Approaching our destination: the second largest granite monolith in the world (the largest is El Capitan in Yosemite National Park). These 700 metre massive cliffs tower over the town of Squamish on B.C.’s scenic Sea to Sky Highway.

Ready to go! These boys are going to earn their investiture today!

A brief rest and then back into the mist-shrouded Jurassic Park-like forest and the grinding trail upwards.

Out of the woods. Getting Closer. Getting more interesting.

Getting a whole lot more fun! Rock climbing Batman style!

Ah…no…not funny.

A great father and son outing.

Making progress. This 2,000 foot monster isn’t going to climb itself!

Destination in sight…

We have arrived (with style)!

I’ve climbed a lot of mountains, but I’ve never seen THAT before! Gotta love it! Those flags will be visible for miles! We had other hikers ask to borrow the Canadian flag so they could have their pictures taken with it too.

A golden moment frozen in time. What will these boys see when they look upon this picture years from now. I see: Pride well earned!

A little rest and some lunch before we do the investiture ceremony high above Howe Sound and the town of Squamish. Don’t drop your apples boys; they’ll roll off the edge and could hit climbers on the rock face below.

Welcome to Scouts, Max!

Welcome to Scouts, Isaac!

Welcome to Scouts, Tavish!

Welcome to Scouts, Conner!

Let’s not forget about our great Patrol Leaders, Simon & Wojtek!

Four newly invested scouts. The 5th West Van Scout Troop is reborn! (our group’s scarf will be different from these…we needed some “stand-ins” while our real ones are being made – thanks to ZoneWest for the loan – our real scarf will be burgundy & gold)

Time to head home. We will be back with more new scouts for investiture next year. Now where do we go next? There’s plenty of fresh snow throughout Garibaldi Park!

Well, as it turns out, a professional photographer was on the second peak of the Chief the day we were doing our investiture and captured some spectacular photographs of us from a distance. These shots are so cool!

Chris Christie (christie-images.com) has given us permission to publish these photos on our web site. These photos are so cool! Thanks Chris.