Greetings ACC Vancouver Island section members.
Your Summer Camp Committee is in the process of finding a summer camp location for 2022 and we would really appreciate your thoughts by December 15th.
Finding a camp location that offers all members everything that they would like is, well, challenging – we have some walkers, some scramblers, some folks who love glacial travel, and some folks who love rock.
Camps need to be very near a water supply, ideally near snow for refrigeration, preferably in an isolated spot because we like our privacy. Being near a tarn or lake is a big bonus as many of the club members have this strange affinity for jumping into cold waterbodies. We seek locations that are not too far to access by helicopter from the nearest car accessible logging road, (a flight of less than 30 km is preferred), and it has worked well if the staging area where we meet the helicopter is no more than a long day’s drive from Victoria.
We need your input. We would really appreciate your suggestions for a Summer Camp 2022 location.
Three suggestions have thus far been made:
- A return to Athelney Pass,
- The Mt. Seaton/Soprano Lake area,
- The Tolkien Range north of Birkenhead Provincial Park.
A few comments about Athelney Pass, the Mt. Seaton/Soprano Lake area and the Tolkien Range follow. If anyone can provide additional commentary to the following it would be greatly appreciated.
Athelney Pass
Approximate location: 50° 46’ 39.25 N, 123° 21’ 49.81 W Camp elevation in alpine.
The club camped here in about 2011.
Please see the following for more information on Athelney Pass:
Athelney Pass | Varsity Outdoor Club
You can also find more information on Athelney Pass with a Google search.
Mt. Seaton/Soprano Lake Area
50° 34’ 32.28N, 122° 17’ 36.44 W elevation 6860 feet
There are lots of objectives close by, with peaks and ridges surrounding the potential camp within 1 - 2 km and many peaks, ridges and lakes beyond between 2 - 6 km and beyond for the adventurous.
The Tolkien Range north of Birkenhead Provincial Park
50° 31’ 20.43 N 122° 41’ 20.90" W elevation 6670 ft
Though it looks lovely, there might be an issue with this location as UBC’s Varsity Outdoor Club has a cabin in this general area. At the moment we do not know how well used this cabin is. Also, a bear feeding area is located near the VOC cabin and the Varsity Outdoor Club close their cabin from August 15 - October to give the bears room and to help prevent any bear-human encounters.
Please send your thoughts and comments to summercamps@accvi.ca by December 15th .
Looking forward to your input.
Thank you
Laura Darling, Liz Williams and Jeff Beddoes
Summer Camp Committee