One of the advantages of my job is the ocassional opportunity to visit Vancouver. This is the first time I’d visited the city ( or Canada, in fact, though I have been to the US a few times ) and I wanted to make the most of the free time I had.
Having decided do go for a hike in the surrounding mountains, I only really had one full day free, limiting my options to what was easily accessible and returnable from in a day. Some of my colleagues had previously been to Grouse Mountain and mentioned it as a possible destination, but having never been higher than Ben Nevis ( at 1344m, 4409 ft, the highest mountain in the UK ) I wanted to use this opportunity to improve on that. Further to the west than Grouse, Cypress Provincial Park offers a number of peaks starting at around 1350m and steadily increasing in height as you go further north. These peaks form part of the popular Howe Sound Crest Trail, the full length of which is around 30km but I would only be doing the portion as far as The Lions – two 1600m peaks visible from Vancouver that are not entirely dissimilar from Garbh Chioch Mhòr and Sgùrr Na Cìche in Knoydart. From what I can ascertain, ascending The Lions themselves requires scrambling ( class 4 according to Wikipedia, though I have no idea what that is in UK terms ), however strange peaks in strange countries merit appropriate safety gear, so this time at least I would content myself to the summit of Unnecessary Mountain, which at 1530m fulfilled my "higher than Nevis" criterion well enough.
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