Elevation Gain: 1,724m
Distance: 17km
Total Time: 7 hours 26 minutes
Date: November 29th, 2025
Trevor and I found ourselves free to tackle some two day objectives or take a trip further afield during the last weekend of November. Naturally, the weather wasn’t really playing in our favour but Vancouver Island looked promising. I had tried three separate times to go there this year and each time I was rebuffed by weather or ferries. Finally with the shoulder season lull a reservation could be placed on short notice. Trevor is much more knowledgeable on the Island than I and he had a short list of interesting summits to ascend. We decided to take on two separate areas and play it by ear. We’d use the first day to hike up Klitsa Mountain and get a sense of the snowpack and then we could decide where to go from there. Our ambitious goal was Alexandra Peak, but we were banking on the snowline being high enough to make it happen.
As it were, we headed onto the ferry the night before and found an amenable camping spot along Sproatt Lake. The following morning, armed with e-bikes, we made our way towards Klitsa Mountain via South Taylor Main on the north side. As we hit a rougher spur road we made the call to park and bike the rest of the way. This turned out well as there was a washout just a short ways down.
I struggled up the steep hill (on an e-bike too I know), but we eventually reached the end of the bike-able extent and carried on by foot. Someone had built a phenomenal trail and we just followed this all the way up to a creek crossing at about 400m. Here someone had constructed a novel cable crossing system and this was the highlight of the hike for sure. We both took turns crossing and then trudged our way up the rest of the trail.
Above the first lake, coincidentally called First Lake, we hit continuous snow and donned snow shoes shortly after. We ascended up through several short steep sections but it was otherwise easy enough. At about 1350m we saw the final section up to the summit. With a lack of foresight we took the steeper of the two lines and found sugary snow on icy rock and barely scraped our way up. To our left was an easy line through the Krummholz which we agreed to take on the way down.
After our short escapade we stood on the summit. The rugged nature of the Island’s peaks are one of the highlights of visiting the range. The low lights being the pilfering of the forests a la open cut blocks. I’m not anti-logging for what it’s worth, but if there’s a balance Vancouver Island isn’t it.
We descended down an easier line on the way back and generally picked a much more optimal route all the way back to First Lake. After we reached the car we headed into Port Alberni to sample the fine selection of restaurants before camping out again near Sproatt Lake. Once we saw the snow line at 800m on the roads we knew Alexandra Peak was out and so we decided to check out 5040 Peak instead.
