EOSC 328 Field Geology began as usual with “Bootcamp”, a 2-day refresher on campus. Then, the 30 students boarded a bus for the trip to the Oliver region of the Okanagan with geology stops on the way. Once arrived, they settled into their new home for the next three weeks at the UBC –Teck Geological Field Station.

The instructional team this year included faculty (Ken Hickey, James Scoates, Joel Saylor, Matt Tarling) and students (Dylan Spence, Liva Hougaard, Zoe Lynn, Benjamin Johnstone). Our new critical minerals specialist, Cassady Harraden, helped out in the final week as the students started wrapping up their final map area and began focusing on preparation of their compilation maps and cross sections. And Lindsay Nelson, Educational Field & Laboratory Coordinator in EOAS, also joined us for the final week both in the field and at the field station.

The Okanagan weather had a few surprises in store for us this year! During the first two weeks, it was toasty warm (upper 20s, low 30s), but suddenly shifted to cooler temperatures (14-20°C) in the final week, rained continuously on Helipad Ridge day, and even hailed late one afternoon as everyone was walking out.

Spirits remained high throughout the duration of field school (no hammers were lost!), the UBC – Teck Geological Field Station, including the Peter and Maggie Bradshaw Experiential Learning Centre and C. Fipke Foundation Dining Hall, continued to be an impressive venue for teaching and learning, and a newly installed weather station gave us real-time data and forecasting for daily mapping activities.