The 3 Peaks of the Stawamus Chief

Doing all three peaks of The Chief is absolutely worth the sore legs that will be waiting for you the very next day. The Chief is one of those quintessential hikes that are dotted in and around the great Vancouver area. Most people do just the first or second peaks, but trust me: you will get a tremendous sense of accomplishment by completing all three; and the views: tremendous.

From 2011-04-22 - Stawamus Chief

We picked a nice sunny day for the hike and thankfully, the weather held up. We started out mid morning and hit the first peak by noon. The first portion of the hike was a pretty consistent climb. The trail consists mostly of winding switchbacks though a well beaten, maintained trail. After breaking through the trees, continuing necessitated the use of permanently placed chains and ladders. A few rungs of the ladder and a few pulls of the chain, we got our first reward from the peak #1. A panoramic view of the Howe Sound the the distant city at the bottom of this granite mound. We spent only a few moments here, knowing we had to make two more peaks and had two more views to take in. More ladders, more chains, more switch backs took us to the 2nd peak. I didn't really start taking pictures until we got to the there.

From 2011-04-22 - Stawamus Chief

From 2011-04-22 - Stawamus Chief

By the time we reached the 2nd peak we were getting pretty tired. We sat and enjoyed the beautiful and muched on some snacks and chatted with some of the other hikers. After a short break we left for peak #3. Again, more switch backs, more chains and more ladders. It was tough but it was really fun.

From 2011-04-22 - Stawamus Chief

We didn't take nearly as much time to enjoy the stellar view of the 3rd peak as we were getting very very tired and weanted to get back down the mound as it was nearing supper time and we were getting really hungry. Instead of retracing our footsteps, taking the same way down as we took to get up, we decided to take a shorter, less travelled (but much steeper) way down. We basically followed a stream from the 3rd peak all the way down to the bottom. The descent was made even harder as our legs were beginning to feel like rubber and much of the hike down involved really large steps from large boulder to large boulder. After what felt like an eternity, we met up with the main trail and got our 2nd (3rd, 4th?) wind and jogged the rest of the way down.

I'm so glad I finally got around to doing The Chief and I'm even happier that I decided to push myself and do all three peaks. It was worth the very .. very sore legs the following two days :)