Some Prefer It On Top

Welcome to On-Top.ca: a website dedicated to those who prefer it on top - of a mountain. This website documents my many ascents in the Canadian Rocky Mountains (and occasionally elsewhere). It is my intent to share with you, my passion for the outdoors, for hiking and for scrambling. This website is designed to allow you to vicariously follow my adventures in the Canadian Rockies and to enjoy the splendor of their glaciated peaks and lake-filled valleys as I do. It will be updated frequently with new ascents as I complete them. Photos and a blog-style entry will be recorded for every ascent. It is my hope that these will serve as a resource for other outdoorsmen (and women) who wish to add their names to those already listed in the summit registers high atop. May you enjoy all of your scramble adventures as much as I have mine!
-Matthew Hobbs

What's New?

• Making the family hike (rain or shine) - a soggy Sunday on the new Prairie Mountain trail. 🌧️
• A very snowy Father's Day celebration atop Jumpingpound Mountain with my favorite climbing partners! ❤️
• A return to the still-snowy Rockies, 164-days in the making: Mount Howard!
• A bike & hike adventure to Cat Creek Falls (in which our intrepid mountaineer gets lost on a signed interpretive trail)...🤦
• A crunchy conclusion to our Gulf Island adventures: going point-to-point on Denman Island.
• Getting back on top of things on Hornby Island's high point: Mount Geoffrey.
• Happy birthday to the G.O.A.T! 🐐 A 40th birthday celebration 🎉 among Helliwell Park's old-growth firs and Tribune Bay's white sand beaches.
• An "Amazing Race"-inspired ascent of the Malahat Skywalk en route to a spectacular "Pitstop" on Denman Island!

My Tribute to the Forefather of Scrambling in the Canadian Rockies Alan Kane: