The Lions by Paul Hazon

Photo of the Week: Week 3, 2012

This image was taken from Cleveland Dam in North Vancouver by TrekBC member Paul Hazon. The Lions are the most iconic of all Vancouver landmarks and are a popular hiking destination for locals and tourists during the summer months.

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Parks Canada has abandoned its feasibility assessment, and is stepping away from plans to create a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

On its website, Parks Canada says it “respects the position of the Government of British Columbia regarding the creation of a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen Valley and recognizes that it cannot proceed without the support of the Government of British Columbia.”

For Parks Canada to create a national park, it needs the support of federal, provincial and First Nations governments.

The controversial project was first pitched in 2003 and has been hotly debated ever since but in December, B.C. Minister of Environment Terry Lake announced the province would not support the proposed park.

“While the feasibility study determined a national park reserve was feasible, it also recognized there was a large contingent of people opposed to the initiative,” said Lake in a letter to park proponents.

“The Province is not convinced there is enough local support to move forward with this proposal at this time.”

‘An opportunity that cannot be lost’

Chloe O’Loughlin, the director of terrestrial conservation for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in B.C., said she’s alarmed by the news.

The Pacific rattlesnake is one of 56 threatened and endangered species whose habitat would have been protected by the proposed national park.

“This is a huge opportunity for the area, for the region, from a conservation perspective, from a business perspective, from a tourism perspective. It is an opportunity that cannot be lost,” said O’Loughlin

“It is one of the most endangered areas in British Columbia.”

The sagebrush desert ecosystem is home to 56 threatened or endangered species, including the Pacific rattlesnake, Flammulated owl and the Great Basin spadefoot. The region has the highest concentration of threatened and endangered species in Canada.

A public opinion poll commissioned by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in May 2010 showed 63 per cent of the 405 people surveyed in the South Okanagan-Similkameen supported Parks Canada’s plan for a national park.

‘No national park’

But the plan wasn’t popular with hunters and recreational ATVers, who vocally protested the idea and erected signs across the region that read “No national park.”

Signs reading protesting a proposed national park line the highway in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

“I think it’s a very small group of individuals who are actually, seems to me, stopping the whole process. It’s a very small group of very loud people who want to be able to hunt and in a national park you’re not allowed to hunt,” said O’Loughlin.

But Oliver orchardist Greg Norton says it’s more than that.

He says the park would have taken ranch land away from producers and allowed deer populations to get out of control, affect orchardists with property near the park.

Parks Canada said if the province changes its mind and decides it does want to support the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen National Park, Parks Canada would recommence its feasibility assessment, but until then, “will not publicly engage stakeholders on the proposal at this time.”

Source: CBC News

If you’re reading this on the TrekBC site you will by now have noticed a new toolbar situated at the bottom of the page. This is a useful new hub designed to quickly connect you with the latest news and announcements from TrekBC as well as our presence on other social networks.

So, without further ado, let’s have a quick look at some of the new features:

Community Announcements

This feature has been moved from the top of the page to the new toolbar. In the past we’ve posted various announcements related to planned system outages and new website features. This will continue from now on in the toolbar.

If a new announcement is available it will appear automatically on the screen when you log into the community. To view the message again simply click on the Announcement icon in the toolbar. This is located at the very left side of the toolbar.

 Online Member Stats

Looking at the toolbar you will be able to see how many “happy hikers” are currently using the TrekBC website features. Clicking on this button opens a popup box which details the exact pages which are currently being viewed and a map of everywhere in the World somebody has visited from in the last 24 hours. You can zoom in on the map and even open it in full screen mode for greater detail.

Recent Posts

Click here to show a popup box containing the last 10 posts in the Community Magazine. Simple.

Share

If you’re enjoying the content on your screen you may choose to share it with friends and other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. To use this feature all you have to do is click on the “share” button in the toolbar and select the network you would like to share with. You will need to login to that network and follow the instructions provided. It only takes a moment to do this and helps increase awareness about TrekBC and our wonderful community of members!

