Over six days in late July, a group of people made their way up to the highest point on Vancouver Island.
That alone is impressive, but not terribly remarkable. Many people climb Golden Hinde every year. This group actually ran into a few other climbing groups as they made their ascent.
As popular as it is, however, it isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s the highest mountain on Vancouver Island, at 2,195 metres or 7,201 feet. It takes days to reach the mountain from the trailhead near the south end of Buttle Lake. Then the final day of the approach shoots climbers up over one thousand feet in a day.
It’s the 38th-most isolated peak in Canada, and the 66th most prominent peak in North America. From the peak, you can see all the way to Mount Waddington on the mainland if you look east, and all the way to the Pacific if you look west.
The 200-million year old basalt fin is part of the Karmutsen Formation, a raw edge of the Island’s heart shoved skyward in the Late Triassic period by ancient volcanism. The name comes from Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind, by a fur trading captain who, according to G.P.V. and Helen Akrigg, was reminded of the ship when he saw the peak from the west coast of the Island.
That name wasn’t made official until the 1930s, however. Before then, Alpinists called the mountain “The Rooster’s Comb.”
It has been over 100 years since the first ascent of the Golden Hinde, which was back in 1913 or 1914 (records differ) by by E. Anderson, W.R. Kent, and W.W. Urquhart. E. Anderson.
Now, Caleb Wullum can add his name to the list of accomplished mountaineers who have bagged the peak.
The thing is, Wullum is only seven years old.
“He’s the youngest person that we know of who has done it,” said Wullum’s mom Eryn Tombu, who made the ascent with Wullum. “It’s pretty cool when you’re the tallest thing on Vancouver Island.”
Wullum has wanted to climb Golden Hinde since he was six. Last summer, Wullum, Tombu and a friend made the summit of Victoria Peak, the Island’s third-highest mountain. Wullum was also the youngest person to get that peak, and was inspired to go bigger.
“Of course he’s like, ‘Well, I want to do the Golden Hinde,’” Tombu said. “I kind of thought it would be a phase, but he was pretty fixated on it.”
That fixation is not just for hiking. Wullum loves being outside, loves being on the trail, and has made it his singular focus, despite still being under 10 years old.
“He had a list of hikes he’s been working on that’s from the Island Mount Ramblers, which is a mountaineering group,” Trombu said. That list has 16 hikes on it, and is called the Lifetime Hiking Objectives. Though his lifetime has barely even started, It didn’t take him long to get through the list. “He finished his lifetime hiking objectives in 15 months.”
The trip this summer took six days. The 60 km hike includes elevation changes that to many would be good enough, but Tombu and the crew kept Wullum’s spirits up and helped him get way out into the backcountry before getting to the summit proper.
“We climbed the west ridge,” Tombu said. “We didn’t do the gullies, the gullies are terrible,” she added, referring to the south east face. “They’re called ‘The Bowling Alley’ on Google Earth. I just felt like we would have more safety and control on the ridge, even though it’s a harder climb.”
But, according to Wullum, the hardest part were the wasps.
“The climb was really fun,” Wullum said. “It was a really good climb.”
To Wullum, the reason he keeps wanting to do these kinds of adventures is “the challenge” it gives him.
When asked how it feels to be the youngest known climber of the Golden Hinde, Wullum said “I think it feels good.”
Now, Wullum is back at school, and is climbing indoors at WIP in Courtenay, waiting for the mountains to dry out again in the summer.