Little Known Treasures.... Van Island

The only real sun we saw..... Rugged Mountain on the left and looking in to sea of clouds to the west

After having some wonderful adventures in my kayak it was time to start climbing, spring skiing and getting into the mountains. Being on Vancouver Island makes these things very easy!

Vancouver Island is located, for those that don't know, on the southwest coast of Canada. The island itself is roughly 1000km long and 350km wide. It is home to some of Canada's largest and oldest trees and is the birth place of western logging.

While I have been on the island I have spent most of my time at Strathcona Park Lodge, located on highway 28 between Campbell River and Gold River just on the edge of Strathcona Provincial Park (BC's First Provincial Park and it is celebrating its 100th year).

Being at the Lodge is great! Wonderful people, great food and easy access to getting out climbing at the local Crest Creek Crags, into the mountains for some good spring skiing or alpine climbing.

I was really wanting to get out and ski the Kings Peak glacier so I asked around and my buddy Scotty Ballhorn was keen so we packed some food and headed out the next morning. It was blue bird weather with stellar views of Mt Colonel Foster, Elkhorn Mountain, Rambler Peak and many others. We summited at around noon and when we got back to our skies at the col the snow was pretty much perfect so we headed down. Some awesome turns where had and we got to ski right back to our shoe's with only a short stroll back to the car. All in all Kings Glacier is a great day ski trip if you're in the area!!

Scotty skinning up the Kings Glacier

Elkhorn's North Face from the Kings/Queens Col

Scotty taring it up

After Kings Glacier I was really motivated to get into the South Gully of Colonel Foster so after talking to Bill we arranged an alpine start from the Lodge and headed to the Elk River Trail for the hike in. We started walking at 4:30am got to Landslide Lake at around 9:30 skied across the lake and where looking up at the 1100m East Face of Foster..... an incredible alpine wall with a number of different routes up it. The South Gully is off to lookers left and is a beautiful line. We decided, with the conditions we had not to go up the Gully and instead went and skied some other terrain close by. It was great to get up and play around Foster again! Can't wait to get in to climb it!!

Foster from Landslide Lake

Bill gearing up with Foster in the background

Bill getting in some turns

Shortly after our adventures on skies it was time to get out climbing at Crest. The climbing at Crest is really fun sticky basalt with a variety of climbs, 300, ranging from 5.5 to 5.13. Most climbs are sport with a few quality traditional lines and a lot of routes with mixed protection.

Bill climbing at Skid Row Wall

Gen climbing a 5.10a at Skid Row

Me climbing at Skid Row photo by Bill Phipps

Bill doing the all natural first acsent of his new route Flight School 5.10+ photo by Genevieve Bartlam

Me getting ready to top out on a 5.10b crack photo by Bill Phipps

Gen climbing the crack

Gen pulling through the crux

With all this climbing and skiing happening my mind was racing about which island mountain range I wanted to get into and explore. There was thought of traversing from Elk Mountain to Arnica Lake, Elk River Trail to Phillips Ridge or head up to the Haihte Range and climb there. 


The Haihte Range won pretty easily because I had never been there before and have been trying to put partners together to get in there over the past few years. The range is smaller then most ranges on the island in terms of height but being only a short distance from the west coast of the island and there glaciated character give them a much bigger feel.

Mike and Gen starting to gear up for the walk

Gen making lunch

Me, Mike and Gen planned for 4 days up in the range and our main objective was to climb Rugged Mountain. Rugged is the highest peak in the range and though the routes are short they pack a punch of exposure and big alpine feel. 

Day 1 was bushwacking up an old clear cut and hiking through big old growth to the alpine.... though it was pretty wet spirits where high and we made good time. We slept just below tree line for shelter from the weather and got up early the next day to get to Nathan Col to set camp and make an attempt at Rugged.

Just a glimpse into the bushwack

When camp was set and we decided to go try Rugged. The route we climbed was the Original East Ridge AI2, Low 5th class, 250m (II). This route was awesome lots of exposer and mainly steep snow climbing. When on the summit we looked at and signed the summit log, which was dated back to 89, and had been the first people this year, that had signed the log, to be on the summit. Once back at camp we cooked a big dinner and made plans for the next day. Make an attempt at Ya'ai Peak.

Mike and Gen hiking up with Ya'ai Peak in the background

We got up around 7am made breakfast and headed out. At around 11am we turned around due to some odd feelings and later where bummed we didn't keep going. Fortunately the mountain will be there for a few more years.

Camp, the Gendarms, Merlon, and Ya'ai

We headed down the next day and braised ourselves of a harsh bushwack that turned out to be pretty mellow. On the drive out we stopped in the small, 180 people, town of Zeballos found on the northwest coast of the island. Zeballos is a logging fishing community and often in the summer has goods dropped of by boat. If you get a chance to get to Zeballos be prepared for a 40/50km winding logging road drive and with some amazing views!

Gen and Ya'ai

Thanks to all my climbing, skiing and mountain partners all these wonderful adventures wouldn't have been as fun without you! 

