Crown Mountain

I was originally expecting to be on my own this week-end and so I thought I would hike Goat Mountain. It was one I had hiked previously with my son and there were enough other hikers around that it would be reasonably safe to do solo. So with those plans in place I learned that my friend John was in town and interested in going with me. He thought we could try for Crown and add in Goat on the way home. I wasn’t so sure I could do Crown never mind both but doing Crown would only be possible if I did go with someone like John so I decided to give it a go. The day before our hike indicated that the weather would be sunny and increasing in temperature. So all looked good for the day.

I left the house at 7:30am and made for Starbucks and then the drive to the base of the gondola at Grouse Mountain. I arrived shortly after 8:30 and as I already had my ticket I got my gear on and made straight for the ride. It was busy but not yet crowded, so I had a nice view of the city as the gondola  made its way up. Meanwhile John was walking the Grouse Grind as a warm up for the main hike. We were to meet at 9:15 at the top but that time came and went and no John. Soon I had a text stating he was delayed on the trail due to crowding. He finally made it around 9:30. Without further delay we started up the roadway to the alpine trails.

Our initial trekking went fair smoothly and we were making reasonable time along the roadways and up the first section of the Alpine trail. In around an hour we reached the decision point Crown or Goat. I was feeling not too bad and the trail to Crown looked inviting so we decided to go for it. It was ariound 10:45 and we started the decent to Crown pass. Most of this trail isn’t difficult but there are two sections with chains in place to help with the steep section over some smooth rocks. The rocks were a bit muddy so one had to pick their path carefully to safely navigate this section. Done with the chains we continued the descent and soon reached the pass. That short section had unfortunately taken another hour it now being 11:45.

After a rest by the rescue camera we started up the flank of Crown. Lots of steep bits and roots to get over. Many large rock sections and a bit of moisture to make things a bit slippery, but generally it was not too difficult just slow work for me. The scenery was increasingly lovely as small gaps offered various views of the valleys, Hanes to the North and Vancouver to the south. We crossed over a lot more rocks and roots and soon came to a large talus slope we had to cross. These big rocks made things interesting, a slip here could result in a serious fall but the rocks were dry and one had a good grip on them. By a bit after 1pm we reached a nice broad flat area where we could have a longer rest and take a few photos. Then it was on to the final leg and the summit. We finally reached the summit around 2pm only a couple hours past what John had planned for. But we were here. After a quick lunch and some exploration of the steep summit area we descend a few meters to a less crowded spot and set up our radio gear.