Anyone been near st.marks, the lions, Brunswick in the last week? Would like to do the howe sound crest 9th and 10th but fear there might still be to much snow. Any info would be great.
Thanks, Joe
Hi Joe, we are doing it with bcmc on that weekend, and it seems like a group that did it last week said there was lots of snow still and one area of steep slope was uncrossable. Our organizer thinks it may be ok by the time we go. But guess we will find out…you should email him and get more info as he is the one who did the research.
Hope your well!
O
Hi Joe,
A friend of mine sent me a photo of St. Marks last weekend and snow in that section of the trail was mostly gone.
I do expect there to be some more snow at higher elevations and in pockets that don't get as much sun exposure. For the trip this weekend, I am telling the group to go prepared to sleep in the snow and potentially cross steep snowbanks.
@RodrigoS - How was the HSC trail? Did you guys make it all the way? I'm going in a few weeks so expecting it to be just peachy!
We cancelled the trip due to weather and instead did a day trip from Cypress to Lions Bay via Unnecessary Mountain.
The snow started at about 1300mts just as we were approaching St Mark's summit. From St. Mark's the ridge was completely covered in snow. We also found that it was hard to follow the trail past St Mark's because there aren't too many footsteps in the snow and some footsteps lead in the wrong direction, so we had to backtrack a couple of times looking for the trail markers.
The snow is fairly packed and stable, so it was an easy hike. On a sunny day the snow will likely be more slushy making the snow more slippery.
When we were on the ridge on Unnecessary Mountain, we heard a helicopter nearby, but couldn't see it due to fog. As we started going down to lions bay, we spotted the helicopter coming up from the valley next to where we were. Eventually, we ran into two teenagers who camped there overnight and were completely unprepared for the weather and the hike. They didn't have proper clothes, shoes or camping gear and one of them had back problems (likely because he was using a backpack without hip straps). They were the ones who had called in the SAR crew.
We waited with them and gave them some food until the SAR crew made it up the valley to the spot where we were and they sent us off on our way. Embarrassingly, we lost the trail shortly after the met the SAR and had to bushwack for an hour to get back onto the trail.
Thanks Rodrigo.
Funny story about the two teens.
A couple weeks ago, while exiting the Watersprite trail after going to Martin Peak we happened across 9 teens from Surrey who had to abandon their two Honda Civics on the FSR and hitchhiked 12km to the trailhead. When they realized they were unprepared for the hike they then realized they're stranded at the trailhead with only a few hours of daylight left. We drove one to his car so he could use a cell to call someone, and asked a guy in a pickup if he'd go get the rest of them. Wow.
Thanks again!
Mike