It’s done!!! On 26 July 2013, I reached the summit of the Carstensz Pyramid, the highest point in Oceania at 4884m. That makes 5 of the 7 summits completed with only Mt Vinson (Antarctica) and Everest to go. After a grueling 8 day trek through dense and muddy jungle to reach base camp, we made a 15 hour summit attack that ended in success for all 7 climbers. With the combined trek out, it took a totally of 15 days of pure mental grit living in a muddy tent without showers, wa

n late August I revisited a hike that I haven’t done since my days as a boy scout. Back then, we did the trip over the course of a week. This time around, I attempted it in 2.5 days with friends Bruce and Dennis. Strathcona Provincial Park is one of Vancouver Island’s premier hiker friendly and easily accessible parks. It offers a number of long multi-day hiking opportunities as well as day hiking. This time around, our goal was to summit one of the more popular peaks in the

August long weekend was another great camping trip with family and friends. Elaine, Brian, Dave and I were up to the task of hiking Cape Scott Provincial Park at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The key to this trip was the reward of a beautiful beach campground after a long trek in. It’s nice because this limits the number of people that can potentially mess up the beach and thereby preserves the area for the future. This is one of my favorite camping

Starting to move higher up the mountain, which means less air and more fatigue. 06 Jun 12 (Day 2): Today we moved from Ski Hill (7,800 ft) to Kahiltna pass (10,320 ft), a 750 m elevation gain. The slope up itself is described as a mild incline that would be boring at any ski resort but when you’re pulling 150 lbs of gear up, you start cursing the guy who said that. Disaster struck after we had been charging hard up the slope and made 800 ft of vertical progress. Bob’s sled ca

After a little bit of a blog hiatus and much needed body recovery time, I’m back and ready to start talking a little bit about the trip up Denali, the highest mountain in North America. Overall, it was long, tiring and cold but I’m definitely happy to have had the chance to climb such a challenging mountain with an experienced group of guys. Because jamming the entire expedition into 1 post would be way too much, I’ve decided to break it up over the next couple blog posts. I

During my Jasper trip I had the opportunity to use a unique new form of water purification called the SteriPEN to make drinking water from the local streams and creeks. This high tech device forgoes filtered pumps or iodine tablets and instead using ultraviolet light to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses, making virtually any water safe to drink. It’s really easy to use. How easy? Simple fill up your water bottle with up to 1 L of water, press the button, insert the SteriPEN

For 3 days in August, I was fortunate enough to be able to go backpacking in Jasper National Park for a 48 km trek with my sister, Elaine, and her husband Brian. Touted as one of the most scenic trails in all of Canada’s national parks, this one did not disappoint. What was especially fun was that over 2/3rds of the trail is above the treeline, providing spectacular views along the way, as well as helping with what I like to call mosquito avoidance (I really hate mosquitoes B