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. 

Our Route – 26.5 km

Although the previous days had been rainy, the sun beckoned us forward through Paradise Meadows

Continue reading “Magical Mushrooms!”

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Augerpoint Traverse

September 10 – 13, 2020

~ submitted by Greg Deabler

John Young led the August rendition of the Augerpoint traverse, but as there were so many people interested, Greg Deabler, a very experienced mountaineer and fairly new Rambler member, was recruited to put on another trip in September.  After cancellations and injuries, the group was down to six, but what a fine mix of six were we!

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Paradise Meadows to Wood Mountain: A Family Traversing

–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.

It starts with trying to hold them back

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”

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Climbing at Sansum Narrows

August 19, 2020

~ submitted by Quinn Park

A quiet Wednesday evening led to us check out the crags. Most folks did not climb and were just there to check out the scenery.

With not a tonne of time (and a healthy portion of it spent on showing folks the tour of my favourite conglomerate crag on the south island) we only were able to get ropes on “The Roof Is On Fire 5.10a” and “Salamander 5.7.” Both were fun routes.

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King’s Peak

August 22, 2020

~ submitted by Bil Derby

Planned as a do-over of an unsuccessful trip in 2018 this trip filled up quickly when posted on the schedule. By the time the week of the trip arrived the group reduced to just Gord and I.  Leaving Nanaimo at 06.30 on Saturday we arrived at the trailhead at 09.00 and were set up in the lower meadows 3-1/2 hours later. 

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Bings Creek to Mt. Prevost Hike

–submitted by Quinn Park
Having had this described as one of the best hikes in Cowichan, I had to find out for myself!
The route has quite the views on the way up. and is quite the thigh burner.
We turned around at the top of the false summit as it was easy walking to there. With nothing to prove and the weather in the high 20’s, we both agreed that turning around then and there was still a fine day!