We've had the dates for some of our upcoming courses and trips change and have added some new trips as well. Here's a snapshot of some of what is coming up:

Saturday 26 May - Skiing/Riding Spring Lines on Mount Arrowsmith

Sunday 3 June - One Day Crevasse Rescue Workshop

Saturday/Sunday 2/3 June - Traditional Rock Leading Course

Saturday/Sunday 9/10 June - Intro to Rock Climbing

Saturday-Monday 30 June - 2 July (Canada Day Long Week end) - 3 Day Alpine Skills Course

Saturday-Monday 30 June - 2 July (Canada Day Long Week end) - Fly in Mountain Skills Course

July 14/15 - Introduction to Rock Climbing July 20-25 - Nootka Trail Hike

July 28/30 - Tantalus Range Ascents

There is much more going on yet this summer and remember that the way we prefer to set dates for trips is for you to let us know when you want them to happen. So get in touch and choose some dates for your Island adventures this summer!

Enjoy the weather!

Jan

When I think about what we do in our climbing instruction I am reminded of a letter that I got from one of our students which illustrates well what many of you have told us about what our courses have done for your climbing careers. Here is an excerpt:

"Professional instruction proved priceless to me on so many levels. I noticed my base technical skills were at a higher level compared to more "seasoned" climbers. There is just so much ground level knowledge I gained that would have been impossible to replicate without professional instruction. As I progressed in my climbing, I teamed up with my instructor as a climbing partner four years later on a 3000ft big wall on Baffin Island. I highly recommend professional training from certified guides to anyone serious about climbing safely and effectively."

I’ve watched a lot of people climb. From people learning to climb right up to seasoned climbers with years of experience. While you might think that the latter demonstrated the most refined skills I can tell you with certainty that this is not the case. The fact is that in the absence of a negative feedback to inform us otherwise, we tend to repeat the same behaviours over and over again for years on end regardless of whether that action is the most efficient, safe or suitable. That is a long way of saying that just because a climber is seasoned does not mean that the techniques they use are the best ones. They could well have been doing things the wrong way for a long time!

The big advantage of taking professional training is that you learn how to do stuff right. The obvious time to get stuff right is from the very beginning of your career. Then you can be practicing the right stuff all the way along the path as you become more experienced. Having said that it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. So I am going to endorse the idea of even those seasoned climbers considering some instruction from professional guides to “tighten up” their technical systems and to learn some new, faster, safer and more efficient techniques.

We have a bunch of climbing instruction scheduled for this spring and summer not to mention peak ascents, hikes and much more. Below are a few examples up to July. But these are just a few of the dates we have planned. We do as much “custom” work as we do scheduled trips and we prefer to have you define the dates for courses and trips rather than us doing it. So if one of our trips is of interest or if you have a crazy idea of something special you want to do, drop us a line and let us know the dates you want to go on and we’ll post them on the web site to get others to join you!

May 26 - Crevasse Rescue Course

May 27 - Rock Refresher Course

June 2/3 - Learn to Lead on Rock

June 9/10 - Introduction to Rock Climbing

June 22-24 - Three Day Alpine Skills Course

June 30 to July 2 - Fly in Mountain Skills Course

July 14/15 - Introduction to Rock Climbing

July 20-25 - Nootka Trail Hike

July 28/30 - Tantalus Range Ascents

Looking forward to a great spring and summer!

Jan

One of the things I love about living on Vancouver Island is the transition to spring. This spring should be a really good one. We’ve got tons of snow in the mountains which will make spring ski touring last forever while the valley bottoms will warm up and we’ll get out rock climbing on the sunny crags very soon now.

Spring on the island brings some other unique opportunities. One that we take advantage of every spring is that there are steep north faces on some easily accessible peaks that allow us to run quick, foot access two and three day alpine climbing skills courses. We’ve scheduled the first of these for 23 to 25 June. We’ve also scheduled our first helicopter accessed mountain skills fly-in course for the Victoria day long week end 19 to 21 May. This course uses a helicopter to access high island alpine and a glacier to offer the “full meal deal” mountain skills course in just three days thanks to the quick trip to the alpine classroom.

Thinking of helicopter access and ski touring we have some very cool and rare opportunities to offer this spring to get into hitherto difficult to access areas with fantastic ski touring terrain and at a relatively modest price. Get in touch with us for details.

For those that want to focus in on crevasse rescue skills we are offering our one day crevasse rescue workshops this spring as always. The first of these is scheduled for Saturday 5 May.

We have lots of other trips and courses to schedule yet for the spring and summer from ski tours to alpine and rock climbing. Remember that the way we like to set dates is to hear from you when you want to go. So cruise around our web site and think about when you’d like to do a trip or course. Then get in touch with us to let us know the trip and the dates and we’ll start a trip on those dates for you and others to join.

