Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

December 24, 2020

1266m

Gibsons / Sunshine Coast, BC

Mt. Elphinstone is a forested but fairly prominent summit overlooking the city of Gibsons on the lower Sunshine Coast. This peak has gained some popularities in recent years thank to a maintained trail leading to the summit. There are several routes to reach the summit including a backdoor access that requires more driving and less walking. I picked the longest but most popular trail starting in Sprockids Park. This trail-head is only three kilometers away from Langdale ferry terminal so one can even board the ferry on foot to save money. I decided to drive because it’s easier to pay 35 dollars than to walk 6 km extra distance (I don’t have a bike). This was also the 3rd day in a roll of peak-bagging in the Christmas break so I was already tired.

I dragged my tired ass out of the comfortable bed at 5 am and made my way to Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal across the entire stretch of Greater Vancouver. To my surprise the ferry was quite busy that I barely managed to get onto the 7:30 am ride to Sunshine Coast. There were decent views from the ride so I took some photos. I also tried to catch some sleep but failed. The drive to the trail-head took several minutes. It seemed like most vehicles parked at the bottom of a dirt hill but with a Tacoma I easily drove to the actual trail-head.

The lower section of this hike was negotiating a maze of biking trails. I was amused by a abundance of trails criss-crossing that without a GPS map I sure would get lost. I just picked whatever trail that seemed to offer the most direct route to access the “upper trails”. It turned out that I accidently picked up a downhill biking trail for a few hundred vertical meters of gain. I made some mental notes to avoid that stretch on the return. At about 500 m elevation the snow had become continuous and the trees started to drop a shit ton of bombs. I regretted for not bringing a helmet on this day but thankfully I didn’t get hit by anything big. The tree bombing didn’t stop until 750 m elevation where I came to the “Elphinstone summit trail” sign. I was also surprised that the boot tracks continued up despite the increasing snow depth. I followed the boot tracks all the way to 900 m elevation where I finally decided to take a break donning snowshoes. The previous parties had kept going on foot but snowshoeing would be more efficient.

It took me a good while to regain some strength. The back-to-back hikes had certainly taken its toll on me. At around 950 m elevation the trail started traversing horizontally out climber’s right. There were at least a few tricky creek crossings that required a bit of “technical snowshoeing”. After that I popped out onto what seemed like a very old and overgrown logging road. The boot tracks still continued on so I just followed. At the end of this logging road stretch I came across a fire pit so apparently someone just camped here on the previous night. The trail then did some steep elevation gaining including a few stretches of 35-40 degree slopes. The summit block even had a couple short but 40+ degree steps that put my snowshoeing skills in test. I was surprised that the boot tracks still continued. All the sudden I popped out onto an open area with incredible views so stopped for a second break doing some Instagram thing.

The tracks finally stopped here but this was not the true summit of Mt. Elphinstone, so I had to resume. I plowed through the deep powder for about 10 more minutes due north to the summit where a communication tower was located. There were some views to the north from the summit, so totally worth to check out even if you aren’t a peak-bagger.

Once taking enough photos I leisured plodded down the soft powder back to that aforementioned viewpoint. I snapped a few more photos and plodded down the upper trails. I used fresh snow for as much as possible to save my knees which worked out pretty well. For the few steep spots I had to down-climb (with snowshoes on) facing into the slopes. Eventually the snow ran out and I had to remove the snowshoes. I paid more attention to the GPS on the descent and managed to pick a gentler trail.

I drove into the city of Gibsons (my first time) to grab some Tim Hortons before driving to the ferry terminal. I didn’t anticipate to catch the 3:15 pm ride so I really took my time eating the late lunch. I made to the terminal at 3:08 pm and was very surprised to actually get onto the early ride. That was cool… I guess most people stayed home on Christmas Eve and I was the only one out there bagging peaks…