Finally Mount Strachan

It is testament to our declining abilities as mountaineers that it took us three tries to get up Mount Strachan. Read on, however, and I am sure you will agree there were extenuating circumstances.

Looking east from Mount Strachan

Our first attempt was blighted by Doug having influenza. Cypress Mountains ski hill was open at the time so we skied, walked, struggled along the Howe Sound Crest Trail to the saddle at the base of Christmas Gully. Ski conditions varied from diamond hard, to teetering along a narrow crest of snow one metre off the ground, to, no snow at all. Being from the Antipodes, we did this trip in reverse skiing/boot packing up Christmas Gully instead of skiing down. It was a struggle to get up Christmas Gully as the snow was ice hard and despite there being huge craters and trenches right up the guts of the gully, there were some how no decent steps kicked.

Doug starting up Christmas Gully

By the time we got to the top of the gully, Doug was ready to return to his influenza bed, so we went only to the summit of the lower and south summit where we could sneak out onto a run to ski down thus avoiding returning around the HSCT.

Variable conditions on the HSCT

On our second attempt, we decided to get more elevation gain by skiing over Hollyburn Mountain and then up Mount Strachan. We followed the BC Parks "hikers route" up Mount Strachan which is not too bad if you somehow manage to avoid skiing over any of the huge piles of dog excrement everywhere and don't break a ski in the trenches and pot-holes that are provided courtesy of the walkers and bum sliders.

Looking across at Hollyburn Mountain

From the top of Hollyburn, we started skiing down the north ridge, which looked the best route on the map but got pushed to the west by small bluffs and cliffs below us. Doug was doing fine, but I found the conditions treacherous, a mix of solid frozen crud and breakable crust. The trees are pretty tight for such steep terrain and I couldn't help thinking that if I were to break my leg or tear a ligament, I would have no health coverage. We turned around, skinned surprisingly easily back up Mount Hollyburn and endured the nasty ski out trying to avoid breaking a ski or leg in the trenches.

Lower summit of Mount Strachan

I really felt confident on our third attempt. The ski hill was closed for the season and all we had to do was ski up the easiest runs, descend a short but steep slope to the col, and ski or boot pack up the final 50 metres to the summit. And, it was just that easy. We ambled up a green and then a short blue run, climbed over the ski hill boundary fence line, skied down into the col, and then skinned up the final summit wrapping around to the east side.

The Lions from Strachan