De Cosmos 1

In 1858 Amor De Cosmos (born William Alexander Smith) moved to Vancouver Island as a fledgling activist and photographer; between 1863 and 1882 he contributed significantly both politically and socially to development of our province.  He held office in three different levels of government – with Vancouver Island (when it was still a British colony), the Legislation of British Columbia, and after BC joined Canada in 1871 he sat  in the federal parliament.  He is remembered as being the eccentric politician who started the Times Colonist (then the British Colonist) and for his work towards the unionization of the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Over his later years he became more unconventional; it is reported that he was terrified of electricity and eventually turned to alcoholism.  He attempted to return to politics in 1895 but was declared insane by the state.

How fitting then, that on Jan 8, 2009 Greg and Erik decided to attempt the mountain named after him.

Mt De Cosmos (1355m)  is on the North side of the Nanaimo River and accessed through the Nanaimo Lakes area.  A long but straightforward day trip under pleasant summer conditions is made more difficult by the season.  The access road is gated and currently very snowy.  Our two intrepid adventures parked at the gate after a brief foray onto the unplowed road.  Getting stuck twice in the first 12m was enough warning; they got out and walked.

The weather was promising and the 2ish km to the turnoff passed quickly due to the well packed wheel ruts made by some kind of monster truck.  Conditions changed near the trailhead when clouds quickly blew in and the rain began.  Softshell jackets and nylon pants quickly turned to full goretex suits.  Thanks to Arc’teryx the boys stayed dry.

Assuming the logging roads would be the quickest way up, Greg and Erik began what they assumed would be a relatively fast hike.  They soon realized that a) leaving the snowshoes in the car was a mistake and that b) GPS can sometimes be wrong – the road they had chosen was decomissioned and became heavily overgrown a few hundred meters in.

After a few more hours of stumbling through waist deep snow with a break for some warm soup it was time to admit that they had been beaten.  Light was about to fade, the weather was getting progressivly worse and Greg was caught in a freak Indiana Jones inspired snow accident.   This is another trip for another time.