Some Vancouver Island Mountain Photographs
         
 

The Behinde and the Golden Hinde, Vancouver Island's highest mountain (July 2000).

The view is from the south.

                 
       
   
Sandy admires the old growth forest in the valley of Tahsish Ck, at the inner end of Kyuquot Sound on northwestern Vancouver Island.
   

For many years I was struck by the trend in mountaineering to do the first ascent of this mountain or that, then the first unsupported ascent, or the first women's ascent, or the first British or Canadian ascent, or the first winter ascent, or the first night-time ascent, or the first ascent in boxing gloves and roller skates, ....

In imagining what my own contribution could be it struck me that I was (and remain) intimately bound up with academia, even to the extent of owning my own (albeit basic and unadorned) academic gown. So I began a series of "first Academic Ascents", the signal feature of which was the wearing of my academic gown on the summit (and occasionally on the approach to the summit).

In this picture I am on top of Alexandra Peak in eastern Strathcona Park. The peak just left of my right boot is the Golden Hinde. Various other peaks have had Academic Ascents, including Elkhorn, Wedge Mt in Garibaldi Park, Mt Matchlee, and some others.

   
  The picture below shows the north face and NW ridge of Mt Merlon (Pk 5900) in the Haihte Range north of Ruggen Mountain. Two friends climbed the ridge in 1995.