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Directors Bios
Scott Webster
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FMCBC President
Scott got seriously involved in the outdoors while doing
graduate school at the University of British Columbia. He
has been a member of the Varsity Outdoor Club for many
years, has held several positions on their executive, and
has previously served as their representative on the FMCBC
Board of Directors.
Scott enjoys hiking, scrambling, mountaineering and
backcountry skiing, allowing him to enjoy the mountains of
BC all year round.
Scott is currently finishing his PhD in Physics at UBC. |
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Caroline Clapham |
FMCBC Vice President
and FMCBC Director, Alpine
Club of Canada, Vancouver Section |
Elisa Kreller
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FMCBC Treasurer |
Patrick R.
Harrison
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FMCBC Secretary & FMCBC Director, Hike BC
Pat is a former park
ranger of Mount Rainier National Park (1970-1975). It was
here that Pat honed his skills as a mountain climber.
He also founded the
Non-Profit Society ‘The Friends of the Rattlesnake-Valley
(FOR)’ while a graduate student at the University of Montana
(Missoula). After seven years of work, the Rattlesnake
Valley was declared a National Recreation and Wilderness
area and signed into law by the outgoing President, Jimmy
Carter. It was slated for development and logging.
Pat co-wrote a book in
1987 called ‘The Illustrated Flora of the UBC Endowment
Lands’, which went on to sell 3300 copies. The book was
written to help promote the Endowment Lands as a Regional
Park. In 1987, the Pacific Spirit Regional Park was signed
into law by Premier Bill Vander Zahm.
Pat jointed the
Federation of Mountain Clubs as a director in 1993; then
served as Vice-President from 1994-1996; then as President
from 1996-1999 and 2005-2008; he served as Executive
Director from 1999-2002. He is currently the Past President
and Secretary of the Federation, and Co-Chair of the
Federation’s Trails Committee. As E.D. and President, Pat
chaired the Sea to Sky Backcountry Forum from 2001-2005, and
served on the Sea to Sky LRMP (Land Resource Management
Planning) for the FMC from 2001-2007. In 2005, Pat
initiated talks with the newly elected mayor of Lions Bay,
Douglas Miller, to see if the 15 year parking issue couldn’t
be resolved. After three years of negotiations with the
Lions Bay council, the FMC was allowed to build a trail from
the school parking lot to the upper trailhead. The parking
issue has evaporated. This year Pat was honoured by having
the trail initially build named after him (The Harrison
Trail). Lions Bay now has its own hiking club.
Pat helped set up Hike BC
in 2000 to help coordinated the building of the original
Footpath Across Canada: the National Hiking Trail portion in
B.C. He has served as President of Hike BC and of the
national organization Hike Canada en Marche. As President
of Hike Canada en Marche, Pat attended a National Conference
on Trails in Banff (November 2010). He is on the working
committee for that function. The Cities of Surrey, White
Rock, and Courtenay have now acknowledged officially the
National Hiking Trail, as has the Province of B.C. Pat is
passionate about this trail as he remembers his treks on the
Pacific Crest Trail in the 1980s with his son Kyle. He
believes Canada deserves a similar trail.
In 1996, Pat and his
wife, Susan, purchased the oldest farm in Surrey, the
Historic Collishaw Farm. Because of their heritage work,
they have been given a Surrey Heritage Award twice: 2000 and
2011. He and his wife are honoured. Susan and Pat
converted the farm into an organic blueberry farm and have
earned the Environmental Stewardship certificate for their
farm.
Pat also serves on the
Surrey and Metro Vancouver Agricultural Advisory Boards.
These boards strive to main the Agricultural Land Reserve by
giving appropriate advice to the Surrey City Council and to
the Region Government of Metro Vancouver.
Pat won the University of
Montana Geb Hart Environmental Award in 1974 for his work on
the Rattlesnake Valley and the also the first UBC
Environmental Award in 1994 for meeting the new WHMIS
regulations in the Department of Botany.
Pat
is currently a biology instructor at the University of the
Fraser Valley. He has just assumed the volunteer role as
Chair of the Committee for Environmental Sustainability at
UFV. |
Brian Wood
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FMCBC Past President and FMCBC Co-Director BC Mountaineering Club
Brian started hiking in England with the boy scouts, then
rock climbing with school friends. These hobbies were
replaced in 1966 by backpacking and mountaineering with the
Boeing Alpine Club after he immigrated to Seattle, USA as an
engineer. In 1968 he immigrated to BC and duly qualified as
a patent agent which was his job until retiring in 2003.
After settling in Canada, and going on several club trips,
in 1971 he joined the BCMC and eventually became involved
with the Recreation and Conservation Committees of the BCMC
and FMCBC. He became President of the FMCBC in 2008. |
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Andrew Pape-Salmon
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FMCBC Director Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island
Section
Although he started hiking in the Rockies when he was a
young lad, Andrew got serious about mountaineering in 2009
after he completed the Yamnuska Mountain Skills Semester in
Canmore. In 2010 he participated in, and led several hikes,
glacier mountaineering and backcountry ski trips on
Vancouver Island and Olympic National Park. He is equally
passionate about “mountain running”, having led day “ultra”
trips on the North Coast Trail, Juan de Fuca, Kludahk (San
Juan Ridge), Cowichan River and Malahat ridge on Vancouver
Island and Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. He is
attending the Canadian Mountain Running Championships in
Canmore in July 2011.
