by Keith and Heather Nicol
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| Eric and Kristie heading up |
It had been
several years since we had gotten out our ski touring gear so when we decided
to head over to Vancouver for the family day long weekend we decided to try a
route that was close to town and where route finding should be easy. So on
Saturday, February 16 we headed up to Cypress Mountain Resort and the start of
the trail to the summit of Hollyburn Mountain. Overnight 20 cm of new snow had fallen so we decided thought we might
even get some turns in some fresh snow. We were joined by our daughter Kristie
and her boyfriend Eric who also was keen to get his alpine touring gear out as well. Since this
area is very popular we decided to leave Vancouver by 8:00 am which meant that
we got a parking place close to the trail head at 49.379 N and 123.191 W. The
trail head is fairly obvious if you head to the Cypress Mountain Nordic ski area
(the route starts near the Nordic ticket office). Note that this route is outside the formal xc
ski trails and snowshoe trails of Cypress Mountain resort so is free but is not
patrolled. Most people heading up the mountain were on snowshoes although there
were a few people on telemark or alpine touring gear.
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| Lunch at the summit |
The route winds
mainly to the left of the cross country ski trails and ascends up for
just over
3 km. The first 2 km are generally in the trees but then it opens up and
the
last part resembles an alpine ski area run. This last section is quite
steep
and we opted not to follow the snowshoe trail so cut a shallower ascent
route. By
now we had run into so other ski tourers who led us to the top of the
mountain
by winding around the side instead of climbing directly up the steep
front
side. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach our lunch spot at
the summit (440 m above start) The ski tourers we had followed
suggested that we take a
slightly different way down and they offered to show us the route.
By now the sun
had come out and we did in some turns in the open areas but we ended up
too far down the slope to be able to cut back to our original trail. So
we
ended up skiing down through the trees to Baden Powell hiking trail
(marked by reflective
markers) and proceeded to follow it back toward the alpine ski area. At
one
point could hear the traffic on the road and decided to head straight
down
instead of traversing on the Baden Powell trail. Our adventure was not
over yet
when we found that there was a small cliff between us and the overflow
alpine
parking lot. Fortunately we found a rope that had been placed which
allowed us
to slip down the steep slope to the road. From there we traversed back
to our
car at the Nordic parking lot. Lessons learned – We found that the open
slopes definitely
allow some turns to be had especially near the top. But it is very easy
to get
off track in this area so stay to the established trails unless you want
to
explore. Slopes are steep so you
should
have intermediate to advanced ski skills and don’t take this area too
lightly since skier and snowshoers regularly get lost on these North
Shore Mountains.
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| Coming down the rope at the end |
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