Bookmarks

This is a terrific new feature at TrekBC. Using your account at Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MySpace or LinkedIn you can store bookmarks created on the TrekBC Community and share them with your chosen platform. This way, your bookmarked pages are easily accessible through Facebook etc. also!

To use the feature simply visit the page you wish to bookmark and click on the “my bookmarks” button in the toolbar. Follow the simple instructions and you’re done in just a few quick clicks!

The bookmarks feature is a great way to quickly access avalanche updates, groups you are a member of and any other pages you frequently visit at TrekBC!

Automatic RSS Newscast

This is our favourite of all the new features! What this basically does is take the most recent news from the Community Magazine and turn it into a really cool newscast for easy viewing. If you see something you like, click on it and view as normal! See below for an example of this feature in action!

RSS Feed Subscription

Have our latest news delivered directly to your email or RSS feed reader. Simply click on the RSS icon the toolbar to get started!

Facebook Page

Keep up-to-date with our latest Facebook Page posts. Click on the button in the toolbar to launch our Facebook Page in a popup window. From here you can “like us” and view our most recent updates.

Twitter Page

Like the Facebook Page, this button will open a popup window containing our Twitter Page!

Chat

Connect with other users in the chat room! Connect via the various social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This allows your friends on these networks to see you’re chatting at TrekBC and encourage them to come and join you there!

Self-arrest is a mountaineering related maneuver in which a climber who has fallen and is sliding down a snow or ice slope arrests (stops) the slide by himself or herself without recourse to a rope or other belay system.

Self-arrest can be performed by using an ice axe or by using the climber’s hands, feet, knees and elbows. Self-arrest with an ice axe is a difficult maneuver, but without it the probability of effectively arresting a fall is greatly diminished.

The goal of self-arrest is to stop safely and quickly in a secure and stable position on the snow. If you’ve performed this technique correctly you should end up lying face down in the snow with the ice axe beneath you, feet pointed downhill.

• Your hands should hold the axe with a solid grip. One hand must use the self-arrest grasp, thumb under the adze and fingers over the pick, while the other hand should be on the shaft just above the spike.
• The pick will be pressed into the snow just above your shoulder so that the adze is near the angle formed by the neck and shoulder. This part is crucial as you cannot exert sufficient force on the pick if the adze is not in the correct position.
• The shaft must cross your chest diagonally and be held close to the opposite hip. Gripping the shaft near the end prevents that hand from acting as a pivot around which the spike can swing to jab the thigh. (A short axe is held the same way, although the spike will not reach the opposite hip.)
• You must press your chest and shoulder strongly down on the ice-axe shaft. It is your body weight falling and pressing on the axe, rather than just arm strength driving the axe into the snow, that results in a successful self-arrest.
• Your head should be face down, not looking up the slope. The brim of your helmet should be in contact with the slope. This head positioning prevents the shoulders and chest from lifting up and keeps the weight over the adze.
• Arch your spine slightly away from the snow. This position is critical because it places the bulk of your weight on the axe head and on your toes or knees, which are the points that dig into the snow to force a stop. Also pull up on the end of the shaft, which starts the arch and rolls weight toward the shoulder by the axe head.
• Keep your knees are against the surface of the snow/ice. This will help to slow your fall in softer snow. On harder surfaces, your knees will have little stopping power. They can however help stabilize your body position.
• Your legs should be stiff and spread apart, toes digging in. This will help prevent your body spinning around to point you headfirst down the hill. If you are wearing crampons, bend your knees and keep your feet well up off the surface of the snow until you’ve nearly come to a halt. A crampon point could catch on hard snow or ice and flip you over backward.

There are multiple ways to self-arrest depending on the position you are in when you initially fall. Read the full article at TrekBC and discover all the ways you can save yourself when the inevitable happens on your next winter trip to the mountains!

Ideas and diagrams taken from Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills

The Black Tusk is a remarkably abrupt pinnacle of volcanic rock located in the Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia. At 2315 metres above sea level, the upper spire is visible from a great distance in all directions. It is particularly noticeable from the Sea-to-Sky Highway just south of Whistler. Distinctive and immediately identifiable, the Black Tusk is among the best known mountains in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The volcano is part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt which is a segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, but it is not within the geographic boundary of the Cascade Range.