He
is the Vice-President of the Vancouver Island Spine Trail
Association, Sponsorship Director of the Prairie Inn
Harriers trail running club, FMCBC Director for ACC-VI, and
Backcountry leader for the Strathcona Nordic Ski Club.
Andrew’s goal with FMCBC is to support a transition toward
an effective advocacy organization that develops and
shepherds proposals for government policy to enhance
protection and stewardship of, and access to mountain
terrain for non-motorized recreation on both private and
public lands.
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Peter Rothermel
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FMCBC Regional Director, Vancouver Island
Peter has
made Qualicum Beach his home since 1970 and other than a
five year stint at commercial fishing, has worked for all of
his adult life as a cabinet maker.
For the past dozen years he has been active in access and
environmental issues surrounding the Arrowsmith Massif and
the central Island area in general. In November 2008, his
work came to an apex and a dream came true and Mt Arrowsmith
was granted park status.
Peter is an active member of the Vancouver Island Section of
the Alpine Club of Canada and has climbed all of the Island
Qualifiers. The ACC bestowed upon him the Eric Brooks
Leadership Award in 2005 and the Distinguished Service Award
in 2009. As well he is a member of the Island Mountain
Ramblers and the Alberni Valley Outdoor Club.
He has served as a Director and Island Coordinator for the
Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C. for over a decade.
Peter has hiked, climbed and skied extensively all over
Vancouver Island and not much elsewhere, hence he is known
as an "Island Rat". |
Rob Gunn |
FMCBC Director Alberni Valley Outdoor Club
Robert began hiking and climbing in New Zealand while at
high school. He later visited some of the mountain areas of
Patagonia, Peru and Alaska before settling in BC.
He
can
sometimes be encountered around the hills of Vancouver even
today.
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Dave King
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FMCBC Director Caledonia Ramblers and Alpine Club of Canada
Prince George Section
Dave has lived in Prince George since 1973 and been a member
of the
Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Club since 1975....a year after
the club was
formed. He has camped and fished since childhood in the
Okanagan and
has had a life long interest in hiking, backpacking, easy
mountaineering, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing and other
related
activities. Dave began travelling overseas in his 20s and,
along with his
wife, continue to travel to all corners of the globe.
Favourite O/S
countries include Iceland, Mongolia, Bolivia, Myanmar,
Turkey, Easter
Island, Tanzania, Nepal and New Zealand. Dave has climbed
Kilimanjaro 7
times and most of the 16,000 ft peaks in the Ruwenzori Mtns.
Dave is a biologist and was the Habitat Protection Section
Head with the
provincial Fish and Wildlife Branch until retirement in
2000. He continues to
be involved in many initiatives and activities but now as a
member of the public. Dave sits on two Sustainable Forest
Management Plan
Public Advisory Groups and one LRMP.
As a member of the Ramblers, Dave has filled several
positions including
president for about 20 years. Currently he is the director
responsible
for trail maintenance and is also the FMCBC director. Dave
is also a ACC
(PG Section) member and the FMCBC director. He is also a
director of Hike
BC (National Hiking Trail) and a director on the PG
Backcountry
Recreation Society, a group that fulfills much of the same
role as the
lower mainland Rec and Con and Trails committees.
Dave has had a life long concern for the environment and,
since the 1960s,
a major concern regarding the human impact on the well being
of the
earth. Recently a lot of attention is being placed on
global warming
but there is still far less attention being payed to the
root cause,
namely a human population far greater the the earth can
sustain even at
current resource consumption rates. |
| Don
Hay |
FMCBC Director Chilliwack Outdoors Club |
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Ken Rodonets |
FMCBC Director Comox District Mountaineering Club |
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Roy Howard |
FMCBC Director Fraser Headwaters Alliance |
Bill Perry
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FMCBC Director Island Mountain Ramblers
Bill
Perry grew up hiking the hills of New England. He graduated
from the University of New Hampshire, became a rock climbing
instructor, and continued to hike in the Appalachians.
For forty years he has been a forester on Vancouver Island.
He has hiked and climbed on the island, the Coast Range,
Rockies, Cascades, Tetons, Yukon, Alaska, Chile, Nepal, and
the Alps of Germany and Austria. He has been active in the
Island Mountain Ramblers and the Alberni Valley Outdoor
Club.