For more information on mountaineering, skiing and alpine climbing on the island check out islandclimber.com, wildisle.ca or look for Island Alpine and Turns and Tours at MEC. Both these sites and books have excellent info on getting into the mountains, skiing and rock climbing on Vancouver Island.

Blue Sky + Warm Temps + Snowmelt = Sweet Boating!

Shayne running the falls

Blue sky, warm temps and snowmelt had me driving from Starthcona Park Lodge to Courtenay for another run down the Alpine section of the Browns River. I met Shayne and Joe at the base of Mt. Washington and we had for an afternoon run. 

With the warm temps we had higher flows which made the run even better. We put-in at but 5/6km up from the take out bridge and started down. 

The first major drop is pretty full-on with the river channelizing creating a 3m falls with a large cave on river right and a rock, at the base on river centre/right..... don't go right! We portaged this last weekend and took a better look at it this time and ran it left of centre. It was sweet! 

Shayne entering the Cave Rapid

Boofing the Cave Rapid

After the cave drop we had some boggy and come to the first double drop which is really fun. Starts with rolling right around a rock with a left boof landing and maybe 4 strokes and boofing the next drop in the centre... so fun! 

Then we floated down to the 7m waterfall! Man this drop is just so fun. The icing on the cake for me is after you boof the heck out of it you have continuous class 4+ 300m then it mellow's out to class3-4 for the rest of the run.

The first 60-100m after the falls

Joe about to boof the heck out of it

After taking some time for photo's at those 3 sections of rapids it was around 4pm and Shayne had to be in Nanaimo to pick up Carrie at Departure Bay Ferry Terminal at 7pm and Joe was suppose to be at the base of Mt. Washington to meet Gill at 5pm ish. So we bombed down the rest of the run, which is the balk of it, in about 20 minutes. When we got to the bottom all 3 of use said "Man we should have a steep creek race down this thing!" Maybe next Puntledge fest. Long story short we got to the base of Mt. Washington at 5:30pm, so not to bad, Shayne made it just in time to get Carrie and we all headed to Joe and Gill's for food and the hockey game....... yeah Canucks!!!

Thanks to Shayne and Joe for the sweet run and for Dave Prothero for scouting this classic a few years ago.

Van Island Boating and Other Adventures!

Shayne Vollmers running the 7m falls on the Alpine Browns

Sweet drop!!

Since climbing in Sinks Canyon I've been pretty busy doing an assortment of things, a few being: working another canoe course for NOLS on Desolation Canyon, attended the NOLS Faculty Summit, paddled the lower Owhyee River, drive to Vancouver Island, paddled the Cameron River, Ash River (both near Port Alberni), Pamela Creek (outside Gold River), Puntledge River (in Courntenay) and was part of the FD on the Alpine Section of Browns River (outside of Courntenay) and went to Horne Lake for a few days of climbing on steep limestone.

For those of you that haven't been to Vancouver Island to paddle you should it have numerous steep creeks of very high quality and when the play run on the Puntledge River is running it is a must do.

A few keys components to paddling on the island are: get a Vancouver Island Back Roads map book from a gas station, be prepared to bushwack a lot, drop into committing canyons and wood being in pretty much every river.

Areas of high quality are:
1.Gold River with numerous runs including Pamela Creek class 4-5, Quatchka Creek class 4, Ucona River class 4-5, Upana River class 4-5, the Upper 4+, Middle 3+ and Lower Heber River class 4-5 and the Gold has numerous sections from class 3 to 4+.
2.Port Renfrew having Harris Creek class 4-5, Lens Creek class 4-5, San Juan River class 4-5, Granite Creek class 4-5, Hemmingston Creek class 4+ and the Gordon River that has numerous section from class 3-4+. For more information of Vancouver Island Rivers check out www.bc-ww.com.
These are the 2 places your going to get the best bang for your buck.

A few classic's that are a bit off the beaten path are the Cameron River class 4, Upper Nanaimo River class 4-5, Kokish River class 4-5, Alpine Browns River class 4-5 and the classic Island multi-day run is the Bedwell River class 4-5.

For people looking at rivers that are less committing the Cowichan River in Duncan is a fun class 3 run, the Nimpkish River class 3+ in Woss, the play run on the Puntledge River class 4, the Lower Ash River class 3-4 as well as different section of the Gold and Gordon Rivers.


Hope this is helpful and see you on the river!

 Folks hanging out at the camp ground at the Puntledge River Festival

 Joe Box at the put-in for the Alpine Browns 

 Dave Prothero running the first drop on the Alpine Browns 

 Dave telling you how awesome it is! with Mac behind

 

 Shayne running a fun double drop with Joe watching

 Dave running the double drop

 Me running the double drop Photos by Mac Schafers

 Horne Lake from the parking lot

 A shot of the huge cave Horne Lake is known for. Eric is climbing in centre right of photo.

 Owhyee River.... so beautiful!

A little to serious..... 

Me running the 7m falls on Alpine Browns Photo by Shayne Vollmers