Just went to Vancouver around late October and was disappointed to find that it was raining constantly, which prevented me from hiking. Was only able to hike on one day because it did not rain.

So was wondering, when are the best times to go hiking to avoid rain and such?

Edit: Just want to ask also, when is the best time to avoid the crowds?

I am wanting to hike Joffre Lakes on Friday and thinking of taking an evo.

Is this a silly idea? Will the road conditions be bad up there?

Really not wanting to put myself or others in potential danger. Thanks!

Just wanting to see if anyone has any experience doing this as I’m planning to do a solo camp in the next weeks or so. Preferably closer to Vancouver and somewhere transit-friendly. Thank youu

Went hiking for the first time in my life on grouse mountain. Climbed for 40 mins and my legs couldn’t even hold my body weight. I want to conquer this hike in feb, please give me all the advice you can so I can prepare my body at gym for grouse grind.

The injured were told to suck on it. Is it called athenox ? E.g. it was given to a lady who suffered spine injury from a mountain biking accident in S2 episode 1.

Hey everyone! 👋

I wanted to share something I’ve been working on with a few classmates at SFU—Gear2Peer. It’s a peer-to-peer rental marketplace where people can rent and lend outdoor gear within their own communities. It came from a pretty familiar problem: outdoor equipment is expensive, and for anyone who wants to try new activities (skiing, climbing, kayaking, backpacking, etc.), the cost of gear alone is a huge barrier.

On the other hand, many of us have that “collection” of gear piling up in our closets—stuff we don’t use enough but aren’t ready to part with. Gear2Peer connects people who need gear with people who have it to share, helping lower costs for renters and earning some extra $$ for lenders.

Some key benefits we’re aiming for:

• Lower-cost access to gear for anyone who wants to try something new.
• A simple way for gear owners to make some money off equipment they’re not using as often.
• A way to keep gear local and support outdoor communities sustainably.

If you’re into outdoor activities or have gear you could rent out, I’d love for you to check out Gear2Peer.ca and let me know what you think. Constructive feedback and thoughts on what features would be most useful are super welcome!

Also, if you’ve got ideas on how to get the word out, I’m all ears. Thanks so much for reading! 😊

https://www.missioncityrecord.com/obituaries/wulf-carl-alexander-pirang-7591998

Wulf Pirang was a lifelong volunteer whom lived a quite life in the small farming community of Dewdney near Mission, BC. Wulf never sought praise and recognition for his volunteer work so you've likely never heard of him unless you saw his posts on the old ClubTread hiking forum.

Wulf was known for building and maintaining many local trails:

• Dewdney Grind & the various connectors
• Raven's Bluff
• Little Nicomen Peak Loop
• Norrish Canyon Trail & the north canyon
• Sally Creek Trail
• Hole in the Wall Trail
• Statlu Lake Trail
• Mount Saint Benedict
• Davis Lake Bluffs
• Mount Robie Reid
• Kenyon-Stave Divide Route
• Mount Crickmer
• Harrison Grind
• and more more...

Wulf was also known for being a skilled craftsman who was skilled in building bridges and backcountry cabins.

One of Wulf's most audacious bridges was the death defying bridge crossing the Norrish Canyon. Unfortunately this bridge was destroyed a few years ago when an old growth tree fell on it.

One of Wulf's most recognizable bridges is the one on the Statlu Lake Trail.

Unfortunately many of Wulf's trails never received official status from the Province despite efforts. Instead it's up to the community now to maintain the trails and legacy of Wulf. If you hike one of Wulf's trails please bring a clipper and a folding saw to help maintain the trail (cheap option; good option)

Hello my boyfriend and I are looking to do a 1-2 night hiking trip November long weekend. Out plan is to do China beach-bear beach but right now the Juan de Fuca website says it's closed due to the atmospheric river that came through. So we want a back up plan that doesn't include snow, any suggestions?

I'm looking to get some photos of some wild flowers in bloom/fruit + collect a specimen for a class I'm taking. I am aware it is late October which is why I've resorted to reddit..
Doesn't necessarily have to be on a hiking trail– but if anyone knows where I can find 3-5 different species in the same area (relatively) that would be super helpful!!!

Hi yall! Hope everyone is doing well. Just been thinking about where I could experience some winter camping? I wanted to try the harshness of snow camping but somewhere safe, so that I could back out if need be. Probably will be going with my friends! Any suggestions on time/location ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Hi! I just moved back to Vancouver after graduating from university in another part of the country. I’d like to meet more hiking/scrambling/ski touring partners here closer to my own age (I’m 23). A lot of the upcoming VOC trips look interesting and I’d like to get involved but it might be a bit awkward if I was the only non-UBC student in the group. Are there a lot of non-UBC students in the VOC?

https://preview.redd.it/2f46yt0jw7wd1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e3c46449c2ec030e9213850049f1ddc9c101e5d

its the banner image for this blog post: https://www.belairdirect.com/blog/11-beautiful-places-visit-winter-canada

but I can't find a name for this location. It looks like it could be BC or somewhere in the Maritimes.