The Black Tusk’s lower flanks and south summit are a popular backcountry hiking and scrambling destination. Most hikers approach from the Taylor Meadows campground to the south near Garibaldi Lake, although there is a second route from the north that travels by way of Helm Lake. A third option approaches from the west, from a microwave relay tower located at about 6000 ft (1800 m) on the western flank, which is reached by a dirt road from the Cheakamus River valley.

The upper summit area at the top of the lava column can only be reached by scrambling up a short but exposed rock chimney to reach the south summit. The true summit, only about a meter higher, lies just to the north across a precipitous drop. It is rarely climbed, requiring a rappel of about 30 ft (10 m) into a notch followed by a loose and dangerous re-ascent up the crumbling lava. On the northern side of the north summit stands an isolated and intimidating rock formation known as the “Bishop’s Mitre”, which is rumoured to be unclimbed.

This is a long hike and by no means an easy one. You can do it in a day but camping overnight at Taylor Meadows or Garibaldi Lake is recommended. If you do decide to go for it in one day make sure you allow yourself about 10 hours for the round trip. It’s only a 5 hour round trip from Taylor Meadows so it’s preferable for most adventurers to make a weekend out of it.

So that’s a quick look at the Black Tusk! You can view photos and video, check out reviews, and read much more in our full Black Tusk trail guide!

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

Visits to Canadian national parks and historic sites are in decline. So much so that Parks Canada have hired a consultant to help try and bring back the masses.

This move results from a need to generate income without having to raise the park user fees. A tricky situation when you’re dealing with a steady drop-off in visitors.

A statement of work illustrates how Toronto based marketing firm Veritas is going to be paid $395,000 over a two year period to advise Parks Canada on how it can better promote it’s brand and numerous attractions.

Parks Canada is looking for a 10% increase in visits by 2015 and it plans to target major urban areas, chiefly Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, in order to achieve this.

According to the statement of work “The degree of knowledge is very low in these three cities, particularly among young Canadians and immigrants”.

Parks Canada… What’s That?

Focus groups found that many participants had never even heard of Parks Canada and didn’t know it existed. It also wasn’t clear about what exactly Parks Canada does and why national parks are established in the first place.

The future is looking bleak for Parks Canada. In 2009, the federal government announced a two-year fee freeze at all Parks Canada sites. This has since been extended to 2013 for the general public and 2014 for commercial tour groups.

Parks Canada manages 42 national parks and 167 national historic sites. They only charge fees at 125 of these locations. Those fees are collected for park admission, historic site entry and permits for fishing and campfires.

Visits Down

The number of visitors venturing into the parks has fallen by 7% from 21.8 million in 2006-7 to 20,2 million in 2010-11.

The agency must now find a new way to generate revenues.

Parks Canada has also paid for another separate study. A $50,000  contract, in addition to the Veritas one, has been commissioned to identify potential new sources of income.

Another idea on the table is a clothing line featuring the Parks Canada beaver logo. The company that wins that contract will design the clothing for sale in national parks and the internet with Parks Canada receiving a royalty or revenue share.

Mount Garibaldi by Paul Hazon

Photo of the Week: Week 2, 2012

This image was taken from the Sea to Sky Highway just north of Squamish by TrekBC member Paul Hazon. Mount Garibaldi is an iconic landmark on the drive north from Vancouver and can be viewed in all it’s glory from multiple angles around the Squamish area. One of the best views is from Paul Ridge on the trail to Elfin Lakes!

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In days, the Harper Government could privatise a section of Jasper National Park and let an American-owned company blast a 300m metal walkway into our World Heritage mountains — but Jasper’s Superintendent has the power to stop them.

The plan would not only spur development, but would give an American company the right to charge each of us for entry into parts of Jasper park. Greg Fenton, a local Jasperite, has the ability to stop the privatisation of the park he grew up in and loves – but the company’s massive lobbying effort means he will face brutal pressure to sell out this natural wonder. Let’s send him a tidal wave of support and give him the strength he needs to stand up to corporate power and save our Rocky Mountain sanctuary.

