Most people mark the passage of time by annual events in their lives like birthdays, holidays, the New Year, and so on. Since I’ve started my Island Alpine Quest, I’ve started marking the march into Spring by how early I leave home on Sunday morning. During the winter, my departure …
Canoe Peak: Go Slow to Go Fast
View PostA Family Snowshoe Loop: Featuring Another Family!
As parents, my wife Kim and I fall into all-too-familiar parent-child relationships with Hemingway and Octavia. My behaviour exemplifies the old platitude: When you love your kids, you want the best for them. You’ll go out of your way to make sure their lives are better than how you perceived …
Mackenzie Range Adventure: Turning Back Again
Canoe Peak is a thorn in my side! It’s approaching comical how many times I’ve set this peak as our objective for a trip and then had to change the plan. Be it weather forecast, avalanche conditions, a blizzard through Sutton Pass, or zero visibility, for one reason or another …
Tyee Mountain
View PostA Spring Summit of Mount Flannigan
Mount Flannigan is a 1550-metre peak located on the east edge of Strathcona Park. You’ll easily find it on the map because the park border sticks out like a sore thumb. The summit overlooks the Tools Creek Valley. If you love backcountry skiing, then you’re probably already familiar with this …
Strata Mountain: Don’t Bother
Getting up at 3:00 am isn’t my favourite way to spend a Sunday, but I do it week after week. I head outside, driven by my Island Alpine Quest, the goal of summiting more than 250 peaks. In doing so, I find myself hiking in some seldom-visited locations on Vancouver …
Mount Brenton: Another One from the Book
I imagine you might be asking yourself, Why the benign title? If you’re a regular reader, you’re familiar with my Island Alpine Quest: to summit all of the peaks listed in Philip Stone’s book Island Alpine (1999). The goal is lofty, and many of the peaks will require multiday adventures through …
A leg stretcher: Copley Ridge Recreational Trail
We had high hopes for the day, but not all plans come to fruition. Canoe Peak was a lofty goal for any day, but we were adding to the challenge by attempting a winter ascent. On our way through Sutton Pass (230 m) snow was falling fast and accumulating so …
Hemingway’s First Summit: Mount Elma
–all photographs and video courtesy Michael Paskevicious Dear Hemingway, You’re four-and-a-half years old now–time sure flies. I made only two resolutions for 2018, and the first and most important one was to get my whole family out on a mountain adventure (Paradise Meadows doesn’t count). You’ve been my adventure …