Elevation Gain: 357m
Distance: 4.3km
Total Time: 1 hour 19 minutes
Date: May 8th, 2021
Black Mountain is the smaller Southern Peak that makes up part of Cypress Ski Resort along the North Shore of Vancouver. The summit is about 100m higher than the chairlift that runs up its slopes and so most skiers are unlikely to visit the true top. By the end of April the resort closes down and hikers are free to take up the slopes as they please. I was waiting for the better weather window on Sunday to do a big objective and so for the Saturday I decided to do a quick hike up to the top of Black Mountain. Despite skiing there many times and doing Eagle Bluffs on a few occasions, I still hadn’t visited the true summit yet. I managed to get Sara on board and we brought our dog Winston along for the ride.
We set off in the afternoon and parked in the main lot close to the chair lifts. From there, it was a short walk up a dirt service road and then a direct ascent up one of the ski runs. The snow was the perfect consistency to boot back up and we skipped out on any other gear for the way up. It took about 25 minutes, following the ski run up and we made it to the top of the chair lift. After we veered West into the woods and made for the lower sub summit first. We simply had to follow the existing snow packed path and reached the top in short order. After taking a few photos we back-tracked down and then it was a short 5 minute walk to the true summit. Both summits had a few openings with views, but nothing to write home about.
With both summits tagged, we headed down and linked up with the ski run again. From there it’s a fun plunge down the slope to the service road and finally the parking lot. A super short trip, but it was perfect to get the dog out for an adventure and tag a summit along the way.