Private international companies should not be profiting off our national treasures. Click to ensure our parks stay in public hands – sign the petition calling on Fenton to save Jasper National Park before it’s too late.

If approved, the 300m metal walkway over the world-famous Icefields Parkway will be built by Brewster Canada — a premium travel company that is an 80% owned subsidiary of the American-based company VIAD. Both are fully profit-driven companies that value their bottom line over the preservation of our natural heritage. Though the initial development project is small, this decision sets a dangerous precedent, allowing the government to sell off pieces of our most valuable and beautiful landscape.

VIAD and Brewster have hired expensive heavyweight lobbyists to win over the Harper Government and Jasper National Park. But our voices, brought together from across Canada, can drown out the dangerous message coming from these corporate lobbyists.

Our call only needs to reach Greg Fenton, the Park’s Superintendent and the person who has the final say on the approval of the project. With thousands of Canadians pounding on the door of Fenton’s office already, this is our chance to ensure that Jasper does not set a precedent allowing commercial operators to convert our National Parks into profit-making attractions.

If you’ve visited Mount Seymour recently you will no doubt have noticed that things have changed a little bit when it comes to parking for backcountry users. In the past, parking lots on Seymour were shared between guests of Mount Seymour Resorts Ltd. and BC Parks backcountry users. Now however, the main parking lots are only available to those who have purchased a day use or season pass for downhill skiing and Mount Seymour’s own snowshoe facilities.

So where does that leave the backcountry users? Well, if you plan to use the hiking trails offered by BC Parks you must now park in Lot 5. If you’re scratching your head trying to remember where Lot 5 is, I can tell you that it’s not actually a parking lot. Lot 5 is angular road-side parking on Mount Seymour Road that runs downhill from just north of the tobogganing area.

This of course means that there’s a bit of a walk to get to the trailheads. The road and parking areas today were wet and slushy and my group all had wet feet before we even put our snowshoes on. The lots were all actually full so we didn’t have a choice anyway when it came to parking but had we have been there earlier we would still have been required to park down the hill even though the upper lots were practically empty. If you decide to ignore the restrictions? Towed!

So I ask the question, what do you think to these parking restrictions? Personally I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Even parking down the hill you are only required to walk a few hundred extra meters to access the trails. I assume Mount Seymour Resorts Ltd. controls the parking lots and therefore has the right to keep them for paying guests. But why now? Why has this not been the case in the past? Does it have something to do with the fact that BC Parks are no longer charging for parking? Were BC Parks leasing the lot from Mount Seymour Resorts Ltd and now the parking is free they’ve given up their rights? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Today’s Community spotlight highlights a great feature on the TrekBC website that is little known about by our members. The feature we want to look at here is RSS Feeds.

Chances are you have an RSS feed reader on your computer or phone. This allows you to add a feed of updates from your favourite websites and blogs. Whenever those sites are updated you will receive a notification through your reader which includes a brief excerpt of the content within. If you choose to, you can then click on the link to read the content in full.

TrekBC has an RSS feed reader built into the community and it can be accessed from the main menu bar. From there you can visit the feed home page, add a feed, browse all feeds or view the feeds you’ve added in the past. There are a number of feeds available for viewing including up-to-date avalanche reports, outdoor store news & updates, personal member blogs and much more! As a TrekBC member you are free to add your own feeds at any time!

At this time of year the RSS Feeds feature is particularly useful for checking up on local avalanche conditions for your hiking destination. To speed up the process even further we have a favourites feature on the site that allows you to add any page from the Community to a private list of preferred content. To add a page to your favourites list simply hover your mouse over the star on the right side of the browser window. An ‘add to favourites’ box will open and all you have to do is click on it. To quickly access the content again in the future you simply need to choose ‘my favourites’ from the ‘favourites’ link in your personal menu bar at the very top of the page. Easy.

So go ahead and check out the RSS Feeds feature in the TrekBC Community. If you have a feed from your own blog we’d love to read it so why not add it for all our members to enjoy!