Bernd

An outdoor adventure company in the valley - not Doug or Gary - told me it would be about 300 Canadian Dollars per day if they would provide a private guide just for hiking - not technical mountaineering.

Hello Bigtree and Don, thanks a lot for your answers and your help so far. Yes, I tried to get in contact with Doug Baker from Hagensborg but I was told that he's out of town for a while. So I just have to wait a little. Bigtree, do you know the area on the pictures on the following website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41039231@N00/sets/110051/ These images impressed me a lot; places like these are just what I thought about to go. Of special interest for me would be the first book mentioned by Don: The Bella Coola Valley & Vicinity: Hiking Trails & Routes If there was a possibilitiy to get a copy it would be great and help me a lot to plan my trip. I would of course be interested. One more question: Since you know the valley which time during summer would you consider to have the most stable weather? Once again, thank you for your help!

Hi I'm new here; I'm a 35 years old German mountain enthusiast and plan to spend my summer vacation 2006 in British Columbia (approximately 3 weeks) some time in July and/or August. On this occation I would like to visit the Bella Coola Valley (of which I found some really nice images on the web) to do some hiking there, maybe also scrambling up ridges or summits if possible. There are only very few companies in this area offering guided hiking, and a private guide is expensive. So does anybody know about an alternative? Is it recommendable to do easier hikes alone (because of bears etc)? Or does anybody know other possibilities to find people or groups who plan to go there this summer? Thanks for your help.