CLUB HISTORY
The Comox District Mountaineering Club (CDMC) is an incorporated society
with over 100 members, ranging in age from teenagers to 80+
years. While a few of our members participate in technical
climbing, we are mainly involved in day hiking and backpacking
activities, but we do organize some cross-country skiing,
snowshoeing and canoeing trips as well. We also arrange
courses in first aid and navigation so that our members may acquire
wilderness survival skills and, in time, become trip leaders.
We try to plan activities suitable for all levels of ability from
novice to veteran, and welcome ideas for trips.
In January, the club directors meet
with the trip leaders to plan an activity schedule for the season,
which runs from the beginning of March to the end of October.
The schedule is presented at the AGM which is held on the last
Sunday in February. We aim to offer a day trip most weekends,
usually on Sundays, and some longer backpack and canoe trips as
well. Our season ends with a pot-luck supper and slide-show on
the last Saturday in October.
CDMC was formed in 1928 by a few people interested in exploring the Forbidden
Plateau. These pioneers were the original route finders and
trail builders in that area, and as the years went by club members
extended the trails further into Strathcona Park. Most of
these trails are still in use today and if you look closely at the
trees along the way you can see the original "blaze" or axe marks
made by the pioneers. And seventy-five years later the club
continues to develop, improve and maintain trails throughout the
district. In the 1960's CDMC made up many directional signs
for the Forbidden Plateau area, and these can still be seen
today. Also, the club has placed signs on cairns at the
summits of many mountains in Strathcona Park. For its
Millennium Project the club built nine tent platforms at the Lake
Helen MacKenzie campsite in Strathcona Park.
CDMC is a member of the Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC and a portion
of the annual membership dues goes to that organization to support
its work on wilderness conservation, access, and other issues
of interest to hikers, and to pay for liability insurance coverage.