Tareef's Mountain Misadventures

hiking

Mount Gardner - August 10 2024

The high point of Bowen Island, this makes for a quick trip on a nice trail. The north summit is where the views are, but the south is higher. Both are worth visiting.

hiking

Yellow Aster Butte - August 5 2024

A straightforward hike with an excellent trail to the top, and to campsites nearby. Best combined with Tomyhoi Peak for a productive day out

hiking

Tomyhoi Peak - August 5 2024

A fun, if somewhat overblown (with respect to difficulty) scramble with a very well-maintained approach, good camping, and not-too-shabby prominence either

hiking

Newcastle Ridge - August 3 2024

A more obscure but prominent peak north of Sayward, BC. The small bushwhack is well worth it for great views and a gorgeous alpine filled with tarns and rolling hills

hiking

Hkusam Mountain - August 3 2024

The lowest and easiest of the 4 ultras on Vancouver Island. This is a short and sweet objective with great views and great prominence for the stats nerds. Definitely worth a visit!

hiking

Mount Brew - July 28 2024

A decently long hike up to a very prominent mountain looking over Lillooet and The Duffey. The trail is a bit primitive, and there's a little scrambling, but a wonderful ridge to a p1000 peak is definitely worth it

scrambling

The Copilot - July 27 2024

A fun, slightly more challenging sub-peak of Sky Pilot in Squamish. Plus, if you're willing to haul some skis up, you can get some surprisingly late-season turns!

hiking

Train Glacier Traverse - July 21 2024

A fun little traverse with quick alpine access and good scrambling in Pemberton above the popular Semaphore Lakes area, popular amongst hikers and campers

hiking

Evans Peak - July 14 2024

A small and easily-accessed peak in Golden Ears Provincial Park, this is a digestible, though somewhat steep, hike for those not looking for a full-day outing. It can be combined with other mountains to get a longer outing, though.

hiking

Beauty Peak - July 13 2024

A fairly short, slightly bushy side-trip along the Crown Mountain trail. Access is a bit of a grey area, and while the views are good, they're not unique, so this is only for the ardent peakbaggers out there

hiking

Crown Mountain - July 13 2024

The high point of the Grouse Mountain group of mountains, Crown is deceptively difficult due to the ups/downs required to get there (especially if you don't take the gondola up). The standard route is fairly non-technical, but harder routes are also available

scrambling

Canadian Border Peak - July 7 2024

A fun, challenging scramble on the northern of the two Border Peaks, which straddle the US-Canada border near Chilliwack, BC and Glacier, WA

hiking

Church Mountain - July 6 2024

A short and sweet hike to a nice viewpoint, and a fun scramble to the true summit for the adventure-inclined, with lots of options to make things as challenging as desired

hiking

Broken Top - July 1 2024

A fun scramble peak, though with a bit of a long approach. Doing it in spring on skis can make that approach fun instead of tedious, though we were a bit too late for that

hiking

Lava Butte (Oregon) - June 30 2024

A small cinder cone south of Bend. It isn't particularly impressive, but it offers an easy summit for die-hard peakbaggers, and an accessible viewpoint for everyone else

ski mountaineering

Mount Bachelor - June 30 2024

A nice, fairly prominent Cascade Volcano near Bend, Oregon. The easiest way up is to shell out for a lift ticket during ski season, but coming up for a late June ski tour is a pretty cool option too (and cheaper!)

ski mountaineering

Mount Ronayne (Y Couloir) - June 28 2024

A fun ski objective that holds snow quite late into the year, and is a p600 to boot for the prominence-oriented peakbagger with a penchant for skiing

hiking

Sawchuk Peak - June 21 2024

A first internet ascent for me, otherwise a short (if you can drive all the way) and steep bushwhack+scramble with some pretty decent views

hiking

Brohm Hill - June 20 2024

A small, forested, bushwhacky bump near Brohm Lake, not worth visiting unless you're a dedicated peakbagger in need of a quick+dirty p100

hiking

South and Middle Needles (North Vancouver) - June 16 2024

2/3 of the needles (ran out of time), a classic ridge hike+scramble in North Vancouver, commonly chained with Lynn Peak in a long hike, or done as a bike+hike by approaching on the Seymour Valley Bike Trail

trashbagging

Mount Lolo - June 10 2024

A p600 just northeast of Kamloops, but with a rather uninteresting ascent (it can be driven probably even in a 2WD vehicle, with a minute or two of tress-walking to get the true summit)

ski mountaineering

McCrae Peak - June 9 2024

A fun ski peak with some spicy scrambling (at least in shoulder season) to top out. p600 for those who are into that. Plus, the road goes up super high so you can skin to/from the car even in June!

hiking

Wild Horse Peak - June 2 2024

A small sub-peak on Wild Horse Ridge, which is the way up to Mount Kerr, the top of the Marble Range near Lillooet, BC. A nice tack-on peak to the day for the ardent peakbagger

hiking

Mount Kerr - June 2 2024

A scenic p1000 peak at the top of the Marble Range and the so-named Provincial Park. Or so I hear, we went up on a rather stormy day. A nice, straightforward hike for those seeking a pleasant day out, or something to do on a less-pleasant one that isn't technical

hiking

Bear Mountain - June 1 2024

A simple but long hike near Harrison Hot Springs with decent views along the way. Bikes would definitely be the best way to have fun here, though