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UBC outdoor club members share hikes, memories

seniors still active hikers and outdoor adventure seekers with no sign of slowing down
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take a hike University of BC Varsity Outdoor Club members (from left) Jean Finley, Marilyn Hewgill, Joy Wild and Nina Evans-Locke recall favourite songs from their 1960s vintage VOC songbook at a recent hiking week annual reunion. Photo BY lynn martel

June Wells vividly remembers her first trip with the University of B.C.'s Varsity Outdoor Club to climb Sky Pilot Mountain southeast of Squamish. A native of Britain who attended UBC from 1961 to 1964 as a grad student in chemistry, Wells said she found the VOC to be a warm, welcoming group, even if their adventures weren't always so toasty.

"I came from England because I wanted to climb mountains and I thought I might get a Masters in my spare time," Wells joked. "But on my first VOC trip it was November and I didn't have a tent. There was snow on the ground and the others just lay their tarp down and put their sleeping bags on top. I was horrified! I'd never camped in winter before and here I was with all these Canadians who were sleeping rough in the snow. I hightailed it out of there and bought myself a tent."

Fortunately, that experience didn't scare Wells off VOC trips entirely, and over time she climbed a number of prominent peaks including Mounts Baker and Rainier in Washington, and Mount Tantalus in B.C.'s own Coast Mountains.

Earlier this month she was one of two dozen veteran VOC members who gathered in the Rockies for their annual Larch Lurch hiking week. Ranging in age from mid-60s to 80, the hikers have been gathering at Banff National Park's Castle Mountain Hostel every September since 2003 to admire the region's legendary larch tree needles turning brilliant gold in autumn.

This particular gathering, explained Sandy Robinson, a Parksville, Vancouver Island resident and event organizer, is one of several VOC reunions scheduled annually in different locations in Alberta and B.C.

"We all like hiking and talking," said Robinson, 73, who attended UBC from 1961 thru '66. "We thought we should call this week the Larch Lurch because that's what we do now."

None the worse for wear after more than 50 years on the trails, the participants, most of whom have known each other since their UBC days, put a few more miles on their boots at Sunshine Meadows, Bow Lake, the Lake Louise area and Lake O'Hara in B.C.'s Yoho National Park. Some members are third and fourth-generation members of the VOC, which was founded in 1917.

"This has been a unique experience in my life," said Nanaimo resident Nina Evans-Locke, who at 67 was the group's second-youngest member. Like many of the others, as young UBC student she appreciated the inclusiveness of the club and its solid reputation as safe environment for single women.

"The older, more experienced members knew what they were doing," Evans-Locke said. "I often wonder what my parents thought when we went off hiking for 10 days at Garibaldi Lake. We'd head off right after exams before work started. And they trusted us."

Like several other VOCers, as a student Evans-Locke had a summer job in The Rockies and would partner with UBCers for mountain outings.

"At the end of the spring semester we'd find out who would be working where and line up hiking plans," she said. "I think that's why a lot of us come here, we have great memories."

"The heart of the club is the friendships that were forged," agreed Joy Wild, 67. A UBC student from 1963 thru '67, Wild's daughter is second-generation VOCer. "It's particularly rewarding to come together to hike together and to relive those memories."

Not all those memories are happy ones though; June Wells was one of three at the recent reunion who were pummelled by an avalanche while skiing on Yoho's Whaleback Mountain in 1962.

"There were 13 of us skiing and a cornice came off and swept the whole slope," Wells recalled.

After the skiers dug themselves out, they discovered two were missing. Long before electronic avalanche transceivers, the skiers used ski poles to locate one companion in time to revive him, but by the time they dug up the other, she was dead. Returning that July, the skiers erected a small stone cairn with a brass plaque in tribute to Jean Sharpe. Two years ago, several VOCers revisited the site to pay their respects.

For long-time Whistler resident (and Pique columnist) Karl Ricker, the VOC is indeed like family. A member since 1954, who at 76 was the fourth-oldest of the Larch Lurch group, the best trips were the Garibaldi ski camps, which kicked off immediately after exams, running from one to three weeks.

"In those days there was no highway, you had to take the boat to Squamish, then the train. You'd get off at Garibaldi Station and spend all day hoofing it to Garibaldi Lake," he recalled. The skiers stayed at a cabin on the shore of Garibaldi Lake built by the owner of Queen Charlotte Airlines.

"We'd go on day trips, ski up peaks and ski some easy runs, we'd ski some tough runs and have some long days," Ricker said. "We got to know each other really well."

On one of his longer ski trips, Ricker and fellow Larch Lurch attendee, 79-year old Bert Port and two other VOCers made the inaugural 35-kilometre Spearhead Traverse in 1964, establishing Whistler's first high alpine ski traverse. Members of the VOC, Ricker added, also built the Singing Pass hiking trail. As well as launching several enduring marriages, the VOC helped introduce opportunities for many of its members, including the oldest of the Larch Lurch hikers, Pat Duffy.

Now 80, the North Vancouver resident who graduated from UBC in 1955 recently travelled to Cambodia while working with the International Association for Impact Assessment. After his father died when he was nine, Duffy was encouraged to join the Boy Scouts, which introduced him to the mountains and eventually led him under the wing of some older VOCers.

"It became obvious to me, I'll go to UBC to be with this crowd," Duffy said. "It became my family. Those were the people I connected with and we became life-long friends. If I hadn't been involved in UBC, I wouldn't be where I am now."