14.10.2018
Fell in love with this mountain while roaming around UBC aimlessly the other day. Until that moment, I have never seen this mountain on the horizon, making the view from the peninsula a lovely surprise. I’m sure many other hikers have those moments of staring into the distance and saying “there, that is the next summit.” Literally the next day I dragged my usual hiking companion up Grouse Mountain to begin the trail.
We started a bit late in the day by catching the first gondola simply because of evening commitments. Of the people on the first gondola ride up, only one other individual made the trek up.
Passing the grizzly bear enclose, the trail snakes up along a gravel path, passing underneath a chair lift before entering into the woods. To get to Crown Mountain follow the postings for “Alpine Trail.” For the most part this trail is well marked, with posts at every junction. Naturally a bit of searching is required at the various boulder fields to spot the next yellow splash of paint. For some reason some people were missing the splashes and staring off across the rocks at the flagging tape on the other side trying to find a better route across.
The first ~3km of the trail is considered intermediate until the junction that marks trail fork for Crown Mountain and Goat Peak. Past the junction, the trail takes a rather steep dive down with roughly 350m of elevation loss in 1km. BUT FEAR NOT, you regain all that lovely elevation and a bit more in 1.1 km. This steep grade gives this hike it's challenging reputation. There are portions of the trail with fixed chains to assist hikers up the trail, and many portions only allow for single-file passage meaning hikers must yield.
The last stretch of the hike involves some light scrambling to reach a small rocky surface with a boulder gently balancing on the top. The summit is a small expanse, and we were fortunate enough to have it to ourselves and a couple of ravens for an hour. From here a lovely view of Vancouver, SFU, UBC, and the Lions is revealed. The next group up was quite loud, and despite apologizing twice for their loud behaviour, did not attempt to settle down. Eventually we gave up at trying to block them out and began our descent. There is not enough room for the sheer number of people we passed on our way down-- so for that reason I would advise going on a weekday or catch that lovely first gondola up and book it for the mountain (at a reasonable pace of course).
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