This post is on Damian’s trip in alpine mountain camping, but this also touches upon issues on climate change. As I’m sure most of you know, British Colombia took a beating of a heatwave in the summer of 2021 with temperatures hitting 50 degrees celcius for several weeks, infamously calling it the “heatdome” of 2021. Doing a quick plug of climate change action and awareness, the heatdome set the stage for severe floods in the fall into the winter of 2021. The hydrological cycle was broken when the trees died, not allowing runoff water to be absorbed by the trees, causing flooding and landslides.

The insurance bureau estimated about $450 million CAD of damages paid out, but the real damage to infrastructure repair, the economy and raw resource extraction is estimated to be roughly $7.5 billion CAD, rating it the 5th most expensive extreme weather event in 2021. We don’t usually discuss climate change and impacts in these posts and videos, but climate grief is real and discussing this hopefully encourages more climate action. As readers may recall, the Explorations Team have a huge interest in sustainability and part of the whole blog is sharing their connection and experience in nature.

Moving On… Camping!

But, moving on; what do you do in times like these? Well go backcountry camping, of course! Damian took this opportunity to go to Watersprite Lake in Mamquam, above the tree line and into the alpine mountain. As he puts it, “into natures air conditioning!” Even at that altitude and alpine, it’s still 20 degrees celcius.

As per usual, taking the Sea to Sky Highway, but head through Mamquam River Campground, overland a bit, park, and up the hiking trail to Watersprite. The hike took them into the night, but some spectacular views of the colouir and the gorge during the day. Who thought you’d be able to do a polar bear dip in July 1st during Canada Day?! All this and more, in the video below, on alpine mountain camping!

Check out the video below!