My parents are wintering here from Quebec, and my father had been longing to climb Soames Hill since February.
Diego is 96 years old (97 in September) and in pretty good shape, all things considered. He was an athlete in his youth, competing in track races in his university days and then as a phys-ed teacher at the start of his career. He also climbed many hills with several relatives in his native Chile as a summer activity.
He has been training here for the last two months by going out for walks in the area or raking fall leaves in the garden whenever possible (with me, of course).
Yesterday, March 31, conditions were perfect for a walk and we headed to Soames Hill “to check it out.” The initial part was a cinch so we continued on. We met a five-year-old boy (with his father) who was on his way home and happy to have reached the top. He said he’d counted 221 steps, which my father was curious to see. When we reached the steps they looked sturdy and wide, so we tried a few. People going down encouraged us on (or showed concern) so we did a few more. When someone said we’d already done the lion’s share of the steps, we rested a little and continued to climb.
The view from the lookout was wonderful. We climbed the hill in 45 minutes! I took several pictures, we called home to let my mother and my husband know where we were, and we sat down on the rocks to enjoy the view of Keats Island, Gibsons and the surrounding mountains.
We descended slowly and carefully in one hour and 15 minutes. We also met two mothers: one with a four-year-old girl and her seven-month-old baby and another mother with a tiny two-month-old baby. It was lovely to see so many people out, many with their dogs, plus a whole high school class of about 25 teenagers and their teacher jogging up the hill.
“El campeon” is resting today, happy with his prowess.
