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The Island Qualifiers

The concept of “qualifying peaks” dates from the founding of the national Alpine Club of Canada in 1906. Members were then required to qualify for “Senior Member” status by making a successful ascent of a recognised mountain peak of at least 10,000 feet / 3048 metres. Vancouver Island has no peaks over 10,000 feet, so in the early years of our section, members worked to set up a list of so-called graduating climbs on the Island. The result, published in 1977, was a list of nine peaks, which became known as the “Island Qualifiers”. Although the requirement to qualify for senior status was phased out by the national club in the 1980s, our list of Island Qualifier peaks (the IQs) continues to be an attractive goal for many of our members.

Island Qualifier peaks The nine IQs represent many of the features and challenges of mountaineering on Vancouver Island. While access to some areas has changed over time, climbing all the peaks involves navigation through remote terrain, multi-day trips, crossing glaciers and snowfields, negotiating difficult ridges and faces and multi-pitch rock climbing.

  • Mount Colonel Foster (main summit)
  • Rugged Mountain
  • Warden Peak
  • Elkhorn Mountain
  • Golden Hinde
  • Victoria Peak
  • Nine Peaks
  • Mount Harmston
  • Mount Septimus

The Rick Eppler Award

The Rick Eppler Award is a small plaque awarded to actively contributing members of our section who have successfully completed ascents of all nine of the Island Qualifier peaks.

The award is named for Rick Eppler, who contributed to generating the list of IQ peaks, and was the first member to complete all nine ascents in 1986. Rick also made many first recorded ascents and named Island peaks, including Triple Peak, 5040 Peak, The Cats Ears, Mariner Mountain, Steamboat Peak and more.

Rick Eppler on the Golden Hinde 1987

Rick Eppler receiving the first Island Qualifiers Award on the summit of the Golden Hinde in 1987. Photo by Rob Macdonald.

To apply for this award, write to with the following information, within one month of your final qualifying climb:

  • A dated list of your ascents with names of climbing partners and any relevant notes.
  • Your membership number and date when you first joined the club. The award will not be given to anyone who completed a majority of the climbs before becoming a section member.
  • Some information about your involvement in ACC VI, for example: Trips or workshops led, trips and events participated in, contributions to presentations, newsletter or Island Bushwhacker articles, mentoring of new leaders, participation in committees or other volunteer roles. The executive committee will review your application and if you are successful, will prepare an engraved plaque, and add your name to this page.
  • Awardees will be presented with their plaque and celebrated at a section event.

Rick Eppler Island Qualifiers Award

The ACCVI Section Members who have achieved this distinction are:

Rick Eppler1986Don Berryman1987
Rob Macdonald1987Wendy Richardson1988
Sandy Briggs1988John Pratt1990
David Routledge
1993Julie Henderson1993
Charles Turner1993Gerta Smythe1995
Greg Gordon1996Ian Brown1996
Margaret Brown1996Doug Goodman1996
Gerhardt Lepp1998Lindsay Elms1999
Tak Ogasawara2000Peter Rothermel2004
Tom Carter2006Valerie Wootton2006
George Butcher2007Ken Wong2007
Jamie Duncan2008Rick Hudson2008
Christine Fordham2008Kent Krauza2009
George Milosevich2010Henrik Hinkkala2011
Richard Butler-Smythe2011John Young2012
Mike Childs2012Andreas Hinkkala2012
Chris Jensen2012Stefan Gessinger2016
Shanda Lembcke2016Clarke Gourlay2018
Roxanne Stedman2018Robert Ramsay2018
Dan McKean2019Tyler Maclachlan2019
Laurence Philippsen2019David Fishwick2020
Barry Hansen2020John Relyea-Voss2021
Eryn Tombu2022Casey Matsuda2022
Tiffany Cunha2022Darryl Anderson2022
John Ballantyne2024Brian Nesbitt2024
Jeff Cousins2024Walter Moar2024
Amelia Bieling2025