Note: stats include the bike ride (~26km + 500m elevation gain) and all 4 peaks
Elevation Gain: 2,946m
Distance: 44.91km
Total Time: 14 hours 2 minutes
Date: September 21st, 2021
Mount Burwell is the last summit before Cathedral Mountain, using the traditional route, and stands at 1541m. It’s connected to Coliseum Mountain via an approximately 1.5km alpine ridge from which it is almost exclusively accessed. It boasts panoramic views of the North Shore mountains adjacent to Vancouver as well as more remote lakes like Palisade and Burwell Lake. This summit is also included in Matt Gunn’s Scrambles Book, although it’s not awarded a very high rating.
Steven and I were now making our way to Mount Burwell from Coliseum Mountain via the connecting ridge. This ridge is comprised of a mix of granite slab, small shrubs, tarns and a few well worn foot paths. There were cairns marking the majority of the route, but even without them, the ascent to Mount Burwell would be very obvious.
The first order of business from Coliseum Mountain, was losing approximately 50m of elevation to the col and then began a prolonged ascent up a slowly rising ridge line. Thanks to the obvious ridge route, Steven and I had no issues in this section and made quick work of the ridge line. We paused a few times to get photos of the tarns, but made it to the summit of Mount Burwell in short order.
At the summit, we stopped more food, signed the summit register and then started the long descent towards the Cathedral-Burwell col.