Ok,

This seems to be popping up again on various places online (probably because they're starting a big marketing push with Subaru). The "What 3 Words" propriety system of geolocation. SAR is against it. I am on record as saying that it will get someone killed one day.

It comes up enough that I've written a rather detailed post compiling all the problems with it, why it should not be used, and why what we have already is far superior. (NOTE it's a bit dated at this point, but it's all just as applicable as when I first wrote it.)

I guess treat this as a FYI.

Questions about the "What 3 Words" location system have increased over the last while, mainly due to the significant PR and promotional efforts of the company. Essentially, the app assigns a unique combination of three words to every 3 square meters in the world, the idea being that individuals who are missing use this app to discover the Three Words at their location and communicate this to others. What follows is my opinion, which I hold honestly and is being made without malice on a matter of public interest. (I say this, as those are elements of the fair comment defense to a claim of defamation; W3W may have a propensity to lawyer up and send cease and desist letters.)

In my opinion, W3W purports to solve a problem that does not exist, and does so in a potentially dangerous way that only interferes with emergency response. SAR teams in BC have examined W3W and do not support its use. SAR teams around the world have reported problems with W3W that have compromised their response. I have yet to read about a SAR team that endorses it. W3W's marketing department may be targeting police and other organizations/people who have limited understanding about wilderness search and rescue. I am not the only one saying this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57156797.amp

What We Have Works BetterThis post explains why W3W simply isn't needed in SAR: https://www.facebook.com/NorthShoreRescue/posts/10158642879211351

In a nutshell, search crews are able to get GPS coordinates off of a missing person's cell phone (assuming they have reception, of course) in about as quick and simple way as you can imagine - search crews send a text message, and the missing person clicks a link in that message. That's it. There are two main approaches for this, one built right into the response software that search teams in BC use (Connect Rocket https://www.connectrocket.com/teams/), and another that is used around the world and is written by a BC SAR member (https://yourlo.ca/tion - it's free, try it!). SARLOC is an equivalent used by UK mountain rescue. Search crews send that link to a missing person, the subject clicks on it, and the search team gets back a reading from the subjects' cell phone with their GPS coordinates, together with error estimate (remember, cell phone GPS receivers are not going to be terribly accurate, especially in remote/mountainous terrain). That's literally all that is involved. Compare that to W3W. This is what they sent to at least one emergency services org on how to coach a subject on how to W3W: https://twitter.com/alexbloor/status/1397488831226683393

Three Words / Those Particular Three Square Meters???So why would you want to use a completely new and propriarity "three word" coordinate system developed by a private for-profit company? A coordinate system that departs from the universally known lat-long (or UTM) system in favour of a closed shop - one where poking around and reverse engineering it is met with legal threats (https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/30/what3words-legal-threat-whatfreewords/)?

W3W says that it will return a result that locates you to a 3 square meter block on the globe. Sounds pretty specific and accurate, doesn't it? Keep in mind though that W3W is pulling your GPS position off of your cell phone GPS receiver (i.e. it's taking the lat-long and putting that through its algorithm to get the 3 words). If you are away from open sky (say, when you are lost in the wilderness...), no cell phone GPS receiver is going to be that accurate. GPS accuracy can easily be +/-20-30+m away (https://blog.oplopanax.ca/2012/11/measuring-smartphone-gps-accuracy/). While not sounding like much, that could easily be the difference between the sides of am impassable canyon. The tools used by SAR (referred to above) return not only GPS coordinates, but also the error range, helping SAR crews determine where/how to respond. W3W returns a 3 square meter location - and says nothing about how far from that particular spot the person might actually be.

Three Words - Say What???So a missing person is supposed to call 911, who will send them a link that they click, their phone loads the W3W map, and the user reads their 3 words back (which are then further passed down the emergency chain). Yes, this is the example W3W gives, in this press release reported as news (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47705912). (And again, their procedure per https://twitter.com/alexbloor/status/1397488831226683393)

To cover off the obvious, if the 3 words are being read by the missing subject and are relayed by mouth...-it's very easy to mis-hear the words, especially if spoken by someone who is ESL or who speaks heavily accented English-the more in the chain (missing person to 911 to SAR manager is probably the best case scenario), the more likely a transcription error or mispronunciation will occur-in the wilderness cell reception is going to be spotty at best; will the W3W map even be able to load? (The tech that SAR uses is data minimal) -W3W is very Western-centric, and impossible to use by those who cannot read English (听不懂英语). Yes, W3W is apparently available in 37 different languages. (So each block actually has 37 different 3 word combos?) Good luck communicating that back and forth and then transcribing....

