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 …
Big Den Mountain: The Land of the Little Sticks
Mountains are changeable. From a technical perspective, a route may be an easy ascent in the winter season, and a heinous, bush-filled scramble in the summer. Or, of course, it’s possible that winter adds more treachery to a route that’s a simple scramble in the summer. It’s probably because of this …
Big Interior Mountain: A Failed Attempt of Nine Peaks
View PostMount Judson from Saunders Mainline
Strathcona Park is a jewel nestled among many of the island’s tallest peaks. In many places, the long mountain ridges are the natural boundaries that define the shape of the park. All around the park, and sometimes within it, is evidence of industry: logging and mining change the landscape, and …
Mount Heber: worth the squeeze?
View PostA winter route up Big Den turns unseasonably warm
View PostMy First Ice-Climbing Experience
Hiking, mountaineering, and rock climbing have been my passion for about five years. Every weekend, I get together with a few close friends, and sometimes my hiking club, to head out into the backcountry to seek out one obscure peak or another. Each experience is unique unto itself, but it’s …