Sky Pilot attempt
Sky Pilot is the most prominent peak in the area of Squamish. You can see it from the highway. When I was riding my bike the days before I could see it from the trails. We checked out books for route descriptions and packed our gear the night before. Since it is a day pack the packs were a lot smaller than usual. The guide books also recommenced to take bikes for the first section on the logging road. We got up at 5:30, we got to the parking lot at around 7.
Kerstin sorting out our stuff.
There wasn't too much uphill riding, we pushed our bikes for most of the time.
After about 3 hours we ditched our bikes. We had a small rest on this lookout. Seppel also put his shirt on the rock to dry since it was totally soaked from pushing up the bikes.
So we continued on foot after we decided that the logging road was too steep to bike. After about 1 km we had to hike 4 km flat so perhaps we should have taken or bikes, I am still not sure what the better option is. The peak in the back is Sky Pilot, it is a little bit hard to see on the picture.
The logging road changed in an overgrown logging road with a creek running through it.
After 5 hours of hiking on logging roads we reached the trail head. Well, we couldn't see much of the trail since there was snow right from the beginning of the trail.
Kerstin hiking over some rock and snow. This section was a really nice..
Later on we had to cross a snowfield.
We got higher and could see some of the peaks of the Whistler area, Kerstin having a rest.
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It was nice to go over snowfields and a few minutes later we had to scramble on rock.
After another two hours on the trail towards Sky Pilot we decided to turn around since it got already late and we were a bit tired. We also had to hike dow probably for 4 hours.
That's where we started down at the Squamish river, Kerstin looking down.
Our aim, Sky Pilot, perhaps another time.
Kerstin glissading down the hill.
Here is a movie ...
On the way down we had to follow the way we came up, it is not a trail as well maintained as it is in the alps :-).
The valley we had to hike through on the way out.
Back on the logging road. We just had lunch up in the snow about 2 hours ago, pretty cool to look back.
Howe Sound
Finally after 3 hours hiking down (10 hours in total so far) we got back to the bikes, now we just had to roll down the hill.
We passed some big machinery for logging. In the back you can see Mount Garibaldi.
I like this picture.
Back at our car after 11 hours of hiking, quite exhausted. Now we have to sort our gear out.
On the way home we stopped at Howe Sound and took a couple of pictures. Looking south towards Vancouver.
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Looking north towards Squamish.