Looking forward to spring in the Island Alps!

We introduce a lot of people to the back country both in winter and in summer. Whether it is an Avalanche Skills Training One, a Mountain Skills Course, an Introduction to Rock Climbing or any of or many introductory courses and trips, we are very happy to play the role of giving you a solid start in the mountains by building a good foundation of skills. On many of our introductory courses the question that gets asked is “what next?”. The answer inevitably is “go and gain experience”. The business of learning about the mountains be it navigation, understanding the avalanche phenomenon, building good anchors, or whatever it is, is much more an experiential process than a book learning or classroom process. So the answer is always to go and get experience. So what form does that experience take? We recommend a range of activities. At one end of the spectrum is trips with friends who have the same skill level as you. The big plus for your learning on these trips is that in the absence of more experienced people on the trip you are forced to participate actively in decisions making. Ultimately that is what this game is all about: decision making. You can’t get good at it if you don’t engage in making decisions and living with the consequences of them. Next on the spectrum of learning opportunities is to do trips with more experienced friends. The advantage here of course is that you get to learn from those more experienced than yourself. The disadvantage is that people tend to defer to the more experienced members of the group. Our advice to you here is resist this and contribute to the decision making. Your point of view is of value and your learning will increase if you are actively involved. It is also worth noting that we have accident statistics that show that recreational groups of inexperienced people making decisions by consensus are safer than recreational groups that contain a de facto leader who is more experienced. Finally getting out on trips with professional guides is also a great way to learn. Don’t be fooled by the moniker “guided trip”. Our guides (and guides in this country in general) are accustomed to teaching as well as guiding and are typically very keen to make guided trips a fully educational experience. In fact the line between the two is so blurred at times that it would be hard to distinguish between a trip and a course. We encourage you to “pick your guide’s brain” on any trip you do. You’ll have a great learning experience that sets you up well for doing more trips on your own and ultimately leads you to your goals in the mountains.

Speaking of guided trips and courses, we still have a bunch of things happening this winter. Here are a few of them:

Glacier Skiing Course 25-26 February. With lift access at Whistler to start the trip we’ll get you into heavily glaciated terrain quickly to get straight to learning the skills needed to take your ski touring to the next level.

Avalanche Skills Training Two at Mount Cain 23-26 March. Takes your avalanche training to the next level at a legendary island location.

Ski Tour/Introduction to Winter Mountain Travel March 31/01 April. An island based ski tour for first time ski tourers or those with experience wanting to learn more from a professional guide.

Avalanche Skills Training One. Our last AST1’s of the season are running 3/4 March at Mount Cain (a bit of a drive but our favourite place to do these courses); and 10/11, 17/18 and 24/25 March at Mount Washington.

There is much more to tell you about but rather than list them all here we’ll suggest that you cruise around the site and see what interests you. Then get in touch and ask us questions. We’ll help steer you toward the trip or course that is best for you.

Hope to see you out in the mountains soon!

Jan

As our readers may know avalanche skills training is gaining popularity quite quickly in mountainous western Canada. In fact Canada can now claim to having the most successful recreational avalanche training system in the world. This even includes all of those densely populated European alpine countries. This growth in western Canada has also been seen here on Vancouver Island. Over the past five years Island Alpine Guides has met the growing demand for avalanche training with high quality avalanche courses taught by the islands most experienced mountain professionals. As a result we have become the go to avalanche course provider for just about 100% of individuals and institutions here on the island.

On our courses we are giving people some excellent statistically based tools to assist them in making decisions in avalanche terrain. One of these is the Avaluator Trip Planner. This tool allows the user to cross reference the forecast avalanche danger from an avalanche bulletin with the severity of the terrain on a selection of trips so that they can choose a trip given the current and forecast avalanche conditions that falls within the level of risk that they are comfortable with.

The Avalanche Danger Scale is an international five point scale, details of which are easily found on the avalanche bulletin web site at islandavalanchebulletinl.com or on the Canadian Avalanche Centre web site at avalanche.ca.

The Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) was developed by Parks Canada to help backcountry users assess the severity of the terrain encountered in a given trip. It has three terrain classes that describe the exposure of terrain to potential avalanche hazard. ATES ratings are compiled by professionals who consider eleven weighted terrain parameters in ranking a trip or tour as Simple, Challenging, or Complex. Which finally brings us to what this blog is really about: We have finally managed to make some time to start rating some island trips! You’ll find the first ones that we have done at the island avalanche bulletin web site at the ATES Trip Planning page. Have a look and send us your feedback. Plan your trips carefully and keep checking the site for additions to the list of ATES rated island trips. Also please let us know which island trips interest you so that we know which ones to rate next.

Happy trails!

Jan