Stawamus Chief, First and Second Peaks

Stawamus Chief, First Peak 600 m/ 1969′ and Second Peak 656 m/ 2152′
International– Canada
Total Time: 4:30
Distance: 7.6 km/ 4.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 810 meters/ 2650′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Stawamus Chief Providencial Park, full services
Companions: Holly and Avery

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Our first international trip with Avery wasn’t too far from home- an exploration of British Columbia, my first time to that part of the country. One of the planned highlights of the trip was a planned hike of Stawamus Chief outside of Squamish. Stawamus Chief is one of the largest granite monoliths in the world (behind El Capitan), and it hosts a number of challenging technical big wall climbs facing Howe Sound along with a steep hiking trail up the backside, complete with chains and ladders. Since multipitch was out of the question with a toddler in tow (although we were able to do some fun climbing at Smoke Bluffs the day before), the trail up was the only viable option, and we hoped to visit two out of three of the distinct summits, the highest often skipped as it has less interesting scrambling and more forested views.

After an early breakfast we drove 10 minutes from our Airbnb to Squamish Chief Provincial Park, the trailhead mostly empty on a spring weekday. We followed the service road through the campground before reaching the trailhead proper, a number of signs giving warnings about the difficulty of the trail ahead.

The trail immediately dove into a series of steep and unrelenting stairs, probably several hundred as it paralleled a stream in the gully to the east. The steepness of the hike was made all the harder due to the joys of parenting- Holly at peak sickness from an illness she picked up from Avery just before the trip, and me having an extra 35 lbs of training weight on my back. Still, we made steady progress, passing a junction with a trail heading to the nearby gondola partway up.

It took about an hour to reach the trail junction for the first and second peaks, planning to tag the lowest First Peak to start. The trail hooked south for the first time all day, skirting beneath an overhanging cliff face before climbing up through the forest to the first set of chains into a low angled ladder.

The chains seemed very unnecessary, the terrain barely class 2, although slightly polished from all the foot traffic. The trees thinned as we climbed higher up on the slabs with a final stretch of featured class 2 slab to get us to the first summit of the day.

From the summit, the views across Howe Sound were outstanding, and we took Avery out of the carrier to walk on the granite dome, far more interested in a chipmunk begging for scraps than the views.

After a short break, we headed back down to the junction, descending the ladder and passing through the chains back into the forest. Holly admitted she was feeling pretty lousy and had lost interest in the Second Peak, suggesting I leave her and Avery at the junction and run up to tag it myself. But when we got back to the junction, we were surprised to find Avery fast asleep on my back.

With her dozing comfortably, there was no reason not to both continue, and we started up the steep signed path towards the Second Peak. We followed this all the way to a notch between the two summits, finding a rebar ladder pounded into the rock directly above. This climbed straight up about 20′ and out of sight, and there was no question that we would not be heading up with Avery on our backs. After a brief discussion, we decided to take turns tagging the summit and I headed up the rebar ladder, quickly reaching a slope ledge with a chain to bring me to a broad platform beneath the summit rocks.

I skirted the summit rocks to the east, finding a class 3 gully with a few more rebar rungs bringing me to the summit of…… the First Peak. Had I done a bit more research ahead of time, I would have found that I had just used an unmaintained climbers trail to traverse the two peaks, wasting a chunk of precious nap time. I quickly scrambled back down to the notch, found Avery still fast asleep, and found the correct ascent line up the Second Peak tucked away in a gully about 50′ down from the notch.

This gully had a series of unnecessary chains leading to a broad slabby ledge. I followed this around the summit rocks to the east, finding one more section of chains (ironically being descended by a mom with an infant in a carrier) leading to open slab and easy cross country to the summit. The views from the Second Peak were similar, although with more open views to the north of Mount Garibaldi and Mamquam Mountain.

After a few quick pictures I headed back down to the notch, this time finding Avery awake, but more than content to play with pine cones and sticks as Holly reluctantly headed up to tag the Second Peak. 30 minutes later, we were reunited as a family and started the knee pounding descent back to the trailhead, taking no breaks now with the goal of an Avery nap replaced by lunch for all of us.

It was a bit after noon when we made it back to the car and headed directly into Squamish for lunch at the Copper Coil, and spent the afternoon relaxing by the Stawamus River.