Unconventional Skypilot Attempt Ends Short of Goal but with Good Times and Heinous Bushwacking

After countless sunny days last summer spent ambling about the house learning how to be a Dad, it was time to fulfill my suppressed need for adventure. I needed to do something appropriately epic to make up for lost time, something to satisfy both the urge for physical exertion, and also to conquer and absolutely annihilate the need for adventure, at least for a little while. This trip had to produce enough of what I needed as I was attempting to pack in an entire season's worth in one trip.

Skypilot Mountain, a Squamish standard, was just the thing. However, the regular route would not do. The well-traveled, beaten path up Stawamus Creek would not be enough to slake my thirst. No, the little known route up the back side of the peak from Brittania would be the way to go. Very few people travel the route up Marmot Creek, and the threats of difficult route finding and uncertain success would hopefully prove to be an admirable thirst quencher.

Although the spotty reports we had read mentioned a rough trail near the creek, Kendra is seen pondering the definition of the word "trail."


This is definitely not the trail, but this is a very nice forest.
At this point we have bushwhacked steeply through wet salmonberry and devil's club for about an hour and a half. So far, a perfect day.


An old wooden culvert used a hundred or so years ago to pipe water downhill to power a small mining operation. It was humbling to see evidence of these hills being traveled for centuries by people with many fewer guidebooks than us.


Still not the trail, but this is a very nice talus slope.
The large boulders that have fallen from the cliffs above are a welcome change from negotiating our way down between the cliffs above.

Kendra, out of the forest now and looking quite small. After a short break and a granola bar, the scree greets us with unending glee. Two steps forward, one step back. It's laughing at us with our puny steps and vulnerable ankles. But we can see the summit now and it's not getting any closer. In fact, it looks very far away.

Insignificant human vs. unending glee.


Not the summit, but a fine spot for a rest and a photo of the headwaters of Furry Creek and Brittania Creek. Utopia Lake is just visible in the foreground, which in the 1990's was the the site of a dynamite mishap that caused flooding and bridge washouts in the Brittania townsite and Sea to Sky Highway. There's a big hole in the dam now. Several fine minor peaks are also visible, one if which is Mt. Shear which I and the Super Dog climbed two years ago.


The Co-Pilot, which I hope to summit on another outing to the upper reaches of Goat Ridge. Mt. Sedgwick and Woodfibre, accross Howe Sound in the background.


After several feeble yet scary attempts at climbing a loose and unprotectable headwall that blocked our intended path to the summit, we decided to hike to another viewpoint and perhaps a secondary route to Skypilot via Gunsight Gap. Nice views, no safe route to the summit.


Pink monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii). This alpine figwort was the subject of a friend's PhD thesis: "Lineage Specific Inferences about QTL Evolution among Three Mimulus Species of Contrasting Relationship and Inbreeding." After studying the flower for 7 years, he has yet to see one in the wild.


Mt. Habrich from Gunsight Gap. Another must do for me, several outstanding rock routes are established here with a fantastic 5 pitch bolted 5.10c - Life on Earth. See you next summer.


After scurrying about on the ledges and outcrops of the southern flanks of Skypilot for the better part of the day, it was time to make the descent. This is the view down Marmot Creek towards Brittania, with Howe Sound in the background. I love running down loose scree. My favourite part of the trip. A few bails but no injuries. Incidentally, we discovered the rough trail parallel to the creek on the way down. Difficult to follow at times, but better than crawling on hands and knees through cedar and alder choked slide paths. Or is it?


We decided to take in the old Brittania townsite and what's left of the ore extraction and processing area. There is a dynamited tunnel entrance to the right of this photo. I generally try to explore every Scooby Doo mine entrance with train tracks heading into the darkness that I come accross, and have done so on several occasions in the area, but disappointingly, there was no discernable entrance. There was however some orange gooey muck oozing from beneath the rubble. Too bad.


Kendra drives the mine. One hand on the wheel, one hand on the bass.


Our journey complete, we hung out later that night and discovered a photo showing a hidden ledge system running to the base of a short scramble to the summit. We had hiked past it on the way to Gunsight Gap. My thirst gets stronger.

Stay tuned for shots from my trip to Mt. Alpha in the Tantalus Range 3 days later.