Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Pilot of Squamish's Sky....


I was banging my head on Friday night trying to come up with the week-end's activity. I think it had been 10 years since I last summited the Sky Pilot. It's a really incredible area with that "big mountain" feel and only 40 minutes from my house in North Vancouver. So we headed out early and 4Xed up the super beat road behind the Squamish Chief to the boulder blockade. Slideshow


The pedal to branch up Shannon Creek went smoothly and gave us tantalizing views of Sky Pilot's summit.


Once again there was evidence of the harsh winter's massive climax avalanche cycle. Old growth trees were snapped like small twigs everywhere.


Most of the climb to camp was in the shadow of Habrich's granite masterpiece.


We reached what I considered the campsite of the year and dropped our overnight gear!



After a couple of hours we were on the mountains upper steeps with 360 deg views. 





The kite boarders were out in force on Howe Sound. 



And then we were at the top. 



We couldn't have picked a better week-end to take in the views and spend the night in this magical place! 


The light just kept getting better as we approached camp. Danielle emptied the contents of her pack in mine and we filled it with some pieces of dead wood from the ridge. We needed a high alpine fire to cook up our evenings dinner. No tourist meals that night! 


The local pub was open just in time for sunset! 



Cheers to a great day in the mountains....

     
The morning's 5:30am sunrise was nothing short of spectacular. 



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