2007 - Maligne Pass, Brandywine and Eaton Peak

My Flickr site for more pictures - 

Maligne Pass - 
Poboktan Creek to Maligne Lake via Maligne Pass - "The Skyline Will Have to Wait."
apr. Location of Maligne Pass

-  slide show of our trip

Fresh snow!

Chuck McCafferty, Ken Willlis, Dale Macquarrie, and I drove to Jasper to start our trek through Maligne Pass and on to the Skyline trail. Ken had made all the reservations. It was early August. It snowed in the mountains when we woke up in Jasper to start our hike.

Heavy packs again!

The day we left, the weather looked quite promising. The picture above was taken at the junction where you can go north to Avalanche camp or south towards the Jonas Shoulder loop.

We finally got to Avalanche camp. The weather stopped looking promising. It started to look worrisome. The video was taken with my little Olympus still camera. I have made it as small as possible to download quicker.
During the first night it rained ....and rained. In the morning Ken stuck his head outside the tent and announced that the snow line was about 500 feet above us. We were headed to Maligne Pass which was at least that much above us. If we were going to do this hike, we were going to get wet and cold.

Approaching Maligne Pass

It proved to be true. Going over the pass was an exercise in perseverence. The wind blew wet snow onto us where it stuck and formed a layer only to show how poorly our older goretext coats worked.

Just down from the pass at Mary Vaux Campsite, we tried to eat to get warm again. It partly succeeded, so once we ate a bunch, off we went headed for the Mary Schaffer campsite many kilometers ahead.

At the Mary Schaffer campsite. (Ken's photo)

The wilderness

The trail seemed to go on and on. Finally we rounded a bend and found oursleves at the campsite. It had a nice view to the north where our goal lay.

I have never seen so many tracks and scat on a trail (Ken's photo)

One of the many meadows on the trail (Ken's photo).

Trapper Creek campsite was our last camp. It was to be our last camp with the mosquitos and smoke. Dale dealt with his sock "thing", Chuck dealt with the mosquitos the best he could, and Ken was still bubbling with energy.
The next day dawned grey and threatening to rain. We did the last five kilometers to Maligne Lake and took off our packs. Ken hitch hiked to get his car, and our hike was over. The Skyline trail was going to have to wait.

A dandy tent. :-)

Brandywine Mountain
Location of Brandywine Mountain

Dollie and Ann are on a knoll of the South-East ridge
during a brief moment when the peak was in full view.

Alan Lizee is an active member of the Maple Ridge Outdoor Club as well as a member of long standing of the Red Lobster Outdoor Club. He led a trip with two members of the Maple Ridge Outdoor Club up Brandywine Mountain 

"On Aug 10th Dollie, Ann and myself hiked Brandywine Mt as a Ridge Meadows Outdoor Club outing. The entire day the clouds threatened to sock-in the peak, but they lifted often enough to give visual bearings without resorting to map and compass. It took 1 1/2 hrs to reach Brandywine meadows from the end of the Brandywine/Callaghan West Forest Service Road (2w drivable), then another 2 1/2 hrs to the summit of Brandywine. We only had fleeting views along the way of Mt Garibaldi, Castle Towers, Black Tusk, Mt Fee, and Pyroclastic Pk. While on the summit it was totally socked-in and finger-numbing cold. Yet in spite of poor visibility, a great time was had by all.

" - Alan Lizee

"This self-timer shot is all I have. It was socked-in so there was no view from the top"....Al

Eaton Peak

Location of Eaton Peak

Alan Lizee

"I went hiking today with unlimited bear deterrents, which turned out to be a total flop. But guess where the bear was? It was in our yard. Barb, banged on the garage door twice to scare it away. It was not interested in our garbage on the street for pickup at 11:00. I think it just thought our yard would be a cool place to hang-out!

I just had to try this trip out to see if it would be feasible. I would do it again, but you do need the "Boost". Keith, I owe you a bear spray. The bush-whacking up the bluffs first pulled the pin on the personal alarm and by the time I could stop it the batteries and my ears were toast. A little later the bear spray must have been torn from the pack and I could not find it on the way down. Anyway, I made excellent time to the top, and my route finding was bang-on. There are several tent possibilities at the lake for single-occupant tents, so camping is not out of the picture." - Alan Lizee

2005 - Rockies Ski,Coburg Island, Islay Malt , Diaz Vista, Coquihalla Scrambles

My Flickr site for more pictures - 

January - Alas, there was no annual general meeting this year. It's the first year in many years that we haven't got together in the mountains of Manning Park for our night of laughter.


March - Lake Louise and Banff
Location of Lake Louise

 - A slide show of our time in the Rockies.

