Table of Contents
1. Preface
2. Overview
3. Tutorial - Invesigate One Area near Pemberton
4. Sample Areas
1. Preface
This document gives you a quick introduction to Alpine Rambling database. First I give a general description of how to use the database, then some specific Tutorials.
2. Overview
The "Alpine Rambling Area Database" exists to help you get ideas for summer trips. An "Alpine Rambling" area is an area with extensive connected alpine meadows, easy peaks, and reasonable road access.A multi day meadow trip where you can camp anywhere, climb some easy peaks, and have the area to yourself. Of course National Parks such as Banff have extensive areas of interconnected meadows, but for the Alpine Rambling Areas, I'm concentrating on areas outside the parks. Some areas such as Whitegoat may be accessed by going thru the park, but the main camping is outside the park.
Here is an overview map of all the areas: Overview map of Alpine Areas
Zoom in and click on the title of any area you want to investigate. That takes you to a specific page for that area. On that page, click the regular LMap link. Now you are looking a LMap that shows the Bivouac mountains, roads and trails. Investigate any given road by hovering over it or clicking on it. Also from the page, click on the most relevant trip reports.
In addition to finding areas via the overview map, you can use the Alpine Rambling Lister. Or go to any Town page, click "Radius Search" then click "Alpine Rambling Areas". Set the radius to something like 100 km. Radius Search around Invermere
The giant overview map does not show any roads, mountains, car camping areas, etc. LMapForm allows you to customize your map and show some of these. Look up some town like "Invermere" and then click LMapForm. In LMapForm, set the radius to 50 km and adjust the form to show a combination of what you want on the map. For example I use it to see nearby car camping areas.
3. Tutorial - Invesigate One Area near Pemberton
The easiest way to find and investigate alpine rambling areas is to start with the overview map, and click on the area title you want to investigate. For example zoom in near vancouver and click on "North Stein". Now you are looking at a page titled "North Stein Divide".
At the top of this page is a raster map, then a description and then "Top Summer Trips" with the number of days for each. The longest trips are listed first. And at the bottom are photos.
The longest two trips listed are both titled "North Stein Divide Traverse" and are 8 days. All trips have a track log, but some have more details and photos than others. The report by JP Doucet has an excellent track log, day by day account and some photos. So you get an idea of how hard the terrain is, how many people in the area, etc.
In summary, when investigating an area you can do the following:
- look at the Alpine Rambling Page itself and read description
- click on LMap on the Alpine page
- click on the roads involved in the access, and read latest bulletins
- look at trip reports, to see photos, and also track logs
- use LmapForm to see all trips that passed near a given obscure point
4. Sample Areas
Below is a list of towns, and if you click on a town you see a list of alpine rambling areas within 100km of that town. But it is probably easier to just look at the overview map.