We’ve had another week of Sun! Don’t be too envious though, it’s now raining again as far as the weather forecast stretches.
Our friends Thom and Hannah are back in Vancouver after their hiatus to slide down hills every day (why???) at their place in Sun Peaks. We were very pleased to be invited to spend Friday night with them on Mount Seymour. We had already booked a campsite by the beach at Porteau Cove, luckily this was just for Saturday night… Double camping!
Below is our summary of Mountain vs. Beach camping, you’ll have to read to the end to find out which is better.
Ease of Access
We drove most of the way up Mount Seymour, but then had to carry all our stuff the rest of the way up the snowy hill (about 200 m up). The snow was warming up and getting soft. Rosie was the only one wearing her snowshoes and was certainly falling into the snow the least! Once we got up there, we had to trample down the snow to create a flat place for the tents. Thom and Hannah didn’t help… Perhaps that’s why they invited us.
We also drove most of the way to the beach campsite, but did have to carry our stuff the last 50 m to the tent. There were no hills involved.
Mountain 0 : Beach 1
Views
This is a hard one to judge. The mountains are pretty spectacular, but the beach has both mountain views and watery views… it’s got to be a draw.
Mountain 1: Beach 1
Temperature
Our sleeping bags are not good enough for snowy camping. On our last expedition we were camping close to the car, but this time we didn’t bring our duvet as well! Rosie had ordered a new sleeping bag, rated to -8°C, but it didn’t arrive in time. Rosie was freezing! Ollie described it as chilly.
The beach was much warmer during the day, and only slightly chilly overnight.
Mountain 0: Beach 1
Peace and Quiet
Apart from the occasional aircraft, the mountain was silent and very peaceful. Once the sun went down, we had the place to ourselves – just how we like it.
The beach campsite was not peaceful… Everyone was crammed in together and we were stuck between two big groups up chatting until 11.30pm. They then got up at 6.30 am to continue the conversation!
Mountain 2: Beach 0
Activities
Snowy mountains are rubbish for activities. The beach has swimming!
Mountain 0: Beach 1
Company
Thom and Hannah’s company is always top quality, no complaints there!
At the beach, Rosie only had Ollie for company (aside from all the noisy people).
Mountain 1: Beach 0
The Results
Drum roll please…
Mountain has scored 4 points and Beach has… also scored 4 points!
Damn, it looks like we’ll have to do them both all over again to figure out which is best.
Roaming Rollie 
I have not read it yet, just wanted to be first once!
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Congratulations! Your medal is in the post… maybe
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And second. Beautiful and educational Ollie’s sunglasses have gone weird.
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He has bought some new ones now thankfully!
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Well done Stefan… You get all the points for top-commenter!
I am pretty sure which half of Rollie wrote the blog this week due to the comments on skiing… Would the mountain have gotten an extra point if it was the other way round I wonder…
I am glad you squeezed both in considering more rain is forecast this week. Although maybe if you only camped in the rain then there would be less people about! I look forward to hearing what you did instead.
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Camping in the rain is fun until you have to pack away a wet tent.
The mountain secretly won, but Rollie are required to deliver duly impartial news by the Royal Charter and Agreement and to treat controversial subjects with due impartiality.
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That beach camping spot looks very hard…were there no soft sandy bits?…surely.it’s not a beach without sandy bits! I would have voted for the mountain if I had a nice warm seeping bag…perhaps just invest in a double thermal sleeping bag…can you get those?
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All the official camping spots here are really hard! I think to avoid mud/erosion perhaps? And to make sure they stay flat. Sometimes they literally build a platform out of wood for you to put your tent on. With those ones you have to find rocks to hold the edges down as there is nothing to hammer pegs into. They call them camping “pads”, which is misleading because a pad sounds soft.
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