I came across Slhanay in a hiking book I bought specifically for hunting down trails in the Squamish. Given the duration of my stay the peak did not land high in the priority list, and I originally contemplated on tying up with the trip with tackling the trail the day of our departure. Now imagine my surprise seeing the trail name listed on a post directing adventurers toward the three peaks of Chief. My hiking companion and I had our itinerary set on completing the third and second peak of Chief, and the new signposting had us intrigued. On our way past the first junction for the third peak we discussed making a little detour to roam up another mountain. For as many times as we have done the third peak, we had never spotted the sign before.
The junction that forks off for Slhanay from the third peak is a little cryptic. The sole reason we spotted it was because of a white piece of paper, laminated, and stamped to a tree indicating the third peak was straight ahead. That sign actually made me stop and question why it was there before realizing there was a faint trail forking off to the right just before it.
The trail to Slhanay is not maintained in the slightest, and the markers are a bit scattered throughout. Nonetheless, we were ready for an adventure to see something new. The less maintained trail connects to a trail system that is a little more intricate and better groomed. These trails are also shared between hikers and mountain bikers, so we needed to keep an eye out not to get run over. I am pretty sure this trail system is a gem to locals. For the most part everyone we ran into was not geared up with a backpack and keeping an eye on a map. Once we veered off on a trail marked “To Squaw” there was no one to be seen. At this point the trail takes an aggressively steep grade straight to a little stretch that feels like a valley. We ended up stepping off the trail and heading along a well-tread footpath toward the rocky face to climb up and enjoy the view from the true summit.