The Strathcona Standard

By Lola Walker

Featured images: Volunteers and BC Parks staff worked together to keep the trails to the Crest Creek Crags climbing location in good condition on September 5, 2026. Photos by Bill Phipps

Volunteers from Campbell River’s climbing gym have been busy maintaining trails and rock walls this summer, keeping the Crest Creek Crags safe and accessible for everyone.

The team wrapped up the last day of this year’s trail work at the popular climbing destination in Strathcona Provincial Park on September 5.

Each year, On The Rocks Climbing Gym works with BC Parks to recruit volunteers willing to contribute their time, effort, and skills to restore and maintain this beloved area. BC Parks rangers facilitate each trail work day, allowing volunteers to operate legally, and to make sure all work and construction is done safely. The involvement of BC Parks also ensures volunteers will be covered by WorkSafe BC while on site.

For the past three years, volunteers from On The Rocks have worked with BC Parks to work at the crags two or three times annually. Together, they work on keeping the trails and rock walls in good shape for climbers, and improving accessibility for everyone.

However, the relationship between climbers and BC Parks was not always a harmonious one.

Bureaucratic conflicts lead to protest camp, court battle

The first climbers to explore the area were two brothers, Fred and John Putt from Gold River.

In the early 1980s, they spent time at Crest Creek developing routes, and started a legacy of trail workers. The brothers were connected with the Heathens Outdoors club, formed in the late 1980s, whose members explored remote locations on the island, climbing and learning from each other. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Heathens Outdoors club began regularly hosting their camps at Crest Creek, with special permission from BC Parks.

For years, the Heathens Outdoor club dedicated much of their members’ time and effort to developing the Crest Creek climbing area. Their agreement with TimberWest allowed the group to scavenge truckloads of cedar products to build steps and walkways along the trails, and their annual agreement with BC Parks allowed them to host summer camps where they could climb and learn.

However, things began to change in the 2000s, as the involvement of BC Parks staff and rangers dwindled. Eventually, in late 2013, BC Parks announced the government agency was changing the way it worked with volunteers, and declared the long-standing agreement was no longer recognized as legally binding. It presented volunteers with a new contract, but the Heathens Outdoors club decided it would not sign, and resisted the formality and bureaucracy of the proposed new arrangement.

The club held three formal meetings with BC Parks, hoping to reach an agreement where everyone was satisfied. However, longstanding club member Paul Rydeen, speaking on behalf of the Heathens, said they realized shortly “[BC Parks] wasn’t showing any signs of wanting to work with [them].”

In the summer of 2015, Rydeen wrote to BC Parks requesting permission to host a summer camp at Crest Creek, identical to the camps they had been hosting for the past 20 years. Although the summer camp had little to do with trail work, and was focused primarily on outdoor education and rock climbing, BC Parks associated the request with the unresolved trail work agreement, and denied the Heathens club the right to camp. In defiance, the club decided to have a ‘protest camp,’ proceeding with the annual summer camp anyways.

In response, the provincial government sent park rangers and conservation officers to fine those who were illegally camped in the park. When several campers refused to pay their fines, they were taken to court.

For seven years after charges had been laid against Heathens Outdoor Club members and associated campers, there was no work done at Crest Creek. Without a new agreement, and none of the Heathens wiling to risk another lawsuit, the beloved crags fell into disrepair.

Management shift restores relationship

Eventually, in 2023, after a management shift within BC Parks, On The Rocks Climbing Gym manager Bill Phipps saw an opportunity while attending a Public Parks Committee meeting.

Phipps reached out to the new manager, re-introducing the idea of volunteer-driven trail work days at the Crest Creek Crags. The pitch was met with enthusiasm and BC Parks began cooperating with On The Rocks to restore relationships in a community bonded by the love of climbing.

Phipps contrasted the lack of support volunteers received in the past from rangers with the positive attitude BC Parks staff now have towards the trail work days.

“[The rangers] have been donating supplies, which had never happened in the past. They’ve given us lumber, nails and gravel,” he said.

Phipps emphasizes the big impact these seemingly small gestures are having have on the entire effort.

“The cooperation between BC Parks and the climbers is better than it ever has been,” he said.

Having the opportunity to connect with other people who share the same love for rock climbing and the adventurous west coast lifestyle is powerful. Many climbers, including Paul Rydeen, find the commitment to Crest Creek Crag trail work effort a rewarding way to make a meaningful difference.

“Its a really positive thing to be involved in something where you’re giving back to the community,” Rydeen concluded.