Jul 1, 2017
Crown Mountain is a NO GO zone unless you're a mountaineer right now. I turned back a team of eight people in runners and shorts. This side is normally in shade which means the snow pack is HARD and the slope angle is about 30-35 degrees. If you slip and have no ice axe/crampons there is no stopping. The entire descent is snow covered and the chains are frozen under the snow - getting down is really tricky and dangerous. In the col, the boulder field has evidence of an old avalanche. Once in the col, the snow persists. From Grouse it looks like the top of Crown is melted out but it's NOT at all on the trail. There are some melted patches in the trees on the Crown side but the trail is fully snowed in to just below the summit. A huge tree fall has destroyed part of the trail and it was hard to follow up. I lost it a few times and had to re-correct with GPS. There was one part I was concerned about and that's when you get out of the woods and cross a rock slab/rock face. The snow is sitting on it fully covering the rock so you have to either go on the steep snow or climb through a moat. On the up I did the moat and on the return I did the snow pack, both required slow moving and caution. After that you get a small break as you intersect with the Beauty Peak connector then it's up a 35 degree hard snow pack to the summit. Kicking in steps was again hard and slow. The last 100m are snow free so I celebrated getting up on Canada Day with my best Canada Day attire including a small sip of blueberry champagne! To my surprise a family came up the slabs from Hanes Valley so it seems that ascent is also possible. Again, this is not ready for normal use and won't be for a month! Use caution and go in with the right winter mountaineering gear.
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