Elevation Gain: 1,150m
Distance: 15.70km
Total Time: 5 hours 27 minutes
Date: March 8th, 2025
About two years ago I made a half-hearted attempt to ski up to Chuwanten Mountain from the West side. I turned around after 3km of unending dead fall with just a 10cm of snow to cover it. On the way home I made a quick lap up Sumas Peak and called it a day. For whatever reason, I’ve been drawn to this mountain, despite it not being all that interesting. It’s located on the eastern boundary of Manning Park and is part of the Cascade Ranges; albeit where they taper into gentler slopes that bare more resemblance to the Okanagan highlands. Once again Chuwanten would appear on my radar, by virtue of being the only place within 3 hours of driving that didn’t have rain or snow. This time, the plan was ski it as a group with Andrea and Geoff from the East side. The roads were apparently getting plowed this year for logging so, we had to take a chance and check it out.
Andrea drove the three of us out from Vancouver and Langley and we were pleased to see that Pasayten FSR was indeed plowed when we arrived. We were able to drive all the way to our intended start where the road started to get icy anyways. All of us started on foot and after a kilometer rounded the corner to discover a barren and plowed road. It seems we could have driven even further after all. Andrea took the chance to dash back to the car while Geoff and I carried on to see how far we’d get. Sure enough we had another kilometer of dry road and Andrea reached us just as we hit a blockade and continuous snow on the road.
From here we started skinning up and it proved to be a pleasant beginning to the day. The sun was out and the snow was well consolidated making for an enjoyable approach. All around we could see the effects of the massive fire from last year and the source of all the logging activity. As we reached a cross road ahead I could spot more barren dirt. Then a few minutes later a pick up whipped past… As it turned out one of the upper branches was also plowed and would have eliminated a good deal of road approach. I didn’t even think to try driving it when we came in, as it goes as high as 1600m. Oh well, I needed the exercise so it didn’t feel like a loss to me.
We crossed the road on foot and then picked up the skinning again through the cut block on the other side. From there we ascended up the ridge at climber’s left as it was the least ridden with dead fall and that took us to a long broad shoulder at around 1900m. The snow was glopping to all of our skins, but Andrea and Geoff were both sharing the brunt of it. This is around where Geoff called it for the day in favour of chilling out. Andrea and I were still keen, although Andrea was struggling with the extra 5 pounds of snow on each ski.
Off we went, meandering through the flat section of shoulder before the angle picked up again. At this point, I offered to swap skis with Andrea and after a quick transition we were back on track. As we crested the final slope we could see the summit at last. Still 600m off with numerous small ups and downs. We decided then to leave the skins on until we’d get back to Geoff as there’s way too much undulation to make a transition worthwhile.
With that we set off to the summit and 10-15 minutes later we were posing in front of one of the many garish Green radio repeaters that dot the ranges of BC. The return was mostly down hill, so despite keeping the skins on we made quick time back to Geoff. From here we transitioned and then skied through the dense sticky snow in the forest all the way down to the cutblocks. We then had an easy ski out to the road followed by a quick hike to the next snowy branch and then skied all the way back to the car. All told it was about 40 minutes from the shoulder at 1900m to the car! This was a superb way to spend the weekend in spite of the weather.