Let's hope you don't accidentally make a word a plural by adding an S (or emergency services mishears you - bad connection, accent, mispronunciation, etc.). W3W 3 word combos that differ from only one word being plural or not (i.e. ending in S or not) can be quite close - close enough to not make it an absurdity, but enough to royally screw up a rescue response. https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1385891425108250626

These concerns are more than just academic - W3W related errors have already occurred in SAR, delaying and possibly compromising responses: https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2021/05/18/swaledale-team-passes-incident-to-cave-rescue-after-what3words-location-error https://keswickmrt.org.uk/rescue/base-brown-9/ https://twitter.com/Anonymaps/status/1388096422160080900 https://twitter.com/ScottishMR/status/1400093860882178049 https://twitter.com/northdotwales/status/1429107273826283522

And earlier in June, 2021, here in BC we had an instance where a lost hiker gave What 3 Words words to 911 dispatch; when plotted by SAR, it placed the person in Western Australia. (SAR obtained the subject's GPS coordinates from their phone using standard SAR methods without issue.) In the fall of 2021, a BC SAR team was sent km's in the wrong direction thanks to W3W. This is actually a bigger problem than the June/21 situation - if the W3W coordinate a BC team gets half way around the world, you know it's wrong and you don't follow it; if the W3W coordinate is pretty close and the area generally makes sense, you will be sent on a wild goose chase. What happens when it's a situation where minutes count?

Three Words - These 3 or Those 3? The word list used by W3W is apparently about 40,000 words long. As you can imagine, it is of critical importance that words used cannot be easily confused/misinterpreted.

W3W claims that user mistakes - such as making a singular word plural or adding an extra character, or confusing homophones - would result in a location so far away that it would be readily apparent. Researcher Andrew Tierney has looked into this and his results are very concerning for emergency response. Take a look at how many confusing word sets there are in the W3W database, and how many confusing 3 word addresses there are within just a 5 square km area (of course, having confusing addresses relatively close by is much more dangerous than having them half way around the world from each other): https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/

For the more techy inclined:https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1387164507705860097

Again, error results that are relatively close to each other are a significant problem as compared to error results that are half way around the world from each other. Despite claims from W3W, the close-by errors are much more frequent.

Other criticisms of W3W are discussed here: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/03/why-bother-with-what-three-words/

The following contains a good overview of the situation as well:https://twitter.com/alexbloor/status/1445686811972411398

In sum, no SAR anywhere seems to support W3W. It solves a problem that doesn't exist, as there are technologies that do what W3W purports to do in a better, less confusing, less risky way.

I want to do WFA... Any recommendations on who to go with? Thanks!

I planned on doing Mt. Strachan and reaching the summit just before sunrise but with the crazy rain it’s making me apprehensive. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I have all the needed equipment btw.

Edit 2: I will wait until next weekend assuming the weather chills out, thanks for the replies.

I'm new to the city and have been backpacking here and there by myself. Wondering if there are any groups/socials for this activity to meet like minded people?

I know there are lots of hiking groups etc but they seem to cater to basic stuff like Norvan Falls. Curious if anyone knows of anything especially during these off months.

If you are planning a hike for tomorrow please be aware that just because you crossed a creek safely once on the way out, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to cross it on the way back. Also be aware of slides or flooding on trails that follow parallel by a river or creek.

Also consider that if you do have an injury or get trapped by the storm, SAR likely won’t be able to reach you for quite some time.

At elevation it has been snowing all day. I’m up in the Whistler backcountry and looking at 6 inches of snow on the ground currently with a lot more coming.

Found Monday morning during downpour - no one was around. Provide general description of contents in DM and we’ll coordinate meetup! Hoping to get back to owner…

Basically just the title :) will continue to check online but wanting some in-person input so I plan in advance for what to expect RE snow, mud etc for a booked overnighter this weekend.

(Kindly, PS: i am experienced in the backcountry and have my AST1 - I am able to gauge safety of weather conditions etc)!

Hey, I’d like to find a high quality map of SWBC to hang on a wall in my house. Ideally, north to Pemberton and east to Coquihalla summit, with some mountains and lakes labelled. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi, the fire road that goes through Malcolm knapp and golden ears trail and goes towards aloutte mountain - about a km past the switchback trail, there’s a steep downward trail that heads down towards water, and has a broken shovel head at top as a marker. No name. I thought it was an mtb trail, but not doable. Any knowledge of this. Hard to see from fire road there’s another broken shovel on tree further down. Looks unkept.

Hi all! I’m planning on doing the Baden Powell trail from Horseshoe Bay to Eagle Bluffs. However, since I can’t drive, I’m thinking of either returning the same way I came from Eagle Bluffs back down to Horseshoe Bay, or continuing from Eagle Bluffs down to Grouse Mountain and taking the bus back from there.

Which would you all recommend? I can’t find much information about the trail from Eagle Bluffs to Grouse online, and don’t know how well maintained the Baden Powell is in general (especially with the downpour of rain we’re getting next week).

Also, how technical and well marked is the trail in general? I’m planning on doing it solo.

For reference on experience and fitness, within the past week I’ve done Mt. Harvey and Goat mountain on Grouse via the BCMC (taking the gondola back down) solo recently in less than 6 and 4 hours respectively, and recently did garibaldi lakes via Taylor meadows in less than 4 hours as well. I didn’t find any of these trails to be a major problem technically.

Edit: also, if I go to grouse through the Baden Powell trail, will I pass by the black mountain summit, or is that a separate turnoff? I would also like to do that if it’s on the way, but since I’m going solo, I wouldn’t want too bite off too much if it’s out of the way on my first trip.