Saturday, July 16, 2016

Mt. Habrich, Sky Pilot and Co Pilot link-up AKA the Sea To Sky Gondola Triple Crown

I got to spend an entire day in the mountains on Friday and it was grand. After working a lot lately and spending last weekend helping Erin with her flower stand at the farmers market and Ryan roof his house in between the monsoons, I was ravenous for a nice big day in the mountains. Luckily, I knew just what to do - wake up in the wee hours, fuel up with a couple of Howes blend espressos and head out on a journey up to the sea to sky alpine country that's been on my mind a while. This was the one day of decent weather all week so I exercised the 'let my people go surfing' philosophy and took the day off!
With the gondola opening at 10am! (seriously, we want early starts people!), a from the road approach was needed. I bolted awake at 330 because I could barely sleep anyway and busted up a strange hybrid of the S2S and Evac trails which worked well and I was at the top station by just after 5.

The sun was coming up now and the mountains started to wake up with splashes of orange, azure and chrome.

I hadn't been up the NW side of Mt. Habrich before but I had the benefit of an examination of it while on rappel after climbing another route on the S face previous. I approached it with an open mind and didn't encounter any trouble on the way to the summit, my preference was for bomber rock over vertical bushwhacking so I think I did a hybrid of the Colin Haley expressway and the route escape velocity, with a move or two of easy 5th class here and there to surmount the walls between ledges. Was at the summit 3hr and 15m after leaving the car. Habrichs summit is a real climbers summit and is pointy and windy, pretty damn cool.

The SE face, originally I wanted to go up this way and do the traverse in the opposite direction but I have heard enough reports of the climbing on the side being harder for a solo trip that I opted for the familiar terrain instead. You can see 'the brain', which is the local name for the dome shaped feature in photo left which has caused routefinding issues for folks in the past. There are fixed lines down a gulley/bench system skiers left now and its a piece of cake.


A lot of work has been done on the 'Skyline Trail' by locals I am guessing. There is good trail and/or cairns starting underneath the S Face of Habrich and going all the way to Sky Pilot where it branches low to get to the upper reaches of the Shannon Creek trail or you can go up, off trail to get to the upper stadium glacier.

Gunsight Gap, no trail here but easy going.

Super cool and moody ambience .

Looking back at the ridge, got to be a top 5 hike for me in itself, without all the nifty summits. You can hike this whole thing (skyline Trail) without any scrambling if you don't do the summits.

The July 15/2016 state of the Stadium Glacier. I had approach shoes and a ski pole and that was all I needed.

Summit of Sky Pilot, about 6 hrs and 25 min to here from highway.


The snow field on Sky Pilot had this kind of 'in awe' expression with the open mouth but no eyes.

Summit selfie on Co-Pilot in the mist.

Looking back at Sky Pilot, so cool.

I stravassholed the entire day. This was the read out on top of co-pilot, it took another hour or so to get back down to the lodge where I double-fisted a coffee and a nice lager, which was yet another highlight, by then it had cleared and I could look out across the ocean scheming of other similar S2S missions. Erin even joined me for a sweet plate of french fries.

Bringing a fresh pair of your newest and cushiest socks for the descent down the trail is a real luxury and about as beaujolais as it gets. The other thing is tunes, pretty styly to cruise back down the trail listening to the grateful dead in your cushy socks.

What a great day, highly recommended for a good but not to long/hard day in the mountains. The super cool and complete traverse would take Al's Habrich trail and finish down Goat Ridge and into Murrin park...This would be pretty awesome but would take away the beer/coffee combo while looking out over the ocean and wondering what to watch on tv that night.