Black Mountain Spikes and Snowshoes
Iain writes:-
Miserable, damp, grey and foggy downtown - but once we had passed the lookout on Cypress we were into brilliant sunshine and looking down on a sea of clouds with Vancouver completely obscured. Ten of us met for a discussion in the car park around spikes or snowshoes, in the end it was two pairs of snowshoes, eight pairs of spikes and off we trotted. Seems timing is everything at Cypress, at 0815 the car park was empty, by 0830 there was a steady stream of traffic.
After the long walk from the cars (free parking though!) to the lodge for the day passes off we went, steeply uphill through the woods, far too hot of course in an air temperature of around 3C. Layers were shed. We were passed by skiers on the way up and met plenty of people coming down who must have had an early start. The reward at the top was spectacular views onto a cloud covered Lower Mainland, SFU poking its head up in the way that glittering spires might.
Lunch by a frozen Cabin Lake, obligatory self timer and off we trotted down to the clouds and descent into fog. Cracking day out, a short day with talk of returning to head further west, some time. The mountains aren’t going anywhere.
Editor’s note-too much trotting, sorry
See the route here extracted from Iain’s GPSMAP 66sr
