Resting Days & Alpine Excursion to Sky Pilot Summit

After the last 7 days of non-stop climbing, we felt quite drained. Finally, we rested for a couple of days, washed our laundry and spent time working and planning in the public library. On Saturday, we also had a look at the pretty busy farmer’s market in Squamish, which even included good live rock music in the park.

We used our regained energy for a hike to Sky Pilot Mountain. After riding up with the Sea to Sky Gondola, the path follows the valley to Sky Pilot, until it steepens towards the Stadium Glacier. This is more like a steep snow field now, but you have to cross it anyway to get to the ridge. Once on the ridge, it gets more challenging. Skills for route finding and terrain orientation are required but at the important points, there’s a cairn showing the right way. It felt a bit like an exposed trail in the alps. At some points, you also had to scramble, which was fun. The really stunning panorama from the summit is definitely worth the effort! Sky Pilot isn’t very high but it’s kind of standing isolated. That’s why you can even see peaks in the USA, such as the massive Mt Baker, and other outstanding mountain like The Lions, Mt Habrich, Black Tusk and Mt Tantalus. We could also see Vancouver and Vancouver Island. On the way back, the most fun of the day was to butt-slide down the steep snow field! Philipp even had the pleasure to slide two times because he lost the bear spray mid-way.

We also hiked past Wonderland Lake and had a good view of the Chief from Panorama Trail. From the suspension bridge at the gondola station, we could have a look back to Sky Pilot and the route we took this day. Appropriately, we savoured a beer called Sky Pilot from a local brewery at the gondola station terrace.

Click to watch video of the butt-slide down the snow field