Trip Summary

Sometimes “polar vortex warning” sounds a lot like “we should go winter backpacking”… We were prepared for it, of course ;). This post is all about the January weekend I spent on the summit of Mt Seymour.

Trip Breakdown

Saturday
Arrive at Mt Seymour P1 overnight parking lot at 10am
Hit the trail at 10:45am
Summit Pump Peak around 12pm and eat some lunch (3.65 km and 380m elevation gain)
Summit Tim Jones Peak around 1pm (4.26km and 420m elevation gain)
Arrive at the top of Mt Seymour just before 2pm (4.84km and 450m elevation gain)
Dig kitchen area and tent snow pit
Set-up tents and make dinner
Watch sunrise and head into sleeping bags around 6pm
In-tents story time until 10pm
Brief but spectacular star gazing

Sunday
Watch the sunrise (7:45am) and make breakfast (8:45am)
Tear-down and hit the trail by 9:45am
Arrive at the Mt Seymour ski area around 12pm, eat lunch
Walk back to parking lot and drive home

Trip Details

The plan was to hit the trail at 8 am, but when one of your group members sleeps through their alarm, 8 am becomes 10 am. Nonetheless, we were thrilled to set off up Mt Seymour trail on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. For Seymour, you need a reservation which can be made online, and you must park in P1 for overnight parking (otherwise, they’ll think you got stranded up there!).

The trail was steep at the beginning but nicely packed down. Snowshoes were not necessary but I was thankful to have my microspikes. We shared the trail with backcountry skiers and snowboarders (I learned how a splitboard works after talking to some friendly people on the way up). Before we knew it, we were eating lunch on top of Pump Peak. Sunglasses were a must with the sun reflecting off the snow.

Next, we made it to Tim Jones Peak. Between this peak and our final destination, there is a narrow ridge with a steep drop-off on one side. I was a little nervous about some parts of it, and I anchored each spiked foot and trekking pole before taking the next step. We arrived at the top of Mt Seymour around 2 pm and decided that was where we’d camp for the night. We knew it would take some time to build a snow shelter, and we were in love with the 360-degree view from that peak.

The wind started to pick up around 3 pm, and it was getting stronger and stronger as the sun set. The weather forecast had said -13 degrees Celsius overnight, but it definitely felt closer to -20. As the sun was on the horizon, the tents were up and weighed down with our packs to keep them from flying away (p.s. the classic metal tent pegs will not do anything in deep snow). We cooked dinner, which was… an experience. Neither lighter nor matches were staying lit in the wind. We eventually dug a little hole in the wall of the snowbank to protect the stove from the wind. Nevertheless, my ramen cooled down faster than it cooked and I was left with crunchy noodles and cold soup.

As soon as it was dark, the temperature dropped even more; we were safely in our sleeping bags by 6 pm. From our 3 tents, we shouted stories and jokes to each other over the wind. Around 10 pm, I went out of my tent to pee and saw the most amazing starry sky. A perfectly clear Orion, all the stars of the Big Dipper, and a sliver of the bright moon. It was too cold and windy to stay out for long, but I was so glad I saw the night sky. The wind died down around 1 am, and it was much easier to sleep from then onwards.

The. Sunrise. Possibly the best I have ever seen. Certainly the one I have worked the hardest for. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and we saw the sun rise up over the mountains in the east. The sky went from red to orange to pink to yellow to blue. I will not forget that sunrise, ever.

The rest of Sunday was pretty standard: tear down camp, eat breakfast, hike back, get the Parking Lot Blues around 1km from the trailhead. We finished with lunch at the Mt Seymour ski area before heading back to the car and driving back to Vancouver.

Key Points

• The wind chill is real… it’ll be 5-10 degrees colder on the peak than the weather app says
• Stay warm during sunset by digging, running around, or doing jumping jacks.
• Take advantage of sunny winter weekends: they are pretty rare in Vancouver!