Bill teaches skiing on Mount Washington and lives in
Ucluelet in the Summer. He also writes climbing songs |
Peter Oostlander
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FMCBC Director Kootenay Mountaineering Club
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Travis Carter |
FMCBC Director Mount Remo Backcountry Society |
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Dave Perfitt |
FMCBC Director North Vancouver Outdoor Club |
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David Lavery |
FMCBC Director Outsetters Club of Vancouver |
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Mike Stewart |
FMCBC Director Valley Outdoor Association |
Eric Burkle
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FMCBC Director Vancouver Island Trails Information Society
Eric Burkle is the president of the Vancouver Island Trails
Information Society - publisher of
Hiking
Trails 1, 2, and 3 - a non-profit society that
has published successful trail guides for Vancouver Island
since 1972. See
www.hikingtrailsbooks.com. He also chairs their
editorial committee which stickhandles the publication of
each guidebook. Eric has been a member of various hiking
clubs in Vancouver, Ottawa and Victoria, and continues to be
a member of two hiking clubs in Victoria. He is a former
president of the Outdoor Club of Victoria, which he has been
a member of since 1978 and where he has held five different
executive positions. Recently he was given an honorary life
membership for his many years of service to the club. Eric
is a past member of the Simon Fraser University Senate and
graduated with a BA Hons. and an MA in Political Science
from that university. He has travelled widely around the
globe and worked as a senior manager in the public sector. |
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Erica Lay |
FMCBC Director
Varsity Outdoor club |
Mack Skinner &
Cristina Jacob
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FMCBC Co-Directors North Shore Hikers Society
Cristina Jacob has lived in Vancouver since 1977. Born in
Romania she did a lot of hiking in the Carpathians Alps as a
teenager and university student.
When
she became an empty nester in the early 2000s Cristina
restarted hiking with a renewed passion. Her favourite
hiking place is Glacier, Montana and she insists in hiking
the Canadian Rockies for at least one week every year.
Cristina is a professional engineer and an adjunct professor
at UBC with expertise in water and wastewater. With her
planned retirement in the summer of 2011 Cristina will
expand her hiking all over the world. Immediate destinations
are New Zeeland, China (Tibet) and South Korea.
One
of her other passions is paddling and over the years she has
done competitive dragon boating and outrigging. If she gets
bored in her retirement she may start a new career in paddle
boarding!
Cristina belongs to several hiking clubs and she is
co-directing on the FMCBC Board for the North Shore Hikers
with Mack Skinner
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Dean Pollack |
FMCBC Director Backroads Outdoor Club |
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Michelle Hall |
FMCBC Director SFU Outdoor
Club |
Gil Parker
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FMCBC Director, Vancouver
Island Spine Trail Association
Gil Parker, Founder and
President of the Vancouver Island “Spine” Trail, is a
life-long hiker and climber, and a Life member of the Alpine
Club of Canada that awarded him their Distinguished Service
Award. After climbing in many countries for decades, he
turned to long-distance hiking, completing over 80% of the
4500 km Pacific Crest Trail.
A structural engineer
with Dominion Bridge and Willis, Cunliffe and Tait, Gil
designed bridges and buildings, winning the Civil
Engineering Prize of the Consulting Engineers of Canada for
a railway overpass. He created a solar store, Ark Solar
Products, and consulted on solar projects in India, United
Arab Republic and Canada. He ran a trading firm,
specializing in consultation and equipment sales in the
newly-opened USSR, and later, Russia.
As a writer, Gil
published many articles in National magazines and
newspapers, then turned to writing books. He wrote four
books, most with an outdoor theme, and edited two; one is a
trail guide for northern Vancouver Island.
With separate degrees in
Engineering, Writing and Management, Gil has been active in
community and international affairs, holding a Fellowship
from the Rotary Club, and an Honorary Citizenship from
Victoria City. |
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Karl Stevenson
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FMCBC Director,
Friends of Strathcona Park
Karl was born in 1948 in Comox and has
lived in the Comox Valley since. His dad first took him
hiking in Strathcona Park when he was seven. He’s been a
member of FOSP since 1987, and started the Strathcona
Blockade of 1988 when the government allowed exploratory
drilling crews into Strathcona. He has been fighting
against similar government actions ever since. Karl built
and has been living on a sailboat for 15 years, and has
taken it to Mexico and Hawaii, and all up and down the west
coast. |
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Francis St. Pierre |
FMCBC
Co-Director BC Mountaineering Club |
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Joseph Wong |
FMCBC Director,
Vancouver Rock Climbing Club |
Jodi Appleton
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FMCBC Administrative
Manager
Jodi Appleton came to be
the Administrative Manager for the FMCBC after over 10 years
of working in the animation industry and many more years
than that enjoying outdoor recreation around the Lower
Mainland and the Kootenays where she grew up. Wanting a
change from animation, she sought a career that would
combine her love for nature and outdoor recreation with her
talents for administration and project management which lead
her to the FMCBC.
Jodi
is also a part time student working on a diploma in
Recreation Leadership through Langara College. She really
enjoys the coursework and has been able to apply much of
what she has learned through the program to her current
position with the FMCBC. Jodi also enjoys visiting the
beach, gardening, kayaking, cycling and hiking with her
husband and two young sons when there’s time between work
and school!
In every walk
with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~ John Muir |
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