Trip Ideas

Trips by Type

• Hiking Trips
• Scrambling Trips
• Mountaineering Trips
• Rock Climbing Trips
• Skiing Trips
• Paddling Trips
• Car Free Trips
• Illegal Trips

Trips by Location

• North Shore North Vancouver, West Vancouver
• Tri-Cities Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody
• Squamish
• Whistler
• Duffey Lake
• Fraser Valley Abbotsford, Langley, Chilliwack
• Coquihalla Summit
• Washington State
• Nearby islands

Guidebooks

For printed guidebooks, see the guidebooks page.

There are a number of good online resources as well:

• bivouac.com
• trailpeak.com

Grading

The usual system for rating a trip's difficulty has two components. One rates how strenuous a trip is, and the other rates technical difficulty. The technical rating is based on the Yosemite Decimal System, extended to include skiing.

For physical difficulty

A: easy - up to 5 hours of travel per day
B: moderate - 5 to 8 hours of travel per day
C: hard - 8 to 12 hours of travel per day, heavy loads, etc
D: extreme - more than 12 hours of travel per day, heavy loads, rough terrain, etc.

For technical difficulty

Class	Hiking/Climbing	Skiing	Glaciers
Class 1	on-trail hiking	trail skiing and only gentle slopes	no glacier travel
Class 2	off trail hiking, rock scrambling. Extremely rugged (north shore) hiking trails may be included here.	skiing moderate slopes	straightforward glacier travel.
Class 3	easy climbing (usually not roped, but pulling on handholds required), glacier travel in broken terrain	skiing sustained steep slopes (30 degrees) with sections that can be very steep (40 degrees)	glacier travel in broken terrain, bridged crevasses, icefalls, etc.
Class 4	moderate climbing, usually with a rope and placing occaisional protection.	Difficult high mountain skiing. Sustained steep slopes combined with crevasse hazards, terrain traps, etc.	Belayed Ice climbing on steep ice slopes placing ice screws for protection
Class 5	technical rock climbing. Difficulty is graded using the YDS system or other rating systems	extreme skiing, may involve rappels over cornices or cliffs	Technical ice climbing. Difficulty is graded using water ice gradings such as WI3, WI4, WI5, etc.
Class 6	aid climbing

Sometimes two technical difficulty grades are used, where a trip has a short difficult section but it mostly at the easier grade. (see Black Tusk Example Below)

Examples

• Black Tusk B2(3)
• Wedge Mountain North Arete C3
• Mount Baker, Coleman-Deming route B2
• Mount Seymour Hike A1
• Alpha Mountain, east ridge C3(5)