 - Chris Cooper, Bob Needham, and I went to Canmore for a couple of nights to ski and hike in the Rockies during my spring break.We hit it lucky with the weather as the Lake Louise area was back into a winter mode. There was even active ice climbing on the north-west corner of the lake.

Nice dry snow.

Bob Needham making his way towards Mt. Victoria.

After hiking up to the Sulfur Man. restaurant.

After a day of skiing and another of hiking, we decided to travel the ice field parkway to Jasper to take pictures. The weather was fabulous. Herds of elk on the highway greeted us in Jasper, and the next day was an ideal day for pictures of Mt. Robson.

A rare clear view of Mt. Robson

May - 'In Search of Wild Places' Ellesmere Island to Coburg Island return.
Location of Coburg Island
- as told by Chris Cooper

Lunch Time!

"John Dunn, Chris Cooper, Sandy Briggs, and Randal Scott undertook a journey of exploration to Canada's High Eastern Arctic in the months of May/ June 2005. The focus of the journey was to ski to Coburg Island which seldom ever seen or photographed.

In the year 2001, John, Sandy and I had seen Coburg from Devon Island's Southeast coast,during a 32 day 375 km ski journey. A moment that brought things to a stand still as Coburg shimmered in the distance, Wild & Remote I had to return.

Our journey to Coburg started from Grise Fiord on the South coast of Ellesmere, it took 13 days and 125km of hard skiing and sled hauling to reach Coburg, sled hauling 230pounds over 3500ft icecaps is truly hard work. We reached Glacier strait in storm force conditions, WILD.

Skied across Glacier Strait, circumnavigated Coburg 100km plus side trips plus climbing 6 peaks, winter conditions.

Polar Bears, Beluga whales, Walrus and many species of birds.........

Quite the campsite!

A Greenland Iceberg frozen in on Glacier Strait

A little bit of boating.

From the North coast of Coburg we skied back to Ellesmere's South east coast crossing Glacier Strait OPEN LEADS very dangerous crossings on occasion. Open lead crossings are very dangerous as the opportunity to fall in is always there. Many people have died doing this type of Adventure Sport!

Coburg Island

Skied over the Manson Icefields and worked our way over to the Jakeman Glacier and onto our final destination Grise Fiord which took us another two weeks of travel 150km here."

The summit of Coburg Island.

It was truly a spectacular place - very cold. I had to wear my parka, blowing ice crystals everywhere. This is the highest summit on Coburg, unnamed, 2800ft above sea level!!

L to R - Randal Scott, John Dunn, Chris Cooper, & Sandy Briggs

" I had the opportunity to speak twice on Global TV, once from Glacier Strait and once in the studio, in addition to this I also had the opportunity to speak on the morning news hour about our last two seasons of paddling the Alaska, BC Coast Canoe journey covering 2000 km " - Chris Cooper

July - A Quest for Islay Single Malt - Scotland

Location of Islay

- Slideshow of our stay on Islay

Chuck and Terri McCafferty joined my wife Lynn and I on a trip to Scotland and England. One of our quests on this trip was to visit the distilleries on Islay as our favourite scotches come from there. We had a better time that we could have hoped.

Keith and Chuck at Laphroaig

The Laphroaig Distillery after joining the "Friends of Laphroaig" and getting to be landlords of one square foot of Islay peat! :-)

A special time with Jim Mcewan

We had a wonderful time learning about delicious Bruichladdich scotch with Jim Mcewan  the distiller at Bruichladdich. Having the opportunity to have time with him was a very special treat.

August - Diaz Vista

Location of Indian Arm

One of the great things about living in the lower mainland is that you are never too far from nature. Chris and Alan Lizee and I went on a hike up the Diaz Vista trail on the west side of Buntzen Lake.

Looking at Indian Arm of Howe Sound

September - Needle Peak - (Coquihalla)

Location of Needle Peak

A scramble I had wanted to do for some time was to go up Needle Peak. The trail to it is found on the south side of the Coquihalla summit. One of the wonderful things to this very accessible hike is that in one hour you are hiking in the alpine. I went with Alan Lizee who was wonderfully patient with someone who was not only out of shape as usual but was feeling quite rusty on the class three scrambling.

Summit of Needle Peak with Yak Peak in the background.

Summit of Flatiron peak

It looked like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey so we thought we better show respect! Actually, we think it is a communication tower for aircraft powered by solar cells.
A couple of weeks after going up Needle Peak, Keith Akenhead, Alan Lizee, and I went up a flat topped mountain called Flatiron. In the picture above, you can see the summit of Needle Peak to the east.

... oh yea, Lynn and I did some travelling with Chuck and Terri!

- Glasgow with John and Jean

- Islay to Whidby

- York, Warwick, and Stratford

- Oxord

- Rye and Canterbury

- London

- Florence Italy